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The Wizard of Oz

Belvoir presents, THE WIZARD OF OZ, after L. Frank Baum, in the Belvoir St Upstairs Theatre, Surry Hills, May 2 – May 31. THE  WIZARD OF OZ, is Directed by Adena Jacobs, following on from her HEDDA GABLER ‘investigation – interrogation” last year for the Belvoir audience. This is not an adaption of the novel, or even of the famous film. From the program notes: Jacobs stark re-imagining of L. Frank Baum’s narrative masterpiece (1900) is an abstract theatrical poem about innocence, grief and the terror of growing up. The production is not a stage adaption of the novel, rather Jacobs…

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Oedipus Rex

Photo by Pia Johnson Belvoir presents OEDIPUS REX in the Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. 21 August – 21 September. It is over a month since I saw this “meditation on the myth of OEDIPUS REX.” We enter the theatre and look at a spare space with some plastic sheeting framed roughly in the back left hand corner to form a covered passage way. The lights black out and we submit to a long, extended silence. Somebody blows in my ear – undermining the artistic intent, perhaps, but taking advantage of the much publicised offer? The lights return and…

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Hedda Gabler (adapted by Adena Jacobs)

Photo by by Ellis Parrinder Belvoir presents HEDDA GABLER, adapted by Adena Jacobs, from the play by Henrik Ibsen, at Belvoir St Upstairs Theatre, 28 June – 3 August. Adena Jacobs has adapted and Directed Henrik Ibsen’s great play, HEDDA GABLER (1890), into an 85 minute imagining of actor Ash Flanders playing Hedda that had, some time in her preparation, planning, “suddenly” allowed her to perceive “the poetry of Ibsen’s play anew – the yearning of escape, the terror of difference, a person squeezing out of their environment, the paradox of freedom.” Ash Flanders is a Melbourne-based theatre-maker. In 2006 he…

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Persona

Belvoir presents PERSONA, a FRAUGHT OUTFIT production. Based on the film by Ingmar Bergman. Conceived by Adena Jacobs, Dayna Morrissey and Danny Pettingill in the Upstairs Belvoir Theatre. PERSONA is a film made by Ingmar Bergman in 1966 – writer, director. It is regarded by some to be his masterpiece and is rated highly as one of the top – greatest – films ever made. Much discourse can be found as people attempt to analyze every element of the film. Study the critical essays and you can be bewildered. If you go on line it will overwhelm you. At best, I simply…

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