Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

I attended this production with just a little trepidation. The colour photograph in the Sydney Morning Herald with all that “blood” all over the actors and the set looked…. well…. as if I were heading into another….. “Koskyesque” adventure in the theatre. After THE WOMEN OF TROY with the typical production “tricks” of the Kosky oeuvre and my shell shocked experience in the Ride On Company’s production of FAMILY STORIES: BELGRADE maybe my sensibilities were a little depleted and distressed. Now, I do not know much about Heiner Muller, except a little I have gleaned from reading and brief conversations…

The most important note in the program is from the writer John Doyle “This is my first play.” This is this very experienced writer’s, first play. Mr Doyle has being “honoured by the Australian Writing Guild for comedy eight times and for both of his mini-series, CHANGI and MARKING TIME. CLUB BUGGERY won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy; THE DREAM a Logie for Most Popular Comedy and CHANGI, the Logie for Most Outstanding Drama. MARKING TIME received a 2004 Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Mini-series/Telemovie, a 2004 AFI award for Best Screenplay in Television and the NSW Premier’s…

This play is written by a Serbian author dealing with the games children (may) play in the debris of a war zone. The war zone can be that of the domestic house front between the sexes, between the generations, between the neighbours, next door or next city. It is the terrible tale of the Human Animal when placed in extremes of stress. The stress is always relative and always viable for those in the thick of it. My body. My bed. My bedroom. My house. My suburb. My city. My country. And it is the humanity of it. The mothers…

There has been a BUZZ around this production. I made sure I got there despite my schedule and the uncommunicative Box Office at Belvoir. I rang twice, hung on twice for almost ten minutes and finally walked to the theatre, the day before, to get my ticket. Now isn’t that dedication to my pursuit of a good time? Part of the reason why, may be the reputation of the writer. Tracy Letts, an American writer, is the new flavour of the year. His play, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY first presented at STEPPENWOLF Theatre in Chicago opened last year on Broadway and…

Arguably, five great classics of the repertory were promised this year in Sydney. The Bell Shakespeare presented HAMLET. The ANTIGONE at Belvoir. THE WOMEN OF TROY at the Sydney Theatre Company. The Ensemble Theatre as part of its celebratory 50th Anniversary Season offered DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Arthur Miller), and now the great German play Friedrich Schiller’s MARY STUART in a new version by Peter Oswald. This acclaimed version was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in 2005. Peter Oswald is a verse dramatist himself and has written this new version in a mixture of prose and poetry. MARY STUART is…

I attended this production late in its season. I had read and been told a lot of things about this production. None of them encouraging. And it did prove to be a very dispiriting night in the theatre. It had nothing to do with the performances . In fact, I should like to begin by congratulating the Actors of this company for a great show of professionalism. Valiantly giving committed and cheerful performances in what could only be a disheartening project. The theatre auditorium, fairly empty and those of us there, generally responding supportedly, but in a bewildered manner. Peter…