Category: Sarah Goodes

Lewis (Sean Keenan) is a character creation of Louis Nowra that appears in three of his plays, SUMMER OF THE ALIENS (1992), COSI (1992) and THIS MUCH IS TRUE (2017). In COSI, Lewis takes on a job directing some patients of a local mental hospital in a ‘therapy’ production of Mozart’s COSI FAN TUTTI. This is not Lewis’ choice but one foisted on him by the thespian leader of the hospital patients, Roy (Robert Menzies), and his enthusiasm will not be brooked. The play charts the development of the rehearsals and first performance, hilarious in its ups-and-downs, as it negotiates the…

Photo by Brett Boardman Belvoir presents, THE SUGAR HOUSE, by Alana Valentine, in the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St, Surry Hills. 5th May- 3rd June. THE SUGAR HOUSE, is a new Australian play, by Alana Valentine. Find the best ‘Lions’, give them good ‘meat’, and we will all have a great feast. The Lions = the Actors, the good meat = the play, the feast = the audience (participation). It seemed to me as this play gently unwound in a daring ‘stately’ tempo, reaching (and revealing) an ‘epic’, led confidently, by Director, Sarah Goodes, the best of actors, Kris McQuade, as…

Photo by Jeff Busby Sydney Theatre Company, in association with the Melbourne Theatre Company, presents, THE CHILDREN, by Lucy Kirkwood, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 29th March – 19th May. THE CHILDREN, by Lucy Kirkwood, was first presented at the Royal Court Theatre in late 2016. The Sydney Theatre (STC) Company presented her CHIMERICA last year. On a part of a crumbling coastline in the United Kingdom there has been an earthquake followed by a tsunami, that flooded a nuclear power plant, causing a disaster that is at present still, long after, being dealt with. Two retired,…

Photo by Prudence Upton Sydney Theatre Company presents DISGRACED, by Ayad Akhtar, in Wharf 1, at the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), Hickson Rd.,Walsh Bay, 16 April – 4 June, 2016. DISGRACED is the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play by Ayad Akhtar. DISGRACED, is the typical well made American play that I talked about in my Diary entry about THE WHALE. A small cast of five in a single setting with a subtly disguised exposition that introduces the protagonists with their differences and backgrounds. Emily (Sophie Ross), a middle aged white woman, a practising, ambitious ‘figurative’ artist – painter, politically naive…

  Sydney Theatre Company (STC) presents ORLANDO, from the novel by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Sarah Ruhl, in the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House (SOH). 13 November – 15 December. ORLANDO by American writer Sarah Ruhl (2010), is based on the famous novel, ORLANDO, A Biography, by Virginia Woolf (1928), Directed by Sarah Goodes, Designed (Costumes and Set) by Renee Mulder, starring Jacqueline McKenzie, Louisa Hastings Edge and four men: Matthew Backer, John Gaden, Garth Holcombe and Anthony Taufa. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1925), MRS DALLOWAY (1927), A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN (1929) and then ORLANDO (1928), four novels…

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti Sydney Theatre Company and Allens present, BATTLE OF WATERLOO, by Kylie Coolwell, at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Hickson Rd Walsh Bay. 5th June – 27th June. BATTLE OF WATERLOO, by Kylie Coolwell, is a new Australian play. This is the Indigenous play that I have been waiting for. Ms Coolwell has written a work from the heart of an urban Indigenous community, in the contemporary world of the housing commission buildings of Waterloo, not far from Redfern, set in the thrilling pulse of the everyday and centred on the robust life of an extended family.…