Category: Hamish Michael

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE was the debut play, from the Irish/English writer Martin McDonagh. There followed a plethora of stunning successful companions to his stage repertoire which audiences looked keenly to see. In Sydney we were impressed with mainstage productions of THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE (1996), THE CRIPPLE OF INNISHMAAN (1997), THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE (2001). Elsewhere in the Fringe theatres, A SKULL IN CONNEMARA (1997), THE LONESOME WEST (1997), THE PILLOWMAN (2003), and regular revivals of the Mainstage exhibits arrived. And of course his film repertoire: IN BRUGES (2008), SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (2012) and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING,…

  Ensemble Theatre present the World Premiere of THE RASPUTIN AFFAIR, by Kate Mulvany, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 1 April – 30 April. THE RASPUTIN AFFAIR is a new Australian play by Kate Mulvany. The play is concerned with the assassination, in December, 1916, of Rasputin, a Russian peasant, semi-literate monk and mystic, who exercised extraordinary power over the last of the ruling Romanoff family: Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. There is a note in the program: Although this play is based on true people and events, some events and characters in this play have been fictionalised…

Dear Diary, I saw this production by Simon Stone of DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller, several weeks ago. I have struggled with my response. I have put it off, and off, and off. For, there were somethings that I enjoyed, and yet, I was very discontented. Ultimately, very, very frustrated and unhappy. It seems that I have only written negative responses to recent work in the two major companies,’houses’, in Sydney. Especially, work concentrated about the recent flurry, nay storm, of the utilising of other writers’ work and reputations, to present, I suppose, what someone feels is a…

  Belvoir St. Theatre present AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. Surry Hills. Eamon Flack follows on from his 2009 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in the Downstairs Theatre at Belvoir Street, with AS YOU LIKE IT in the Upstairs Theatre – a promotion (?) In the program notes to the 2009, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Mr Flack tells us that he and his company had “…embraced the spirit of Shakespeare’s play and therefore not the letter.” Two years later, Mr Flack and his company in presenting AS YOU LIKE IT similarly,…