Category: Michael Scott-Mitchell

Photo by Keith Saunders Opera Australia presents CARMEN, an opera in four acts by Georges Bizet, Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy after the novella by Prosper Merimee, in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. June 16 – August 12, 2016. This is a new production of CARMEN, by John Bell for Opera Australia (OA), opening the 2016 Winter Season. A major event , then. I had had, as a kid, a copy of an old 78 recording of Lawrence Tibbett, singing his ‘swaggering’ Escamillo’s Toreador Song – played ad nauseam , according to my siblings,…

Sydney Theatre Company presents ARMS AND THE MAN, by George Bernard Shaw in the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, 13 September – 31st October, 2015. This is a catch-up diary entry for ARMS AND THE MAN. It was seen in September/October for goodness sake! I am always keen to see the work of G.B. Shaw on stage. I do count his work as some of my favourite: HEARTBREAK HOUSE, SAINT JOAN, MAN AND SUPERMAN, MAJOR BARBARA, PYGMALION, MISALLIANCE even THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, are want to see’s. Maybe even YOU NEVER CAN TELL…

Sydney Theatre Company (STC), by special arrangement with Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, presents the Co-World Production of SWITZERLAND, by Joanna Murray-Smith, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, 3 Nov – 20 Dec. SWITZERLAND is a new play by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith. It was originally commissioned by the Geffen Playhouse, in Los Angeles, and will be seen there in 2015. This production by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is by special arrangement with that LA company. Ms Murray-Smith has had many of her plays performed around the world, and has been translated into dozens of languages, and…

Sydney Theatre Company and Barking Gecko Theatre Company present STORM BOY by Colin Thiele. Adapted for the stage by Tom Holloway in Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Hickson Rd. STORM BOY is a joint production of the Sydney Theatre Company and the Perth company, Barking Gecko Theatre. Directed by John Sheedy from a commissioned adaptation by Tom Holloway, of the 1964 children’s novel by Colin Thiele. A film was made in 1976 by the South Australian Film Commission (SAFC) and Channel 7. It won the Best Film Award from the Australian Film Institute (AFI) in 1977, and starred Greg Rowe,…

    Sydney Theatre Company in association with Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland present LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O’Neill at the Sydney Theatre. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O’Neill is claimed, by some, to be the great American play, and certainly from my engagement with this play many times in the theatre and in the cinematic form with Katherine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson (reduced as it is), the affect has always inclined me to think so. This long naturalistic work winding through one day into the night with this Irish-American family, the Tyrone’s, in late summer,…

Photo – Lachy Hulme & Darren Gilshenan – Elling Sydney Theatre Company in association with the Ambassador Theatre group presents ELLING, based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjornsen. Stage adaptation by Axel Hellstenius in collaboration with Peter Naess. Translated by Nicholas Norris. Adapted by Simon Bent. At Wharf 1. ELLING, as you can read (above) comes to us through a very numerous set of creative hands: writers, translators and adaptors, (the screen play of the novel, which was the first of three films based on the books, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign film in 2002, was…