Month: June 2009

Photo by Chris Michaels, 2008 THE RIOT ACT, a new Australian theatre work devised and directed by Karen Therese and produced by Campbelltown Arts Centre, presented at Campbelltown Arts Centre. THE RIOT ACT has been developed through residencies at Campbelltown Arts Centre 2007-09 and Blacktown Arts Centre 2007. This work was inspired by the media headlines that followed three highly publicised riots in New South Wales (the Redfern Riots in 2002, the Macquarie Fields riots in 2004 [and even more recently again], and the Bidwill riots in 1983.) For the writer and director of this production, Karen Therese, it is…

  Shaman Productions in association with the Tamarama Rock Surfers present NO MAN’S ISLAND by Ross Mueller at the Old Fitzroy Theatre. “Two men, trapped in a prison cell as the world goes mad outside. What is there crime? What will it take to set them free?” So goes the promotional material for this play. NO MAN’S ISLAND is an early play by Ross Mueller. CONCUSSION was seen at the Stables/STC Season earlier this year and the developmental growth of the writer is well demarcated when they are compared. This is a mildly interesting work which has promising glimpses of…

  LUMINOUS – A FESTIVAL CURATED BY BRIAN ENO presented in partnership with SONY as part of Vivid Sydney: BACK TO BACK THEATRE WITH THE NECKS: FOOD COURT at the Sydney Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House. BACK TO BACK THEATRE is a company that has its base in the City of Geelong in Victoria. The company last presented work in the 2007 Sydney Festival: “Small Metal Objects”. In “Small Metal Objects” the company worked in the real space of life (In Sydney at the Circular Quay Ferry, Bus and Train stations. In Melbourne, Flinders Street Station.) This new…

Photo: Toby Schmitz – Ruben Guthrie Company B present RUBEN GUTHRIE by Brendan Cowell at the Belvoir Theatre. Presented last year as part of the B Sharp Season Downstairs this play has had some re-working, new writing and some re-casting. Wayne Blair’s production has got deeper, darker and more pertinent. Alcoholism and addiction is the thematic subject. In my own neighbourhoods of suburban Sydney and the inner city, the cultural trauma of alcohol abuse, (binge drinking, just one of the symptoms) is almost unavoidable. The consequences both individually and in the wider community are ugly and on the edge of…

Photo: Brink Productions – When The Rain Stops Falling Sydney Theatre Company and Medina Apartment Hotels present BRINK PRODUCTIONS’: WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Andrew Bovell a collaboration with Hossein Valamanesh and Brink Productions. This is an outstanding theatrical experience. All the theatrical elements have been so entwined that every moment on stage looks as if it is meant to be there. It looks and feels like refinements of choice have gone on. There is no ‘accident’ on stage. All looks considered and thought through and has the air of absolute spontaneity. The work is powerfully integrated by all…