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The Taming of The Shrew

  Sport For Jove presents THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, by William Shakespeare, in the Riverside Theatre, Riverside, Parramatta. 5-7 May. A season at the Seymour Centre, follows on 19-28 May. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is one of the plays of Shakespeare, that can find itself, often, the centre of deep contemporary cultural-political debate, controversy. Says Norrie Epstein in his THE FRIENDLY SHAKESPEARE [1]: The play’s misogyny, whether Shakespeare’s or Petruchio’s (In the original play the Katherine-Petruchio story is the illusion created for a drunken character called Sly, by some callous young noblemen), has caused something of a problem…

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Edward II

Photography by Marnya Rothe The Seymour Centre and Sport For Jove present, EDWARD II written by Christopher Marlowe, in the Reginald Theatre, at the Seymour Centre. Christopher (Kit) Marlowe born in 1564, died in 1593. Queen Elizabeth I herself was said to have pronounced Christopher Marlowe’s death sentence (‘prosecute it to the full’) at court. He died from a puncture wound above the eye at the house of a widow in Deptford. The Queen’s Coroner attributed the killing to a quarrel over ‘the reckoning’, a bill for food and drink, but many have long suspected that the murder had other…

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The Merchant of Venice

  The Seymour Centre and Sport For Jove present, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, by William Shakespeare, in the York Theatre, at the Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 22 May – 30 May. Sport For Jove present Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, at the Seymour Centre, Directed by Richard Cottrell. This play, once a popular choice, is rarely played, professionally, today in Australia – as with THE TAMING OF THE SHREW – and so I looked forward to this production with much curiosity. To prepare myself, I re-read the play, and pulled out of my book collection, John Gross’ SHYLOCK – Four Hundred…

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The Unknown Soldier

Photography by Heidrun Lohr A Monkey Baa Theatre Company production, THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, by Sandra Eldridge, at the Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre. Terrace 3 / 1-25 Harbour Street, Sydney, 18 May – 22 May. THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, is a new Australian play, to honour the Centenary of WW1, written by Monkey Baa Co-Creative Director Sandra Eldridge. Monkey Baa Theatre Company, founded in 1997, has been adapting Australia’s most well-loved stories for young people (aged 3-18), staging and touring them around the country, working with schools, arts and children’s organisations across remote, regional, rural and metropolitan Australia. THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, is…

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Beautiful Thing

  Burley presents BEAUTIFUL THING by Jonathan Harvey in the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. BEAUTIFUL THING was written by Jonathan Harvey in 1993. He went on to win, the following year, the JOHN WHITING AWARD for that play in 1994. The play has had numerous productions, around the world, for the last 20 years. One can see why this is so, in this devoted production, directed by Brandon Martignago in the Reginald Theatre. This is an affecting telling of the coming of age, and acceptance, by two young gay boys of their sexual difference – one 15, Jamie (Michael Brindley)…

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