Category: Toby Schmitz

  A Critical Stages & Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company production CAPTURE THE FLAG by Toby Schmitz at Riversides Theatre, Parramatta. This is one of several plays by Toby Schmitz. Yes, the actor. A man of many gifted talents. CAPTURE THE FLAG is a re-mounting of the production seen at the Old Fitzroy Theatre a couple of years ago. The handsome design elements: Set design by Genevieve Dugard and Leland Kean; Costume design by Lisa Walpole; Lighting design by Luiz Pampolha (restricted by the need of a lengthy tour, I’m sure); and the Sound design by Jeremy Silver, are all…

BELL SHAKESPEARE presents MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING by William Shakespeare at the Drama Theatre, in the Sydney Opera House. A set design (Stephen Curtis) sits in the space in a dominating fashion. A giant fresco wall of romantic images of giant mythical figures, the impact luscious at first glance, but on closer study reveals signs of wasting on the edges and hasty repair and ‘gutting’ by a large folding door, centrally. Pieces of odd and ruined furniture spread across the room – a piano of ruined tones and wear, included. There is a sense of a time when the wealth…

Belvoir presents THE WILD DUCK by Simon Stone with Chris Ryan after Henrik Ibsen in the Upstairs Theatre. THE WILD DUCK written by Simon Stone, also the Director, with Chris Ryan, after Henrik Ibsen’s play (1884) of the same name, is a new contemporary Australian play. This adaptation and re-writing, like Mr Stone’s other Ibsen inspired play (with Thomas Henning), THE ONLY CHILD (from Ibsen’s LITTLE EYOLF), as texts, presage a very good night in the theatre. Both of these texts are very interesting. This one better than the other, I felt. And while, if one is a committed Ibsenite,…

Company B Belvoir presents MEASURE FOR MEASURE, written by William Shakespeare. Adapted & Directed by Benedict Andrews, for the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St. From Benedict Andrews’ Director’s notes in the programme:A PLAY OF MIRRORS. MEASURE FOR MEASURE is my third Shakespeare staging concerned with the mechanics of power. JULIUS CAESAR (2005) dealt with the theatrics of government, and THE WAR OF THE ROSES (2009) raised the spectres of sovereign power which haunt our concept of society. MEASURE FOR MEASURE looks into the ‘very nerves of state’ where the economies of desire and law interlock. This MEASURE FOR MEASURE is set…

Six Australian writers: Toby Schmitz, Lachlan Philpott, Verity Laughton, Tobsha Learner, Rebecca Clarke and Stephen Sewell. Four Directors: Dean Carey, Anthony Skuse, Katy Alexander, Glenn Fraser. Six actors: Jamie Irvine, Jamie McGregor, Joe Manning, Jennefa Soldatic, Catherine Terracini and Matthew Walker. Collectively this team have organised a night that “began as a bare-bones show for the bare stage. [They] chose ghost stories as a way to get back to the basics of storytelling – sittting ’round the campfire’ in a dark theatre. A number of the finest playwrights in Sydney were approached and asked to conjure up supernatural tales set…

    Arts Asia Pacific in association with B Sharp present THE LONESOME WEST BY Martin McDonagh at the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. Martin McDonagh an English/Irish playwright has been a darling of the theatre going public for some time now. THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, A SKULL OF CONNEMARA, THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN, THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE and last year, upstairs at Belvoir, THE PILLOWMAN, have had successful airings and even revivals in the Sydney Theatre landscape. This is the first time that I have seen THE LONESOME WEST. It has all the hallmark attractions of this writer. Well…