Category: Sandy Gore

Photo by Prudence Upton Ensemble Theatre presents, THE PLANT, by Kit Brookman, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli, 8th July – 5 August. THE PLANT, by Kit Brookman, is the winner of the Ensemble Theatre’s 2016 New Writing Commission. Sue (Sandy Gore) and her three children, Erin (Helen Dallimore), Daniel (Garth Holcombe) and Naomi (Briallen Clarke) are packing up the family home after the death of the Husband/Father from, what one of them describe as: ‘in-built obsolescence’. It is essentially a comedy. On a raised green covered platform, backed by a wall of curtain (the Set and Costume Design is by…

Photo by Eric Berry Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta and Sydney Festival presents, HAKAWATI, created by Wayne Harrison, in the El Phoenician Restaurant, Parramatta, 11-21 January. HAKAWATI, is an evening of food and entertainment. It has been inspired by the Middle Eastern ancient tradition of storytelling and breaking bread. In the sophisticated circumstances of the El Phoenician restaurant in Church St, Parramatta a long table, seating 40-50 people, has been elegantly prepared for a four course dinner of Lebanese cuisine. At either end of the table, on a raised platform, an ornate wooden framed armed, high backed, red-velvet chair/throne awaits…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir presents THE GREAT FIRE, by Kit Brookman, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, 6 April – 8 May. I saw this production weeks ago, towards the end of its run. My impression of the play was that of an ambitious but lumbering four-act play in the mode of Chekhov. It reminded me, mostly, in Australian terms, of Alex Buzo’s BIG RIVER (1985) – another big family saga, set in a big rambling house on the Murrumbidgee/Murray River basin, based on the history of the writer’s own family but set toward the end of…

Photo by Heidrun Lohr Riverside Theatres presents A Riverside Production, SHELLSHOCK by Justin Fleming, at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, 30 July – 8 August. Shellshock is a new Australian work, by Justin Fleming, having its World Premiere at Parramatta. The play was commissioned by Riverside in 2013 to be part of the ANZAC Centenary in 2015. In the Writer’s notes in the program, Mr Fleming, tells us that it was the Director, Wayne Harrison, who gave him a snippet of fact to ignite the process (of writing): a soldier took home a baby tortoise from Gallipoli in 1915 and that tortoise…

Riverside Productions present PARRAMATTA GIRLS by Alana Valentine in the Lennox Theatre at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. PARRAMATTA GIRLS is an Australian play written in 2007 by Alana Valentine, and first performed at the the Belvoir Theatre, directed by Wesley Enoch. The play concerns eight inmates returning to an Institution for a reunion after some forty years. That the Institution was the now infamous Girls Training Centre (GTS) at Parramatta, and that the play was a sensation of revelation in 2007 that was timely and important and necessary (check out my observations of an Australian cultural favourite, DIMBOOLA), despite the…

Belvoir presents SMALL AND TIRED by Kit Brookman in the Downstairs Theatre at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. SMALL AND TIRED by Kit Brookman is a new Australian play about family. About family and the secrets of families. About the individuals that make up a family. About the secrets of each of the individuals that make up that family. The son (Luke Mullins) returns home after a long self-exile to arrange his father’s – an ex-army officer’s, – funeral. His estranged mother (Sandy Gore) has been reluctant, and his emotionally disturbed sister (Susan Prior) is unable. The internal politics of…