Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Circa and Merrigong Theatre Company Co-Production, LANDSCAPE WITH MONSTERS, by Circa, created by Yaron Lifschitz and The Circa Ensemble, in the Illawara Arts Centre, Wollongong. 23rd September. LANDSCAPE WITH MONSTERS is a new circus-theatre work from the Circa Ensemble under the Direction of Yaron Lifschitz. It is a Brisbane based company. In the publicity blurb we are told: LANDSCAPE WITH MONSTERS tells the story of post-industrial cities now in decay. Metal and wooden objects intersect with fast-paced aerobatics. This intense physical new show is at once humorous and brutal, savage and beautiful. This is my first ‘meeting’ with Circa and…

Opera Australia and John Frost with Elizabeth Williams, Benjamin Lowy and Adrian Salpeter, Jeanne Arnold, Beckett Swede, Just For laughs Theatricals and Glass Half Full Productions, present MY FAIR LADY. Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, Music by Frederick Loewe. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture ‘PYGMALION’. At the Capitol Theatre, Campbell St, Haymarket, Sydney. 27 August – 14 October. I recently read DAZZLER, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOSS HART, a biography by Steven Bach (2001). It was an intriguing and subsequently, easy and enjoyable read giving one a look into the career…

  Darlinghurst Theatre Company, supported by Screenwise and Dominic Tayco and Darren Conlon, present, IN REAL LIFE, by Julian Larnach at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St, Darlinghurst. 15 September – 15 October. IN REAL LIFE, is a new Australian play, by Julian Larnach. Luke Rogers, the Director of this play, began a collaboration with the writer, Julian Larnach, almost three years ago. In the program notes, Mr Rogers uses a quote from Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology: ‘Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what…

Photo by Ross Waldron Catnip Productions and Seymour Centre present the Australian Premiere of THE NETHER, by Jennifer Haley, in the Reginald Theatre, the Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 13th September – 7th October. THE NETHER is an American play by young playwright, Jennifer Haley. It premiered in 2013. THE NETHER is set in the not too distant future: ‘Soon’, says the author. The nether is a development of the Internet – a virtual reality realm. The Nether realm is 1. Another world for mythical creatures 2. Demon World. 3. A dimension of Evil or Imagination The play begins in an interrogation room…

DINNER, is a British play, written in 2002, by Moira Buffini. In the original and published text, which is different to what we see in this production, produced by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), Paige (Caroline Brazier), a famous gourmet hostess, invites a group of middle class intellectuals (not aristocrats, as suggested in the program) to a, supposedly, celebratory dinner, for the successful publication of her husband’s, Lars (Sean O’Shea), philosophic how-to-live a happy life tome BEYOND BELIEF. Wynne (Rebecca Massey), a not famous painter, arrives without her husband Bob, a politician, who has just run off with one of…

Griffin Theatre Company presents, DIVING FOR PEARLS, by Katherine Thomson, in the SBW Stables Theatre Kings, Cross. 8 September – 28 October. DIVING FOR PEARLS, is an Australian play by Katherine Thomson, first performed in 1991 – a play, then, some 26 years old. However, this production, Directed by, Darren Yap, gives this play an energy and clarity that makes it resonate and feel as if it were written today, in 2017. This is a state-of-the-nation play delivered with confidence by all concerned. A good play – vivid, individual characters in wonderfully observed scenes, with dialogue that crackles and caresses…