Category: Blazey Best

DOGGED, by Andrea James and Catherine Ryan, directed by Declan Greene, is a new Australian play. It is set in the 1840’s during the colonisation with sheep farmers in the electorate that became McMillan, up in the Alpine district that we know today as Monash, but is Gunaikurnai land. DOGGED is an Australian Gothic tale of a white farm daughter (Blazey Best) with her dog (Anthony Yangoyan) scrambling in the primitive bush for a living and engaging with a Mother Dingo (Sandy Greenwood), in search of her “little ones”, her lost pups. It is a bleak unforgiving land realised in…

The ILLIAD – OUT LOUD, adapted from Homer’s poem, began as an ABC Radio Drama commission seven years ago. William Zappa, using seventeen translations – from that of Alexander Pope’s of 1720 to a more recent from Caroline Alexander – and advice from experts in this contentious field of study, has developed a three part preparation as an oral presentation. Its tradition is that of an oral poem (sung), not a literary work, stemming from, most experts believe, from the 8th Century BC. Zappa was determined to find the Australian voice for this telling – its musical rhythms and sounds,…

Photography by John Marmaras Red Line Productions presents, KING OF PIGS, by Steve Rodgers, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St. Woolloomooloo. 1st August – 1st September. KING OF PIGS, is a new Australian play, by Steve Rodgers. This play has domestic violence as its target for discussion. Says Director, Blazey Best: I’ve been hearing a lot about the ‘Epidemic’ of Family Violence and – faced with the statistics and the sheer relentless regularity of horrific stories in the news – it’s hard to dismiss this as hyperbole. … (KING OF PIGS) is not an apology for the perpetrators of…

Photo by Robert Catto Luckiest productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co present, ONLY HEAVEN KNOWS, Music, Book and Lyrics by Alex Harding, at the Hayes Theatre, Greenknowe Ave, Darlinghurst. 30 May – 1 July. At the Hayes Theatre a revival production of, ONLY HEAVEN KNOWS, by Alex Harding, is on show. Written and performed in 1988, in the midst of the early panic and bewilderment of the AIDS crisis and the attendant heightened discrimination of the Gay community, this play was set in 1944 and 1956, and presented a story of a small group of friends, outsiders, essentially gay…

The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) recently presented a play by Andrew Upton called THE PRESENT, which was an adaptation of an unwieldy text by Anton Chekhov known, mostly, under the title of PLATONOV (1881). It was never published, even read, until well after the death of its author (It was published posthumously in 1923). So, what PLATONOV, can be about, as we have, historically seen, can be very different, depending on the inclination of the Writer/Director. Anton Chekhov’s first published and produced play was IVANOV, in November, 1887. In 1884 Chekhov had graduated from Moscow University as a Doctor, the same…

Belvoir presents, NORA, by Kit Brookman and Anne-Louise Sarks, after A DOLL’S HOUSE, by Henrik Ibsen, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. 13 August – 14 September. This is a new Australian work written, jointly, by Kit Brookman and Anne-Louise Sarks, after, or, seemingly, instigated by reflections on A DOLL’S HOUSE by Henrik Ibsen. To diarise this new work, it might be more useful to ignore the Ibsen original (for a while), and just regard what we saw on stage. This is a two act play (with a 30 minute interval – to facilitate a scene change – modern…