Joyce Morgan

Sydney

Theatre Critic at Sydney Morning Herald

Journalist and author of "The Countess from Kirribilli", "Martin Sharp: His Life and Times" and "Journeys on the Silk Road".

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Articles

Posh boys run riot in a night dissecting power and privilege

3 weeks ago | watoday.com.au | Joyce Morgan

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Posh boys run riot in a night dissecting power and privilege

3 weeks ago | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. PoshOld FitzApril 22. Until May 11★★★★½They wear their entitlement as effortlessly as their tailcoats. The young members of an Oxford University elite dining club gather for a night of food, wine and mayhem at a rural pub. Posh boys will be boys, right?
Trigger warning triggers laughs in this expectation-defying play

Jan 8, 2025 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan |Chantal Nguyen

By Joyce Morgan and Chantal Nguyen January 9, 2025 — 12.11pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. THEATREMULTIPLE BAD THINGSSydney Opera House, January 8Until January 12Reviewed by JOYCE MORGAN★★★½It begins with a trigger warning. But just as you expect a brief, predictable list of theatrical content liable to offend, actor Simon Laherty delivers an extensive laundry list.
Jack White plays his new blues stuff, The Pigeons fails to take off despite a strong cast

Dec 13, 2024 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan |James Jennings

By Joyce Morgan and James Jennings December 14, 2024 — 12.48pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Monsters, torture and a week of sex – this 3000-year-old tale has got the lot

Sep 15, 2024 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan

By Joyce Morgan September 16, 2024 — 12.19pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. You’ve got to hand it to those ancient Mesopotamians – they had stamina. After a week of non-stop sex, one of their wildest men was ready not for a long post-coital sleep but to tackle their tyrant king. The episode in which this athletic feat occurs is contained in the oldest story ever written.
Turning Hamlet into an opera? Remember the Pimm's drinkers at the interval

Jul 15, 2024 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan

Sydney is the smallest stage the production has played on. Dean says this heightens the sense of claustrophobia that is part of the piece, but it's harder to realise on a large stage. "There's this hiding behind walls," he says. "You're even more aware of it somehow when it's closer together. At one stage, side panels start encroaching on Hamlet and Horatio and that seems also more threatening than elsewhere."Dean was in Denmark when it was first suggested to him that he turn Hamlet into an opera.
This generous, warm-hearted production keeps getting better

Jun 29, 2024 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan

Since then, the production has toured to Adelaide, Melbourne and the UK, been showered with awards and will move to New York in September. At the centre of S Shakthidharan's play is the formidable Radha, who fled Sri Lanka alone and pregnant with her son in 1983. The Tamil woman doesn't speak of the past. She's too busy dealing with an air-conditioning man at her Pendle Hill flat. Meanwhile, her son, Siddhartha, revels in Coogee's salty air and his budding romance with Lily, a Yolngu woman.
This generous, warm-hearted production keeps getting better

Jun 29, 2024 | theage.com.au | Joyce Morgan

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Counting and CrackingCarriageworksJune 29Until July 21★★★★½Longevity is rare for any Australian production, let alone one with a cast of 19 non-Anglo performers dealing with events in a country far away and performed in several languages.
How this humble actor was lured to a huge role

Jun 13, 2024 | smh.com.au | Joyce Morgan

And if the dog decided Menzies wasn't sufficiently convincing, it refused to perform its own role. As he prepares for King Lear, he sets aside memories of three earlier productions in which he has appeared in minor roles. But some aspects he can't delete. "I remember different cuts of the play," he says. "There are lines that have been cut from our production which were there in previous productions. And I go to say those cut lines and it throws me."Some roles linger with him.
‘Like stalking a deer’: How this humble actor was lured to a huge role

Jun 13, 2024 | theage.com.au | Joyce Morgan

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. On a sparkling late autumn afternoon, golden light bounces off the harbour and onto Bell Shakespeare’s mirrored foyer as actor Robert Menzies arrives. It’s as far from King Lear’s blasted heath as imaginable.