Year: 2008

    Sauna Productions & inc.studios in association with B Sharp present the Australian Premiere of QUEEN C by Laura Ruohonen, translated by David Hackston. At the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. “Sauna productions was founded in 2004 by Yvonne Strzechowski and Ona Nurkkala with the aim of bringing Nordic theatre to Australian audiences.” Their partner in this enterprise “inc.studios was established in 2006 by actor/producer Nicole da Silva. inc.studios aims to bring contemporary stories from across the globe to Australian audiences. Its focus is on creating more roles for women both on and off the stage.” These aspirations are honourable…

  GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY and NOWYESNOW BY ARRANGEMENT WITH INSITE ARTS PRESENT TENDER by Nicki Bloom at the SBW Stables Theatre. This play was presented last year in the B Sharp Season 2007 . The creative team in all departments are the same, so there has been a year to let this work mature. It was remarkable then, it still is. This is a very exciting and interesting new Australian play and playwright. The experience of the play is much like a psychological thriller where the chronological order of the events have been jigsawed and sorted, you are invited in…

    By Arrangement with Paul Eliott, Adam Kenwright and Pat Moylan, Queensland Theatre Company presents STONES IN HIS POCKETS by Marie Jones. This is an Irish play about an American film company making a film “in an unnamed scenic village in County Kerry, Ireland.” We meet some of the film makers and some of the locals who are working on the film as extras etc. Why anyone in Brisbane would care is beyond me. Why anyone other than perhaps the Irish would care is beyond me. In fact the audience I sat with last night seemed more than slightly…

  Photographer: Robbie Jack   Sydney Theatre Company and Sydney Opera House in association with the British Council present COMPLICITE: A DISAPPEARING NUMBER. Conceived and Directed by SIMON McBURNEY. Devised by The Company. Original Music by Nitin Sawhney. This is a work that is, finally, about the joys of Pure Mathematics. We are told: “Mathematicians are only makers of patterns, like poets and painters.” It is meant to assure us. Now, my fear of mathematics has prevented me from going beyond the simple tasks of accounting my monies in the daily exercise of living in a modern city: Bus fares,…

    Marc Platt, David Stone, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and John Frost present WICKED. Presented by ANZ. Entering the lush and beautifully refurbished Regent Theatre Melbourne and been ushered into an ultra plush, wide and heavenly comfortable seat, with acres of leg room, is a rare and promising beginning to a night at the theatre. The interior design of this auditorium is a fantasy in itself. In front of us is a most extravagant Broadway theatre design. (Settings by Eugene Lee.) A green breadth of castle and forest of the old Cinerama expanse (Those of…

I have to declare that I have never been a fan of Moliere. Either the verse translations or just simply, perhaps, the plots and characters always kind of bored me. (The STC Bourgeois Gentleman, a year or so ago was so horrible that I had sworn never to go again to a Moliere play.) So I attended the MTC production, the other evening, with no expectations. However, I had a wonderfully delightful time. My fellow audience companions did as well. I feel that the director Peter Evans has such a secure hand on this work from all areas of his…