Year: 2009

  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…

    Photo: Shane Warne The Musical – Eddie Perfect TOKEN EVENTS presents SHANE WARNE THE MUSICAL at the ENMORE THEATRE, Sydney. Conception for this Musical began, says Eddie Perfect in his program introduction, in 2006. How time has moved and shaken the “world”. In Sydney, after the recent, persistent NRL scandals, the swimming court cases and much else in many sports, even the Olympics, the hero worshipping of our sporting stars is a little, maybe, politically incorrect. In May, 2009, a musical celebration of the life of Shane Warne might be a little bit “icky”. Well, this was what…

  Photo: Beyond The Neck – Anita Hegh   B SHARP and BAMBINA BORRACHA productions present BEYOND THE NECK by Tom Holloway at the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. Last year the Griffin presented Tom Holloway’s DON’T SAY THE WORDS and I believed that this was a very exciting new writer for the Australian audience. This play BEYOND THE NECK confirms that impression. Mr Holloway is a Tasmanian and was 17 when the terrible shootings by Martin Bryant at Port Arthur happened. Ten years after the event in September, 2007 this play was presented in both Hobart and Launceston to great…