“Such modern questions linger in the mind, even though the production is brought to life – through Dann Barber’s elegant set and costume, Russell Goldsmith’s haunting sound, and the sanctity and profanity of Rachel Burke’s lighting – within an exquisitely designed stage-world that conjures a shadowy hallucination of the time in which Yentl is set.
Yentl, Kadimah Yiddish Theatre/Arts Centre Melbourne
Cameron Woodhead, The Age, March 2022

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design gives the production an ethereal feel – transporting the world of the play to somewhere that is not quite known but at the same time, all too familiar.
Yentl, Kadimah Yiddish Theatre/Arts Centre Melbourne
Gavin Roach, Australian Arts Review, March 2022

Russell Goldsmith’s composition is brilliantly effective, moody and rich.
Yentl, Kadimah Yiddish Theatre/Arts Centre Melbourne
Tim Byrne, Time Out, March 2022

The sound design by Russell Goldsmith was exceptional. While the audience was taking their seats, the sound of planes and bombs were heard and right before the musical started, snippets of radio segments from the Vietnam War were added, which brought the audience into the story. The balance between the live band and the cast and the latter with each other was spot on. The band was always audible at a consistent volume and every individual instrument was heard. The main cast member for each of the songs was heard very clearly as was the same for cast members with a more important part or for smaller solos in a group number. Goldsmith’s skill made it easier for the audience to fully embrace the wonderful score.
Hair, HOTA Gold Coast
Fontini Box, theatrehaus.com

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design is a mini work of genius, full of croaking frogs and crackling thunder. The production makes little visual concession to Broome itself, which serves to highlight the dream-like, almost fantastical role the town plays in the work.
Bottomless, fortyfivedownstairs
Tim Byrne, Time Out, December 2018

Atmospheric light and sound design by Andy Turner and Russell Goldsmith respectively builds tension and extends the production design elements by Romanie Harper into the invisible distance.
Bottomless, fortyfivedownstairs
Owen James, Theatrepress, December 2018

Lighting (Daniel Barber) and sound (Russell Goldsmith) are excellent and judiciously used, amplifying our understanding of Anna’s spiralling mania without drawing attention to themselves.
The Almighty Sometimes, Griffin Theatre
Jason Blake, The Audrey Journal, July 2018

It creates an eerily effective setting made even more disquieting by Russell Goldsmith’s composed sound design. The “music” is like the interior of a medicated skull wherein the sound of blood rushing through arteries is akin to distant traffic; it’s both human and abstract and adds to the unnerving potency of the production.
The Almighty Sometimes, Griffin Theatre
Diana Simmonds, Stage Noise, July 2018

Also noteworthy is work on music and sound by Russell Goldsmith, who keeps us on tenterhooks, with subtle and steady manipulations to atmosphere that prove to be immensely potent.
The Almighty Sometimes - Griffin Theatre
Suzy Wrong, Suzy Goes See, July 2018

The sound design is energetic and robust with a range of dancing, discordant, jarring sounds packaged brilliantly by Russell Goldsmith.
Enter Ophelia – Essential Theatre/Three Birds Theatre
Flora Georgiou, Stage Whispers, February 2018

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design is sometimes reminiscent of the sonic presence at play in Director, Bela Tarr’s mythic, cinematic experience, Satantango. But it is the timing within which it is utilised in this production that delves most deeply into the mystery of human consciousness. At times barely discernible and thereby indicating the folly of memory, at other times a plumb bum parting the lower, cerebral cortex and dredging up the relationship between an infinite without, and an infinite within, this depth-sonar, combined with what appears to be Rachel Burke’s high density, gas-filled lighting, its spectral incarnations and nuanced shifts of shade, depth and shallowness, is operatic in intent and prodigious in outcome. As a method and technique for procuring that which mostly remains hidden and if not, imperceptible, or, is theatrically uncanny, it is unsurpassed.
The Chairs – La Mama
Tony Reck - The Chairs: Absence Without Leave, October 2017

Russell Goldsmith has created a score that is subtle and thorough in its soft approach, drifting in and out of focus throughout the performance and building to a neat crescendo.
Too Ready Mirror - Darebin Speakeasy
Jessi Lewis, melbournecritique, September 2017

The atmosphere is perfected with Russell Goldsmith’s sound design of ticking, rustling and music that’s as implied as it is heard.
John – Melbourne Theatre Company
Anne-Marie Peard, Aussie Theatre, February 2017

