Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

Sydney Conservatorium of Music presents ENGLISH ECCENTRICS, by Malcolm Williamson, at the Music Workshop at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music,  October, 12, 14, 16, 17. I was alerted to this student production of ENGLISH ECCENTRICS, an opera from 1964, by Australian Composer, Malcolm Williamson and made my way to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on the recent sunny Saturday afternoon. The irritating and ebullient Michael Cathcart, of Radio National BOOKS AND ARTS, has been on-air on a, sometimes, hyper-ventilated mission to find the new Australian Opera. So, I hope he caught this – for it is a find, indeed, although,…

Griffin Theatre Company presents The World Premiere of A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL, by Kit Brookman, at the SBW Theatre, Kings Cross. 10 Oct -21 Nov. Says the writer, Kit Brookman about this new Australian play, his latest play, A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL: This play is not a true story, but it is inspired by one. In 2006, In Germany, a breeder of giant rabbits was approached by the North Korean government to acquire a number of his rabbits, ostensibly for a breeding program to be set up in North Korea. No one quite knows what happened next, except…

  Bell Shakespeare presents THE TEMPEST, by William Shakespeare, in the Playhouse Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, 19 August -18 September, 2015. This production of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST (1611) from Bell Shakespeare, Directed by John Bell, is Mr Bell’s farewell production for the company he founded twenty-five years ago. Mr Bell has played the role of Prospero three times in his career and it is interesting to read in his Director’s Notes, in the program, his debunking of the notion that THE TEMPEST was Shakespeare’s last play and that it is a valediction, with Prospero as a self-portrait of…

Photo by Regis Lansac Ken Unsworth in collaboration with Australian Dance Artists presents, DEPARTURES, with the original music of Jonathan Cooper, at 137 Belmont St. Alexandria. October 1-4, October 14-17. DEPARTURES, at the workshop of the Australian sculptor, Ken Unsworth, is the fourth association/collaboration by that artist, and the Australian Dance Artists: Susan Barling, Anca Frankenhaeuser, Patrick Harding-Irmer and Ross Philip. Conceived by Mr Unsworth, some large sculptural pieces, conceived for the dancers to utilise and invent about and upon, plus other exquisite hand properties have been ‘manufactured’, for choreographic impact, all supported by an original score by Jonathan Cooper…

Photography by Marnya Rothe The Seymour Centre and Sport For Jove present, EDWARD II written by Christopher Marlowe, in the Reginald Theatre, at the Seymour Centre. Christopher (Kit) Marlowe born in 1564, died in 1593. Queen Elizabeth I herself was said to have pronounced Christopher Marlowe’s death sentence (‘prosecute it to the full’) at court. He died from a puncture wound above the eye at the house of a widow in Deptford. The Queen’s Coroner attributed the killing to a quarrel over ‘the reckoning’, a bill for food and drink, but many have long suspected that the murder had other…

Pacific Opera, in association with the Sydney Youth Orchestra, presents THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, by Leos Janacek, in New Hall, at Sydney Grammar School. 2, 3 October. THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, by Leos Janacek, was his last work and premiered in 1924. Opera Australia (or the Australian Opera) have presented it, several times. In this instance, Pacific Opera have secured the sure hands and experienced skills of conductor Alexander Briger to guide and bring it to coherent life, which is no small feat. Says Michael Campbell in his Director’s notes: … One aspect of [the complexity of this work] is…