Time Out Arts & Culture Awards 2024: Best Play Nominees

This coming-of-age story – starring Nadine Garner and Max McKenna, and staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company – illustrated a young woman torn between emancipation and comfort, with the reality of a never-defined yet ever-present mental illness adding layers of complexity to what would otherwise be a universally relatable tale. Rather than being afraid of the grey areas, this heart-wrenching drama embraced complexity and left most questions it raised unanswered.

It’s hard to imagine how a memoir spanning Maxine Beneba Clarke’s formative years could translate from page to stage. Yet, in the very capable hands of Beneba Clarke herself, alongside her creative team, this theatrical adaptation of The Hate Race not only tapped into what’s so special about the source material but also stood as a powerful piece of storytelling in its own right. 

Homo Pentecostus delivered a deliciously rich fusion of confessional theatre and ecstatic dance, where choreographer and dancer Joel Bray reckoned with religion thrusting more shame onto young queer minds already struggling with their identity. What ensued was a powerful exploration about how colonial Christianity actively erased First Nations spirituality, their connection to Country and language. 

What the co-writers of Yentl (Gary Abrahams, Elise Esther Hearst and Galit Klas) have accomplished is nothing short of magic: an explicitly queer retelling of a story made famous by a Barbara Streisand-led 1983 film that brings to light the transness implicit to Isaac Bashevis Singer’s original text and makes it an essential part of Yiddishkayt (Jewishness). 

No matter how many productions of Death of a Salesman you’ve seen, its ending will always manage to pack an emotional punch. Neil Armfield’s iteration represents the third national revival in less than two years, but every production has unearthed new depths to the contemporary classic. With sterling performances and an inspired set, it breaks new ground by bringing attention to the collateral damage that follows in our salesman’s wake.