Writing
Sweat at the STC
My review of the STC production of Sweat, Lynn Nottage’s 2015 Pulitzer winning play, is published in The Saturday Paper.
Walking on water
An essay about Whitlam and pools, politics and water. Written at the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Home and now out in The Monthly. With many thanks to the Whitlam Institute and Varuna for hosting the Whitlam Essay Residency.
Sex, zips and feminism: Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying after 50 years
While its racism is the great flaw of Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying, it still has much to say to today’s reader. Read my essay for The Conversation’s feminist classics series.
Betty Can Jump at the Pram Factory: the radical 1970s play that built a scene – and changed Australia
In this piece for The Guardian, I describe finding myself on federal election day in 2022 handing out how-to-vote flyers with the film and TV actor Bruce Spence, and I look at how federal arts policy has nurtured the arts since the 1970s.
Betty Jumps High
This essay for Openbook magazine is about how the women behind Betty Can Jump first had the idea for their radical play.
Friday essay: ‘with men I feel like a very sharp, glittering blade’ – when 5 liberated women spoke the truth
This article for The Conversation contains edited extracts from Staging a Revolution: When Betty Rocked the Pram
Broken: Children, parents and family courts
Read my review for the Australian Book Review of Broken: Children, parents and family courts by Camilla Nelson and Catharine Lumby.
Apocalypse Baby
An essay I wrote for Meanjin about television’s lost and found children, childless and desperate mothers, and callous and caring states.
East of Western Decline: “Mare of Easttown”
Read my review for The Monthly of the devastating portrait of a decaying America in the series Mare of Easttown.
Brazen Hussies review
In this review for The Guardian of Brazen Hussies, Catherine Dwyer's documentary about the Australian women's liberation movement, I thought about the many ways the movement was really an early kind of punk movement.
The Handmaid's Tailspin
Read my review of Season Three of The Handmaid's Tale for The Saturday Paper.
A Change in the Weather
A story I wrote for Meanjin on life, death, memory, weather, feminism … and Nick Cave's mum.
#MeToo Stories from the Australian Movement
In the opening essay of the Picador anthology #MeToo: Stories from the Australian movement, I revisit the 70s, make peace with a 90s Helen Garner, ponder if I have any Louis C.K.s in my life and talk about the work labour movement women are doing to address sexual harassment at work.
Making the private public: ‘The Seventies’ by Michelle Arrow
Michelle Arrow’s new history of the 1970s traces how the decade redefined politics and shaped modern Australia. Read my review for The Monthly here.
Lunch with School Strike 4 Climate leader Jean Hinchliffe
I spoke to school climate strike leader Jean Hinchliffe for The Saturday Paper.
The Sydney Women’s Film Group and Betty Can Jump
Before #MeToo, 1970s Australian feminists used film and theatre to raise consciousnesses about women's liberation. Read my story for The Saturday Paper here.
Blackie, Blackie Brown
In her latest production, Blackie Blackie Brown, Nakkiah Lui (Black is the New White, Black Comedy) signals she will be very funny – deadly, brutally funny
Sami in Paradise review
Read my review of the Belvoir Theatre’s production of Sami in Paradise
Antony and Cleopatra (Sydney Opera House)
My review of the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Antony and Cleopatra.
Lethal Indifference review
Read my review of Lethal Indifference, a Sydney Theatre Company production directed by Jessica Arthur.