Category: Benjamin Brockman

New Theatre presents, WHEN THE RIAN STOPS FALLING, by Andrew Bovell, at the New Theatre, King St., Newtown. 17 March – 18 April, 2015. This production of Andrew Bovell’s WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING, at the New Theatre left me in a gratified mood of semi-euphoria. I saw the original Brink Theatre production in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, in 2009, and rated it has one of the great experiences of new Australian writing I had had for a long time. Seeing the New Theatre’s more modest production does not diminish that memory in any way, and…

Photograph by Marnya Rothe Red Line Productions presents MASTERCLASS, written and performed by Charlie Garber and Gareth Davies at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo. 14 Jan -31 Jan. MASTERCLASS at the Old Fitz, devised, written and performed by Charlie Garber and Gareth Davies, begins with two men coming onto an empty stage and talking. Apparently, having worked together in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and AS YOU LIKE IT at Belvoir, and though given some leeway to interact ‘creatively’ together by Director, Eamon Flack, these two men felt somewhat ‘hampered’ by the requirements of someone else’s text (Shakespeare) and decided that they wanted to…

  Claire Lovering in association with The Old 505 Theatre presents, RIVER, written by Claire Lovering, at The Theatre 505, Hibernian House, Level 5, 342 Elizabeth St, Central Railway. 18Nov – 23 Nov. RIVER, written and performed by Claire Lovering began its life as a ten minute monologue at a Rocksurfers’ Cut and Paste in May 2014 that became a one-hour performance that premiered at the Rocksurfers’ Bondi Feast Festival in July 2014. It has since been rewritten and dramaturged under the guidance of Sarah Giles for this season at The Old 505 Theatre.” It is travelling to Perth and…

Photograph by Lucy Parakhina Umhappen presents KILL THE PM by Fregmonto Stokes, at the Old 505 Theatre. Hibernian House, Level 5, 342 Elizabeth St., Surry Hills, October 8 – 26. KILL THE PM, a new Australian play. Four young people, Rowan (Nicholas Hiatt), Flick (Zoe Jensen), Pete (Michael McStay) and Naomi (Lily Newbury-Freeman), meet in an apartment overlooking a busy traffic way, along which the Prime Minister will travel, preparing for a planned assassination. There are fetid discussions reflecting the various philosophical and political standpoints of each, and an interaction between all four that seems to be undermining the cohesion…

Kurt Sneddon, Blueprint Studios. Reginald Season 2014. Slip of the Tongue presents EUROPE by Michael Gow, in the Reginald Theatre, at the Seymour Centre, in Chippendale. 10 – 27 September. Michael Gow has written some 15 plays for the Australian repertoire and I believe he is one of the more interesting and consistent contributors to our performing arts culture. My favourites: THE KID (1983); AWAY (1986); EUROPE (1987); SWEET PHOEBE (1994); and TOY SYMPHONY (2007). This year Belvoir premiered his latest, ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID’S CITY. I confess, AWAY is one of my three top favourite (sentimental) Australian plays, alongside Ray…

Photo by Katy Green Loughrey Brevity Theatre Company in association with Sydney Independent Theatre Company presents the Sydney Premiere of WITTENBURG by David Davalos at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. It is 1517, and Hamlet (Alexander Butt) has returned, for a tennis tournament, to his university at Wittenburg, from a summer vacation in Poland where he has been studying astronomy with “One Doctor Nikolai Copernik …” and is facing a spiritual dilemma based around new ideas, theories, that the earth moves around the sun, and not as his church (the good old Roman one) has taught him, that the sun…