Category: The Drama Theatre

Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia present BLAK in the Drama Theatre, in the Sydney Opera House. This year I have seen and been rewarded with some great dance experiences. The Paris Opera GISELLE; BIRDS WITH SKYMIRRORS from the New Zealand company, Mau; ‘G’ from the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) and the Nederlands Dans Theatre at the Sydney Opera House. These were highlights of some of my theatre going this year, which has had much to enjoy. I have always thought well of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and have been particularly admiring of the contemporary bias in the stories that the company have begun to…

Sydney Theatre Company and Qantas present LOOT by Joe Orton at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. LOOT by Joe Orton was written and premiered in 1966. It, followed the success of ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE on the West End stage, the year before. Orton with LOOT “ extended the boundaries of farce by taking it out of the bedroom and into the funeral parlour: this is Feydeau with fangs or Ben Travers rewritten by a socialist anarchist. The action hinges on stolen bank loot being stashed in a coffin while the displaced corpse (of one of the robbers mothers) is…

Sydney Theatre Company & Goldman Sachs JBWere by arrangement with David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers present GOD OF CARNAGE by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton at the Drama Theatre at The Sydney Opera House. Yasmina Reza is a French playwright, a new first generation Frenchwoman, being the daughter of two Eastern European parents (Mother, Hungarian and Father an Iranian Jew, born in Moscow), a novelist and observer of contemporary life. (In 2006, Ms Reza was commissioned to follow Nicolas Sarkozy in a year long journey, and published in 2007 a book called DAWN, DUSK OR NIGHT about that invitation).…

  Sydney Opera House Presents THE VIENNA SCHAUSPIELHAUS Production of Barrie Kosky’s POPPEA IN THE Drama Theatre. Last Saturday I had a truly wonderful experience in the theatre at Barrie Kosky’s POPPEA. After my disappointing experience with Mr Kosky’s THE WOMEN OF TROY last year, and on seeing the publicity images of the production of POPPEA I was very resistant to attending. I tried to attend earlier (a Wednesday) but the seats were not good. I returned, on Saturday, the last day, leaving it to fate as to whether I would get in to see it. Fate was good to…

Photo – Marcus Graham – Pericles   Bell Shakespeare present PERICLES in Association with TAIKOZ. The Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House. Norrie Epstein in his book THE FRIENDLY SHAKESPEARE in his discussion of the Tragicomic Romances begins: “Fantastical, superficial, artificial, improbable, impressionistic, inferior, miraculous, boring – or the best: no one can agree on the merits of Shakespeare’s romances. The eminently reasonable Dr. Johnson dismissed them as foolish, and they are. But, in the words of the playwright Dennis Potter, they are “sweetly foolish”. With PERICLES, CYMBELINE, THE WINTER’S TALE, and THE TEMPEST we enter Shakespeare’s final period………

I did not think that I could be more depressed than I felt during and after attending last night’s performance of THE NARCISSIST by Stephen Carleton at the Opera House. Then, I woke up this morning and heard the 7am news bulletin about the new NSW Police Minister, Matt Brown, who had “quit the state cabinet just three days after being promoted” as details emerged of behaviour that were deemed inappropriate for a member of cabinet. My depression deepened. The elected Government of my state just seems to be made up and led by “Cowboys”. In the final scene of…