” … a testament to the script’s distinctive blend of dark humour and social commentary. Brown’s script is witty yet hard-hitting. ”
Alethea Mouhtouris
3.5 Stars
Venue : New Theatre
Newtown, Sydney
Dates: Until 31st October 2026
I love the acclaimed Australian TV series Deadloch, in which the combative yet hilarious exchanges between its two female leads create a distinctive chemistry. Next To Godliness captures that same spark, as three very different women claim their power in the unconventional world of murder. Its interval-free 80 minutes fly by.
Written by Alastair Brown, Next To Godliness won the 2023 Silver Gull Play Award – a testament to the script’s distinctive blend of dark humour and social commentary. Brown’s script is witty yet hard-hitting. The characters and their backstories will resonate with many women through their own experiences and those of their parents or children. Its most powerful lines land with brutal force, particularly: “Every day my life got smaller until it fit me like a coffin.”
We first meet Sophia (Alice Livingstone), an older, disillusioned woman compelled through necessity to keep working, and the lively young Erin (Alisha O’Brien), who is struggling to choose a career. Hired to clean a blood-soaked scene, Livingstone and O’Brien bring empathy and insight to their roles. Their well-paced, witty repartee brings energy to the scene while drawing the humour from the characters’ differences. O’Brien’s sharp comic timing is a particular highlight.
Meanwhile, the character Ferryman (Sonya Kerr) is terrorising people at gunpoint. Kerr is perfectly cast as Ferryman: she has a commanding presence which conveys confidence and authority edged with menace – essential to the Ferryman character. Kerr’s persona is a great fit for both Ferryman’s former career as an advertising executive – think the iconic yet ruthless Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada – and her current work as an assassin. Nathan Farrow’s Businessman is an excellent foil: condescending and patriarchal despite having no control of the situation. Their interaction features a lot of corporate jargon – “Why don’t we bottom line this so we’re on the same frequency” and “This meeting could have been an email” – which draws plenty of laughs. And as Goon No. 7, Brendan Kater gives a remarkably lively performance – for a dead man.
Brown sets the play’s contemporary world against a three-person Greek chorus whose recitations from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon lend its violence a classical resonance. Played by Jessica Carter, Harrison Collis-Oates and Sophie Newby, the chorus adds a sinister undertone that counterbalances the main characters’ occasional irreverence.
Director Madeleine Withington describes Next To Godliness as a story of “interesting women” who are complete, flawed and funny, and who talk about more than appealing to men. After decades of popular media allowing men to live out their fantasies, she sees the play as an opportunity for women to do the same “at a time when most of the women I know are incredibly angry.”
Withington’s direction is well-paced and balances the play’s dark humour, violence, and commentary, while drawing out strong performances from the cast. It’s a solid production, and timely. In a climate of renewed extremism and calls for a return to the trad-wife ideal, Next To Godliness offers a defiant vision of women seizing their power.
photos Bob Seary
Alethea Mouhtouris, Theatre Now
