Year: 2010

The Sydney Fringe and Cursing the Sea present ONCE UNDER A SKY by Freya Sant, Kate Sherman, Michael Pigott at the Newtown Theatre, Newtown. Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern talk and talk, ruminate and joke about the world, existence and many other passing imponderables as they arise in their conversation in pursuit of meaning, and, perhaps, comforts. Sant, Sherman and Pigott’s May and August, two fisherwomen, in this delicately poetic whimsy ONCE UNDER A SKY, do so as well. Growing up, one of my deeply embedded cultural inheritances is of Peter and Paul, two fishermen, fishing for…

  The Sydney Fringe 2010 presents Stories from the 428 at Sidetrack Theatre, Addison Rd Marrickville. Sydney at the moment is awash with theatrical activity. The Sydney Fringe has curated a robust and busting program of performances around the city. There is too much to see alongside the regular ‘stuff’ and the responsibilities of just making a living. However, yesterday having a Book Club Meeting at the Addison Street Sunday Markets was a treat for us all, and I noticed that Stories from the 428 had a 2pm matinee and I could manage it between a film date at The…

Sydney Opera House presents a Saddler’s Wells production, SUTRA in the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. “Sutra sees one of Europe’s most exciting dancer-choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui unite with Turner prize-winner Antony Gormley, alongside 17 Buddhist monks from the original Shaolin Temple in China, in the first true collaboration between Western artists and the Shaolin Temple.” In a converted extended stage arrangement, masked behind ugly black curtain cloths in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House ( the arrangement does feel theatrically clumsy and not usefully aesthetic in preparing an audience for the event), a three sided grey cyclorama…

    White Blackboard in association with B Sharp present YELLOW MOON – The Ballad of Leila and Lee, by David Greig at Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. David Greig is a prolific contemporary Scottish playwright. I have admired his writing for sometime: THE AMERICAN PILOT, DAMASCUS, and a recent work commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, DUNSINANE (Scotland, immediately after the Macbeths, is particularly interesting) and this is a gentle introduction to his work in action, my first. YELLOW MOON – The Ballad of Leila and Lee was commissioned by TAG (Theatre about Glasgow) Theatre Company and premiered in the…

    Flightpath & Radar in partnership with Darlinghurst Theatre Company present The DYSFUNCKSHONALZ by Mike Packer at the Darlinghurst Theatre. “Punk, anarchy and a mid-life crisis – the paradox of ageing rockers who still think they’ve got it. 30 years ago Billy Abortion’s band mates left him bleeding to death in a foreign hotel room …there are some things that are hard to forgive and forget. But when a credit card company (FREEDOM) offers big bucks to get the band back together to record their latest jingle (based around the DYSFUNCKSHONALS chorus from their only hit song PLASTIC PEOPLE!!!),…

    NaGL (Not a Good Look) written and directed by Lech Mackiewicz, creatively brought to you by mr.tomchuk and Auto Da Fe. Produced by IngJay Productions with support from Factory Space Theatre Company at the TAP Gallery. Here is another new Australian play. What marks this work as arresting and worth attending is the cultural prism that the writer and director, Lech Mackiewicz, “a Polish artist immigrant”, brings to this exercise of his view of living in Australia in 2010. At least I found it so – a provocative experience to take on board on several different levels: Content…