Month: February 2012

  New Theatre presents THE TEMPERAMENTALS by Jon Marans at the New Theatre, Newtown. I have been, of late, busy creating. Hence, the slow list of Diary entries. One of these activities has been my direction of THE TEMPERAMENTALS by Jon Marans for the New Theatre as part of the Mardi Gras theatre program. The other has been work on Gao Xingjjian’s wonderful play, THE OTHER SHORE, for the School of Art and Media at the University of New South Wales. I am genuinely pleased about the experience of THE TEMPERAMENTALS and particularly proud of the work of the actors…

  Belvoir produced BABYTEETH by Rita Kalnejais at the Belvoir St Theatre, Upstairs. BABYTEETH by Rita Kalnejais, is a contemporary story of a young fourteen year old girl in the last stages of dying from cancer and the repercussions on her close and extended ‘family’. In the very first scene Millla (Sara West), the girl, dies. The play then travels back in time to show us some of the events that lead to this ending at the beginning of the play. We see it again in dumb show, later. Since we know the ending, perhaps, we can watch the storytelling…

  Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), 2012, Tour One; Chopin and Mendelsshon’s Octet in the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. The Australian Chamber Orchestra are my favourite concert music maker artists. This first concert for 2012 features the Chopin Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 (arr. Hofmann) (with string accompaniment) with guest pianist Polina Leschenko. No matter the undeniable skills of Ms Leschenko I was flatly unmoved or connected to the Chopin. Similarly the Mendelssohn Octet for strings in E flat major, Op.20 failed to sustain my interest. Whether it was the choice of music or the playing, or me on…

  Sydney Theatre Company presents PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw at the Sydney Theatre. What is best about this production of PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw is the opportunity to hear and see this text by one of the great writer’s for the theatre. I believe it is the first time that I have seen or heard it on the stage. Read it, of course, many times and know the beautifully bowdlerised version of it called MY FAIR LADY both on stage and film. In this production by Peter Evans for the Sydney Theatre Company, a production conceived with an…

Sydney Festival 2012 and Malthouse Theatre present Meow Meow’s LITTLE MATCH GIRL at The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park, Sydney. Meow Meow is one of the exciting and not to be missed creative artists working in Australia. And with LITTLE MATCH GIRL the skills are impressive and production-wise, the appetite and ambition of vision of this work is both breathtaking and challenging. LITTLE MATCH GIRL created by Meow Meow and Iain Grandage, directed by Marion Potts and produced by Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, has taken the Hans Christian Andersen story as a starting point. Today, we are mightily mistaken when we accept…