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Death of a Salesman

This play was first performed in 1949. A year after that premiere on Broadway Miller was asked to write a first anniversary item for the New York Times. Of many observations the last paragraph is worth noting: “So what is there to feel on this anniversary? Hope, for I know now that people want to listen. A little fear that they want to listen so badly. And an old insistence – sometimes difficult to summon, but there nonetheless – that we will find a way beyond fear of each other, beyond bellicosity, a way into our humanity.“ Last night in…

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My Name is Rachel Corrie

  MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE, based on the writings of Rachel Corrie by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner. It is being performed as part of the B Sharp Co-Op curated season at Belvoir theatre. A Bareboards Production. This is a diary account by Rachel Corrie of her trip to the Middle East as a peace activist in 2003 which ended in her much publicised death whilst attempting to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. Throughout this account there is a naïve discovery of the world which leads her to a tragic end. The performance by Belinda Bromilow is…

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Colder

This is another of the curated independant theatre co-operative productions presented as part of the Stablemate season. This is the best new Australian play I have witnessed this year. Developed with the financial assistance of the R.E. ROSS TRUST, Philpott not only breaks with traditional structure and form in his style, he creates a world with a keen eye for authentic detail and depth, has a masterly control of plotting and character revelation with a musician’s ear for rhythm and cadence, the ability to set a theme or subject and to know when to repeat it, develop it, contrast it.…

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Salome – In Cognito Volume 3

AIM: To explore a way of performing. To develop a style of theatre that explores the possibilities of the instrument (physical and vocal) and a new form of expression that is different from the expected. (As an art form are our methods dated? Have we developed as openly as say the plastic arts or music? TOOLS: A swimming pool. A glass museum case. (At least large enough to display a full grown man.) A set of metal gurney tables with kitchen equipment. eg A juicer, a blender, a micro wave oven, a cutting board, kitchen utensils (especially knives), some foods…

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Romeo and Juliet

At Wharf 2 The SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY EDUCATION present ROMEO AND JULIET. The text has been edited to play even less than “the two hours traffic” the Chorus tells us about in the original. It has been edited for 8 actors and maybe too slimly to do justice to Shakespeare. He has however weathered centuries of this abuse, so not to blame or worry too much. On a red dirt floor with a ubiquitous, deteriorating ute and a middle height wooden tower (it was presumably, once a water tower- I’m guessing that design detail,- and not just a convenient acting…

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The Packer

At The Old Fitzroy Theatre in a local pub, a Co-op production of a one man show called THE PACKER written by Dianna Fuemana. This work has a long performance history and the actor JAY RYAN has been associated with it since its workshopping in New Zealand in 2003. He has performed it in New Zealand, The Edinburgh Festival and recently in Melbourne. This is clear in the performing. Jay Ryan impersonates 8 different characters over the course of the work (approximately 60 minutes with a 20 minute interval). There is a deft physical skill and embedded ownership in the…

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