Month: January 2019

Moogahlin Performing Arts presents a World Premiere of THE WEEKEND, by Henrietta Baird, in Bay 20, at Carriageworks, as part of the Sydney Festival. 18-23 January. THE WEEKEND is a monologue/play by Henrietta Baird, first developed at Yellamundie Festival in 2017. It began as a 10 page text and has now developed into a 65 minute monologue. It is performed by Shakira Clanton, Directed immaculately by Liza-Mare Syron, supported by a marvellous and subtle continuous Score by Nick Wales and Rhyan Clapham, in a Set Design by Kevin O’Brien, of a three panelled ‘circus mirror’ of warping exaggeration, surrounded in…

THE CHAT, is a very interesting work. JR Brennan has worked as a parole officer in Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Centre, and as an artist, created a series of performance workshops with Performance maker and choreographer Ashley Dyers for ex-offenders in the Melbourne area. THE CHAT we are informed in the program note, has been “created in collaboration with participants from these workshops and leading criminologists, is a work that fundamentally challenges our notions of criminal identity and asks the audience to play judge.” This work has been in an evolving process since 2014 and has been performed in Melbourne…

Sydney Festival present, PAUL CAPSIS with Jethro Woodward & The Fitzroy Youth Orchestra, in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Festival Gardens (Hyde Park). 17th and 18th January. When one witnesses the talent of Paul Capsis live on stage, it puts much else into perspective. This is the Best Show that I have seen at this Festival and it is the force that is Mr Capsis that makes it so – he is unique, special. He not only has the skills, he has ‘IT’. Paul Capsis is a GREAT artist. Every gesture, from his ‘mad’ costuming, to his excessive wig, and in…

Photo by Prudence Upton Sydney Festival with Daptone Records, present, ORQUESTA AKOKAN, in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent Festival Garden (Hyde Park) 15 and 16 January. ORQUESTA AKOKAN, is a big band mambo collective, comprised of some of Cuba’s finest musicians and others from New York, celebrating Havana of the 1940’s and 50’s. The band is led by Cuban singer Jose ‘Pepito’ Gomez and piano player Michael Eckroth and Jacob Plasse featuring a crack brass section. The Spigeltent had had all its furniture cleared and we entered into a ‘mosh’ pit style accommodation with the permanent ‘bank’ table and benches surrounding…

Photo by Prudence Upton SHANGHAI MIMI PTY LTD, FINUCANE and SMITH and CAEG, present SHANGHAI MIMI, at the Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, as part of the Sydney Festival. 10th – 20th January. SHANGHAI MIMI, is a cabaret entertainment having its World Premiere in the Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. Inspired by the legend of 1930’s Shanghai, the ‘Paris of the East’, an international port city of foreign enclaves, a city famous for its flamboyant clubs and heady nights, a live band (led by John McCall) playing vintage Chinese jazz and blues, a group of artists (eight, in number) feature as dancers (Choreography, by…

Photo by  Zaina Ahmed NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR, is a 1922 German Expressionist silent horror film, Directed by F.W, Murnau and starring Max Schreck as vampire Count Orick. The creators were sued by the Bram Stoker family – the author of DRACULA – 1897 – for copyright infringement, which they hadn’t sought to acquire, and this was despite their attempts to disguise the source, by changing names of characters and the narrative. The penalty demanded was that all copies of the film were ordered to be burnt. However, one print had already been distributed around the world. Copies of it…