Month: February 2011

  The On Reel presents STICKS & STONES by Jay Duncan at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Going to the theatre can be, sometimes, such a surprising and unexpected adventure. Take last Saturday night, for instance. On a balmy but drenched and drizzling night I found my way down Palmer Street, just down from Oxford Street, but before the Burton Street corner and climbed up a steep and old-fashioned clad stairwell. It does feel so seventies grunge and properly seedy. At the top the stairs, two very casually dressed but very fashionable looking young men, took my money, but did…

  Sydney Theatre Company presents BEFORE/AFTER by Roland Schimmelpfennig. Translated from the German by Dr Marlene Norst at Wharf 2. 51 scenes in 4 weeks and Schimmelpfennig’s infinitely interpretable text. One hotel room, 8 performers, 39 characters, 41 costumes, 40 props, 110 light bulbs, 17 metre-wide projections, 2 palm-sized cameras, 3 mics, 2 lamps, 2 chairs, 1 porter’s trolley, 1 piano and a bed. A state of mind, a galaxy. Affairs, fears of mortality. Surreality, pornography, a creature from another world. The distance between molecules …and stars in the universe, insignificant. 2 workmen lifting ladders into outer-space, a kiss …And…

AUSFENG presents MULAN. Acrobatic Show performed by CHONGQING ACROBATIC ART TROUPE OF CHINA at the State Theatre, Sydney. “Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe is one of the most famous acrobatic troupes in China and the oldest local acrobatic troupe since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. It has become renowned around the world.” For those of us that have grown bored with the format and formula of Cirque de Soleil (but certainly not its remarkable performers) this troupe from the People’s Republic of China brings an old fashioned (and unintentionally naive) entertainment of amazing acrobatic, gymnastic skills in the…

Griffin Theatre   Presents SPEAKING IN TONGUES by Andrew Bovell at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney. SPEAKING IN TONGUES was first presented for the Griffin Theatre Company in 1996, directed by Ros Horin. The play became a success both nationally and internationally. Since that time the text was adapted for the screen as LANTANA and in 2001 won seven Australian Film Industry (AFI) Awards. This production by Sam Strong is a part of the Griffin’s 2011 season and part of a plan by that company to look back and revive plays from the past of the Australian repertoire. This production…

    Chinese New Year Festival 2011 presents THE IMPERIAL BELLS in Concert at the Sydney Town Hall. Nine rows of nine lanterns hung on either side of a Chinese New Year banner for 2011. Behind, is the gloriously restored Baroque-looking organ. Two cultures present and meeting in an exchange of art and ideals, for in the foreground is a one third replica of the imperial bells, also called Bianzhong, and they have a history dating back 3600 years, and like the Western organ in our western music heritage, have played an important part in China’s ritual and court music.…

    NEW THEATRE present the Australian première of CANARY by Jonathan Harvey. CANARY by Jonathan Harvey premièred last year in Liverpool and subsequently at the Hampstead Theatre in London in May 2010. Jonathan Harvey probably came to most people’s attention with his play, turned film, BEAUTIFUL THING. This was followed by other plays and a television series called BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE and cult comedy series called GIMME GIMME GIMME. Coming back to the theatre, Mr Harvey has written an epic decade covering journey of some parts of Gay British history. Beginning in 1961 and spanning time ‘til now, Mr Harvey…