This is a wonderful piece of writing and Robyn Nevin was wonderfully vulnerable in this one person piece. I saw this early in the run (twice) and felt that I had never seen Ms Nevin so delicate and fragile with her usual strengths of cool intelligence and insight. Sensitively supported by Cate Blanchett with a provocative Set Design by Alice Babidge beautifully lit by Nick Schlieper and an abrasive but mostly apt Sound Design. Stimulating.
First up in March was a Sydney Theatre Company offer from its New or Experimental Theatre wing WHARF2LOUD. They have invited the De Quincey Co to present: ’embrace: GUILT FRAME’. Usually this company is seen at The Performance Space in Sydney, a space known for its experimental nature. Tess De Quincey and Peter Snow presented a 45 minute experience of “art” within the frame work of a gilt picture frame. This is one of a series of explorations using structural elements drawn from The Natyasastra – an ancient Indian treatise on artistic practice, in which the performers negotiate a series…
Sydney is famous in February for the SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS month-long Festival. Two of the projects I saw were, firstly, a short new work THE FABULOUS PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW by Brent Thorpe at the Cleveland Street Theatre. The text is muddled and the Gay Politics feel dated but there are some amusing “sketch” comedy bits. The direction by Anthony Skuse and the really marvelous Design by Rita Carmody supported gorgeously by the Lighting Design of Verity Hampson has more than a whiff of the old Lindsay Kemp theatrics. Arky Michael gives a brilliantly dark physical, vocal…
Based on a true life murder / court case this is what the writer calls a “sing-a story”. It is not a Dance show. It is Drama. The book and Lyrics follow a conventional linear journey with just the usual curiosity of a terrible serial killer murder, hunt and trial to keep us attentive. The text is sometimes baldly dangerous in its lack of insight or poetry. (The song lyrics are also sometimes so poorly projected that one is no wiser at the end of the song as one was when it began).The music is good but there are echoes…
The production values are minimum, the direction intense but mostly only efficient, and acting that is uneven, the playwriting is so skilful and pared down to theatrical urgency and tension that the experience for the audience is assured and gripping. Quite exciting. Simon Stephens is a great playwright!!
At the Belvoir Theatre, Company B under the auspices of Neil Armfield presented a relatively new Australian Play, THE SEED by Kate Mulvany. Originally presented in the 80 odd seater downstairs as part of the 2007 B Sharp Season, an annually curated season of Co-operative Theatre Companies, the play has been invited to play in the Main House Upstairs. This is a much larger space (300 odd seats). The experiential heat of a close space often covers the faults of a play. But in this bigger space the play is exposed at a comfortable distance from the emotional breaths and…