Year: 2017

Photo by Prudence Upton Ensemble Theatre presents, THE PLANT, by Kit Brookman, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli, 8th July – 5 August. THE PLANT, by Kit Brookman, is the winner of the Ensemble Theatre’s 2016 New Writing Commission. Sue (Sandy Gore) and her three children, Erin (Helen Dallimore), Daniel (Garth Holcombe) and Naomi (Briallen Clarke) are packing up the family home after the death of the Husband/Father from, what one of them describe as: ‘in-built obsolescence’. It is essentially a comedy. On a raised green covered platform, backed by a wall of curtain (the Set and Costume Design is by…

  Red Line Productions present THIS MUCH IS TRUE, by Louis Nowra, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo, 12 July – 12 August. THIS MUCH IS TRUE is the first major commission from Red Line Productions. The Old Fitz Theatre is a 60 seat theatre in the basement of the Old Fitz Hotel, in Woolloomooloo, and one of the regular denizens, one of the locals of the neighbourhood, that uses the pub as a regular drinking location and ‘community centre’ is Australian writer Louis Nowra. Since 2014, Andrew Henry, one of the Directors of Red Line Productions, has…

Photo by Zaina Ahmed Montague Basement in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre presents, BEFORE LYSISTRATA, by Ellana Costa, at the Kings Cross Theatre (KXT), Kings Cross Hotel, 11 – 22 July. BEFORE LYSISTRATA is a new Australian play, by Ellana Costa, presented by a dedicated young company of artists, Montague Basement. LYSISTRATA, a play by Aristophanes, written in 411 BC, tells of the women of Athens and Sparta who decided to withhold sexual activity until their men gave up a war and made peace. BEFORE LYSISTRATA, is a contemporary prequel by Ellana Costa, a speculative fiction presenting the journey of the…

Sydney Theatre Company, presents CLOUD NINE, by Caryl Churchill, at Wharf 1, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay. 1 July – 12 August. Let us begin at the top. This is the BEST production I have seen at the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) for many a long year. Get your self a ticket ASAP. This production of CLOUD NINE, a play by Caryl Churchill, written in 1979, Directed for the STC by Kip Williams (their new Artistic Director), with Matthew Backer, Kate Box, Harry Greenwood, Anita Hegh, Josh McConville, Heather Mitchell and Anthony Taufa  – is an absolute “knock out”. To begin where…

Photo by Prudence Upton Ensemble present NEVILLE’S ISLAND, by Tim Firth, at the Ensemble Theatre, McDougall St, Kirribilli. 29 June – 12 August. Four middle-aged men on a community/business bonding excursion are wrecked on the rocks of an island, are stranded and out of network contact. Each man with a hidden ‘psychic’ break lurking just below their consciousness, under the duress of this isolation and their relatively inept ability to adapt to the challenges, disintegrate into a bourgeois (and superficial) ‘Lord of the Flies’ scenario. The conceit of this work is that it is filtered through the ‘mask of comedy’ with…

Photo by Chrissie Ianssen Company of Rogues present MORGAN STERN, by Gina Schien, in the Downstairs Theatre Belvoir, Belvoir St Theatre. July1 – 2. MORGAN STERN an hour long monologue-play by Gina Schien, was presented earlier in the year and is now preparing to tour to the Edinburgh Festival. Morgan Stern is haunted by THE GENT. The Gent a mysterious figure from the English Georgian era is some 221 years old, is part ghost, part protector, and has been been assigned to minister to Morgan, a young Sydneysider living with schizophrenia. Both The Gent and Morgan are struggling with memories, hauntings…