Sam Hopkins and Russell Goldsmith’s design almost becomes characters within their prominence, but they do not overwhelm. The nerve wracking harmony between Norris, sound and light is exquisite.
CUT – The Vaults, London Season
Laura Kressly, The Play’s The Thing UK, July 2016

The soundscape by Russell Goldsmith is eerie and disturbing and intensifies in the blackouts. It builds in the darkness to dramatic effect
CUT – The Vaults, London Season
Rebecca Usher, The Bardette, July 2016

Goldsmith’s sound is a constant barrage of distorted noise that physically pounds you at times. But there’s so much work with live and interactive feedback, where live sound is distorted and altered to create Cut’s oppressive aural landscape. Even the “thud-thud, thud-thud” of departing trains above is purposefully picked up by the sound design and blasted into scenes: a brilliant incorporation of one of the site’s foibles.
CUT – The Vaults, London Season
James Waygood, Grumpy Gay Critic, July 2016

The relatively modest confines of the Red Stitch Actors Theatre is ideally suited to this text, heightening the sense of penned-in captivity. Thanks to a truly accomplished sound design by Russell Goldsmith and sophisticated yet unobtrusive lighting by Rachel Burke, there is a tangible sense of the destruction outside fast approaching. In many respects, Splendour is a play that demands a great deal from an audience, but this production is well worth the effort.
Splendour – Red Stitch
Maxim Boon, Limelight Magazine, March 2016

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design is excellent, moody and sharp.
Splendour – Red Stitch
Tim Byrne, Time Out, March 2016

…the stagecraft and acting are very refined, very sharp. Russell Goldsmith’s sound design is tense and evocative.
Splendour – Red Stitch
Chris Boyd The Australian, March 2016

But it is the exceptional sound design by award winning and Tony nominated Russell Goldsmith that most impresses; from bold, echoing bombardments to the shrill phone rings, to the underplaying sounds of haunting fear, all were effectively and timely used to create the sense of impending doom being experienced by the women, and by us.
Splendour – Red Stitch
Natasha Boyd TheatrePeople, March 2016

Russell Goldsmith’s evocative composition and sound design, which occasionally overlaps certain scenes, disturbingly foreshadowing events to come is beautifully integrated into the production.
Elegy – Lab Kelpie
Richard Watts, ArtsHub, January 2016

The sound design is almost a character itself, representing the dominant discourse of the past fourteen years. It is complex and gripping, particularly the short, quick-fire soundbites of the names and phrases that have come to define the naughties.
I Saw The Second One Hit – Malthouse Theatre & St.Martins Youth Theatre
Fiona Spitzkowsky, TheatrePeople, September 2015

... (Tim) Rogers, Ben Franz and Xani Kolac are the on-stage band, and they’re stellar, as is Russell Goldsmith’s sound design.
What Rhymes With Cars & Girls - Melbourne Theatre Company
Byron Bache, Herald Sun, February 2015

Russell Goldsmith’s occasionally ominous sound design is considered and precise...
What Rhymes With Cars & Girls - Melbourne Theatre Company
Richard Watts, ArtsHub, February 2015

Russell Goldsmith has created an emotionally tactile soundscape, which washes through and punctuates the action... these technical achievements are powerful and give great depth to the acting and writing.
CUT - Adelaide Fringe
John Wells, theatreguide, February 2015

The sound and light do much to create an unnerving, harrowing atmosphere. Russell Goldsmith and Sam Hopkins, respectively, have done an impressive job. On occasion, it’s like being in the darkest recesses of a David Lynch film. Or inside a bad dream.
CUT - Adelaide Fringe
David Robinson, The Clothesline, February 2015

...the unstable reality is heightened with a beautifully judged sound design from Russell Goldsmith. The production looks and sounds beautiful.
Ghosts – Melbourne Theatre Company
Alison Croggon, The Guardian, May 2014

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design insinuates much about these characters in quieter moments, and whacks you over the head with excitement in others.
Summertime In The Garden Of Eden – Sisters Grimm
Ben Neutze, Daily Review, November 2013

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design wittily theatricalises Hollywood’s musical tropes, heightening what is already a heightened experience.
Summertime In The Garden Of Eden – Sisters Grimm
Alison Croggon, The Guardian, November 2013

Russell Goldsmith’s lush Max Steiner-esque score and sound design, along with Katie Sfetkidis’ lighting, complete the illusion and create a wholly diverting and entertaining show.
Summertime In The Garden Of Eden – Sisters Grimm
Glenn Saunders, The Spell Of Waking Hours, November 2013

