Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

pantsguys Productions and Griffin Independent present ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD by Simon Stephens at the Stables SBW Theatre, Kings Cross. ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD by Simon Stephens won the Olivier Award for Best play in 2005. Mr Stephens, also, won The Olivier Award for his adaptation of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG, from the novel of the same name, by Mark Haddon, in 2013. pantsguys Productions has previously presented Mr Stephens’ PUNK ROCK, which was also directed by Anthony Skuse – and this production is a return to form for pantsguys after their,…

Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House present AM I by Shaun Parker and Company. Music by Nick Wales. In the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House. AM I is a new work arising from the creative inspirations of Shaun Parker, Nick Wales and their artistic team. Mr Parker and Mr Wales have collaborated on numerous works, including SPILLS AND TROLLEYS for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, HAPPY AS LARRY (with Bree van Reyk), THE YARD and THIS SHOW IS ABOUT PEOPLE. It is a collaboration that is maturing into great things and it was a wonderful to watch AM I, unfold:…

Photo by Katy Green Loughrey Brevity Theatre Company in association with Sydney Independent Theatre Company presents the Sydney Premiere of WITTENBURG by David Davalos at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. It is 1517, and Hamlet (Alexander Butt) has returned, for a tennis tournament, to his university at Wittenburg, from a summer vacation in Poland where he has been studying astronomy with “One Doctor Nikolai Copernik …” and is facing a spiritual dilemma based around new ideas, theories, that the earth moves around the sun, and not as his church (the good old Roman one) has taught him, that the sun…

CIRCUS OZ in the Big Top at Darling Harbour. CIRCUS OZ is 35 years old and now in a glorious air conditioned Big Top, they present a new show called CRANKED UP (it is version 2.0 of FROM THE GROUND, which premiered in Melbourne in June, 2012), set on a building site, where they have, so the program notes tell us, “knocked together a series of circus acts around the ideas of construction, building and fabrication”, to provide all the necessary opportunities to display the virtuosic skills of this 13 strong company. Add musicians. They do it all, and it…

2013 was a very satisfying year in the theatre. The overall impression was the high quality of Acting that we, generally, saw, and that the Independent Theatre scene provided a lot of it. It was often the strength of the ensemble of a production that was striking, not, necessarily, a single outstanding performance or duo. This was usually supported by all the elements of the design crafts as well.The major disappointment was the lack of new arresting Australian writing for the theatre. Where to begin? NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK I SAW: I was wonderfully moved by SMALL AND TIRED by Kit Brookman…

SUMMERFOLK (Sommergaste) by Maxim Gorky presented at the Schaubhne am lehniner Platz, Berlin. THE RISE AND FALL OF MAHAGONNY (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) – an Opera with orchestra in two Acts by Kurt Weill. Text by Bertolt Brecht, at the Komische Opera, Berlin. This is a very late blog. Dear Diary. I travelled to Berlin for the very first time, over a year ago, on my way to a Christmas In Sweden – a farm near Gothenburg – it snowed, yay! Whilst in Berlin, beside the art immersion, not only of the Ishtar Gate variety – staggering –…