Year: 2010

    Performance 4a and Company B Belvoir present STORIES EAST & WEST AT Upstairs Belvoir. This was a one night only event. Who is Performance 4a? “Performance 4a is a non-profit organisation established in 2002, seeking to engage artists and audiences alike in the discussion about how Asia and Australia are linked in contemporary life. We do this through performances, workshops, and via our website, home of the Asian-Australian Performance Directory.” This showing comes from a storytelling workshop conducted by William Yang for 4a in 2009. Six storytellers all from Asian backgrounds told us, in two parts, stories from…

    RIDE ON and GRIFFIN INDEPENDENT presents WAY TO HEAVEN by Juan Mayorga, translated by David Johnston at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. WAY TO HEAVEN introduces the Sydney audience to an award winning Spanish contemporary playwright, Juan Mayorga. It is an interesting introduction and one that raises my curiosity about his other work. This is a good reason to go to the theatre to meet this mind. Another good reason to go is to catch a performance by an emerging young artist, Nathan Lovejoy that is fascinating and seductive to behold. This play (translated by David Johnston)…

    MONKEY BAA in association with Siren Theatre Co present FOX, a new Australian opera for young people. Based on the classic picture book by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks at the Seymour Centre, Sydney. This is a 50 minute opera by Daryl Wallis based on the children’s picture book called FOX by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. The opera is a solo score sung by a soprano, the Spirit (Sarah Jones). Accompanying the ‘song’ are three actors who through dance and puppetry enact the physical story telling. After a bushfire, an injured Magpie (Jane Phegan) befriends Dog (David…

  Sydney Theatre Company and Allens Arthur Robinson present HONOUR by Joanna Murray-Smith at the Drama theatre at the Sydney Opera House. Honour is the name of the principal character in this play by Joanna Murray-Smith. From the program notes: “Honour or Honor is the evaluation of a person’s trustworthiness and social status based on that individual’s espousals and actions…” Honour (Wendy Hughes) has been married to George (William Zappa) for 32 years. “Gus (George) has been the authoritative voice for a generation of TRIBUNE readers for almost twenty years…” in an award winning column – and when the play…

    AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA present BACH AND BEYOND at Angel Place, Sydney. The concert featured the Orchestra with guest artists ; Sara Macliver, Soprano; Fiona Campbell, Mezzo Soprano; Andrew Staples, Tenor and Matthew Brook, Bass. The first half of the concert featured : Dimitri Shostakovich –Elegy and Polka. J.S. Bach – Missa Brevis in G minor BWV235. Arvo Part – Summa. Arnold Schoenberg – Litany from String Quartet No.2. The pieces were not played consecutively as listed, but rather the six parts of the Bach Mass were interleaved with the other works. Each piece was counterpointed in an unusual…

    A Steady Lads & Christine Dunstan production. CODGERS by Don Reid at the Seymour Centre, Sydney. 18 months ago I saw the original production of CODGERS at the Riverside Theatres. I waxed lyrically over the cast that brought to life a fairly old fashioned and conventionally structured play. A type of play not favoured by the powers that be in 2010. The players, a team of veterans of the Australian Theatre, gave an afternoon of entertainment and gentle moral enlightenment that, however, for me, transcended any reserves about the play. This new production that is in the midst…