Category: Richard Sydenham

GODS AND LITTLE FISHES, is a beautiful gem of a play that the writers control with unerring sensitivity. It is a play about Grief. Its narrative wrapping/content is the recall of a terrible set of circumstances of 1960 that disturbed the provincial blanket of protection that Sydney wore – perhaps, Australia, as well – when an ordinary, suburban Bondi family won the Sydney 0pera House Lottery of $100,000 – a fantasy dreamt by all of us a big cheer – only to have a stranger call on the telephone a month later with a demand of extortion in exchange for…

Apocalypse Theatre Company presents ALL MY SLEEP AND WAKING, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the Old 505, Eliza Street, Newtown. 28 November – 22 December. ALL MY SLEEP AND WAKING, was an early play (first?), written by Mary Rachel Brown, first performed in 2002 in a 55 minute one act version, that has had recent and further development with Mentor/Director, Dino Dimitriades, of the Apocalypse Theatre Company. Three siblings, Maria (Angela Bauer), Anne (Di Adams) and Peter (Richard Sydenham) await – with Anne’s son, Josh (Alex Beauman) – the passing of their father from a longterm illness – we never…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti The Ensemble Theatre presents, MARJORIE PRIME, by Jordan Harrison, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 15th June – 21st July. MARJORIE PRIME, is an American play, by Jordan Harrison, that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. The play is set in this mid-twenty-first century. Tess (Lucy Bell) is caring for her ageing and deteriorating mother Marjorie (Maggie Dence). She is beginning to experience a creeping dementia. Jon (Richard Sydenham), Tess’ husband, has organised from a Robot Company, a Prime. A Prime is a fully personalised life-look-alike. They have created for Marjorie, Walter Prime (Jake…

Photo by by Brett Boardman Darlinghurst Theatre Company present, SILENT NIGHT, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the Eternity Playhouse, Burton St. Darlinghurst. 10 November – 10 December. SILENT NIGHT, is a new Australian play, by Mary Rachel Brown, Directed by Glynn Nicholas. In July, 2015, this Writer and Director brought us THE DAPTO CHASER, a modest comedy/drama about working class dreams/angst in the greyhound racing industry, that has had a life touring around the country. SILENT NIGHT, tells us of a working class family, the Lickfolds, living in North Ryde – a suburb of Sydney (the one I grew up in!)…

  Apocalypse Theatre Company and Griffin Independent presents, THE DAPTO CHASER, by Mary Rachel Brown, at the SBW Theatre, Kings Cross, Sydney, 1-25 July. THE DAPTO CHASER is a new Australian play by Mary Rachel Brown. It was commissioned by Illawarra’s Merrigong Theatre Company, in 2011. Dapto, a suburb of Wollongong, has a ‘famous’ greyhound race track. The play concerns a family, the Sinclair’s, and their greyhound connections, ambitions and dreams. Horse racing is known as the Sports of Kings – presumably relating to the cost to engage in such a sport. The racing of dogs, greyhounds, is, mainly, in…

Photo by Katy Green Loughrey Ensemble Theatre presents, ABSENT FRIENDS, by Alan Ayckbourn, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. Dec 4 – Jan 24. An evening with Alan Ayckbourn is one that one can look forward too, generally, with anticipatory pleasure, and the Ensemble Theatre has taken a very sensible shine to presenting his challenging and comic work for us at least once a year – last year, NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH – this season, it is ABSENT FRIENDS. ABSENT FRIENDS written in 1974, is one of those comedies of his that shares the laser-like observational skill of Anton Chekhov, whilst wielding the doctorly scalpel…