Year: 2013

Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia present BLAK in the Drama Theatre, in the Sydney Opera House. This year I have seen and been rewarded with some great dance experiences. The Paris Opera GISELLE; BIRDS WITH SKYMIRRORS from the New Zealand company, Mau; ‘G’ from the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) and the Nederlands Dans Theatre at the Sydney Opera House. These were highlights of some of my theatre going this year, which has had much to enjoy. I have always thought well of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and have been particularly admiring of the contemporary bias in the stories that the company have begun to…

Seymour Centre in association with Sport For Jove Theatre present OTHELLO by William Shakespeare in the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. OTHELLO is one of the great tragedies in the Shakespearean canon. It is not often shown on the professional stage in Australia, although I have seen several productions in Drama schools (in the past few years) and, of course, in the United States. There are many films including, the Orson Welles and Michael MacLiammoir (1952), the National Theatre production with Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay (1964); Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins (1983) and the Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Brannagh (1995). (Verdi’s operatic version,…

Bell Shakespeare presents PHEDRE by Jean Racine, in a new version by Ted Hughes, in the Playhouse, at the Sydney Opera House. PHEDRE by Jean Racine. The body of the story in this play has its origins from the time of the fountainhead of the flowering of Athens and its peoples, the fifth century BCE, who were describing a totally new conception of human life, and showed, for the first time, what the human mind was for. “The Greek legacy”, says Peter Watson in his book, Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud, “is the greatest the world has yet…

Belvoir presents ANGELS IN AMERICA – A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Part One: Millennium Approaches. Part Two: Perestroika. At the Belvoir Upstairs Theatre, Surry Hills. ANGELS IN AMERICA – A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner is an almost six hour play written in two separate parts: Part One: Millennium Approaches (1990); Part Two: Perestroika (1993). The Belvoir Theatre Company are presenting both parts of this play, directed by Eamon Flack. It is a truly marvelous experience. Both plays are simply, still, twenty years later, astounding writing. The company of actors (eight of them) are giving wonderful…

ATA Allstar Artists Pty Ltd, The Woodland Production Company, Michael Brenner and the BB Group GmbH present BALLET REVOLUCION at the State Theatre Sydney. BALLET REVOLUCION, a collection of young, robust, excitable and exciting dancers from Cuba were here in 2011, and now burst, once again, onto the State Theatre stage. The company brings to us a collection of dances and dancers showing us the heritage of dance ‘contagion’ from Cuba that stems from a fusion of classical ballet, modern and folkloric dance. The main facility for training in the arts in Cuba, according to the program notes, is the…

Photo by Peter Greig Just Visiting and Griffin Independent present the World Premiere of THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE by Vivienne Walshe at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. THIS IS WHERE YOU LIVE is the Winner of the 2012 Griffin Award by Vivienne Walshe, directed by Francesca Smith, leader of the independent theatre company, Just Visiting. This is the inaugural production for this company and the World Premiere of the play. This company has been working on this project since 2006 when it was part of the Australian National Playwright’s Conference. It arrived “as a conventional narrative-based 4 character…