Year: 2015

Taikoz present THE BEAUTY OF EIGHT, in the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale, Sydney. 23 -24 October, 2015. It has been a while since I have attended a performance given by TAIKOZ, a group of Australian artists dedicated to the Japanese tradition of drumming, practising ‘Kumi-daiko’: a performance characterised by an ensemble playing on different drums and other percussive instruments. TAIKOZ was founded in 1997 by Ian Cleworth and Riley Lee. THE BEAUTY OF EIGHT is a new work of three parts: Eternal Silence; Our Horizon and The White Bird, featuring a guest artist, Chieko Kojima, a member of the…

DEAD CENTRE / SEA WALL, two plays, one each by Tom Holloway and Simon Stephens, a Co-production presented by Red Line Productions and Red Stitch Productions, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St, Wooloomooloo, 20 Oct – 14 Nov. DEAD CENTRE by Tom Holloway, and SEA WALL, by Simon Stephens, two monologues, are presented as a Co-Production from the Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Melbourne, and Red Line Productions, at the Old Fitz Theatre. SEA WALL was written by contemporary British playwright, Simon Stephens (ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD, PUNK ROCK), in 2008. A monologue from a Man, a…

Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) in association with the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), present TEAM AUSTRALIA: STORIES FROM FAIRFIELD, at the ATYP Theatre, Wharf 4, Hickson Rd, Miller’s Point. 21 -24 October, 2015. TEAM AUSTRALIA: STORIES FROM FAIRFIELD is the Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) Ensemble showcase for 2015. It seems that this core group of six performers: Luke Cignarella, Monica Kumar, Mahdi Mohammadi, David Robertts, Barbara Schefer, and Amanda Sullo, young artists from South West Sydney, have met for two hours each Monday, over the past year or so, to research and train with professional arts practitioners. Says Karen…

Sydney Conservatorium of Music presents ENGLISH ECCENTRICS, by Malcolm Williamson, at the Music Workshop at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music,  October, 12, 14, 16, 17. I was alerted to this student production of ENGLISH ECCENTRICS, an opera from 1964, by Australian Composer, Malcolm Williamson and made my way to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on the recent sunny Saturday afternoon. The irritating and ebullient Michael Cathcart, of Radio National BOOKS AND ARTS, has been on-air on a, sometimes, hyper-ventilated mission to find the new Australian Opera. So, I hope he caught this – for it is a find, indeed, although,…

Griffin Theatre Company presents The World Premiere of A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL, by Kit Brookman, at the SBW Theatre, Kings Cross. 10 Oct -21 Nov. Says the writer, Kit Brookman about this new Australian play, his latest play, A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL: This play is not a true story, but it is inspired by one. In 2006, In Germany, a breeder of giant rabbits was approached by the North Korean government to acquire a number of his rabbits, ostensibly for a breeding program to be set up in North Korea. No one quite knows what happened next, except…

  Bell Shakespeare presents THE TEMPEST, by William Shakespeare, in the Playhouse Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, 19 August -18 September, 2015. This production of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST (1611) from Bell Shakespeare, Directed by John Bell, is Mr Bell’s farewell production for the company he founded twenty-five years ago. Mr Bell has played the role of Prospero three times in his career and it is interesting to read in his Director’s Notes, in the program, his debunking of the notion that THE TEMPEST was Shakespeare’s last play and that it is a valediction, with Prospero as a self-portrait of…