Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (reviewed Friday 28 March 2025).
Award-winning Australian playwright Kieran Carroll offers a solid one-man play about tennis legend John Newcombe, played by Melbourne actor Paul Armstrong and directed by Ross Daniels at The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre in Sutherland. NEWK has been a huge hit since its inception in 2019, thanks to its entertaining performance of an Australian Living Treasure.
The play welcomes us to the 80th birthday celebration of John Newcombe (aka ‘Newk’), where he wittingly raconteurs about his life as a tennis champion, celebrity sportsman, star of cheesy commercials and doting father and husband (married since 1966 to Angelika Pfannenburg, a tennis champion hailing from Germany). The biographical information is comprehensive, well researched and accessible thanks to an on-stage AUSLAN interpreter.
Paul Armstrong as Newk is passionate about the material, delivering his lines with a knowing smile and great gusto of energy. Armstrong is eager to please fans and succeeds; a selection of media sound-bytes sprinkled throughout the performance creates atmosphere and context of his wins and losses, both on and off the court. An audience participation moment comes in the form of reciting the tagline from the Aeroguard commercial featuring Newk. His wholesomeness and charisma made him a bankable TV star.
At just over an hour-long monologue, where most of the key moments (and results of tennis matches) are told as facts, it might have also been interesting to explore Newk’s competitive technique – what were his strengths? What were his weaknesses? What made him a particularly good tennis player? A few minutes with only the thwacking sound of a tennis ball and austere commentators would have been an interesting way to engage the audience as spectators.
The play finishes with a heartwarming video montage of Newk throughout the years. A sense of nostalgia comes across in this play which is a real treat for audiences of all ages.
NEWK played at The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre in Sutherland on Friday 28 March 2025. For more about the playwright and his work, go to https://kierancarroll.com