Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

flour sugar tea-Tales & Arts Radar in association with B Sharp presents, dirty butterfly by Debbie Tucker Green in the Downstairs Theatre. dirty butterfly is a 55 minute, two scene play concerning domestic violence. Written in 2003 by British writer Debbie Tucker Green, her first produced play (Soho Theatre Company), of British-Jamaican decent it introduced a writer with some poetic gifts and a social/political agenda. Sydney has already seen a later play by Ms Green: STONING MARY at the Griffin Theatre in June, 2008. This play concerns three characters living in different apartments that unfortunately ‘leak’ noise. Amelia (Sara Zwangobani)…

Christine Dunstan Productions presents Tall Stories Production of THE GRUFFALO. The magical musical adaptation of the award-winning book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler at the Seymour Centre. It is school holidays in Sydney. I was invited to a performance of this adaptation of the children’s book THE GRUFFALO. It was a wet day but the auditorium was packed and stacked out with an excited horde of young theatre-goers and some presiding adults. All were apparent fans of this book for when the play began they were captivated by the adventures of the MOUSE (Crystal Hegedis) looking for nuts in…

Company B Belvoir presents MEASURE FOR MEASURE, written by William Shakespeare. Adapted & Directed by Benedict Andrews, for the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. From Benedict Andrews’ Director’s notes in the programme:A PLAY OF MIRRORS. MEASURE FOR MEASURE is my third Shakespeare staging concerned with the mechanics of power. JULIUS CAESAR (2005) dealt with the theatrics of government, and THE WAR OF THE ROSES (2009) raised the spectres of sovereign power which haunt our concept of society. MEASURE FOR MEASURE looks into the ‘very nerves of state’ where the economies of desire and law interlock. This MEASURE FOR MEASURE is set…

CAGELING presented by THE RABBLE at Carriageworks, Sydney. THE RABBLE re-imagine Federico Garcia Lorca’s classic text ‘THE HOUSE OF BERNARD ALBA’. From the program notes: “A NOTE ON THE CONTEXT. Lorca leaves the following instruction at the beginning of THE HOUSE OF BENRNADA ALBA: The poet advises that these three acts are intended as a photographic documentary. We have taken these instructions and produced CAGELING – an exploration of repression, gender, sexuality and grief. The premise of the original play remains: our family will mourn for eight years, no weeping is allowed…” Further :”A NOTE ON CONTENT. Our process is…

Daryl Roth, Stacy Shane, Martian Entertainment present THE TEMPERAMENTALS by Jon Marans at the New World Stages, New York. “Temperamental” was an American slang word for homosexual in the 40’s and 50’s. THE TEMPERAMENTALS by Jon Marans is a play about the men who formed the Mattachine Society in 1950, in Los Angeles. It was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s short-lived Society for Human rights,1924. As you can see, well before the turning point of the Stonewall Riots in New York, the GLBT community. This play is then a type…

Company B Belvoir and Black Swan Theatre Company present THE SAPPHIRES at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney. THE SAPPPHIRES by Tony Briggs and Directed by Wesley Enoch won two Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work and Best Play in 2005. This is a revival production that began in January as part of the Perth International Arts Festival and since has toured to several venues in Victoria and after this season here in Sydney, travels internationally to South Korea for a short season. There are plans to make a film of this work. After the success of BRAN NUE…