John Shand , Chantal Nguyen , Harriet Cunningham , Peter McCallum , James Jennings and Kate Prendergast Updated June 13, 2026 — 2:07pm, first published June 11, 2026 — 2:41pm
2.07pm Mackenzie ★★★
By Kate Prendergast
The Neilson Nutshell, June 12, until July 18
Eleventh-century Scottish wannabe kings and Y2K wannabe child stars have soooo much in common. Right?! Ambitious. Kind of went “wrong” after they got big. Surrounded by potential haters. Both have toxic people close to them: wifey or mum, they’re put under insane pressure to make really dumb, selfish decisions. And yeah, this though: both are DOOMED by the system (cut-throat court or competitive kids’ TV) to a hella dramatic menty b and a career “yikes” that people will be talking about, like, forever.
This is the conceit, and the tweenage tone, of Yve Blake’s relentlessly silly adaptation of Macbeth , her first work since the feel-good smash-hit that was Fangirls . It’s a Bell Shakespeare production with Virginia Gay directing, a play with a few dance numbers and “it’s gonna be me-ay” Britneyesque songs (also by Blake) bubbling in the mix.
Kimberley Hodgson as the titular character in Mackenzie – the costumes evoke the whole early 2000s vibe. Brett Boardman Be advised: viewers can expect light references to incest, disfigurement, and one ass-slap by a slimy producer. The Nutshell has perhaps never hosted so much booty-popping or scatological humour. (Betrayal via oven poop was one extremely juvenile touch.)
1.54pm Eddy Current Suppression Ring ★★★★½
By James Jennings
Tumbalong Park, June 12
Melbourne garage rock band Eddy Current Suppression Ring (ECSR) are a testament to how exciting rock music can still be, even when stripped down to its barest elements – bass, drums, electric guitar and a charismatic frontman. Here it’s Brendan Huntley, who prowls the stage like a tiger, eyeing the crowd as if it’s his next meal.
It doesn’t hurt that the band, whose self-titled debut album arrived 20 years ago, has the killer, locked-in rhythm section of bassist Brad Barry and drummer Danny Young, and a shredding, one-man riff factory in the form of guitarist Mikey Young. Each instrument sounds clean, unfussy and powerful, with the sound mix immaculate – not something you often get at an outdoor show.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring delivered in their first live gig in Sydney for 16 years. Aaron Francis The key to the band’s success, beyond the obvious repertoire of excellent tunes, is how danceable a lot of the music is – Memory Lane , Wrapped Up, Colour Television and Which Way to Go , all from 2008’s superb Primary Colours , plant weapons-grade guitar hooks over tight drum and bass grooves that recall ’70s Krautrock at its finest.
1.48pm Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky’s The Firebird ★★★★
By Peter McCallum
Concert Hall, Opera House, June 12
Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird (1910) is probably the most consequential work of Anatoly Liadov’s career. When commissioned by Ballet Russes director Sergei Diaghilev to compose music for a scenario of that name based on Russian folk stories, Liadov failed to meet the deadline, so Diaghilev turned to the relatively unknown Igor Stravinsky, who produced the large-scale score in six months. The rest is history.
This all-Russian program under Polish-Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko brought Liadov and Stravinsky’s The Firebird face to face, albeit separated by Shostakovich in one of his most explosively truculent moods. In the short symphonic poem Kikimora , Opus 63, itself the remnant of an incomplete opera, Boreyko and the SSO revealed Liadov as an expert orchestrator and sensual colourist, with refined instincts for subtle gestures.
Andrew Haveron in a 2022 performance with the Sydney Symphony. Nick Bowers After a darkly shaded opening and a haunting cor anglais melody (Alexandre Oguey), the woodwind section ignited the texture with sharp incendiary energy to brew crackling malevolence until the whole edifice suddenly vanishes with sardonic deftness. Cellist Maximilian Hornung chiselled out the four-note motive that begins and dominates Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 (1959) as though hewing granite and sustained the first movement with implacable resolution and drive.
1.43pm Hair ★★½
By Harriet Cunningham
Theatre Royal, June 12 until July 12
Welcome to the summer of love. It’s 1967, and you’re about to see something you’ve never seen in a theatre before. Blasphemy. Profanity. Flag burning. Onstage nudity. Sex. Drugs. Rock’n’roll. This is Hair.
All good so far, except that it’s not 1967. It’s 2026, and all of the above are available, 24/7, on a screen near you. So how does Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s revolutionary musical, Hair, stand up when it is stripped of the shock factor? Sad to say, not very well, at least in this touring production from the Australian Shakespeare Company.
It was hugely controversial in 1967, but in 2026, Hair does not have the power to shock that it once did. Daniel Boud Hair is a port…
Read the full article at The Age →
Australia