Month: January 2018

  Sydney Festival presents The Wooster Group production, THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 7 -13 January. The Wooster Group grew from Richard Schechner’s The Performance Group in 1980, under the leadership of Elizabeth Lecompte. It works in a deliberate theatrical form of experimental presentation. Its reputation is formidable and the fact that the theatrical explorations/methods of this company have been an inspiration for similar groups such as The Sydney Front (1986) and other participants regularly appearing in the Performance Space repertory – now seen mostly at Carriageworks – is tantamount to their…

Red Line Productions in association with the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) presents, THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, by Alexander Berlage and The Company, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo. 9th January – 3rd February. THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, began as part of the 2016 Directors and Designers Graduating Productions at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, written (devised?) by Alexander Berlage – also the Director – and The Company of performers: Toby Blome, Oliver Crump, Duncan Ragg, Geneva Schofield, Alex Stylianou and Contessa Treffone. On entering the theatre we meet a red curtain which, when…

Griffin Theatre Company and The Last Great Hunt present FAG/STAG, written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Issacs, in the SBW Theatre, Kings Cross. 10 – 27 January. FAG/STAG was first presented in Perth in the Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights in 2015. It is written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Issacs. Jimmy (Jeffrey Jay Fowler) is a FAG and does Grindr in his search for sex. Corgan (Chris Issacs) is a STAG and does Tinder in his search for sex. Jimmy and Corgan are long standing best friends – they play Donkey Kong regularly…

Photo by Daniel Boud Belvoir presents a Queensland Theatre production in association with Sydney Festival, MY NAME IS JIMI, based on a story by Dimple Bani, Jimi Bani and co-created by Jason Klarwein, in the Upstairs Theatre, at Belvoir, Surry Hills. 5 -21 January. Jimi Bani is an actor/artist of big heart and attractive personality exuding a charisma that is all enveloping. His welcome and invitation to hear his story, MY NAME IS JIMI, is irresistible . Jimi was born on a remote island: Mabuiag (Jervis Island) in the western part of Torres Strait to the north of the Australian…

Photo by Jeff Busby John Frost and Suzanne Jones by arrangement with The Production Company present Andrew Lloyd Webber’s New Production of THE WIZARD OF OZ, at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney. 30 December – 4 February. THE WIZARD OF OZ, is a classic Hollywood film of 1939, based on a Book by American, L. Frank Baum. Everybody, as a child must have seen it. I saw it at the cinema (in Bondi Junction) as a child and never got over the Flying Monkeys – they terrified me – and the ‘creepy’ munchkins. Of course, then I saw it again, over…

This is the completion of the TENTH year of this blog – oh, my! So, in many ways but one, for me, 2017, was not a very stable year or a good one – you know, Trump, Aussie politics, Global Warming (Ageing!). The exception was the general quality of the theatre work (and film) that I got to see in Sydney this year. In that regard, 2017 was a very good year. Just look at these listings! NEW AUSTRALIAN PLATWRITING. Of the many new Australian plays of 2017 here are my outstanding experiences, in no particular order. Monkey Baa’s DIARY…