Sydney live review wrap: Sydney Theatre Company’s Whitefella Yella Tree; New Now 2025 by Omega Ensemble, The Taming of the Shrew, Mauritius, Gary Daley

THEATRE

MAURITIUS

Desire Books & Records Manly, until October 10

Reviewed by HARRIET CUNNINGHAM

★★★½

There’s literally nowhere to hide in the Sydney Actors’ Playhouse production of Mauritius .

Staged at Desire Books, the legendary second-hand book store tucked behind a carpark in Manly, the action plays out on a narrow runway bounded by floor to ceiling shelves studded with books you’ve always meant to read. The audience – there’s room for 20 or so – are squeezed in against the walls. There is an entrance/exit at either end of the shop and a space at the back which is wide enough to stand five across for the curtain call.

But that’s it. No curtains, no stage lighting and, most of all, no distance.

Mauritius is a tightly plotted two-act thriller by US playwright Theresa Rebeck.