Virginia Gay is so good as the titular Calamity Jane currently playing at the Studio at the Sydney Opera House, that you would swear the role was written for her. And on this episode of the Saturday Quiz she's brought along her Wild Bill Hickok - Andrew Cutcliffe.

They are a smashing team on stage and an even better team at this quiz.

Tickets to Calamity Jane are selling fast, so get yours now:

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/musical-theatre-cabaret/calamity-jane

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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On this episode of the quiz, John is joined by one of Australia’s preeminent playwrights, Joanna Murray-Smith.

Her adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley has just finished its triumphant run in Sydney and is soon to open in The Playhouse of The Arts Centre Melbourne.

Get your tickets to The Talented Mr Ripley here:

https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2025/theatre/the-talented-mr-ripley

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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This is actually the quiz from last week, apologies for the delay. But my guests on this episode, Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore have been very busy lately. 

As well as writing and rehearsing their third play together, Gen and Cath portray about a dozen different characters each to tell the real life story of the absolute trailblazer who became Australia’s first female commercial pilot - Deborah Lawrie. Their play Fly Girl has its world premiere season at the Ensemble theatre in Kirribilli in Sydney, with previews starting on the 17th of October and running until the 22nd of November.

Get tickets to Fly Girl here:

https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/fly-girl/#calendar

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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Matilda and Iolanthe are both about to star in the Downstairs Belvoir show "The Edit"

Iolanthe plays Influencer Nia, who wants to find her match and win the primetime reality dating hit, Match or Snatch. Matilda plays Jess, a junior producer on the show. She wants to orchestrate Nia’s every move to secure a win for both of them. But who is controlling who? And what will the win cost both women? The Edit punches in on the underbelly of our guiltiest pleasure, reality television. Merging her own personal experience as a teen on reality television and her extensive interviews with reality stars from the hit podcast series “Back from Reality”, writer Gabrielle Scawthorn asks the question can we ever truly give consent, if we don’t know what we are consenting to. 

Get tickets to The Edit here:

https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-edit/

As ever, thanks to Cindy MacDonald for writing the questions.

This episode of the podcast was recorded on the lands belonging to the Dharug people. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and acknowledge their traditions of sharing knowledge and stories for millennia on this land.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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The Brothers O'Brien are a talented pair. Robbie is performing his one man show about the modern dilemma of having 24/7 access to the entirety of human knowledge and not knowing what to do with that power. And James has provided the music for the show.

This episode gets quite philosophical for a little bit.

Hope you enjoy.

Get tickets to Melancholipedia

https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/melancholipedia

Thanks as always to Cindy MacDonald for the fabulous questions.

This podcast is made on the lands belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and acknowledge their traditions of sharing knowledge and stories for millennia on this land.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A person of prominence is dead. Immediately, the question raised is “what are you allowed to say about this person?” Specifically, how far are you allowed to go with any “jokes” about them? And what, if any, should the repercusions be if you go too far?

No, don’t worry, I haven’t used the week off to rebrand as a right-wing conservative podcaster. I’m not even actually referencing current events. The above is actually the premise of "JKS: a comedy(?)" a new play premiering at the upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival, written by and starring Tom Ballard.

Thanks as always to Cindy MacDonald for writing the questions.

I make this podcast on the lands belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and pay our respect to their elders past and present, while acknowledging their traditions of sharing knowledge and stories for millennia on this land.

Get tickets to Jks: a comedy(?) here:

https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/jks-a-comedy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seven years ago Neridah Waters created the amateur dance revolution known as Common People Dance Eisteddfod - which is happening this opening weekend of the Brisbane Festival - but how much does she and her partner Lucas Stibbard know about Australia's geography, airport busyness and Ancient Greek architecture?

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Go see the Common People Dance Eisteddfod:

https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/events/common-people-dance-eisteddfod

And if you're in Brisbane, see me in The Platypus:

https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/events/the-platypus

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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Sheridan Harbridge is one of the writers of what, in my opinion, was the best thing I saw on stage last year, the musical My Brilliant Career. Some great news for lovers of Australian musicals is that The Melbourne Theatre Company has recently announced a return season early next year

Sheridan is joined on this episode by Steven Kramer who is the writer of another show which is about to stake its claim as the great Australian musical - or at the very least, a musical about a great Australian (or should that be great New Zealander?) Either way, the musical Phar Lap will be having its world premiere at Sydney’s Hayes theatre in October.

Get tickets to Phar Lap here:

https://hayestheatre.com.au/event/phar-lap-musical/

Get tickets to My Brilliant Career here:

https://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2026/my-brilliant-career/

See John in The Platypus at the Brisbane Festival:

https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/events/the-platypus

See Sheridan in Amplified at the Brisbane Festival:

https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/events/amplified-the-exquisite-rock-and-rage-of-chrissy-amphlett

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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I love having Laurence on the show. he's done it a bunch of times before, but never solo. Will he prove that every time before this one he's been the dunce? Or will he somehow jag a whole bunch of questions that sit in his sweet spot? You'll have to listen to find out.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

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Duncan Fellows is a dear old friend who I have known since we were both teenagers. His effortless charm has endeared him to audiences of tv shows like Deadloch and The Messenger and will no doubt do so again in the soon to be released tv series He Had it Coming and Reckless. He was even married to my partner in the excellent tv series The Letdown.

Next week sees the Melbourne International Film Festival screening of a movie he’s in, Zombucha - A hilarious and big-hearted horror comedy about a couple whose hopes of striking it rich in the fermented beverage game, are shattered when their homemade kombucha attains sentience and a thirst for blood.

Get tickets to the two MIFF screenings of Zombucha here:

https://miff.com.au/program/film/zombucha#top

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.