Year: 2017

Photo by Ross Waldron Don’t Look Away and bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company present, NIGHT SLOWS DOWN, A new play by Phillip James Rouse, at the King’s Cross Theatre (KXT), in the King’s Cross Hotel. November 17 – December 9. NIGHT SLOWS DOWN, is a new Australian play, by Phillip James Rouse. It is an ambitious play, with a flashback set of scenes interpolated into the forward action of the narrative, that attempts to illustrate the modern political world where the Nationalistic/Fascist tendencies of a government can lead to overwrought and misconceived expressions of power, as in the case in this play,…

Photo by Prudence Upton Bell Shakespeare present THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, by William Shakespeare, in the Playhouse Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. Until 26 November. I went to see this Bell Shakespeare production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Directed by Anne-Louise Sarks, on the favourable ‘word-of-mouth’ I had, mostly, received from friends, who, like me, had had a very dispiriting experience with their production of OTHELLO***, last year, and, of course, because of my continuing interest in this very vexing play. Vexing? Says Norrie Epstein in his book THE FRIENDLY SHAKESPEARE: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE  is a troubling play.…

  It seems a while since we have seen a play by Harold Pinter. Oh, no, there was the Sydney Theatre Company’s NO MAN’S LAND and more recently, BETRAYAL at the Ensemble Theatre. It is THE CARETAKER (1959) that we have not seen for a while. This play is one of the earliest of his successes along with THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (1957) and THE HOMECOMING (1964) that propelled Pinter into the pantheon of one of the British greats. ‘That he occupies a position as a modern classic is illustrated by his name entering the language as an adjective used to describe a…

Photo by Prudence Upton Midnight Feast presents, CHRYSALIS,  a self-devised work, written by Stephen Sewell, Emily Dash and Warwick Allsopp, in The Studio, at the Sydney Opera House. Thursday, November 16 and Friday, November 17, 2017. CHRYSALIS is a work devised from the stories and world of a group of actors with disabilities. The Company, Midnight Feast, was inspired by Glenn Turnbull, a profoundly physically disabled man, and his interest in why ‘people routinely ignore him’ and by ‘a social media video posted by Glenn’s sister Hayley expressing her heartbreak and frustration after a doctor questioned the sense in undertaking…

Photo by Chris Lundie New Theatre presents, AUSTRALIA DAY, by Jonathan Biggins, at the New Theatre, King St., Newtown. 14 November – 16 December. The New Theatre present a revival production of Jonathan Biggin’s 2012 comedy, AUSTRALIA DAY. It was first seen in the Drama Theatre for the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), in 2012. AUSTRALIA DAY is set in the local community hall in a country town called Coriole. Says, the Director of this production, Louise Fischer, a girl from the country: When I first read AUSTRALIA DAY I was transported back to my misspent youth. I recognised the people that…

Photo by by Brett Boardman Darlinghurst Theatre Company present, SILENT NIGHT, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St. Darlinghurst. 10 November – 10 December. SILENT NIGHT, is a new Australian play, by Mary Rachel Brown, Directed by Glynn Nicholas. In July, 2015, this Writer and Director brought us THE DAPTO CHASER, a modest comedy/drama about working class dreams/angst in the greyhound racing industry, that has had a life touring around the country. SILENT NIGHT, tells us of a working class family, the Lickfolds, living in North Ryde – a suburb of Sydney (the one I grew up in!)…