Month: May 2013

Australian Dance Theatre on an Australian National Tour, sponsored by Playing Australia, present G by Garry Stewart at the Sydney Theatre. Garry Stewart with the dancers of the Australian Dance Theatre have created a work that looks at GISELLE – a ballet that sits along with SWAN LAKE at the pinnacle of the classical ballet canon of works. In 2000, Mr Stewart premiered BIRDBRAIN which was a deconstruction of SWAN LAKE and G is a similar enterprise. G premiered elsewhere several years ago. This was its (scandalously belated?) debut in Sydney. The work was commissioned by The Joyce Theatre’s Stephen and…

  The Australian Ballet present VANGUARD in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. VANGUARD is a triple bill of contemporary dance presented by the Australian Ballet. THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS (1946), choreography by George Balanchine. BELLA FIGURA (1995), choreography by Jiri Kylian. DYAD 1929 (2009), choreography by Wayne McGregor. I love attending dance programs and have no real, no deep knowledge of the form, except as an ardent admirer for a very long time. All the three ballets in this VANGUARD program were/are game changing icons in the dance world, so they tell me. THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS by…

  Rock Surfers Theatre Company presents David Williamson’s THE REMOVALISTS at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre at Bondi Beach. THE REMOVALISTS is a play by David Williamson written in 1971. This was one of the very first big blasts of the, then new, experience of seeing contemporary Australians on stage. It was a startling window into the sexist, violent and corrupt societal milieu of the times. Watching this production by Leland Kean for the Rock Surfers Theatre Company (previously known as the Tamarama Rock Surfers) at the Bondi Pavilion one wondered, I mean WONDERED, 42 years after the original production I…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti Bell Shakespeare presents HENRY 4 adapted by John Bell from William Shakespeare’s KING HENRY IV: PART ONE and KING HENRY IV; PART TWO, at the Drama Theatre, in the Sydney Opera House. John Bell has adapted the two History plays, HENRY IV Parts One (1596-97) and Two (1597-98) into a three-hour ten-minute journey. These two plays were written after HENRY VI, Parts One ((1590-91), Two (1590-91) and Three (1590-91); RICHARD III (1592); RICHARD II (1595-96) but, before Henry V (1599). All part of the chronicles dealing with The War of the Roses. The two parts of…

  THE MAYDAY! Playwrights’ Festival at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst. THE MAYDAY! Playwrights’ Festival organised and produced by Augusta Supple and Jeremy Waters at the Tap Gallery is a three week, three-program event, swiftly organised to fill the sudden void, an empty space, a freed up time vacancy at Tap Gallery. Week 1 has six monologues from the ‘7 On Playwrights’ recently published collection of works by Federation Press: NO NUDITY, WEAPONS OR NAKED FLAMES. The World’s Tiniest Monkey by Vanessa Blake, performed by Megan Drury. Ella by Verity Laughton, performed by Alice Ansara. A Cleansing Force by Donna Abela,…

Carriageworks presents The Australian Premiere of BIRDS WITH SKYMIRRORS, Choreographed by Lemi Ponifasio on his company, Mau, in Bay 17, Carriageworks, Redfern. MAU is a dance/theatre Company based in Auckland, New Zealand, and led by Samoan, Lemi Ponifasio who presented BIRDS WITH SKYMIRRORS at Carriageworks. This international company were last in Sydney as part of the 2010 Sydney Festival with “TEMPEST: without a body” Mr Ponifasio does not willingly use the word dance, or, even theatre, to describe his work, he prefers ‘karanga”, which means “a genealogical prayer, a ceremony,a poetic space.” He wishes to activate the space to create…