Month: June 2021

I thought, as I sat in the Roslyn Packer Theatre on the Opening Night that GRAND HORIZONS, has a set of characters mirroring the highly successful 9 seasons, 210 episodes, television sitcom, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND (1996-2005 : two elder parents who are abusive and abused – in our case 80 year old Nancy (Linda Cropper) and husband Bill (John Bell), two competitive brothers – in our case married, harried Ben (Johnny Nasser) and hysteric gay son Brian (Guy Simon), and a wife – in our case a very pregnant, patient one called Jess (Zindzi Okenyo). The play has two guest…

On September 11, 2001, the world stopped when two planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York and in some targets in Washington. As recalled in the program notes for this performance: In a heartbeat 38 planes with 6,579 passengers were stranded in a remote town in Newfoundland and the locals opened their hearts and homes hosting this international community of strangers – spurring unexpected camaraderie in extraordinary circumstances. On September 12, 2001, their stories moved us all. COME FROM AWAY, uses 12 actors in a no-interval production to tell the stories of the passengers on a plane landing…

ULSTER AMERICAN (2018) is a play by Irishman, David Ireland. Another of his plays : CYPRUS AVENUE (2016), was presented at the Old Fitz by Redline and Empress Theatre in 2019. In ULSTER AMERICAN, an ambitious English Theatre Director, Leigh Carver (Brian Meegan) has nurtured a promising young Irish (identifies as British) woman writer, Ruth Davenport (Harriet Gordon-Anderson), who has now presented an astonishing  new play about “The Troubles” of Ireland. It is so arresting that Leigh has been able to contract one of the ‘hottest’ American (who recognises his Irish American origins) Academy Award winning actors, Jay Conray (Jeremy Waters),…

This production of 7 STAGES OF GRIEVING, written in 1994 – 1995, by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, is the fourth one devised by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC). The first production was performed by Deborah Mailman and directed by Wesley Enoch. This new production is performed by Elaine Crombie and Directed by Shari Sebbens. In the 26 years since the original production Time and History has happened. In the reading of the content of the original play, based (built) around the structure from the profoundly influential book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: ON DEATH AND DYING (1969), certainly Time has passed…