Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Ensemble Theatre presents ODD MAN OUT, by David Williamson, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli, 19 January – 18 March. ODD MAN OUT, is a new Australian play, by David Williamson. The play explores a relationship between Ryan (Justin Stewart Cotta), a ‘numbers’ genius employed and paid well by a Big Bank for his skills, who suffers from an undiagnosed case of Aspergers’ Syndrome and Alice (Lisa Gormley) a 38 year old physical therapist counting down her fertility clock with some urgency. We watch Ryan and Alice meet on a bus (what he is doing on bus, with all his…

The year has begun with some ‘flicks’ of a wonderfully high order. JACKIE JACKIE is Directed by Pablo Larrain (NERUDA), Written by Noah Oppenheim. It focuses on the 4 days after the assassination of President John Kennedy and the public ceremony that commemorated his funeral. The framework of the story we are told is centred around the famous interview between LIFE Magazine journalist, Theodore H White and Jackie Kennedy. This gives room for the film to roam, selectively, back and forth over the life of Jackie with Kennedy, with an especially interesting re-creation of the black and white White House…

CHAMPIONS, from Form Dance Projects for Sydney Festival. World Premiere, in Bay 17, Carriageworks, Redfern, 17 – 22 January. Martin del Amo, is responsible for Concept and Direction, also, Choreography and Text (along with the Dancers) for CHAMPIONS. He says in the program notes: A commonly held belief is that sport and the arts do not go together. The argument goes that artists often think of athletes as competition-obsessed ‘boofheads’, while in turn, athletes deride artists as self-indulgent ‘wankers’. … CHAMPIONS is a dance piece presented as if it is a sporting event. … The largest of the performing spaces…

Sydney Theatre Company presents THE TESTAMENT OF MARY, by Colm Toibin, in the Wharf 1 Theatre, Walsh Bay, 13 January – 23 February. I trained as an actor and have spent a long time/career teaching actors, so, I am just saying, as someone who has a high regard for acting and actors: The last productions from the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) for their Sydney audience concluded five weeks ago (or so) with the closing of A FLEA IN HER EAR (9 actors), SPEED THE PLOUGH (3 actors) and THE WHARF REVUE (4 actors). In the mean time Christmas and New Year, and…

Photograph by Steven Rhall Belvoir present an ILBIJERRI Theatre Company production is association with Sydney Festival, WHICH WAY HOME, by Katie Beckett, in the Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, 11-29 January. WHICH WAY HOME, is a play by Katie Beckett. It is a kind of ‘love letter’ to her father. She wanted, she writes in the program notes to the production, ‘to give him something so he knows how special he is and what he means to me.’ Set in a car on a road journey back to her father’s country a Daughter and a Father remember, reflect…

Photo by Eric Berry Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta and Sydney Festival presents, HAKAWATI, created by Wayne Harrison, in the El Phoenician Restaurant, Parramatta, 11-21 January. HAKAWATI, is an evening of food and entertainment. It has been inspired by the Middle Eastern ancient tradition of storytelling and breaking bread. In the sophisticated circumstances of the El Phoenician restaurant in Church St, Parramatta a long table, seating 40-50 people, has been elegantly prepared for a four course dinner of Lebanese cuisine. At either end of the table, on a raised platform, an ornate wooden framed armed, high backed, red-velvet chair/throne awaits…