Month: September 2008

This play was the winner of the 2005 Griffin Award for New Writing. It is the first production of this play in Sydney after an initial presentation at the New Theatre as part of its New Directions season in August. The CARNIVORES. One would expect with a title like that the resonances of “an animal that feeds on flesh” would be reflected in the play. In the publicity description we are told “Thom and Graham are small players in the ethical murkiness of global capitalism, both up-market and black-market. As they grapple with family loyalty, rapacious multinationals, sexual opportunism and…

“Oh I love the world! I love love love love the world.” Later. “I love the world. I know how that sounds, inexcusable and vague, but it’s all I can say for myself, I love the world, really I do….. LOVE” Later still… “The dust of Kabul’s blowing soil smarts lightly in my eyes, but I love her, for knowledge and love both come from her dust.” Homebody speaks to us for almost 40 minutes. She then disappears and her knowledge and love become part of the dust of Kabul and Mr Kushner leaves one with ones eyes smarting lightly…

I need to disclose that I saw this production at the final rehearsal on Monday night (22nd Sept). I am writing this because I know this is a revival of a production. I also know that I will not get to see it again this season (work commitments) and I feel that for anybody out there who reads my stuff it is a very highly recommended experience. It is “horses for courses” of course. I happen to like going to Opera. I probably won’t go to see the STC presentation of HIGHWAY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL DISASTER in the Wharf 2Loud…

This play is the story of Yibiyung, a young Indigenous girl at the turn of the last century living in Western Australia under the increasing control of laws and policies concerning Indigenous affairs under a government appointed officer called the Chief Protector of Aborigines, who was made under the 1905 Aborigines Act “the legal guardian” of all “aboriginal” and “half caste” children up to the age of 16 years, enabling him to send any “aboriginal” and “half caste” child to an orphanage, mission, or industrial school, with or without the child’s parents’ permission. This story sounds very familiar. It should,…

We have three Australians, one with a spiritual vocation, one with a scientific vocation and one a bewildered young man who likes adventures and joins the army. Each of them follow their instincts, and their fates unravel. Each are placed in a crucible with the intense “bunsen burner of life under them”, and each are melted down to their core. Each in their ravelling life thread are taken to places that stretch them into enduring feats that only the pure core of humanity can confront and survive. These ordinary people become true heroes of the modern international world. “This is…

This is children’s theatre. Maybe I should write this is THEATRE, whether it be for children or us grown-ups. This production loves us and gives us something for the effort of joining them. We are important to their priorities of action. (Great artistic integrity is in play.) The audience at the large Sydney Theatre, was mostly youngsters and their parents. The response to the one hour and twenty minute play (no interval) was attentive, sharp and rapturous. What more could one want? The simple, clear uncluttered skill of the writing (Doug MacLeod) captured the young audience from the first moment.…