Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

BLOWING WHISTLES is an English play by Matthew Todd skilfully adapted to the local Sydney scene by Alice Livingstone and Pete Nettell. This is a revival of a production of this play after a successful season at the B Sharp venue at Belvoir during the 2008 Mardi Gras festivities last February. The post card blurb suggests that “straight and gay audiences alike will relate to this comedy”. Certainly the gay audience will embrace it. They did last night. The play’s main story deals with two men, Nigel (Lindsay Moss) and Jamie ( Neil Phipps) on the night of their 10th…

This is the final work of the Sydney Dance Company in 2008. An intermediary year of three choreographers working with the dancers whilst in the hiatus of searching for a new Artistic leader. I personally feel the company has benefited much from the input and experience of the three guest choreographers: Meryl Tankard, Rafael Bonachela and now Aszure Barton. This work has the feel of a deliberate choice that is as opposite to The Bonachela as possible. The Bonachela 360 Degrees was bombastically contemporary in every area of creativity. It’s stature has grown for me over time and is even…

  To quote from the publicity postcard: “Bell Shakespeare’s JUST MACBETH! By Andy Griffiths is a really silly version of Shakespeare’s great big gory tragedy starring Andy, Lisa, Danny, and (yuck!) Jen from the JUST TRICKING!, JUST STUPID!, JUST SHOCKING! books. It’s got six funny but tragic actors, a garden gnome, and a severed head that talks Shakespearean. Plus, there are witches, WIZZ FIZZ, ghosts, girl germs, and weird Elizabethan things like soliloquies and sharp swords and other things beginning with S. An hilarious and irreverent take on one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, JUST MACBETH! will have you and…

Makropulos. Greek. Secrets. Crete. “Vanitas… ashes and dust.” Lawyers. Intestate will. Prima Donna. Opera. Magic. Madness. Suicide. Sex. Beauty. Potion. Hieronymous!!! (What an excitingly thrilling name.) Eternal life. Mystery. Words that to me conjure melodrama. These were the promise of an exciting and intriguing night in the theatre and they all appear in THE MAKRPULOS SECRET by Janacek. I had never seen this Opera before. I went to a Dress rehearsal on Saturday and was so moved, excited that I went again on Opening night. This is a revival of Neil Armfield’s 1996 production. The Design is by Carl Friedrich…

On entering the theatre, one encounters the seats swathed in white dust covers. (You are also provided with a history of the Trojan war and the events leading up to the play, neatly printed out for your perusal on your seat.) The stage is lit with fluorescents. Stark, cool unattractive reality. (Lighting by Damian Cooper.) Along the entire back wall of the raised theatre stage there is a huge jigsaw of wooden and metal lockers which you might find in a very old gymnasium dressing room. They are either stacked horizontally or vertically, some with doors but most not. It…

This play was the winner of the 2005 Griffin Award for New Writing. It is the first production of this play in Sydney after an initial presentation at the New Theatre as part of its New Directions season in August. The CARNIVORES. One would expect with a title like that the resonances of “an animal that feeds on flesh” would be reflected in the play. In the publicity description we are told “Thom and Graham are small players in the ethical murkiness of global capitalism, both up-market and black-market. As they grapple with family loyalty, rapacious multinationals, sexual opportunism and…