Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  PACT Centre for Emerging Artists and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras present CANNIBAL at the Pact Space, Erskineville. CANNIBAL presented by PACT and curated as part of the Mardi Gras Performing Arts in the 2011 Guide is an interesting sign of the new vision of the committee responsible. For this work is not about glitz or partying, rather it is ART. That Matthew Day was also part of the QUEER THINKING day at the Seymour Centre, where some of the “queer world’s most remarkable academic and creative talent” presented a day of talks and discussions is another sign…

  John Frost, Anita Waxman/Alexis Productions, Tom Dokton, Latitude Link Inc., Power Arts, Chun-Soo Shin, Corcoran Productions, The Pelican Group and John Frost in association with Jane Bergere, Roger Coleman, Dave Copley, Tom McInerney, David Mirvish, Mindy and Bob Rich, Yandow/Papa/HIC present Anthony Warlow in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO – A New Musical at the Lyric Theatre, Star City, Sydney. It is interesting that in the title page of the program, as quoted above, all of the producers present: Anthony Warlow. Anthony Warlow. In Doctor Zhivago – a New Musical. This then is the presentation of Anthony Warlow. And in the program…

Australian Chamber Orchestra present: Tour One – TEDDY TAHU RHODES at the Sydney Opera House. Songs with and without words. The Mahler Adagietto (from Symphony No.5.) (1902), familiar to those of us who remember the Visconti film DEATH IN VENICE was our first offering in this concert. It is a beautiful and melancholic experience. Whether it was written as a wordless love declaration by Gustav Mahler to his future wife, or is related more to the sombre setting of a Ruckert poem, “Ich bin der Welt abhanden recommend” (1901): I have lost touch with the world where I once wasted…

  The On Reel presents STICKS & STONES by Jay Duncan at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Going to the theatre can be, sometimes, such a surprising and unexpected adventure. Take last Saturday night, for instance. On a balmy but drenched and drizzling night I found my way down Palmer Street, just down from Oxford Street, but before the Burton Street corner and climbed up a steep and old-fashioned clad stairwell. It does feel so seventies grunge and properly seedy. At the top the stairs, two very casually dressed but very fashionable looking young men, took my money, but did…

  Sydney Theatre Company presents BEFORE/AFTER by Roland Schimmelpfennig. Translated from the German by Dr Marlene Norst at Wharf 2. 51 scenes in 4 weeks and Schimmelpfennig’s infinitely interpretable text. One hotel room, 8 performers, 39 characters, 41 costumes, 40 props, 110 light bulbs, 17 metre-wide projections, 2 palm-sized cameras, 3 mics, 2 lamps, 2 chairs, 1 porter’s trolley, 1 piano and a bed. A state of mind, a galaxy. Affairs, fears of mortality. Surreality, pornography, a creature from another world. The distance between molecules …and stars in the universe, insignificant. 2 workmen lifting ladders into outer-space, a kiss …And…

AUSFENG presents MULAN. Acrobatic Show performed by CHONGQING ACROBATIC ART TROUPE OF CHINA at the State Theatre, Sydney. “Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe is one of the most famous acrobatic troupes in China and the oldest local acrobatic troupe since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. It has become renowned around the world.” For those of us that have grown bored with the format and formula of Cirque de Soleil (but certainly not its remarkable performers) this troupe from the People’s Republic of China brings an old fashioned (and unintentionally naive) entertainment of amazing acrobatic, gymnastic skills in the…