Category: Max Cullen

Sydney Theatre Company and Colonial First State Global Asset Management present, KING LEAR, by William Shakespeare at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, 28 November – 8 January, 2016. KING LEAR. Not another HAMLET. KING LEAR. Yippee! 1603. The ancient Virgin Queen is dying and she has tactically avoided naming an heir. The English Government, and hence her people, fear civil war if she has not – a divided kingdom of clamouring claimants. She has lost so many teeth she is difficult to understand and, so, when she lost her speech altogether those that tended her asked her…

    Bell Shakespeare presents TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare in the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House. TWELFTH NIGHT is the last of Shakespeare’s comedies and it precedes the appearance of HAMLET. In an essay by Stanley Wells on John Barton’s production of TWELFTH NIGHT – my first remembered experience of this play, a magical one at the old Theatre Royal, in tandem with Trevor Nunn’s THE WINTER’S TALE starring Judi Dench as Viola and Hermione/Perdita- (Manchester University press,1976): “HAMLET is one of the most controversial of Shakespeare’s plays. It has been endlessly discussed, and poses major interpretative problems.…

The most important note in the program is from the writer John Doyle “This is my first play.” This is this very experienced writer’s, first play. Mr Doyle has being “honoured by the Australian Writing Guild for comedy eight times and for both of his mini-series, CHANGI and MARKING TIME. CLUB BUGGERY won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy; THE DREAM a Logie for Most Popular Comedy and CHANGI, the Logie for Most Outstanding Drama. MARKING TIME received a 2004 Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Mini-series/Telemovie, a 2004 AFI award for Best Screenplay in Television and the NSW Premier’s…