Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Photo by Robert Cato Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta, in association with Apocalypse Theatre Company present, THE GIRL THE WOMAN, in the Lennox Theatre, at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. 28 June – 7th July. THE GIRL THE WOMAN, is a new Australian play by Aanisa Vylet. THE GIRL has existed as a play before and the THE WOMAN is a recent development. The combined work, then, has been 12 years in the making. Ms Vyet combines her training skills as an actor from University of Western Sydney and her training at Jacques Lecoq School of Movement Theatre in Paris and…

The Ensemble Theatre presents an Australian premiere of, UNQUALIFIED, by Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 22 June – 21 July. UNQUALIIFED, a new Australian play nurtured and commissioned by the Ensemble Theatre, from two actors/writers. Joanne (Genevieve Hegney) has found her TV star husband is heading to Bankruptcy and Bali with his latest girlfriend. Enough is enough – this relationship MUST end. Felicity (Catherine Moore) has worked as a butcher in her father’s meat business and does not want to inherit it – she has secretly hated it. How can she tell her dearest, darling…

Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents THE HYPOCHONDRIAC, a new version by Hilary Bell of Molieres’ play, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St, Darlinghurst. 9 Jun – 1 July. Moliere’s LA MALADE IMAGINAIRE, retitled as THE HYPOCHONDRIAC, in a new Australian version by Hilary Bell. Moliere is regarded as the greatest playwright in the French language. His acting company gained the favour of Louis XIV (The Sun King) and was protected from censorship and threat of closure as the Theatre du Roi (The King’s Troupe), for Moliere had an unsparing eye to the major pillars of his community and revealed with scolding…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti The Ensemble Theatre presents, MARJORIE PRIME, by Jordan Harrison, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 15th June – 21st July. MARJORIE PRIME, is an American play, by Jordan Harrison, that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. The play is set in this mid-twenty-first century. Tess (Lucy Bell) is caring for her ageing and deteriorating mother Marjorie (Maggie Dence). She is beginning to experience a creeping dementia. Jon (Richard Sydenham), Tess’ husband, has organised from a Robot Company, a Prime. A Prime is a fully personalised life-look-alike. They have created for Marjorie, Walter Prime (Jake…

Photo by Patrick Boland Daniel Schlusser Ensemble presents, THEY DIVIDED THE SKY, a novel by Christa Wolf, adapted for the stage by Daniel Schlusser, in the Downstairs Belvoir St Theatre. 13 – 30 June. THEY DIVIDED THE SKY, is a new Australian play, based on an East German book (1963), by novelist Christa Wolf, adapted for the stage by Daniel Schlusser, as an exploration by the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble from Melbourne. This Ensemble has been working since 2009 and has developed a particular formula to investigate for the theatre. Mr Schlusser in interview has talked of the ‘protective’ nature that…

bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of DRESDEN, by Justin Fleming, at the Kings Cross Theatre (KXT), Kings Cross Hotel. !5 – 30 June. DRESDEN is a new Australian play by Justin Fleming. August Kubizek, remembers attending a performance of Richard Wagner’s opera RIENZI, der Letzte der Tribunen (the last of the Tribunes), of 1838-40, in the relatively new Opera House, the Konigliches Hoftheater, in Dresden, with his young 17 year old friend, Adolf Hitler, in 1906. The libretto was written by Wagner, based on the book by British novelist, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and tells the story of Rienzi, a…