Category: Paula Arundell

Belvoir presents ATLANTIS, by Lally Katz, in the Upstairs Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. November 1 – November 26. ATLANTIS is a new Australian play by Lally Katz. It is a heady hilarious piece of a type of magic realism. I loved it. The principal character in ATLANTIS is called Lally (played by Amber McMahon). The last time I met this ‘Lally’ was in Joe’s Pub, a Cabaret venue in the Public Theatre in New York, where she was played by the real Lally (Katz) in her monologue called: STORIES I WANT TO TELL YOU IN PERSON – she had already…

  Photo by Brett Boardman The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and Commonwealth Bank present, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, by William Shakespeare, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 16 September-22 October. How many productions of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM has one seen? Enough to have benchmarks of merit. From Peter Brook’s 1970’s version through to the recent Tim Supple, multi-lingual one, presented in the Sydney Theatre a few years ago. To the Benjamin Britten opera take, to the many, many university, drama school, high school goes-at-it.  The film and television recordings of it. Enough to have almost intimate…

Photo by Brett Boardman Griffin Theatre Company presents The World Premiere of THE BLEEDING TREE, by Angus Cerini, in the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, 31 July – 5 September. – With a bullet hole through your neck, numbskull of yours never looked so fine. – Rest in peace Daddy numbskull. – Ta ta Daddy ya sick bundle of shit. – Bye bye Daddy you misery heap of shit. […] – Girls, I think your father is dead. – I knocked his knees out. – I conked his head. – I shot that house-clown in the neck. So begins THE…

Photo by Heidrun Lohr Belvoir presents, MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, by Bertolt Brecht. Translation, by Michael Gow. In the Upstairs Theare at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. 6 June – 26 July. Bertolt Brecht was born in 1898 in Bavaria. He was 16 when the First World War, led by Germany, engulfed Europe for the next 4 years. He watched and then experienced the fatal reparation demands on defeated Germany, from the Paris Peace Conference, in 1919, that the victors made, primarily represented, led, by the American President Woodrow Wilson (who also dreamt of the founding of a League…

The Ensemble Theatre present CLYBOURNE PARK by Bruce Norris at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. Look, Edward Albee is my favourite living American writer, I want to see everything he has written. Now, next to him, Bruce Norris has become my next favourite, living American writer. More than Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Theresa Rebeck, Beth Henley, Suzan-Lori Parks. So do go to see this play at the Ensemble, if you can. I read, first, his family comedy, THE PAIN AND THE ITCH (2004) – flawed but arresting; then, PURPLE HEART (2002) – a brilliant play about the effect of war on…

Belvoir presents ANGELS IN AMERICA – A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Part One: Millennium Approaches. Part Two: Perestroika. At the Belvoir Upstairs Theatre, Surry Hills. ANGELS IN AMERICA – A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner is an almost six hour play written in two separate parts: Part One: Millennium Approaches (1990); Part Two: Perestroika (1993). The Belvoir Theatre Company are presenting both parts of this play, directed by Eamon Flack. It is a truly marvelous experience. Both plays are simply, still, twenty years later, astounding writing. The company of actors (eight of them) are giving wonderful…