The brilliant Monkey Baa, award-winning company for young theatregoers, celebrated the launching of its brand-new production of the iconic Possum Magic on Saturday, March 30.
The Dance of Death, translated by May-Brit Akerholt, is one of August Strindberg’s most produced plays, although at the time of its writing, 1900, a Swedish censor thought it too “disagreeable” to be performed.
Venue: Sydney Opera House
Written By: Based on a book by Bruce Pascoe
Directed By: Stephen Page
There is still stigma and confusion around the topic of...
A moving story of living with death and the importance of friendship, TickTickBoom won the Silver Gull Award from Sydney-based company subtlenuance in 2015.
In Ear to the Edge of Time Alana Valentine creates a mileau in the complex world of astrophysics, and deploys it to investigate the multi-layered nature of human endeavour.
First seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006, Potted Potter: The Unauthorised Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff has since toured internationally for a decade. This immensely popular show is back in Australia by magical demand having previously performed here in 2012 and 2014.
The dynamic Le Dernier Appel (The Last Cry) is set against the backdrop of New Caledonia’s forthcoming referendum, which will determine whether the one-time penal colony becomes independent of France.
Macbeth is a very “blokey” play despite the infamous Lady Macbeth, and the title character is a stereotypical bloke for whom action is more natural than talking.
The dynamic Le Dernier Appel (The Last Cry) is set against the backdrop of New Caledonia’s forthcoming referendum which will determine whether the one-time penal colony becomes independent of France. Holding approximately a quarter of the world’s nickel deposits, New Caledonia has a prosperous economy, however, the indigenous Kanaks are subject to economic exploitation and social discrimination.
Written by a 19 year-old Shelagh Delaney, set in working class Britain and first produced in 1958, how relevant is A Taste of Honey to a Sydney audience in 2018? Its central interests – were challenging in its time.
A dance response to Bruce Pascoe’s seminal book of the same name, Dark Emu was created by Stephen Page in collaboration with senior Bangarra dancer Daniel Riley, company alumnus Yolande Browne and the Bangarra dancers.
The Belvoir’s choice of Alana Valentine’s The Sugar House, set in the once working-class industrial and port community of Pyrmont, is timely in view of the gentrification of the nearby locality of Redfern-Waterloo.
Pablo
Tropical flowers
and hazy girls
from Valparaiso
drift golden –
like promises
on the edge
of utterance
so almost there
lips open
expecting sound –
instead a petal
drops and hair
tosses like a sigh.
Catherine...
Mary Anne Butler was inspired to write The Sound of Waiting, shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award for Literature, by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
A one way mirror is sometimes called a two way mirror, a character from Paul Gilchrist’s play of the same name, informs his girlfriend. The object under discussion, a reciprocal mirror, is a means by which people can be observed without their knowledge, and works only when one side is brightly lit and the observers’ side is in darkness. It is a metaphor for something, but what?
Produced by the Mosman Musical Society, the cabaret style Fly Me to the Moon is an excellent evening’s entertainment. The selection and variety of songs from more mellow and less worldly times combined with the enormous talent of this dedicated group assured the audience of a heart-warming, “feel-good” performance.
While An Act of God has its origin in David Javenbaum’s popular Twitter@TheTweetofGod, maybe its inspiration came from the quaintly named “peril terminology”. An “act of God”, according to insurance law, is one without human agency and hence could not have been prevented “by reasonable foresight or care”. It follows then that the divine must be incapable of either, and for an entertaining 75 minutes, God, who conveniently assumes the dynamic form of actor Mitchell Butel, shares with us the full extent of his egocentricity.
On the Border of Things advertises itself as “a bilingual performance exploring the movement of people, agriculture and the environment”, and it is all of these. However, it is, above all, a tender love story and an intimate exploration of art making.
Paul Gilchrist’s Blind Tasting is a much-performed play from the repertoire of subtlenuance, and deservedly so, as it is funny, sharp at times, sad at others and consistently entertaining. Add to this, the charm, vitality and grace brought to this one-woman performance by Sylvia Keays, and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
A profound and wonderful experience, Barbara and the Camp Dogs takes the audience on a journey from Sydney to Katherine, from anger to potential resolution, all the while sustaining the illusion they are attending a gig in a local hotel.
The brilliant Bangarra’s second Carriagework season, Ones Country: The Spine of Our Stories, presents three new works and introduces three debut choreographers. Each dance tells a story of the choreographers’ heritage, encompassing North East Arnhem Land, the urban wilderness and Torres Strait Islands.
You need not be familiar with the conventions of Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries to enjoy Bloody Murder but if you are, this excellent production is exceptionally funny.
As You Like It may be taken as you like it. A month ago it was possible to see this popular Shakespearean play in Melbourne performed by an all-male cast and currently it is being performed in Sydney as the debut production of the all-female She Shakespeare Company.
Jennifer Haley’s The Nether won the Blackburn Prize in 2012 and stirred debate among critics. Some found it "disturbingly sensationalist", some found it "intensely provocative", and some "squirm-inducing".
Our Future Waterloo was the happy result of a collaboration between Milk Crate Theatre, Sydney Story Factory and the “always awesome Class Six students of Mt Carmel”. From the students’ moving acknowledgement of Gadigal land to their closing affirmation of team work and community, Class Six impressed by their sincerity and commitment.
It is relevant and essential reading not only for the residents of Waterloo-Redfern, but for all people interested in a just and equitable housing system.
The structure of the discussion, unfortunately, accurately replicated the gentrification that threatens to displace the public housing tenants from their homes.
I’d Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Son of a Bitch, Rodrigo Garcia’s sling shot at capitalism, is expertly aimed by Anna Jahjah, her cast and production crew.
You may wonder what motivates people after their working day to venture out to a draughty hall to take part in a drama class. Given that most people are self-conscious and shrink from carrying out a drama teacher’s demands to forget the self and behave in all kinds of embarrassing ways (pretend you’re a hungry cat, she might say, or fly like a bird) or that most people are appalled by the prospect of speaking in public, why do people enroll in a drama class?
Bangarra’s disturbingly powerful Bennelong gives us a sense of what it might have been like to be born into a crucial moment of time when the harmonious existence of an ancient peoples was ruptured by the entry of an aggressive imperial power.
