Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Apocalypse Theatre Company and Griffin Independent presents, THE DAPTO CHASER, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the SBW Theatre, Kings Cross, Sydney, 1-25 July. THE DAPTO CHASER is a new Australian play by Mary Rachel Brown. It was commissioned by Illawarra’s Merrigong Theatre Company, in 2011. Dapto, a suburb of Wollongong, has a ‘famous’ greyhound race track. The play concerns a family, the Sinclair’s, and their greyhound connections, ambitions and dreams. Horse racing is known as the Sports of Kings – presumably relating to the cost to engage in such a sport. The racing of dogs, greyhounds, is, mainly, in…

Photo by Keith Saunders Pinchgut Opera present BAJAZET, by Antonio Vivaldi (1735), at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, 4, 5, 7 & 8 July, 2015. Pinchgut Opera presents, BAJAZET, an Italian Opera, music by Antonio Vivaldi, Libretto by Agostino Piovene, first performed in Verona in 1735. This is this opera’s first performance in the Southern Hemisphere. Pinchgut Opera, a Sydney company, have since 2008, presented Baroque Opera at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place. This is the second year that it has presented two productions in a year. BAJAZET, is the first of 2015, and in December, Andre Gretry’s…

  LCW presents, Avenue Q – The Musical, at the Enmore Theatre, Enmore Rd, Enmore, 2 July – 15 July. AVENUE Q, Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marks, Book by Jeff Whitney, based on the original concept of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marks, is back in Sydney, under the banner of a new Production Company: Luke Wesley and LCW, at the Enmore Theatre, for a very short stay. I recommend that you go. The ‘blues’ of the day will spin away for the time that you spend in the theatre, for sure. First seen in the USA…

  Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) present EGARR AND THE GOLDEN AGE, at the Concert Hall, in the Sydney Opera House. Richard Egarr has been the Music Director of the Ancient Academy of Music since 2006 and is, for a second time, the guest artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). The sheer ebullient joy, the irrepressible spirit, that Mr Eagarr radiates to the orchestra and audience combined with a keen love of music, especially in his area of expertise, was an added bonus to the expectant pleasure of being at an ACO concert once again. One never leaves an ACO…

  Thom Jordan and the Red Line Productions present CLEANSED IN BLOOD, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo. 23 June- 27 June. In the late night spot at the Old Fitz, after the performance of MISTERMAN by Enda Walsh, we were treated to a new Australian work, a monologue written and performed by Thom Jordan, that co-incidentally has a man of religion centre stage, too. Mr Jordan, himself, a son of a minister, has written a character called Paul, who has a similar background, but unlike the author, has not been ‘rescued’, and has found his way into the ministry of…

  Siren Theatre Co in association with Red Line Productions present MISTERMAN by Enda Walsh, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo, 11 June – 27 June. MISTERMAN (1999) is the third play by Irish playwright, Enda Walsh, that the Director, Kate Gaul has Produced and Directed for Sydney audiences. The achievements of Ms Gaul’s work on THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM (2005) and PENELOPE (2010) speaks clearly to the simpatico that she has with the writing and world of Mr Walsh. MISTERMAN is a 55 minute Irish monologue. The technical demands of the play are immense and it would need a…