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Krapp’s Last Tape

Red Line, under the Artistic Directorship of Andrew Henry, after a Director had to withdraw from the project of a production of KRAPP’S LAST TAPE, by Samuel Beckett, due for performance at the Old Fitz, in late November, after consulting with the actor already engaged, Jonathan Biggins, reached out to Gale Edwards, to see whether she was available at this short notice to take on the task. She had just returned from Directing two one act operas for YARRA VALLEY OPERA: THE CORONATION OF POPPEA (1643), by Monteverdi, and in contrast, on the same program, a Children’s opera for discerning…

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Salome

SALOME, an old Old Testament, bible story. SALOME, a sensational poem/play, in French, originally, by Oscar Wilde from 1891 – banned, originally, across most of Europe. SALOME, an outrageously daring composition and adaptation by Richard Strauss written in 1905. Banned, but appreciated and highly lauded, gradually, through the operatic world. SALOME, a contemporary production by the brilliant Gale Edwards, for the what I imagine should be an eternally grateful Opera Australia, that is as outrageous in its intellectual and physical conception and execution, placing this female-‘revenge’ work undeniably in our contemporary era of the ‘revolutionary’ contemplation of the ‘gender bubble’…

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The 2017 Lysicrates Prize for playwriting

This is the third year of The Lysicrates Prize for playwriting. Two philanthropists, husband and wife. John and Patricia Azarias, founded The Lysicrates Foundation “with the aims to encourage and promote Australian creativity, particularly in playwriting; to help restore the beautiful Lyscicrates Monument in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden; and to foster an appreciation of both Australian history and our living heritage from classical Greece. …” To this end the Griffin Theatre has been ‘recruited’ to assist in the organisation of the playwriting objective. An invitation was sent out to established writers to submit a first act of a play that…

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The Turquoise Elephant

Photo by Brett Broardman Griffin Theatre Company presents, THE TURQUOISE ELEPHANT, by Stephen Carleton, in the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, 14 October – 26 November. THE TURQUOISE ELEPHANT by Stephen Carleton, says the back of the Currency Press play/program publication, is a ‘shockingly black, black, black political farce’ about Climate Change, which won the 2015 Griffin Theatre Award. According to Yuval Noah Harai, the author of HOMO DEUS, Humankind has locked itself into a double race. We champion and feel compelled to speed up the pace of scientific progress and economic growth while also staying one leap ahead of…

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Carmen

  Opera Australia presents Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, CARMEN by Georges Bizet. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour (HOSH) presents its second season, following on from last year’s LA TRAVIATA, with Gale Edwards’ spectacular production of CARMEN by Georges Bizet (1875). In the open balmy air of a late Sydney summer, on a stage suspended over the Sydney Harbour foreshore, near the site of the colony’s first farm: Farm Cove (how startled would the ghosts of that first settlement and the indigenous population be tonight?) surrounded by the contemporary skyline of the city of Sydney, with the glowing sails/shells of…

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Cloudstreet the Opera

Cloud9project.info present a Workshop Showing of CLOUDSTREET : THE OPERA by George Palmer at Carriageworks CLOUDSTREET, the Tim Winton novel. CLOUDSTREET, the stage play by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo. CLOUDSTREET, the mini-series for television. And, now CLOUDSTREET : THE OPERA, libretto and music by George Palmer. On Saturday morning, last, the 28th of July, 2012, just to record accurately for posterity’s sake, at 11 am, I went to Carriageworks, Track 7, on invitation from some friends, to see the result of a 12 day workshop of act one, of this very ‘young’ project, it, attempting to find a way…

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