Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Sydney Opera House in association with Showwork present, HEATHERS – The Musical. Book, Music and Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, based on the film by Daniel Waters, in The Playhouse, at the Sydney Opera HOUSE, 8 June – 26 June, 2016. HEATHERS – The Musical by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, based on the 1990 film, written by Daniel Waters, and starring 16 year old Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, was a complete surprise for me. I had never seen the cult film set in the grossness of 1980’s fashion with all the horrors of American High…

  Sydney Theatre Company and UBS present, ALL MY SONS, by Arthur Miller, in the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Hickson Rd. Walsh Bay, 4 June – 9 July, 2016. This Sydney Theatre Company (STC) production is the second presentation of the great Arthur Miller’s play, ALL MY SONS, last seen in Sydney two years ago. The last was seen as the premiere play production for the Darlinghurst Theatre Company in the then new Eternity Theatre, Directed by Iain Sinclair. The pertinence of this play dealing with the challenges of a man and the ethical decisions that he may have to make…

Photo by Amanda James National Theatre of Parramatta presents, STOLEN, by Jane Harrison, in the Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, 2 June – 17 June. STOLEN, by Jane Harrison, had its original premiere some 18 years ago in 1998. I had not seen (or read) the play before. It is the story of five ‘victims’ of the Stolen generation. It’s potency is undeniable and is shaming. Memories from the RABBIT PROOF FENCE, the 2002 film by Philip Noyce, kept returning to me during this performance. The play and its original setting has been re-thought by the Director, Vicki Van Hout…

  Griffin Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare present THE LITERATI, by Justin Fleming after Moliere’s LES FEMMES SAVANTES, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, 27 May- 16 July. THE LITERATI, is an adaptation by Australian writer Justin Fleming, of Moliere’s LES FEMMES SAVANTES, presented in a co-production by Bell Shakespeare – a company dedicated to texts of classic heritage – and the Griffin Theatre Company – Sydney’s company dedicated to present new Australian work. Moliere was the stage name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), an actor, and the author of a series of comedies that has some regard him…

  Sport For Jove presents THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, by William Shakespeare, in the Riverside Theatre, Riverside, Parramatta. 5-7 May. A season at the Seymour Centre, follows on 19-28 May. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is one of the plays of Shakespeare, that can find itself, often, the centre of deep contemporary cultural-political debate, controversy. Says Norrie Epstein in his THE FRIENDLY SHAKESPEARE [1]: The play’s misogyny, whether Shakespeare’s or Petruchio’s (In the original play the Katherine-Petruchio story is the illusion created for a drunken character called Sly, by some callous young noblemen), has caused something of a problem…

  A Tasmania Performs production, co-presented by Tasmania Performs and Griffin Theatre Company, AS WE FORGIVE, by Tom Holloway, in the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. May 12 – 21. AS WE FORGIVE, by Tom Holloway, presents three monologues: Vengeance, Hatred, Forgiveness. “Three Morality Plays For an Amoral Age” performed by the one actor, Robert Jarman. It is elegantly Directed by Julian Meyrick, employing a co-design of his own, alongside Jill Munro, featuring a series of visual images that appear on a reddish screen throughout the production – this was the one element that held my attention appreciatively, throughout. A…