Year: 2009

  Sydney Theatre Company presents A Young Vic Production KAFKA’S MONKEY, at Wharf 2. KAFKA’S MONKEY, based on A REPORT TO THE ACADEMY by Franz Kafka (Short Story) and adapted by Colin Teevan is delivered as an enacted lecture by Red Peter The Ape to an Academy recounting, particularly, the last five years of his life. His experiences and journey from being shot and captured, caged and transported, and then choosing a life as a variety act in the theatre (rather than in a zoo), which we get to see in little glimpses of tap and soft shoe shuffles with…

  An Inscription and Griffin Independent Australian Premiere THE DISTANCE FROM HERE by Neil LaBute at the SBW Stables Theatre. Neil Labute is a very prolific playwright. This year he has premiered a new play THE BREAK OF NOON and has just reworked a recent play, ‘reasons to be pretty’ and directed it on Broadway (his first Broadway showing) to good critical response. Ten plays ago, in 2002, he wrote a response to the September 11th 2001 World Trade Center attack, THE MERCY SEAT, and also, in 2002, THE DISTANCE FROM HERE. THE DISTANCE FROM HERE is an atypical play…

  New Theatre present THE HERBAL BED by Peter Whelan. On a setting (Set and Costume design by Renee Mulder) that has simply stripped back everything to a bare space with an acting area surrounded by tubed lighting strings and then further closed in by a marked out oblong live-playing space with a minimal set of furniture and props, lit (sometimes under lit) with a very attractive design (Joshua Emanuel and Matthew Tunchon) the director, Sarah Giles, has guided a very committed set of actors through a thoroughly engrossing well made tale by British playwright, Peter Whelan. It is aesthetically…

  Bell Shakespeare & Queensland Theatre Company Present THE ALCHEMIST by Ben Johnson, Directed by John Bell. THE ALCHEMIST written in 1610 by Ben Johnson is a satire of greed and the follies that ensue from the pursuit of it. The Bell program notes give us a thorough contemporary overview of practitioners we know. It includes references to Christopher Skase and Alan Bond, Bernard Madoff and Peter Foster. Contemporary texts/films of comparison include THE GRIFTERS, THE STING and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. Ben Johnson following on from the success of VOLPONE (1605-06) returns to the satire of his fellow man in…

SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY present 2009 Season, Rafael Bonachela’s ‘we unfold’ at the Sydney Theatre. ‘we unfold’, a world premiere. Concept and Direction by Rafael Bonachela. Choreography by Rafael Bonachela in collaboration with dancers. Composer: Ezio Bosso. Video art: Daniel Askill. Costume design: Jordan Askill. Lighting : Hugh Taranto. Sound design: George Gorga. The score for this dance was composed by Ezio Bosso and was the inspiration for Rafael Bonachela who confesses to “a great affinity with him as an artist.” Talking with the composer parallels between the thoughts of the composer and events in his own life resonated. “Fear of…

  Small Things Productions in association with B Sharp presents LADYBIRD by Vassily Sigarev at the Downstairs Theatre. Vassily Sigarev a contemporary Russian writer has had three of his plays presented in Sydney: PLASTICINE (2000); BLACK MILK (2002) and now LADYBIRD (2004). Each of these plays deal with the desolation of parts of the Russian society in the era of Putin’s government. The lower depths of the very recent past time. Some commentators have, in an attempt to define Mr Sigarev’s niche, suggested him as the contemporary Gorky or Dostoyevsky. This may be somewhat premature. Certainly in the “world“ of…