Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Photo by Richard Farland Outhouse Theatre Company presents FOUR PLACES by Joel Drake Johnson at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst. 29 July -10 August. This chamber play, FOUR PLACES, by American writer, Joel Drake Johnson, is a subtly moving comic-tragedy about family and all of its secret lives. That of the four places at a restaurant luncheon: A daughter, Ellen (Amanda Stephens Lee), a son, Warren (Jeremy Waters), a mother, Peggy (Kim Hilllas) and the absent centre of need, the father – not seen or heard, but the catalyst of the subject matter of the play. We get to know the…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti Bell Shakespeare presents TARTUFFE, The Hypocrite, by Moliere, in a New Version, by Justin Fleming, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 26 July -23 August. TARTUFFE – The Hypocrite is a New Version of the Moliere play (1664) by Australian playwright, Justin Fleming, which was first presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) in 2008, as THE HYPOCRITE. It is now to be seen, presented by The Bell Shakespeare Company, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. Peter Evans, Co-Artistic Director of the Bell Company, once again directs, and this production,…

Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Michael Sieders presents EVERY SECOND by Vanessa Bates at the Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst, 27 June – 27 July. In June, 2010, the Writer/Director double of Vanessa Bates and Shannon Murphy brought us PORN.CAKE, and have now collaborated to present a new play: EVERY SECOND. PORN.CAKE was a comic ‘meringue’, its success benefitting enormously from the energy that can be combusted  around and in the small space of the SBW Stables – it was able, in there, to be comically fun and seductive, (durable) despite the slightness of the content pre-occupation. EVERY SECOND has had its premiere…

Reginald Season 2014: Seymour Centre and Sport For Jove Theatre Company present A DOLL’S HOUSE by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Adam Cook. In the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. 17th July- 2nd August. Adam Cook, the Director of this Sport For Jove production of A DOLL’S HOUSE, by Henrik Ibsen, in his program note begins: Every interview I’ve done about this production has raised the issue of the play’s ‘relevance’ to our contemporary world. To my mind, a classic only survives as a classic because it has remained relevant. In many ways Nora Helmer is a contemporary figure. We read or…

Photo by Brett Boardman Griffin Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre present the World premiere of UGLY MUGS by Peta Brady, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. 18 July – 23 August. UGLY MUGS, by Peta Brady, arrives in Sydney at the Griffin SBW Stables, from Malthouse Theatre, in Melbourne. The title of the play is the name sex workers use for aggressive clients. It is, also the name of a pamphlet published by the Prostitute Collective of Victoria (now RHED) that has been in existence since 1986. Ms Brady in her program notes: Street-based sex work is illegal in…

THE EFFECT, by Lucy Prebbles, I first saw in the original production at the National Theatre, London, in 2012. I have written about it. I, also, was fortunate to catch the ill fated Broadway production of ENRON (2010) also by Lucy Prebbles. Both these plays are challenging examinations in the theatre of very big issues. ENRON has been seen in Sydney at the enterprising New Theatre. The Sydney production of THE EFFECT has been sponsored by The Commonwealth Bank – one can ponder why they didn’t agree to sponsor the ENRON play, too – too big to fail! Both these plays…