Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

ACO, the Australian Chamber Orchestra present DAWN UPSHAW, ELGAR and GRIEG in the Concert Hall, at the Sydney Opera House. UPSHAW, ELGAR and GREIG is the opening concert by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) for the 2014 season. The program is quite eclectic, performing John Adams, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Edvard Greig, Maria Schneider and Edward Elgar. Selections from “John’s Book of Alledged Dances”, from a major composition of the same title by John Adams (1994), was the first work presented. This is a selection of five of the Dances from a ten dance cycle (one of the pieces is played twice:…

ATYP, the Australian Theatre for Young People present BITE ME at Wharf 4, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay. BITE ME is a program of 10 new 7 minute monologues written by young writers involved with the Fresh Ink project managed by the Australian Theatre for Young People (atyp). It is an annual event. OUT OF PLACE was what we saw, last year. The writing appeared to be, generally, of a much more interesting calibre than previously, benefiting, it seems from the leadership of Australian playwright, Jane Bodie, (THIS YEAR’S ASHES) assisted by Declan Greene (from Sisters Grimm: LITTLE MERCY and SUMMERTIME IN THE GARDEN…

Ensemble Theatre presents PROOF by David Auburn at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. PROOF by David Auburn was first performed in 2000, and was awarded: Drama Desk Award for Best New Play. Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. New York Drama Critics’ Circle Best Play. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Tony Award for Best Play. All in 2001. These five awards attest to the outstanding merits of this play. These merits are what draws one to this theatre (there has been a previous production at the Sydney Theatre Company, directed by George Ogilvie, with Jacqueline McKenzie and Barry Otto, in…

DECORUM in association with the Sydney Independent Theatre Company presents LEGEND! by Pat Sheil at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. LEGEND! is a one man play by Pat Sheil. It creates a character, ‘Slips’ Cordon, a grandfather, played by John Derum, who is an anecdotal folk-historian acquainted, familiar, with some of the major figures and events of our last century. The authority for the veracity of his tellings is that of a self-proclaimed eye witness, and “I was there”, becomes the running mantra throughout the recollections (the tales of Baron von Münchhausen and George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman seemed to…

Sydney Theatre Company and Allens present TRAVELLING NORTH by David Williamson at Wharf 1, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay. David Wiiliamson’s TRAVELLING NORTH was first performed at the Nimrod Theatre, Sydney, in August, 1979, directed by John Bell. This play was the ninth in an output that had established David Williamson as the most prolific and ‘bankable’ writer that the Australian theatre had ever produced: THE REMOVALISTS (1971), DON’S PARTY(1971), THE DEPARTMENT (1975), THE CLUB (1977), amongst others, were proof of that last claim. To produce a David Willliamson play was to virtually ensure a good box office return – money in…

Photo by Natalie Boog Ensemble Theatre presents NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Alan Ayckbourn at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirrribilli. Reading about Alan Ayckbourn there are some ‘claims’ that after Shakespeare, Mr Ayckbourn is the then next most performed playwright in the English speaking world. Mr Ayckbourn was born in 1939 and is still writing for the theatre and has now a list of 77 plays, the last being ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES performed in August, 2013. It premiered in the theatre that has been the incubator of most of his work, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Looking at some of his play titles,…