Category: Alison Bell

Ambassador Theatre Group Asia Pacific and Red Live present, THE BEAST, by Eddie Perfect, in the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, 29 July – 21 August. THE BEAST, written by Eddie Perfect, began as a project at the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2013 and has now been taken up by the Ambassador Theatre Group on a commercial run – a rarity in Australia, indeed – which is, at the moment, playing in the Drama Theatre, in the Sydney Opera House. This is a new production and new casting from the original. The publicity blurb on the web-site tells…

Photo by Heidrun Lohr Belvoir presents OLD MAN by Matthew Whittet in the Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St, Surry Hills. OLD MAN by Matthew Whittet is a play in two parts (approximately 75 minutes long) that examines the relationship between a man and his father, and the same man and his own family. Part One begins with a monologue (not again! See MALICE TOWARDS NONE, I LOVE YOU, BRO and PORN.CAKE), one of several, given with a simple honesty by a father, Daniel (Leon Ford) recounting an ordinary morning that leads to a horrible revelation that his family has gone. Interspersed…

  Belvoir St. Theatre present AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. Surry Hills. Eamon Flack follows on from his 2009 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in the Downstairs Theatre at Belvoir Street, with AS YOU LIKE IT in the Upstairs Theatre – a promotion (?) In the program notes to the 2009, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Mr Flack tells us that he and his company had “…embraced the spirit of Shakespeare’s play and therefore not the letter.” Two years later, Mr Flack and his company in presenting AS YOU LIKE IT similarly,…

  Company B Belvoir and Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image present THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING. The Play. Adapted by Richard Tulloch from the Novel by Guus Kuljer. A few weeks ago writing about WAR HORSE and NATION, two projects that the National Theatre in London developed, with young audiences in mind , I “boldly” suggested that perhaps the STC could begin to be more enterprising in that area with the special commissioning of such like work for Sydney over our long festive summer break. Well, blow me down, there was I at the Belvoir on Saturday afternoon (after fearing I…

    Company B present THE PROMISE. Original play by Alexi Arbuzov. New Version by Nick Dear. Based on the translation by Ariadne Nicolaeff. At the Belvoir Theatre. THE PROMISE by Alexi Arbuzov was first published in 1965 and had an English stage production in November, 1966 at the Oxford Playhouse transferring into London the following year. The cast was a stellar young company; Judi Dench, Ian McShane, Ian McKellen. Mr McKellen (as Leonidik) won Most Promising New Actor for the performance. “Ancient” history, but indicates one of the reasons to do this play. It covers some Russian History, beginning…

  Sydney Theatre Company and Medina Apartment Hotels present RABBIT by Nina Raine at Wharf 1. This British play was written and first performed in London 2006 “for which Nina Raine won both London Standard and Critic’s Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright”. Ms Raine recently expressed surprise that her “little” play has had such a big life. For it also has had a showing in an Off Broadway house in New York in 2007, and in New Zealand. The play is not really covering any new ground (What play can?) except it is covering a contemporary Generation Y in…