Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Photo by Robert Catto Stone Soup and Griffin Independent present, THOMAS MURRAY AND THE UPSIDE DOWN RIVER, by Reg Cribb, at the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. 13 – 30 January, 2016. THOMAS MURRAY AND THE UPSIDE DOWN RIVER is a new play by Reg Cribb. Mr Cribb has created plays and screen works at a highly consistent rate. Last year, being at the creative centre of the award winning Australian film, LAST CAB TO DARWIN, based on his 2003 play. This new play seems to me the most ambitious project to date: a kind of poetic metaphor telling the…

2015 was a fairly testy and testing time in the theatre for me. Not much happened to arrest my attention until late in the year. It had been fairly dire. Belvoir with very few exceptions, awful. The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) very hit and miss – lots of miss. The Griffin mostly ordinary and the Darlinghurst Theatre Company, too, all ‘over the shop’ as they say. I took some conscious solace by attending some Music stuff just to get an injection of above average standard. Oh, well. (Hey Guys,This is numbered for convenience not for preferential listing.Puleeese!) Best New Australian…

Sydney Theatre Company presents ARMS AND THE MAN, by George Bernard Shaw in the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, 13 September – 31st October, 2015. This is a catch-up diary entry for ARMS AND THE MAN. It was seen in September/October for goodness sake! I am always keen to see the work of G.B. Shaw on stage. I do count his work as some of my favourite: HEARTBREAK HOUSE, SAINT JOAN, MAN AND SUPERMAN, MAJOR BARBARA, PYGMALION, MISALLIANCE even THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, are want to see’s. Maybe even YOU NEVER CAN TELL…

Sydney Theatre Company and Colonial First State Global Asset Management present, KING LEAR, by William Shakespeare at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, 28 November – 8 January, 2016. KING LEAR. Not another HAMLET. KING LEAR. Yippee! 1603. The ancient Virgin Queen is dying and she has tactically avoided naming an heir. The English Government, and hence her people, fear civil war if she has not – a divided kingdom of clamouring claimants. She has lost so many teeth she is difficult to understand and, so, when she lost her speech altogether those that tended her asked her…

  Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Ian, John Frost and The Really Useful Group present, THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Music by Richard Rogers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by “The Trapp Family Singers” by Maria Augusta Trapp. At the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, 17 December – 22 February, 2016. Alright, this is the first time that I have ever seen THE SOUND OF MUSIC, live. BUT, when I was 17 going on 18, my brother (a sibling only 18 months younger than I) had seen the movie and loved it. It was the paramount…

Photo by by Christine Chahoud The Goods Theatre Company in association with Red Line Productions presents, DROPPED, by Katy Warner, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St Wooloomooloo. 8 December – 20 Decmber, 2015. DROPPED, is an Australian play first premiered in 2013, at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Katy Warner, the Writer, was responding to the parliamentary decision to allow women to fight on the frontline. “The decision”, says the Director, Anthony Skuse, in his program notes: represented a significant shift; not only in terms of opportunities for women in the military, but more broadly, it challenged conventional notions of female…