Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) in partnership with Pilot Theatre, from York Theatre Royal, present, WAR CRIMES, by Angela Betzien, at the ATYP Theatre, at the Wharf, Hickson Rd, 15 July – 1 August. Angela Betzien’s play, WAR CRIMES, won the 2012 Kit Denton Fellowship and the Queensland Literary Award for Playwriting. It’s staging in Sydney by the Australian Theatre for Young people (ATYP) down at the Hickson Rd Wharf, is in partnership with Pilot Theatre from York Theatre Royal made possible through the support of the European Union Cultural Fund as part of a project connecting 6…

  THE CANTERBURY TALES, created by Constantine Costi, James Vaughan, Michael Costi, at the New Theatre, King St Newtown, 15 July – August 1. If, when you see this show’s name – THE CANTERBURY TALES –  and you think of Chaucer (1343-1400): the father of the English language; the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, with Royal Patronage from Edward III, Richard II and even Henry IV, forget it. If you think of the 1968 musical version, too, forget it (anyway I’ve been told, great book, now dated music and lyrics). If you think it is some inspiration based…

    Two Peas present, EDMOND, by David Mamet, at Theatre 505, Hibernian House, 342 Elizabeth St. Central Railway, Surry Hills. 15 – 26 July. EDMOND was written by David Mamet, in 1982. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS came later, in 1984. The play is written in a one act mode but with 23 scenes. It begins with Edmond, a white white collar worker having his fortune read. He leaves the shop and leaves his wife and proceeds on a journey, a Pilgrim’s journey, through the decrepitude of the New York landscape of the late 70’s – early 80’s, meeting his fate…

  Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) in association with STARTTS, present, LITTLE BAGHDAD: LET’S PARTY LIKE IT’S 620BC, at the Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Fairfield, 11th and 12 July. LITTLE BAGHDAD: LET’S PARTY LIKE IT’S 620BC, was presented by Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) in association with STARTTS (Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors.) It is a festival developed in collaboration with Fairfield’s Iraqi community. Hosted by Layla and Firas Naji, it is the second iteration of Little Baghdad, bringing together artists, community members and first time visitors to Fairfield in a unique celebration of the Iraqi-Australian experience. A friend…

Photo by Marnya Rothe The Seymour Centre and Sport for Jove present, OF MICE AND MEN, by John Steinbeck, at the Reginald Theatre, The Seymour Centre, Chippendale, July 14 – August 1. OF MICE AND MEN, is an adaptation for the theatre of a 1937 novella of the same name, both written by John Steinbeck. The original production won Best Play in 1938 from the New York Drama Critics Award, and since has been adapted many times for other mediums – radio, television, opera and twice for the cinema: 1939, with Burgess Meredith as George Milton, and Lon Chaney Jnr as…

bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company in association with Red Line Productions presents THE ISHMAEL CLUB, by Bill Garner and Sue Gore, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo, 8 July – 18 July. THE ISHMAEL CLUB by Bill Garner and Sue Gore, is an Australian play from Melbourne. The Ishmael Club was a bohemian pledge made by a group of intoxicated young Melbourne artists in the early years of the last century, (there was a mention of Louis Esson, Australian Playwright and Dreamer of an Australian National Theatre, that arrested my attention early in the play). The play was inspired by a 1906…