Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Sydney Theatre Company and Medina Apartment Hotels present RABBIT by Nina Raine at Wharf 1. This British play was written and first performed in London 2006 “for which Nina Raine won both London Standard and Critic’s Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright”. Ms Raine recently expressed surprise that her “little” play has had such a big life. For it also has had a showing in an Off Broadway house in New York in 2007, and in New Zealand. The play is not really covering any new ground (What play can?) except it is covering a contemporary Generation Y in…

  Sydney Theatre Company presents FRANKENSTEIN. Created by Lally Katz, Ralph Myers, Stefan Gregory. Based on the Book by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Performed at Wharf 2. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, British novelist was the daughter of the rationalist philosopher William Godwin and the feminist writer and radical Mary Wollstonecraft and became the second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She wrote FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS in 1818. It is essentially about a man who created a monster. Ralph Myers (the Director) and Lally Katz (the Writer. This is the first work of hers that I have seen performed. Very exciting.) believes…

  FORCE MAJEURE and CARRIAGEWORKS present A DANCE THEATRE PERFORMANCE DIRECTED by KATE CHAMPION: THE AGE I’M IN. THE AGE I’M IN was first presented at Sydney Festival and Adelaide International Festival in 2008. This is the first time I have seen this work. I have to confess I have not always enjoyed or liked this company’s work. On reflection, after witnessing this work last night, it maybe because the work was always a work that was in its premiere season. The task of creating, rehearsing, solving problems artistic, and with this company’s work, technical as well, and then presenting…

    Sauna Productions & inc.studios in association with B Sharp present the Australian Premiere of QUEEN C by Laura Ruohonen, translated by David Hackston. At the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. “Sauna productions was founded in 2004 by Yvonne Strzechowski and Ona Nurkkala with the aim of bringing Nordic theatre to Australian audiences.” Their partner in this enterprise “inc.studios was established in 2006 by actor/producer Nicole da Silva. inc.studios aims to bring contemporary stories from across the globe to Australian audiences. Its focus is on creating more roles for women both on and off the stage.” These aspirations are honourable…

  GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY and NOWYESNOW BY ARRANGEMENT WITH INSITE ARTS PRESENT TENDER by Nicki Bloom at the SBW Stables Theatre. This play was presented last year in the B Sharp Season 2007 . The creative team in all departments are the same, so there has been a year to let this work mature. It was remarkable then, it still is. This is a very exciting and interesting new Australian play and playwright. The experience of the play is much like a psychological thriller where the chronological order of the events have been jigsawed and sorted, you are invited in…

    By Arrangement with Paul Eliott, Adam Kenwright and Pat Moylan, Queensland Theatre Company presents STONES IN HIS POCKETS by Marie Jones. This is an Irish play about an American film company making a film “in an unnamed scenic village in County Kerry, Ireland.” We meet some of the film makers and some of the locals who are working on the film as extras etc. Why anyone in Brisbane would care is beyond me. Why anyone other than perhaps the Irish would care is beyond me. In fact the audience I sat with last night seemed more than slightly…