Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Photo by Helen White Darlinghurst Theatre Co. presents, DEATHTRAP, by Ira Levin, at the Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst. 10 April – 10 May. On a Thursday night, after watching the anti-war, TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, at the movies, as a pre-ANZAC antidote to the coming weekend of commemoration inundation, I had an early dinner, and since I had a family obligation free night, thought: “Maybe I should go to the theatre?” What’s On? 1. ENDGAME, by Samuel Beckett. Mmmm? In my Oxford Dictionary of Plays, I remembered reading: “… Beckett succeeds in creating a beautifully written, tense drama in which almost nothing…

Photo by Thomas Adams Emu Productions presents VICE – Private School Scandal. A New play by Melvyn Morrow, at the King Street Theatre, Newtown, April 21 – May 9. In the present fetid political climate, maybe, overheated by the media in its rush to find ‘villains’ and ‘victims’, to entertain our appetites for the moral humiliation of others, with the official exposure and investigation of child abuse in Australian schools and institutions, Melvyn Morrow’s new play, VICE – Private School Scandal, attempts to bring some easeful and apt sense to our being more circumspect, and even patient, for that need…

Photo by Simon Cardwell Arts Radar and Griffin Independent present The World Premiere of FIVE PROPERTIES OF CHAINMALE, by Nicholas Hope, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. 15 April – 9 May. Nicholas Hope is the writer of a new Australian play, FIVE PROPERTIES OF CHAINMALE. He writes in the program notes:  (It) began with my intention to write a series of thematically connected stories that deal with the concept of male narcissistic personality disorder as a socially applauded ideology. What we experience, in the SBW Theatre, is a man with two male acolytes who support and transform, to…

Photo by Rupert Reid Red Lines Productions presents ORPHANS, by Lyle Kessler, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St and Dowling St, Woolloomooloo, 14 April – 9 May 2015. ORPHANS, is an American play by Lyle Kessler, written in 1983, and first presented in Los Angeles. The only reason, that I could  judge, to produce this text is centred around the opportunity to provide three roles for men with the potential for high testosterone acting. For, the content and the dramaturgy of the play, felt a little laborious to sit through otherwise, today. Two brothers have grown up orphans in…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti Belvoir presents, ELEKTRA / ORESTES, by Jada Alberts and Anne-Louise Sarks, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, 14 March – 26 April, 2015. In less than an hour, Belvoir Theatre, under the Direction of Anne-Louise Sarks, presented her and Jada Alberts, truncated version of two major Greek plays, ELEKTRA and ORESTES. A member of my audience expressed astonishment that this had happened. He wasn’t sure, however, whether he had been gypped or not. Still, it was just after nine o’clock as we hit the pavement together and we both agreed we both could get…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir St Theatre, present KILL THE MESSENGER, by Nakkiah Lui, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St, Surry Hills. 14 Feb – 8 March. This is a catch-up blog. KILL THE MESSENGER, is the second play presented by Belvoir St Theatre, by Nakkiah Lui. The first was, THIS HEAVEN, presented in 2013. This is a one act play played on a blank black-box stage (Set Design by Ralph Myers) with a bench along both side walls framing the space, lit with theatrical nous and flair by Kate Sfetkidis, making clear demarcations for narrative location, and Directed well, by…