Wednesday 14 October 2026

Josh and Dominic Hinton

Merrigong Theatre Company

The Studio, Sydney Opera House

Photos by Ravyna Jassani and the Sydney Opera House.

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

In Australia, the story of migration is a common thread in our multi-cultural society. Josh Hinton comes from a long line of story-tellers, and in his hands his family’s migration story is full of love, music and of course food. Attempting to cook the perfect one-pot chicken curry live on stage becomes a metaphor for the combining of disparate elements (or people) to become something greater than the individual ingredients. The enthusiastic audience at the Studio in the Sydney Opera House was replete with faces of many hues that would have their own (or their family’s) similar stories to tell.

The premise of a live cooking show provided a unique theatrical experience in that smell is one sense that rarely gets deployed in the theatre, a sense that so readily evokes memory and emotion. But the show was much more than that simple vehicle. It was the epic story of four generations of his family traveling across four continents, that held us in awe while the curry simmered on the cooktop. 

Josh was the wide-eyed innocent child in the black and white photos that were projected on the screens by his brother (also vision and sound designer) Dominic, who sat onstage delivering one-liners throughout the show. And that innocent child was still discernible in the adult Josh who was trying to make sense of the many stories he had been told over the years. Stories that showed us shocking violence in apartheid South Africa, religious persecution in Persia, sheltering in air raid tunnels in Iran during WWII, the Bombay Fire (explosion) of 1944, scary border crossings into Baluchistan and the final journey to Australia.  

It was also the personal journey of the only brown-skinned boy at primary school in Wollongong whose diet of curry was ridiculed. The Sultan’s Kitchen of the title of the show was a long-running family Indian restaurant in Brisbane, from where Josh’s love of cooking drew its inspiration. But the real star of the show was Meme, his grandmother, whose voice recordings were an integral element of the dialogue. Like his grandfather, she was a story-teller and keeper of family history. We got to know her voice and personality quite well by the end of the show, but when a recent video of Meme dancing at her 90th birthday was projected, we were amazed to see this vibrant youthful nonagenarian that was bursting with life and vitality. Our hearts melted.

And while all this is being revealed, Josh has been slicing and dicing and stirring the pot. The aromas are permeating the space, and appetites are being whetted. So the curry is ready, and to close the show the two brothers sing us a poignant song they wrote that tells of family and travel and love and food. Bravo!

Josh has inherited the skill of the story-teller, the ability to tell a complex tale and imbue it with joy and laughter, with sadness and regret, with drama and conflict, but above all love and devotion, and then to bring it to a satisfying and delicious conclusion. But it didn’t end there. As we filed out into the foyer we were greeted with bowls of the most delicious (and thankfully not too spicy) perfect one-pot curry, and Josh was there to greet us and to exchange more incredible tales with each of us.

You can hear a recent interview with Josh Hinton below:

Season runs at the Studio until 17 October.