Month: November 2009

  Bareboards Productions in association with B Sharp presents the Australian Premiere of: BLISS, written by Olivier Choiniere and translated by Caryl Churchill, at the Downstairs Belvoir. BLISS written by a Quebecois, Olivier Choiniere, and translated by Caryl Churchill in 2008, is set in a supermarket (an accurately depressingly realistic design by Justin Nardella – other play works by this writer have been site specific [Mr Choiniere’s own company: L’Activite] and the Designer and Director (Shannon Murphy) seem to have taken their design inspiration from that fact – it is truly, wonderfully accurate!!!) and concerns mostly the fantasy of one…

    Babka presents PROGRESS AND MELANCHOLY at fortyfive downstairs, Flinders St, Melbourne. PROGRESS AND MELANCHOLY is “A new physical theatre work based on Anton Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD. ” Using the skeleton framework of Chekhov’s play and some of the functions of some of his characters, six actors/dancers and a musician: Todd Macdonald, Nadja Kostich, Majid Shokor, Christophe Le Tellier, Paea Leach, Sara Black and Ernie Gruner, under the direction of Bagryana Popov, explore “people’s behaviour during a time of upheaval…. depict(ing) profound social change and disorientation…… to impart a sense of the transience of all things.” The actors…

  Griffin Theatre Company present World Premiere of STRANGE ATTRACTOR by Sue Smith at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney. This play is set “in a railway construction camp….. inland from Port Hedland, Western Australia in the “wet mess” – a featureless space with tables and a bar. The working personnel wear identical uniforms covered “in the red dust of the desert.” (Design by Jo Briscoe. Lighting by Bernie Tan. Sound Designer and Composer, Steve Francis). The play’s action is told in one act, 17 scenes, and uses a simple split time mechanism (the present and a few weeks ago) to…

  MAKEbeLIVE Productions, Tamarama Rock Surfers and FBi radio present CuBBYHOuSE, Devised and Performed by Holly Austin and Adriano Cappelletta. At the Old Fitzroy. This is a joyous and really beautiful, silly night of escapism in the theatre. It ought to resonate in the hearts and lungs of a lot of you out there, especially if you are a regular theatre goer. The contemporary material and even the re-addressing of some of the Classics we have seen this year (or any theatrical season) keep us truly alert to the depressing state of world events and personal journeys of some of…

  Bell Shakespeare presents THE TAMING OF THE SHREW by William Shakespeare at the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House. “[T]he last scene is altogether disgusting to modern sensibility. No man with any decency of feeling can sit it out in the company of a woman without being extremely ashamed of the lord-of-creation moral implied in the wager and the speech put into the woman’s own mouth. Therefore the play, though still worthy of a complete and efficient representation, would need, even at that, some apology.” – George Bernard Shaw, 1897. My first consciousness of this play is the endearing…