Year: 2010

A COUPLE OF POOR, POLISH-SPEAKING ROMANIANS by Dorota Maslowska. Translated by Benjamin Paloff. Adapted by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett. Produced by Pete Nettell and Alice Livingstone for Focus Theatre, in association with Newtown Theatre. A desperate couple, Parcha (Neil Phipps) and Dzina (Mairead Berne), claiming to be poor, Polish-speaking Romanians, hijack and kidnap a driver (Kim Knuckey) and his car, trying to get “home”. They harass him in a most intimidating way and in growing ‘middle class’ hysteria the driver concedes to their demands.Later they abandon the car and driver, unaccountably rewarding him with a large sum of money.…

Sydney Opera House present TREVOR ASHLEY in “I’M EVERY WOMAN”, at the Studio venue. RAVE. RAVE.RAVE. This will be a rave. Trevor Ashley in a spectacular cabaret performance with a number of wigs and a few costume changes delivers musical impressions of twelve divas that he has loved all his life. He has a most wonderful voice full of remarkable flexibility, power and range. To compliment that he has the skill, intelligence and wit to use it well to entertain you, and to stun you into belief into the ‘channelling’ of these women’s talents and spirit. With a glamorous make-up,…

flour sugar tea-Tales & Arts Radar in association with B Sharp presents, dirty butterfly by Debbie Tucker Green in the Downstairs Theatre. dirty butterfly is a 55 minute, two scene play concerning domestic violence. Written in 2003 by British writer Debbie Tucker Green, her first produced play (Soho Theatre Company), of British-Jamaican decent it introduced a writer with some poetic gifts and a social/political agenda. Sydney has already seen a later play by Ms Green: STONING MARY at the Griffin Theatre in June, 2008. This play concerns three characters living in different apartments that unfortunately ‘leak’ noise. Amelia (Sara Zwangobani)…

Christine Dunstan Productions presents Tall Stories Production of THE GRUFFALO. The magical musical adaptation of the award-winning book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler at the Seymour Centre. It is school holidays in Sydney. I was invited to a performance of this adaptation of the children’s book THE GRUFFALO. It was a wet day but the auditorium was packed and stacked out with an excited horde of young theatre-goers and some presiding adults. All were apparent fans of this book for when the play began they were captivated by the adventures of the MOUSE (Crystal Hegedis) looking for nuts in…

Company B Belvoir presents MEASURE FOR MEASURE, written by William Shakespeare. Adapted & Directed by Benedict Andrews, for the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. From Benedict Andrews’ Director’s notes in the programme:A PLAY OF MIRRORS. MEASURE FOR MEASURE is my third Shakespeare staging concerned with the mechanics of power. JULIUS CAESAR (2005) dealt with the theatrics of government, and THE WAR OF THE ROSES (2009) raised the spectres of sovereign power which haunt our concept of society. MEASURE FOR MEASURE looks into the ‘very nerves of state’ where the economies of desire and law interlock. This MEASURE FOR MEASURE is set…

CAGELING presented by THE RABBLE at Carriageworks, Sydney. THE RABBLE re-imagine Federico Garcia Lorca’s classic text ‘THE HOUSE OF BERNARD ALBA’. From the program notes: “A NOTE ON THE CONTEXT. Lorca leaves the following instruction at the beginning of THE HOUSE OF BENRNADA ALBA: The poet advises that these three acts are intended as a photographic documentary. We have taken these instructions and produced CAGELING – an exploration of repression, gender, sexuality and grief. The premise of the original play remains: our family will mourn for eight years, no weeping is allowed…” Further :”A NOTE ON CONTENT. Our process is…