Category: Tom Bannerman

Photo by Rupert Reid Outhouse Theatre Co presents, BU21, by Stuart Slade, at the Old 505, Eliza St. Newtown, 9 February – 25 February. BU21 is a play by British writer, Stuart Slade, first produced in March, 2016, in Bristol and then in London, in February, 2017. It concerns the downing, the shooting down of a plane, BU21, by a rocket missile, over the suburbs of London – into posh Fulham. We meet six survivors of this act of terrorism who appear on stage and welcome us and directly contact us – no fourth wall here – talking eye-to-eye to…

Photo by Photo Bob Seary New Theatre presents, THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED, by Douglas Carter Beane, at the New Theatre, King St, Newtown. 7 February – 4 March. THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED, by American writer, Douglas Carter Beane, has had a previous outing at the Ensemble Theatre in 2009. The play had been nominated in 2006 for a Tony Award, in New York, and, I, based on the Ensemble production that I saw, could not understand why. It appeared to be one of those New Yorkie glib ‘homosexual’ plays about the cliche shallowness of being ‘gay’ and of the cliched ugly…

New Theatre presents, WHEN THE RIAN STOPS FALLING, by Andrew Bovell, at the New Theatre, King St., Newtown. 17 March – 18 April, 2015. This production of Andrew Bovell’s WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING, at the New Theatre left me in a gratified mood of semi-euphoria. I saw the original Brink Theatre production in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, in 2009, and rated it has one of the great experiences of new Australian writing I had had for a long time. Seeing the New Theatre’s more modest production does not diminish that memory in any way, and…

Photo by Richard Farland Outhouse Theatre Company presents FOUR PLACES by Joel Drake Johnson at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst. 29 July -10 August. This chamber play, FOUR PLACES, by American writer, Joel Drake Johnson, is a subtly moving comic-tragedy about family and all of its secret lives. That of the four places at a restaurant luncheon: A daughter, Ellen (Amanda Stephens Lee), a son, Warren (Jeremy Waters), a mother, Peggy (Kim Hilllas) and the absent centre of need, the father – not seen or heard, but the catalyst of the subject matter of the play. We get to know the…

Unpathed Theatre Company presents THE DREAMER EXAMINES HIS PILLOW by John Patrick Shanley at the Tap Gallery. In the hurly burly of Christmas and end of year ‘madness’, some work in the theatre gets overlooked. This, now closed, production of an early John Patrick Shanley play, THE DREAMER EXAMINES HIS PILLOW (1985), at the Tap Gallery produced by a new Independent Company, Unpathed Theatre Company, is such a one. Most of us could pinpoint other Shanley works: DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (1983) – a favourite of young actors into emotional angsty, violent relationships, and, so, of course, often…

Siren Theatre Company presents PENELOPE by Enda Walsh at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst. Siren Theatre Company under the direction of Kate Gaul is presenting PENELOPE by Enda Walsh. In March, last year, Ms Gaul presented THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM at the Griffin Theatre , also by Mr Walsh, and I presume Ms Gaul is simply following the old adage that when you are onto a good thing stick to it. PENELOPE is another wonderful example of the Irish storytellers ability to spin the English language into fabulous concoctions of delight. This time Mr Walsh stretches into the world of Homer’s Odyssey…