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January 02, 2020

Murray Bramwell’s Cultural Moment of 2019

Among many cultural moments this year, two stand out. Both in the theatre. Both test the possibilities and limits of performance and representation. In the Adelaide Festival, director Milo Lau’s Belgian-German collaboration La Reprise (The Repetition) deconstructs a gay-hate murder which took place in 2012, in Liege, Belguim.

Dissecting the business and strategies of theatre, it explores both human transgression and the tricks of acting – the better for us to understand an unfathomable cruelty. Rau proposes a theatre with …

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December 15, 2019

The Best of 2019

Filed under: 2019,2020,Archive

“When you hear music,” jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy once remarked, “After it’s over, it’s gone, in the air. You can never capture it again.”

In varying degrees that is true of all live performances. They have their moment, their season, and then are gone. Sometimes they remain vivid, but eventually, even excellent productions and outstanding performances drift into imperfect recollection and generalised hearsay. Maggie Smith once remarked- “Every performance is a ghost.”

I hope this website, for all its sometimes …

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October 31, 2019

The Dark Master serves up a surreal, dreamy feast for the senses – OzAsia Festival

The Dark Master
by Kuro Tanino
Niwa Gekidan Penino
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
October 29. Bookings 131 246 or ozasiafestival.com.au
Tickets: $ 35 – $59. Duration : 90 minutes (no interval)
Until October 31.

A young backpacker steps into a run-down bistro in Osaka looking for a meal and his life changes. The misanthropic chef who serves him a delicious omelette persuades, cajoles and compels him to run the business for him.

Using a cordless earpiece (the audience also …

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October 29, 2019

The Split

Daily Review

The Split
by Sarah Hamilton
House of Sand
RUMPUS, Sixth Street, Bowden, Adelaide.
October 24. Until November 3.

“Jules and Tom are on an old fishing boat. They’ve borrowed it. It’s only pretty small. The anchor is down, so the boat just drifts as far as the anchor line lets it.” These words are projected on to the back of the stark white set for The Split, an intriguing new play from Melbourne writer Sarah Hamilton.

The scene …

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October 28, 2019

The Village – OzAsia, Adelaide 2019

Daily Review

OzAsia, Adelaide 2019
The Village
by Stan Lai and Wang Wei-Chung
Stan Lai and Performance Workshop
Festival Theatre.
October 25.

The 2019 OzAsia program has been notable for its significant returns. Artistic director Joseph Mitchell has said that while he is very energised by the new artists he has brought in, he is also committed, in his fifth year at the wheel, to bring back artists who have already made their mark with the OzAsia audience.

So we …

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Cuckoo – OzAsia 2109

Daily Review

Cuckoo
By Jaha Koo
CAMPO
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
October 27.
FIVE stars

Cuckoo is a meditation on South Korean society over the 22 years since the Asian Financial Crisis, told, in part, by three rice cookers. It is hard to imagine a theatre piece narrated by rice cookers. But in sixty well-chosen minutes writer, performer, composer, Jaha Koo raises life issues and explores political and economic questions that are far from light and fluffy.

Named for …

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October 23, 2019

EYES/LIES – OzAsia Festival, Adelaide

EYES/LIES
Ontroerend Goed
Space Theatre
October 20.

The name of the impressively original Belgian theatre company, Ontroerend Goed, the program notes tell us, roughly translates as “Feel Estate”. This sounds almost as cryptic as the original Belgian but there is no doubt that they provide audiences with unexpected and memorable experiences when they come to their performances.

From their first visit to Australia in 2008 they have offered a unique form of immersive experience. With The Smile Off Your Face

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October 22, 2019

Light – OzAsia Festival, Adelaide

Light
by Thomas Henning in collaboration with
TerryandTheCuz.
Nexus Arts
October 19.

“The Theft of Penang, Birth of Adelaide and the Rise of the British Empire.” This is the revisionist history of Light. Commissioned three years ago for OzAsia, it has now had its world premiere in Adelaide before heading to the George Town Festival in Penang.

The story of Colonel William Light who laid out the visionary plan for the city of Adelaide, while fascinating, is mostly obscured …

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Techno Circus – OzAsia Festival, Adelaide

Filed under: 2019,Archive,Festival

Techno Circus
SIRO-A
Dunstan Theatre.
October 19.

I am not really sure what video-mapping technology is, but the smart and snappy Japanese mime-and-image group, SIRO-A certainly make it look like fun.

The four performers – Yuki Inoue, Keisuke Kawashima, Daiki Maeda and Yoheai Iwai – dressed like astronauts in their white jumpsuits, greet the audience as they arrive. Beckoning them to the stage for selfies, they get dozens of kids, parents, people of all shapes and ages to queue up …

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October 20, 2019

Beyond Skin – Revisited, OzAsia Festival 2019

Filed under: 2019,Archive,Festival,Music

Beyond Skin – Revisited
Nitin Sawhney
Festival Theatre.
October 18.

Nitin Sawhney is surely some kind of Renaissance musician. His career as producer, composer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist has produced 20 albums, and 60 film scores, including the recent Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. He has collaborated with Paul

McCartney, Sting, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, Annie Lennox, Andy Serkis, Akram Khan and the London Symphony Orchestra. He has curated festivals and lectured in universities. He has performed regularly in Australia- at …

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