Month: June 2010

The VIVID LIVE program present THE SHIPMENT at the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House. Part of the VIVID Live program curated by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. THE SHIPMENT is a production from the Young Jean Lee Theater Company. Young Jean Lee is the writer and director and is of Korean-American background. The reputation of her company in dealing with social-political issues and observations is quite and quietly growing around the theatre ‘fringes’ of the United States. THE SHIPMENT is a ‘variety’, vaudeville type program: dances, Stand –up comedy, short sketches, song and finally an extended playlet. It reminded…

Siren Theatre Co and Sidetrack Theatre present THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekhov in a new version by Christopher Hampton. I traveled by bus out to Sidetrack Theatre in Marrickville, not so far away. The bus(428), in fact, stops directly outside the venue. Inside the theatre, a converted assembly hall or drill hall of times past, the wooden interior walls are painted an attractive blue-grey black. The audience’s seating is raked steeply into the rafters of the architecture. Later, in the interval, passing onto a wooden patio, amongst gas heating stands, as it is winter, to refresh with a drink or…

Scott Morfee Jean Doumanian Tom Wirtshafter Ted Snowdon Eagle Productions Dena Hammerstein/Pam Pariseau The Weinstein Company Burnt umber Productions present OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder. at the BARROW STREET THEATRE, New York. This award winning Off-Broadway production of OUR TOWN is playing in the Barrow Street Theatre which is part of a local community centre called Greenwich House. “Since the beginning, Greenwich House has been a pioneer social service agency and committed to the arts as a dynamic stimulus for cultural enrichment and individual growth.” To buy one’s ticket at the theatre, one clambers past prams and strollers, women with…

Elton John and David Furnish, Barbara Manocherian, Richard Willis, Tom Smedes, Carole L. Haber / Chase Mishkin, Ostar, Anthony Barrile, Michael Palitz, Bob Boyett, James Spry/ Catherine Schreiber, Probo Productions and Roy Furman in association with NAKED ANGELS present NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts at The Helen Hayes Theatre, New York. The relationship between an atheist, Adam(Patrick Breen) and his Christian boyfriend, Luke(Patrick Heusinger) forms the central dilemma in this light weight play. What was interesting for me was the possible clash of the value systems that these two men might have. However, ultimately it is treated in a relatively…

ENRON by 30 year old English writer, Lucy Prebble, traces the trajectory of that company, “Enron from its heady early days with Kenneth L. Lay as its avuncular founder to its rise with Jeffrey K. Skilling as a seductive division head who eventually became chief executive, to its demise when various schemes by the chief financial officer, Andrew S. Farstow, and others to disguise the company’s massive debts unraveled.” [1]. From the epilogue to the play first performed in July 2009, almost a year after the Global financial Crisis of September, 2008, (dealt with in the David Hare play THE…

Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) present Tour Four ROMANTIC SYMPHONY at Angel Place, Sydney. The first piece presented in this concert was by contemporary composer Jonny Greenwood. Most of us would recognize Mr Greenwood as the lead guitarist of the band Radiohead. Mr Greenwood is, however,no stranger to classical music, early influences have included Messiaen, Penderecki and Ligeti and he started out as a viola player. He “has been building a career as an orchestral composer, both in film soundtracks (BODYSONG, NORWEGIAN WOOD, THERE WILL BE BLOOD) and through an ongoing association with the BBC Concert Orchestra. From a BBC Orchestra’s…