Category: Heather Mitchell

Peach Theatre Company presents THE HISTORY BOYS – A Comedy by Alan Bennett in the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House. THE HISTORY BOYS by Alan Bennett is, I reckon, already – it was only first presented in 2004 – a modern classic. The National Theatre of Great Britain toured it’s premiere production to Sydney in 2005 (or, 06?) at the Sydney Theatre. It was a lavishly designed work with video whizz-bangery and more, designed by Bob Crowley, directed by Nicholas Hytner. The company of actors had been playing it for months and months, into years, I think, in repertory…

Heather Mitchell, George Shevtsov, Aaron Pedersen and Pauline Whyman in Signs of Life. Photography by Lisa Tomasetti. Sydney Theatre Company, Black Swan State Theatre Company and Commonwealth Bank present SIGNS OF LIFE by Tim Winton, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. Tim Winton is a great, celebrated, Australian novelist. Beginning in 1981 with his inaugural book, AN OPEN SWIMMER, winning the Australian/Vogel Literary Award. He has won an unprecedented four Miles Franklin Awards and nominated twice for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction (1995 – THE RIDERS; 2002 – DIRT MUSIC). He has had two of…

  Belvoir presents NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Lally Katz at the Belvoir St. Upstairs Theatre. NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Lally Katz, a new Australian play, bears a dedication in the printed text and program to Anna Bosnjak and Robyn Nevin. In Ms Katz’s notes to the program she tells us of her encounter with a neighbour, an Hungarian woman, and then of “The next two years (that she) spent constantly with Anna. Often seven days a week, all day and into the night we would talk. We shared everything together. She showed me her memories and the world. I asked her advice…

SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2009 Season. ENERGY AUSTRALIA MASTER SERIES: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Overture and incidental music for Shakespeare’s play by Felix Mendelssohn. Text abridged by Tim Carroll.   This concert is a celebration of “the opening of the concert season for 2009… the beginning of the formal relationship between Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Symphony” and the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, two hundred years ago, in 1809.   In the Introductory notes to the performance we are told “the program we’ve devised for tonight speaks to the power of music – not just its power to move our emotions and stimulate…

  GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY and NOWYESNOW BY ARRANGEMENT WITH INSITE ARTS PRESENT TENDER by Nicki Bloom at the SBW Stables Theatre. This play was presented last year in the B Sharp Season 2007 . The creative team in all departments are the same, so there has been a year to let this work mature. It was remarkable then, it still is. This is a very exciting and interesting new Australian play and playwright. The experience of the play is much like a psychological thriller where the chronological order of the events have been jigsawed and sorted, you are invited in…

There will be quite a disquisition to follow, so stirred am I. But for those with a short concentration span or otherwise let me be brief. (“Brevity is the soul of wit”.) This production of HAMLET is a failure. A failure on almost on all counts. *(Well, not quite all.) To quote a program note HAMLET “is arguably the greatest tragedy in the English language”, ”a masterpiece”. It maybe the pinnacle of English playwriting. It may be the greatest “poem” written in English. It presents for all the artists who collaborate on it, perhaps, the artistic equivalent of the feat…