John Shand, Rod Yates and Peter McCallumMay 24, 2026 — 12:48pmWhat our critics are watching this weekBy Welcome to our Sydney live review wrap. Here, you’ll find reviews of all the big shows on around town this week, assessed by our expert team of critics.The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.Latest Posts12.48pmMUSIC Vivid Live: Mogwai ★★★★By Rod YatesOpera House Concert Hall, May 23For more than 30 years, Mogwai have made an art out of lulling listeners into a blissful sonic daydream, only to blow their heads off with a burst of volume so sudden and ear-shatteringly loud it’s like sticking your head inside a jet engine.Take, for example, epic set-closer Mogwai Fear Satan. No matter how many times you’ve heard this highlight from the band’s 1997 debut album Mogwai Young Team, when guitarists Stuart Braithwaite, Barry Burns and Alex Mackay step on their distortion pedals in unison, the impact still shocks, violently shaking the room from the warm cocoon of sound spun by the band only seconds before.Mogwai in action at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for Vivid Live. Ravyna Jassani @byravynaThough this night’s set leans heavily on last year’s The Bad Fire album, it’s also a celebration of the Glaswegian instrumentalists’ 30th anniversary and visits all corners of their career. It begins in understated fashion, the four-piece (plus touring guitarist Mackay) ambling onstage as the pre-recorded spoken word intro of Yes! I Am a Long Way from Home wafts through the room.12.48pmTHEATRE At Home At The Zoo ★★★★By John ShandFlight Path TheatreMay 22, until May 30Imagine if Botticelli, a couple of decades after painting The Birth of Venus, had decided to give her a haircut. Edward Albee did something even more radical, albeit with not such a masterpiece. His first play, 1959’s The Zoo Story, was a one-act piece set in New York’s Central Park. Two strangers meet, with Jerry doing most of the talking, and Peter listening. With time, Albee became dissatisfied with Peter’s passivity, and in 2004 he added a prequel act, and At Home at the Zoo was born.The new act establishes Peter’s life. His wife, Ann, spars with him in time-honoured Albee fashion, being slightly bored with a textbook-publishing husband who offers loving, safe, predictable sex, while she’s besieged by two daughters, two cats and two parakeets.Will Johnston as Peter and Helana Sawires as Ann in Edward Albee’s At Home At The Zoo at Marrickville’s Flight Path Theatre. Credit: Supplied