Year: 2011

Sydney Theatre Company presents ZEBRA by Ross Mueller at the Wharf 1, Hickson Road. The design for ZEBRA, a new play by Ross Mueller, has been created by David McKay whose background experience has been mainly in film production design. On stage is a meticulous re-creation of an American bar, THE BIG HOUSE, in some part of New York city. It is mostly convincing and the most amazing element is the window that looks out onto the outside entrance stairway to the bar, which has the most convincing winter outdoor, daylight lighting effect (Lighting Designer, Damien Cooper), aided with continuous,…

SEYMOUR CENTRE and PERFORMING LINE present THEATRE KATANKA’S MISSING THE BUS TO DAVID JONES in the York Theatre. In October, 2009 Theatre Kantanka presented MISSING THE BUS TO DAVID JONES at Performance Space in the Carriageworks. I remarked that this was a work of some importance. Other critics, concurred. I lamented that the work may not have the audiences it deserved and, so, am heartened and encouraged that Performing Lines has taken it aboard in its producing endeavours. That the Seymour centre have curated it as part of their season is highly laudable. I hope it attracts an audience. This…

  THE BROTHERS SIZE by TARELL ALVIN McCRANEY, presented by SAVAGE PRODUCTIONS, MICHAEL SIEDERS and GRIFFIN INDEPENDENT at the SBW STABLES THEATRE, KINGS CROSS. In 2005 the great African American writer August Wilson died. He had written what is now known as THE PITTSBURG CYCLE. Ten plays that trace the history of an extended family through the last century. It is a formidable body of work. We, in Australia, still, have not seen any of these plays on our stages – a cultural hole and loss of some estimation. In 2006 a young African-American writer (almost 31) had his first…

pantsguys Productions & atyp Under the Wharf present THE SHAPE OF THINGS by Neil Labute at atyp, Wharf 4. THE SHAPE OF THINGS by Neil Labute, I have seen, maybe, in three other productions in Sydney. Like Patrick Marber’s CLOSER, it seems to have an attraction for young actors and directors, a generational cultural resonance, that they want to have the opportunity to explore. Or, is it simpler, economic pragmatics: a small cast of young actors with roles they can connect to easily! I asked some of the pantsguys Production team why this Labute again and not one of his…

  New Theatre presents JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare. Anthony Skuse is a director of some skill. His work in Sydney has been consistently impressive: BUG and REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT at the Griffin Theatre, for instance. This Julius Caesar at the New Theatre has some truly beautiful visual aesthetics. The lighting by Matt Cox is astounding for its atmospheric control and sense of narrative detailing. On the large black stage space, flooded with haze, the focus of light is centred on a small square, centre stage, into which the actors enter in full light or peripherally.…

  ARTS PROJECTS AUSTRALIA PRESENTS A GUNA NUA/CIVIC THEATRE PRODUCTION: LITTLE GEM by Elaine Murphy in the Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. LITTLE GEM was premiered at the 2008 Dublin Fringe and won a number of prizes, including Best New Play. It subsequently went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and toured to The Flea Theatre in New York in 2009.It also won the Best Theatre Script awarded by the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild. This modest touring production (Directed by Paul Meade) presented by ARTS PROJECTS AUSTRALIA has been doing some of the…