…The sound design, beginning with a scratched, static overlay of the mellifluous strings of Mantovani and his orchestra, with gushy romantic tunes, to the haunting ‘ping’ of hospital, and the glittering of rain, to the breaking of water on the sea shore by Russell Goldsmith, creates an atmosphere that eludes to a production possibility, that is not quite captured elsewhere. It invites an imaginative lateral entry to an intrigue of a bigger universe swirling about us.
Persona – Belvoir
Kevin Jackson, Kevin Jackson’s Theatre Diary, August 2013

…The undoubtable success of the production, while evident in every aspect, hinges upon the dynamic collaboration and uniquely harmonious synthesis between the direction (Adena Jacobs), production design (Dayna Morrissey) and sound design (Russell Goldsmith)… Despite its beauty, there is an eerie not-quite-rightness emanating from this deceptively domestic set, complemented and enhanced by particularly affective and perfectly integrated soundscapes. With the raw emotive nuances that characterises the finest Scandinavian cinema, this production of Persona seamlessly translates Bergman’s conceptual foundations into a theatrical framework. ‘Exceptional’ is not a word to bandy about, but in this case, it is truly warranted.
Persona – Belvoir
Katherine Johnson, Media/Culture reviews (reviews.media-culture.org.au), July 2013

…The decision to place Alma’s amplified voice within Russell Goldsmith’s disconcerting soundtrack contributes to a sense of disquiet. Persona is brave, exciting and harrowingly beautiful theatre.
Persona - Belvoir
4.5 Stars - Jason Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 2013

One of the truly remarkable aspects of this production is the sound design. Russell Goldsmith has created a soundscape that is vivid, accurate and menacing, and yet sits so perfectly in the background of the action that you are barely aware of it.
Persona - Belvoir
Caitlin Scarr Reviews, July 2013

(The) design worked incredibly well with sound designer, Russell Goldsmith’s, ambient selection, which drew us into an era and place unlike where we are today. This is particularly noted when Alma and Elizabeth move to the cottage, which is impeccably Swedish in design, down to the glass, clogs and sounds of rain that pervaded the senses. With ethereal lighting by Danny Pettingill, you felt as if you were illicitly observing life from afar, with the glass wall a metaphor for both their miscommunication as well as a barrier that is clear, yet strong, withholding the truth. The coordination of these design aspects truly captures the crux of the piece, drawing us in even closer to the unraveling of the soul.
Persona - Belvoir
Sophie Gallagher, Postcard Paradiso, July 2013

The design generates bleak, claustrophobic menace… Russell Goldsmith’s sound (lends the scene) a sense of cinematic suspense and outright terror. I’m not usually a fan of miking actors, but the echoic whispering builds a weird paradox of intimacy distorted by distance between the characters.
The Collector – Artisan Collective
Cameron Woodhead, The Age, July 2013

These concerns are posed in a more tantalising way in the video works that flank the stage - close-ups of bodies suffocating in plastic; white arms stained with blood; a black man rubbing his skin till it turns gold - with Russell Goldsmith’s sound design creating a womb-like ambience around these bodies morphing and distorting.
This Is Beautiful – The Public Studio
Rebecca Harkins-Cross, The Age, July 2013

A fairly low-pitched soundscape (Russell Goldsmith), with an industrial edge, exquisitely accompanies images to significant and surprising effect.
This Is Beautiful – The Public Studio
Suzanne Sandow, Stage Whispers, July 2013

On one screen are projected fragments from classic theatre texts – Peer Gynt, Woyzeck, Krapps’ Last Tape – texts which decay before our eyes, punched full of holes. On the other screen are projected reproduction paintings by various post-Renaissance masters, mostly baroque and rococo, which in their turn are torn apart, manipulated and merged in a collage-like visual fugue designed with Matthew Angel. Russell Goldsmith provides a typically ominous sound design that includes snippets from the same classic plays. Technically, it is a slickly made package, bound up with surprising purposefulness.
Until Then, Then – The Public Studio
Andrew Fuhrmann, Primative Surveys, March 2013

Sound (Russell Goldsmith with composition by Paul Grabowsky) is used unconventionally to enrich the atmosphere and at times, ambiguously, echoes the shifts in Juliana’s destabilizing mind.
The Other Place – Melbourne Theatre Company
Suzanne Sandow, Stage Whispers, February 2013

