Month: June 2008

1927 is a group of four artists from the UK who have concocted a pleasant little Cabaret event. It was a prize winner at the Edinburgh Fringe 2007. A simple projection screen. Projected are some very beautiful, nostalgic animations and live action film (Paul Barritt) which two of the performers Esme Appleton and Suzanne Andrade perform in front of and interact with, whilst the fourth of their troupe, Lillian Henley, accompanies on piano. The tunes are original but are faintly delightfully familiar. They present maybe ten or so tiny sketches each with a title such as THE LODGER, THE GRANDMOTHER.…

There will be quite a disquisition to follow, so stirred am I. But for those with a short concentration span or otherwise let me be brief. (“Brevity is the soul of wit”.) This production of HAMLET is a failure. A failure on almost on all counts. *(Well, not quite all.) To quote a program note HAMLET “is arguably the greatest tragedy in the English language”, ”a masterpiece”. It maybe the pinnacle of English playwriting. It may be the greatest “poem” written in English. It presents for all the artists who collaborate on it, perhaps, the artistic equivalent of the feat…

“The Pillowman” won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Play after it was presented in London in 2003. It also was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005 in New York. On this outing I don’t think it will be similarly nominated in any such category in the Sydney Theatre Awards. The play is the same but clearly the production is not. This is the painful risk the playwright must take in the collaborative minefield of the Theatre. This play is set in a Totalitarian State somewhere, sometime. When it was done in 2003 and in 2005 in London…

Remember Patty Hearst and her kidnapping. Now remember Paris Hilton. Now think Poster Girl: Mindy Xyloine and have her kidnapped by some hippie group to promote their demands for free organic vegetables mix in media news and a police force corrupted by drugs and sex, highlight the celebrity creative team around our kidnapped Girl and you have the ingredients for this satiric cartoon of aspects of our contemporary society. It is a very amusing context and the writer has an edge with one line quips that elicit some good laughs. This play was originally workshopped at the AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS’…

This is the seventh play of Tony McNamara that the Sydney Theatre Company has produced. It is a committed relationship. “So why a play about Catherine the Great? Injustice would be the main reason. Catherine the Great was in fact, really great, and yet she is remembered as ‘that Russian Queen who did it with a horse.’” Mr McNamara in his program notes tells us that was not true. He goes on to assure us that he is a writer and he “likes to make things up” and he wanted a story “that embodies the spirit of the person rather…

There will be a preamble. Forgive me. In the tradition of Alison Croggon, the Melbourne Art Blogger (see her notes on The Serpent’s Teeth) I thought I should declare my self interests when talking about ALTAR BOYZ. In my last blog concerning STONING MARY I complained of the series of doom and gloom works I had experienced this year and protested that I longed for another contrasting vision. On approaching ALTAR BOYZ I wondered whether I would regret what I had wished for. It is well established, and I am often quoted as saying, that “I HATE MUSICALS”. “I THINK…