Category: Harriet Dyer

Sydney Theatre Company presents A FLEA IN HER EAR, by Georges Feydeau, in a new adaptation by Andrew Upton, in the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, 31 October – 17 December. A FLEA IN HER EAR (La Puce a L’Oreille) was written by Georges Feydeau, in 1907. Feydeau is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the theatre form that we know as farce. Comedy is the hardest form of theatre to solve, I reckon, and farce is the most formidable. It requires a verbal precision that must be matched with an equally adept physical precision. It…

Sydney Theatre Company presents MACHINAL by Sophie Treadwell in Wharf 2 , Hickson Road.   Machinal, the play by Sophie Treadwell, was first produced on Broadway in 1928. Ms Treadwell was an investigative journalist and writer. This play was inspired, loosely based, on an actual murder case celebre of the period, that of Ruth Snyder. Ruth Snyder was convicted for the murder of her husband, and along with her lover, was executed at Sing Sing Prison – she was the first woman to be executed in the electric chair, since 1899. The case was a newspaper sensation and became historically infamous…

  Bell Shakespeare presents THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES – a Comedy by Moliere in The Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House. THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES (1642) was written by Moliere for performance at the French Court of King Louis XIV (the Sun King) who was the patron of Moliere’s company of actors. TARTUFFE (1664); THE MISANTHROPE (1666); and THE IMAGINARY INVALID (1673), were to follow, as the acknowledged masterpieces, amongst other works. Moliere is considered the author of some of the most popular comedies in all theatrical history. The major obstacle to the success of these plays in English is,…

  Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Fishy Productions present TIME STANDS STILL by Donald Margulies at the Darlinghurst Theatre. TIME STANDS STILL by Donald Margulies, written in 2009, is really a terrific play. Having read it last year, it is great to see it on our stages in Sydney. Contemporary theatre writing concerning burning issues surrounding our daily lives are rarely aired, if written at all, in contemporary Australian dramatic literature (unless they present lots of opportunities for sex i.e. UNDERBELLY). This play concerns the lives of two characters who work and have survived in the war zones of the world,…