It’s given an excellent, minimalist production by Tanya Dickson, and a notable sound design from Russell Goldsmith that heightens the uneasy realities in this play. Another production that demonstrates that MKA is one of the must-see independent companies on the Melbourne calendar.
Triangle - MKA
Alison Croggon, theatrenotes, August 2012

...Yet, it is actually the sound design, by the wonderful Russell Goldsmith, with co-design by Chris Wenn, together with a couple of gory coup de theatre moments from (director) Dickson, that take this piece to another level. Triangle is a slick little production that rounds out MKA’s most consistent season yet.
Triangle - MKA
4 Stars - Andrew Fuhrman, Time Out, July 2012

The designers, Dayna Morrissey, Danny Pettingill and Russell Goldsmith, come together to deliver a production design that intensifies the play at every given moment, taking their lead from the original film to present a minimal and controlled mise-en-scène cradled by an undercurrent of a relentlessly haunting soundscape. Persona is a delicately powerful piece of theatre… It must be seen.
Persona – Fraught Outfit
Eugeene Teh, promptside.com.au, July, 2102

The other aspects of the design - Danny Pettingill’s lighting and Russell Goldsmith’s extraordinary sound environment - heighten its sense of intense but unstable realism… This was a show that I couldn’t fault in any of its particulars, and which as a whole manifests a lucid complexity that is rare in any medium. Subtle, detailed and truthful, this collaboration transfers the mystery at the heart of Bergman’s film intact, while entirely remaking it. As I said, miraculous.
Persona – Fraught Outfit
Alison Croggon, theatrenotes, May, 2012

George Tomlinson’s boxed set is an anaemic office with whitewashed walls, fluorescent lighting and grey carpet tiles. Its overwhelming dullness contrasts starkly with Russell Goldsmith’s pulsating soundtrack and the actors’ eccentric movements.
Total Football - The Barbican, London
Dominic Martin, thestage.co.uk, May 2011

Anne-Louise Sarks’ direction has provided a wonderful authenticity of language and an engaging structure, if somewhat insensitive to the needs of an audience when presenting ‘in-the-round’. Russell Goldsmith’s compositions and sound designs add significantly to the mood of the piece and along with Lisa Mibus’ lighting designs are presented with beautiful timing and sensitivity by Stage Manager Caitlyn Byrne.
While sometimes Hayloft are guilty of self-indulgence and goading their audience towards a reaction rather than challenging their thoughts, this particular production is much more subtly presented and is an intriguing exercise in mood and focus. Definitely worth a look.
The Nest – Hayloft Project
Simon Parris, theatrepeople.com.au, December 2010

A Woman In Berlin is edge of the seat viewing, which is beyond impressive for a 65 minute, one-woman show. Making effective use of the light and dark of the original text, the production has the audience captivated from the moment they enter the theatre… Effective use of space was aided no end by Matt Cox’s eerie lighting design and Russell Goldsmith’s subtle sound design.
Great theatre stuns to silence and not a word was uttered as the audience came back to reality as they left the Tower.
A Woman In Berlin – Malthouse Theatre
Jeremy Williams, Laneway Magazine, November 2010

Composer Iain Grandage, sound designer Russell Goldsmith and lighting designer Paul Jackson are to be commended on their incredible work on this production, with each element meshing perfectly and producing a visual and audio ride that is a sheer delight.
Optimism – Malthouse Theatre
4 Stars - Jane Stabler, The Brag, January 2010

The creative team on this project do a wonderful job of transforming the gallery space into different areas within the story-with sound design by Russell Goldsmith and a beautiful lighting design by Matt Cox- an artful and beautiful production which exposes a much needed section of our history. And I applaud the team who bravely take a difficult story and bring it to audiences to evoke conversation about the nature of survival.
A Woman In Berlin – Malthouse Theatre
Augusta Supple, September 2009

The ruination and the fear is conjured primarily by the author, but is strikingly amplified by the composer, Russell Goldsmith.
A Woman In Berlin – Malthouse Theatre
Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald, August 2009

Russell Goldsmith’s sound design provides the undercurrent of emotion that takes this production from good to great. A continuous soundtrack including ambient sounds and atmospheric emotive sounds is interspersed with snippets of current pop songs. Goldsmith was recently nominated for a Tony award for his sound design on Exit the King, and his talent at capturing the essence of a play, its mood and setting, is definitely on show in this production.
The Web – Black Swan
Anna Locke, Australian Stage, October 2009

