Year: 2017

Ensemble Theatre presents TWO, by Jim Cartwright, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 24 March – 6 May. TWO is play by Jim Cartwright written in 1989. It is a play for two actors playing fourteen characters. TWO, like Mr Cartwright’s first and famous play, ROAD (1986), comes from his identity and personal ownership of the private dilemmas of his community, focusing on the marginalised and disenfranchised. He was born in Farnsworth, Lancashire, and has lived in that ‘Northern’ area all his life. TWO, reflects the Northern community coping with the government of Margaret Thatcher and its effects on local industry…

Griffin Theatre Company in association with Malthouse Theatre presents, THE HOMOSEXUALS OR ‘FAGGOTS’ by Declan Greene, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. 17 March – 29 April. THE HOMOSEXUALS OR ‘FAGGOTS’ is a new Australian play by Declan Greene. Mr Greene gave us EIGHT GIGABYTES OF HARDCORE PORNOGRAPHY, in 2014, and we have seen other work under the banner of Sisters Grimm (LITTLE MERCY; SUMMERTIME IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN) around the other Main Stage theatre spaces in Sydney. The audience are anecdotally told by two men of a recent event in their lives: These two homosexual men at…

Photograph by Rupert Reid Shaw and Partners, in association with Red Line Productions, present, CRIMES OF THE HEART, by Beth Henley, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St. Woolloomooloo. 15 March – 8 April. CRMES OF THE HEART, was Beth Henley’s first full length play, and was seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club and then onto Broadway, where it played for 535 performances in the John Golden Theatre, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. I remember seeing it on my second trip to New York, Mary Beth Hurt as Meg Magrath, Holly Hunter as Babe, and Peter MacNicol as Lawyer,…

  Glitterbomb presents, A PERIOD PIECE, Created by Carissa Licciardello, Gretel Vella and Company, at the Old 5o5, in Eliza St Newtown. 14-25 March. 4 actors: Julia Christensen, Matthew Lee, Julia Robertson (especially good), James Wright, and a musical Band of 3: Mikaela Atallah, Hannah Cheers and Clare Hennessy in (mock) period clothings in a Set Design that reminded me of a pallid version of the new Disney ‘A Beauty and the Beast-look’ (Production Design, by Nick Fry), present an hour, extended sketch show, written by Gretel Vella and Directed by Carissa Licciardello, called A PERIOD PIECE. ‘Gretel and Carissa’…

  Monkey Baa Theatre Company present, DIARY OF A WOMBAT, Concept by Sandra Eldridge, Tim McGarry, Eva Di Cesare, Based on the book by, Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. Monkey Baa, a children’s theatre, has adapted the children’s book DIARY OF A WOMBAT by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. Nature, represented by Mothball, the wombat, explores his territory in search of food for his survival and comes into contact, conflict, with two humans who have built a home and gardens in his natural vicinity. Using puppetry, Design and Construction, by Bryony Anderson, three actors: Michael Cullen, Julia Ohannessian and Shandelle…

MARK COLVIN’S KIDNEY, is a new Australian play by Tommy Murphy. There are some 28 characters. The play, however, is virtually a two-hander involving a true story concerning Mary-Ellen Field (Sarah Peirse) and Mark Colvin (John Howard). Elle MacPherson, an ex-pat Australian business woman, hires another ex-pat Australian, business advisor, Mary-Ellen Field, to sort out her business arrangements. Some time into their trusting relationship, some negative articles begin to appear in the press. Ms MacPherson, taking advice from other aides, suspects the ‘leaks’ for the said articles were coming from Ms Field. She is gradually removed and loses her job…