Year: 2011

Let’s begin with the theatre that I have seen this year that has given me good reason to KEEP going. By far and away the  most satisfying production I saw this year was: THE LIBERTINE by Stephen Jeffreys at the Darlinghurst Theatre by SPORT FOR JOVE. Every aspect of this presentation was informed by theatrical intelligence and committed passion, beginning with the writing right through to the Acting: Danielle King – amazingly gifted and giving, present; Anthony Gooley – it looked like a self sacrifce of himself to create the performance of Rochester, exciting to see auch a young actor…

  Belvoir St. Theatre present AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. Surry Hills. Eamon Flack follows on from his 2009 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in the Downstairs Theatre at Belvoir Street, with AS YOU LIKE IT in the Upstairs Theatre – a promotion (?) In the program notes to the 2009, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Mr Flack tells us that he and his company had “…embraced the spirit of Shakespeare’s play and therefore not the letter.” Two years later, Mr Flack and his company in presenting AS YOU LIKE IT similarly,…

  Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company and Bank of America Merrill Lynch present NO MAN’S LAND by Harold Pinter at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. NO MAN’S LAND by Harold Pinter written in 1974, especially for John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, at the National Theatre of Great Britain, under the direction of Peter Hall (it later transferred to the West End and Broadway), is, surprisingly, having it’s first professional production in Australia. It is directed by Michael Gow and has Peter Carroll and John Gaden creating these two demanding and tantalising, inexplicable characters: Spooner and Hirst. In a…

  ION NIBIRU supported by The NIDA Springboard program present THE BIRTHDAY BOYS. A play by Aaron Kozak in the Parade Studio, Parade Theatres, Kensington. THE BIRTHDAY BOYS is a new USA play (2010) by a young writer, Aaron Kozak. It’s preoccupation deals with the hyper boredom of a group of soldiers on  an army base. Three soldiers are dragged into a room, blindfolded and bound, hand and foot. We see these young men in a dazed and dangerous imprisonment act-out a scenario of personal blame, reprisal and fantasy whilst awaiting the outcome of their capture. Finally they meet an…

  Showqueen Productions presents FAT SWAN – An Adults Only Christmas Panto at the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. “Showqueen”, “Fat Swan”, “Adults Only Christmas Panto” are all clues and concepts to the boisterous, ridiculous, rough and ready, vulgarity that one can catch at the Seymour Centre in FAT SWAN. Trevor Ashley and Phil Scott found inspiration from the psychological thriller film event of this/last year, BLACK SWAN, by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman, and have gleefully, but, for my expectation and money, too superficially, parodied and crammed into the form of the classic Christmas Panto format a show called FAT…

  Bambina Borracha Productions in association with Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company presents THE HORSE’S MOUTH – A Festival of Autobiographical Performance at the Old Fitzroy Theatre. THE HORSE’S MOUTH – A Festival of Autobiographical Performance , is made up of three programs: Bolted, Hell For Leather & One Trick Pony. 10 writers, 11 actors and directors have been curated and present essentially a collection of monologues. I attended the second program, ‘Hell For Leather’: THIS IS NOT A POSSUM written and performed by Zoe Norton Lodge and HOME written and performed by Jono Burns. Both of these pieces are…