Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

photo by Rush The Bell Shakespeare Company present THE DUCHESS OF MALFI in The Playhouse, at the Sydney Opera House. The Bell Shakespeare Company presents THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, the cast and collaborators handout and list in the actual program, announces. It is odd that those “announcements”, even the cover page of the actual program, does not register the actual writers’ names: Hugh Colman and Ailsa Piper. No mention of the writer of the original play is claimed or made in the advertising, either (although, the theatre program is an exemplar of historical research of background to the John Webster…

New Theatre present QUIET COMPANIONS and the BRYCE is RIGHT at the New Theatre, Newtown. QUIET COMPANIONS is a partly improvised playlet set in, supposedly, the Victorian Era.  This is “a show that begins with a delightfully wicked twosome playing private games (that) slowly descends into an exploration of the dark, psychological country that lies beneath.”  According to Marko Mustac the creator, director and one of the performers of this exercise in the theatre, the other being Lyn Pierce, he hopes that “unlike most improvised shows this is a serious piece: it is not meant to be funny … It…

  Garnet Productions in Association with Tamarama Rock Surfers presents Allsopp and Henderson’s PORK STILETTO at the Old Fitz. PORK STILETTO is the latest concoction written and performed by Warwick Allsopp and Tamlyn Henderson. Previous work includes, A PORTHOLE into the MINDS of the VANQUISHED and THE JINGLISTS. Two ambitious and young psychologists begin researching sexual fetishes. That they become involved in ‘field work’ that leads them into ‘immersive’ experiences spells out ventures that become adventures they never anticipated. That the research turns into something else other than an objective thesis, becomes the source of much black comedy with very…

Cloud9project.info present a Workshop Showing of CLOUDSTREET : THE OPERA by George Palmer at Carriageworks CLOUDSTREET, the Tim Winton novel. CLOUDSTREET, the stage play by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo. CLOUDSTREET, the mini-series for television. And, now CLOUDSTREET : THE OPERA, libretto and music by George Palmer. On Saturday morning, last, the 28th of July, 2012, just to record accurately for posterity’s sake, at 11 am, I went to Carriageworks, Track 7, on invitation from some friends, to see the result of a 12 day workshop of act one, of this very ‘young’ project, it, attempting to find a way…

Pantsguys Productions and atyp Under the wharf present the Australian Premiere of Punk Rock Trailer 2012 from Kathy Luu on Vimeo. PUNK ROCK by Simon Stephens at the atyp Theatre Wharf 4 Hickson Rd. PUNK ROCK by Simon Stephens, produced by Pantsguys Productions as part of atyp Under the Wharf season is the best evening I have had at the theatre this year. Go. Simon Stephens is a British playwright that I have admired for some time. The fact that he has never appeared on any of our major stages in Australia, except by a German company as part of…

Photo by Brett-Boardman Griffin Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company present A HOAX by Rick Viede at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. A HOAX by Rick Viede, is the winner of the 2011Griffin Award for Playwriting. It follows on from his 2008 Griffin Award winning play, WHORE. The machinery of A HOAX deals with Anthony Dooley, “Ant” (Glenn Hazeldine), who whilst working as a social worker, invents a story concerning the upbringing of an Indigenous girl called ‘Currah’ and writes a book, NOBODY’S GIRL, and fobs it off as autobiography. He finds a young woman, Miri Smith (Shari…