Category: Robyn Nevin

  Belvoir presents SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL by Ray Lawler at the Belvoir St Theatre. Dear Diary, This may be a bit of a ramble as my disappointment with the Belvoir production of the “DOLL” mixed with my nostalgic hagiolatry about that play, has caused me some confusion on how to respond. And what I am about to write may cast me further into the shadows, as a relic from the old days, a Troglodyte of the Naturalism School of Play Writing, but my biography gives me some justification. My three favourite Australian plays are: THE SUMMER OF THE…

  Belvoir presents NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Lally Katz at the Belvoir St. Upstairs Theatre. NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Lally Katz, a new Australian play, bears a dedication in the printed text and program to Anna Bosnjak and Robyn Nevin. In Ms Katz’s notes to the program she tells us of her encounter with a neighbour, an Hungarian woman, and then of “The next two years (that she) spent constantly with Anna. Often seven days a week, all day and into the night we would talk. We shared everything together. She showed me her memories and the world. I asked her advice…

  Rachael Healey & Associates present the Melbourne Theatre Company production of DON PARTIES ON by David Williamson at the Sydney Theatre. David Williamson’s latest play DON PARTIES ON returns to some of his beloved characters of some forty years ago. DON’S PARTY (1971) was set on the evening of the 1969 Federal election. It concerns a group of young affluent friends, all with their personal, social and political achievements and aspirations on display. It is a splendid evocation of some aspects of the Australian culture of the period. It is full of personal hopes and collapses, of celebrations and…

    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,…

On entering the theatre, one encounters the seats swathed in white dust covers. (You are also provided with a history of the Trojan war and the events leading up to the play, neatly printed out for your perusal on your seat.) The stage is lit with fluorescents. Stark, cool unattractive reality. (Lighting by Damian Cooper.) Along the entire back wall of the raised theatre stage there is a huge jigsaw of wooden and metal lockers which you might find in a very old gymnasium dressing room. They are either stacked horizontally or vertically, some with doors but most not. It…

At The Old Fitzroy Theatre in a local pub, a Co-op production of a one man show called THE PACKER written by Dianna Fuemana. This work has a long performance history and the actor JAY RYAN has been associated with it since its workshopping in New Zealand in 2003. He has performed it in New Zealand, The Edinburgh Festival and recently in Melbourne. This is clear in the performing. Jay Ryan impersonates 8 different characters over the course of the work (approximately 60 minutes with a 20 minute interval). There is a deft physical skill and embedded ownership in the…