Category: Amanda Bishop

Photo by by Brett Boardman Darlinghurst Theatre Company present, SILENT NIGHT, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St. Darlinghurst. 10 November – 10 December. SILENT NIGHT, is a new Australian play, by Mary Rachel Brown, Directed by Glynn Nicholas. In July, 2015, this Writer and Director brought us THE DAPTO CHASER, a modest comedy/drama about working class dreams/angst in the greyhound racing industry, that has had a life touring around the country. SILENT NIGHT, tells us of a working class family, the Lickfolds, living in North Ryde – a suburb of Sydney (the one I grew up in!)…

Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and Bank Of America, Merrill Lynch present, The Wharf Revue 2014: OPEN FOR BUSINESS, created and written by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Philip Scott, at Wharf 1, Hickson Rd. Walsh Bay. 20 Oct – 20 Dec. The Wharf Revue has become a staple, stalwart, of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), end of year seasons. They must make a box office boon! Boom?! How many has it been? 14 or 15? 15, I think. I haven’t seen one for years. OPEN FOR BUSINESS is what I remember the Wharf Revue’s to be. Some awfully talented artists,…

Neglected Musicals presents VARIATIONS – The Musical by Nick Enright and Terry Clarke at Theatre 19 (ex-Darlinghurst Theatre), Potts Point. VARIATIONS – The Musical, Book and Lyrics by Nick Enright. Music by Terry Clarke. This is the ninth neglected musical presented by this company, and the first Australian work. It was quite a thrill to have the composer, Terry Clarke present, and to understand that he was an active assistant to this staged reading of the work. The original production of VARIATIONS was directed by John Bell and played at the Nimrod from December 2, 1982 – January 8, 1983…

“The Pillowman” won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Play after it was presented in London in 2003. It also was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005 in New York. On this outing I don’t think it will be similarly nominated in any such category in the Sydney Theatre Awards. The play is the same but clearly the production is not. This is the painful risk the playwright must take in the collaborative minefield of the Theatre. This play is set in a Totalitarian State somewhere, sometime. When it was done in 2003 and in 2005 in London…