Month: February 2018

Photo by  John McCare Invisible Wall Productions and Sugary Rum Productions, in association with Hayes Theatre Company presents, THE VIEW UPSTAIRS, Book, Lyrics and Music by Max Vernon, at the Hayes Theatre, Greenknowe Ave, Kings Cross. 8 February – 11 March. THE VIEW UPSTAIRS, ia a recent American Off-Broadway Musical with Book, Lyrics and Music, written by Max Vernon. In a shadowy room we meet a shady Realtor (Martelle Hammer) winning a deal with a returning New Orleans youth, Wes (Henry Brett), who having moved from New York is planing to set up a fashion shop supported, presumably, by the wealth…

  Apocalypse Theatre Company and Redline present, METAMORPHOSES, by Mary Zimmerman, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo. 8th February – 10 March. (Photograph, by Robert Catto) In 2006 when Barrie Kosky presented THE LOST ECHO,  a play by Tom Wright, using Ovid’s METAMORPHOSES and Euripides’ THE BACCHAE, I gave myself the task of reading the texts. I do not find reading poetry easy – embarrassing confession! I was fortunate to obtain a copy, a relatively new translation, by the American poet, Charles Martin (2005), and after surrendering to the rhythm of the verse in translation, found myself immersed…

bAKEHOUSE and Kings Cross Hotel present VISITING HOURS, by John Harrison, Constantine Costi and Michael Costi, at the Kings Cross Hotel. 7 February – 17 February. VISITING HOURS, by Australian team John Harrison, Constantine Costi and Michael Costi is receiving a second life after a successful debut for VIVID in 2016. It is an art installation, site specific work that takes us to an off-the-grid medical facility where a Doctor is performing a new operation. We, an intimate group of 20, arrive at the top of William St – the famous Coca Cola sign gleaming across the road – at…

Photo by Bob Seary New Theatre presents FUCKING MEN, by Joe Dipietro, at the New Theatre, King St. Newtown. 6 February – 10 March. FUCKING MEN, written in 2009, by American Joe Dipietro, an award winning Musical Theatre collaborator (I LOVE YOU YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE; MEMPHIS), uses the shape of Arthur Schnizler’s 1897 play, REIGEN, more popularly known under the French title, LA RONDE. The shape is that of 10 interconnecting scenes between pairs of lovers across a strata of social standings. Schnitzler, a Doctor (like Chekhov), living in Vienna, was also a playwright/novelist/short story writer. His repertoire is…

Photo by Phil Erbacher Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents, AN ACT OF GOD, by David Javerbaum, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St, Darlinghurst. 2nd February – 28 February. Our species has, over the ages, tried to make sense of the events that have impacted on its survival. With our evolving, developing imagination, us humans have tried to explain the ‘ups and downs’ of the life experience – floods, famine, feast etc – with the invention of forces, Gods, to take some of the explanatory responsibility. For us Westerners the Books of the Old Testament, handed down to us by our ancestors…

Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) presents INTERSECTION 2018: CHRYSALIS, at the Griffin Theatre, in the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. 31January – 17 February. Fraser Corfield, the Artistic Director of the ATYP tells us in the introduction to the published texts of this play program: Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), the national youth theatre company, is committed to commissioning and developing plays that young people can perform. … INTERSECTION 2018 is a collection of short stories for the stage written by some of Australia’s leading young playwrights. … INTERSECTION is an annual program, each year offering new characters,…