Year: 2013

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD is one of those famous plays by a now famous writer, Tom Stoppard, that every young, university actor wants to be in, or do a scene from. In the early nineteen sixties, having the idea that the King of England to whom Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in Shakespeare’s HAMLET, were dispatched, was probably King Lear, Tom Stoppard wrote, whilst working in West Berlin, with several other writers on a Ford Foundation Award (as “cultural window dressing” for the allies!) a one-act comedy in verse called tentatively, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN MEET KING LEAR. A seed had been…

True West Theatre and Riverside productions present RU4ME written and performed by Annie Byron. based on KISSING FROGS by Andee Jones in the Lennox Theatre, Riverside theatres, Parramatta. RU4ME is a delightful evening in the theatre with a winsomely seductive Connie (Annie Byron) who relates to us her ‘adventures’ in the sphere of ‘internet dating”. This senior lady, seeking a ‘partner’ to attend ‘art house movies’ and, perhaps, other things, under the guidance of her daughter, Rosie, begins a series of ventures that are amusing and cautionary. Ms Byron has adapted a book by Andee Jones, KISSING FROGS, and with…

Strange Duck productions and Liberman Partnership present FREUD’S LAST SESSION by Mark St Germain at The Theatre Royal, King St, Sydney. FREUD’S LAST SESSION is a long one act play for two characters, by Mark St Germain. Mr St Germain has developed a catalogue of plays creating historical fiction. This one concerns a fictional meeting between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis in Freud’s London study in 1939, on the evening that World War II was being declared. Mr St Germain took his inspiration from a book: “The Question of God” by Dr Armand M. Nicholi Jnr. A confirmed atheist confronting…

Dear Reader, This entry to my Theatre Diary is a personal message. I have over the past year or so, since extricating myself from NIDA, been working on a number of projects. One of my objectives has always been to empower the actor as an independent creative force, in an environment where we, the actor, were often (are) simply relegated to the bottom of the ‘tools’  necessary for product, as: ‘talent’. Even, within the political machinations of an institution, my objective was to empower the “acting student”- or, at least strive, attempt to. It was not always possible to do,…

Photo by Katy Green Loughrey Sydney Independent Theatre Company (SITCO) present a World Premiere of FRIDAY by Daniele Giorgi at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. Last Thursday, the 8th August was the World Premiere of “a sizzling new Australian Political Satire FRIDAY by Daniela Giorgi. Sex, secrets and scandals – a tale of democracy in the land of the long weekend” at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. A new Australian play about Democracy set in a seat of government! Ms Giorgi suggests, coyly, in her notes, about the play, in the program, that “FRIDAY does not replay real events, actual…

Stories Like These and atyp Under The Wharf present FIREFACE by Marius Von Mayenburg, translated by Maja Zade at the atyp Wharf Theatre, Wharf 4, Hickson Rd. FIREFACE was the first play of Marius Von Mayenburg for the Schaubuhne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin and it was awarded the Kleist Prize for young dramatists in 1997. Several years ago the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) presented a production by Benedict Andrews. Mr Von Mayenburg has gone on to a very prolific career. The play is a stringent look at the core social structure of any society: that of the family. Vitally, in…