John Shand Posts

August 29, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Roslyn Packer Theatre, August 23 8/10 Having penned her acclaimed play Switzerland about novelist Patricia Highsmith, Joanna Murray-Smith has now waved her wand across Highsmith’s most famous book, and made it a cracking play. An expert at fizzing dialogue and character exploration, here Murray-Smith has to sustain Highsmith’s premium on…

August 22, 2025 / Concert Reviews
August 19, 2025 / Features

  As a teen, pianist Judy Bailey usually heard classical or pop music coming from the cream-coloured Bakelite radio that hunched on the Formica kitchen bench of her family’s home in Whangarei, New Zealand. But on this particular afternoon, her 13-year-old ears heard something new. She recognised the song, East…