Category: Michael Hankin

Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents THE HYPOCHONDRIAC, a new version by Hilary Bell of Molieres’ play, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St, Darlinghurst. 9 Jun – 1 July. Moliere’s LA MALADE IMAGINAIRE, retitled as THE HYPOCHONDRIAC, in a new Australian version by Hilary Bell. Moliere is regarded as the greatest playwright in the French language. His acting company gained the favour of Louis XIV (The Sun King) and was protected from censorship and threat of closure as the Theatre du Roi (The King’s Troupe), for Moliere had an unsparing eye to the major pillars of his community and revealed with scolding…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir presents, THE SUGAR HOUSE, by Alana Valentine, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St, Surry Hills. 5th May- 3rd June. THE SUGAR HOUSE, is a new Australian play, by Alana Valentine. Find the best ‘Lions’, give them good ‘meat’, and we will all have a great feast. The Lions = the Actors, the good meat = the play, the feast = the audience (participation). It seemed to me as this play gently unwound in a daring ‘stately’ tempo, reaching (and revealing) an ‘epic’, led confidently, by Director, Sarah Goodes, the best of actors, Kris McQuade, as…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir St Theatre presents, Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Eamon Flack, from a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund, in the Upstairs Theatre. 20 September – 22 October. Belvoir presents Henrik Ibsen’s play, GHOSTS, in an adaptation by the Director Eamon Flack. It is an agile and careful, faithfully respectful version (unlike his recent production of THE ROVER), in which the actors, so the program notes tell us, were as participatory in its final language choices, based on a literal version of the play by Charlotte Barslund, as was the Director/Adaptor. It is presented in a…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir presents, HIR, by Taylor Mac, in the Upstairs Theatre, Surry Hills. August 16 – September 10. HIR is a play by the American artist, cult figure -“A critical darling of the New York scene” –  Taylor Mac (also, referred too as, ‘judy’ – as in Judy Garland – as a gender pronoun). In the Writer’s Note in the program: I’m a lover and maker of the alternative, underground, and radical movements, and basically every work I’ve made is somehow rooted in a subculture. HIR, however, is a new kind of play for me, as it’s dealing…

MARK COLVIN’S KIDNEY, is a new Australian play by Tommy Murphy. There are some 28 characters. The play, however, is virtually a two-hander involving a true story concerning Mary-Ellen Field (Sarah Peirse) and Mark Colvin (John Howard). Elle MacPherson, an ex-pat Australian business woman, hires another ex-pat Australian, business advisor, Mary-Ellen Field, to sort out her business arrangements. Some time into their trusting relationship, some negative articles begin to appear in the press. Ms MacPherson, taking advice from other aides, suspects the ‘leaks’ for the said articles were coming from Ms Field. She is gradually removed and loses her job…

Photo by Daniel Boud Bell Shakespeare presents, OTHELLO, by William Shakespeare, in the Playhouse, at the Sydney Opera House, 24 October – 4 December. OTHELLO is a riveting play. A play concerning the plot of a man who outwardly seems a charming man – a flower external that has a serpent beneath. Of a man who has no conscience at all. A man who takes the witnessing audience into his confidence and shows us a duplicity so heinous, wicked and clever that we cannot look away. It is Iago and we step willingly onto the roller-coaster of his doings and…