In Kantor’s production of Happy Days sensory pleasure is foregrounded, paradoxically focusing Beckett’s uncompromising attention to an illusion-free reality. Kantor’s gift for theatrical excess is squeezed to a diamond focus by Beckett’s unforgiving strictness, making the best of both of them. All the production elements - Anna Cordingley’s spectacularly curtained set, Russell Goldsmith’s bold sound design and Paul Jackson’s lighting design - frame and amplify the performances, driving the experience home to the heart, where it most truly belongs.
Happy Days – Malthouse Theatre
Alison Croggon, theatrenotes, July 2009

The production values are strong; Paul Jackson’s lighting wheel that lit the actors from above, Anna Cordingley’s symbolic stage filled with broken shards of metal and debris, and Russell Goldsmith’s haunting, reverberating soundscape.
Happy Days – Belvoir
David Kary, Stage Whispers, November 2009

Kantor has put together an excellent production; the two roles are expertly crafted and performed, especially Forsyth’s depiction of a manic woman just managing to keep it together under ludicrous pressure. Anna Cordingley’s gift-box set unfurls menacingly at the opening of each act to reveal a scorched pile of rubble, which Paul Jackson’s lighting design paints with an impressive array of moods. Entering as Winnie’s sonic torturer is a ferocious series of alarms, drones and mechanical clanks conjured by sound designer Russell Goldsmith.
Happy Days – Belvoir
Jimmy Dalton, Concrete Playground, November 2009

Armfield’s work is terrifically enhanced by sound designer Russell Goldsmith’s eerie soundscape… In the end, watching the play is a bit like riding an emotional roller coaster: peaks of absolute zaniness can be followed by moments of intimate warmth and delicate insight into the human condition. It’s a ride definitely worth taking.
Exit The King – Broadway Production
Andy Propst, Theatre Mania New York, March 2009

Considering how aggressively much of the production is pitched toward outlandish comedy, its sorrow creeps up on you as stealthily as the ambient soundscape by Russell Goldsmith.
Exit The King – Broadway Production
David Rooney, Variety, March 2009

The sound by Russell Goldsmith is awesome!
Exit The King – Broadway Production
Virginia Eden, Broadway Theatre Newsletter, April 2009

Armfield perfectly calibrates the play’s journey from absurd comedy into existential darkness, so much so that I wished he hadn’t inserted an intermission, something Ionesco didn’t provide. Dale Ferguson’s set consists mostly of curtains and drapes that dovetail nicely with the long trains his imaginative costumes afford each queen. The set also manages effortlessly to accomplish Ionesco’s difficult coup de théâtre at the play’s denouement. John Rodgers’ music combines with Russell Goldsmith’s intricate sound design to enhance tone and punctuate action. This is a landmark production of a great play. Miss Exit the King at your peril.
Exit The King – Broadway Production
Erik Haagensen, backstage.com, April 2009

Harnessed to the actors’ lightly miked and echo-chambered voices, Russell Goldsmith’s ominous soundscape is fantastically effective.
Exit The King – Belvoir
Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald, April 2007

Harnessed to the actors’ lightly miked and echo-chambered voices, Russell Goldsmith’s ominous soundscape is fantastically effective.
Exit The King – Sydney Season
Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald, April 2007

Underneath Russell Goldsmith’s subtly textured sound design is an ominous, subliminal rumbling, something like the sound of heavy trucks going by, as if the whole building is about to collapse. The actors are miked, giving their performances a certain extra formality and alienation which is not inappropriate…
Exit The King – Malthouse Theatre
Alison Croggon, theatrenotes, March 2007

But the highlight of this production comes in the form of a puppet, handled with extraordinary care by Andrew McDougall and Nathan Reardon. The use of the puppet is what takes this production from ‘just another play about suffering’ into another level of theatre, one which works aesthetically and kinetically to evoke extraordinary pathos from its audience. Heightened by Russell Goldsmith’s extraordinarily beautiful score, this element of Shadow Passion is the most moving and speaks more words even than Crowley’s eloquent script can. Shadow Passion is self-assured and enthralling. This is the sort of work our state theatre companies should be producing – accessible work about real people and real lives. There are elements of it that are disturbing, hard to watch, and even harder to reconcile with – but it is brilliant, compelling viewing. One not to miss.
Shadow Passion
Avi Lipski, Australian Stage, September, 2007
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