Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Sydney Theatre Company (STC) presents MOJO by Jez Butterworth in the Wharf 1 Theatre, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, 28th May-5th July. MOJO by Jez Butterworth, first presented at the Royal Court Theatre, in 1995, has had a recent revival at the Harold Pinter Theatre, in London’s West End. When first presented, the play was received as a high octane cocktail of testosterone – of equal combinations of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. It won some theatre prizes. Set in a seedy, struggling nightclub in the Soho sleaze of the late nineteen fifties, the overture to the ‘swinging London’ fame of yore,…

Siren Theatre Co and Griffin Independent, in association with InPlay Arts, present THE VIOLENT OUTBURST THAT DREW ME TO YOU by Finegan Kruckemeyer, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. THE VIOLENT OUTBURST THAT DREW ME TO YOU by Finegan Kruckemeyer. Mr Kruckemeyer is a writer domiciled in Tasmania and has written some “70 commercial plays performed on five continents. … In 2014, eighteen works are, or will be, presented in seven countries…”, and this is the first play of his that I have seen! Most of his plays are written with children and young adults in mind – this…

The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) present KANDAHAR GATE, by Stephen Sewell, in The Parade Theatre, Kensington. 17th-21thJune, 23rd-24th June. KANDAHAR GATE is a new Australian play by Stephen Sewell. Mr Sewell, at present is the Head of Writing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), and this play and production is part of the training productions for the third year courses of 2014. I don’t usually comment on productions in Acting Schools, but not to mention the advent of this play, especially for historical record, would be a cultural remiss. Stephen Sewell was (is) one of the…

M.ROCK is a new play by Lachlan Philpott. Commissioned by the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and co-presented by the Sydney Theatre Company. Mr Philpott is, in my experience, the most interesting of the ‘new’ contemporary Australian writers. For those of us who have closely followed Mr Philpott’s work, M.ROCK, is a very surprising and pleasing change of content and tone, from his other recent major works: COLDER (2007), SILENT DISCO (2009) and TRUCK STOP (2012). COLDER is a fierce experience of grief for an unaccounted loss of a son, and the ruins endured by family and friends as his memory,…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir presents BROTHERS WRECK by Jada Alberts at the Upstairs Belvoir Theatre, Belvoir St, Surry Hills. 28th May – 22nd June. BROTHERS WRECK by Jada Alberts is a new Australian play. A new work from a new writer. This is Ms Alberts’ first play. It is an accomplished work, even despite, its well honed formulaic, some might say, old fashioned, structure and style. More kudos to it, I reckon. The concentrated attention and appreciation that the audience I sat with, demonstrated the power of a comprehensible, well told story, that has a perceptible beginning, middle and…

Playwriting Australia in association with Carriageworks presents NATIONAL PLAY FESTIVAL at Carriageworks. As I had mentioned at the end of my last blog, Dear Diary: The National Play Festival. A four day festival: 12th-15th June. It began with a Keynote Address by Andrew Bovell entitled, HAROLD PINTER AT THE IVY. Here is a link to the speech and I thoroughly recommend that you read and/or watch it. Like the Harold Pinter Nobel Prize Lecture (2005), (which is also on google, and definitely worth knowing), Mr Bovell’s speech is an impassioned, and ethically argued provocation to all the writers, artists, of Australia.…