2008

The Cripple of Inishmaan
by Martin McDonagh

State Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse
November, 2008.

Irish drama is full of untruths, like the stories told by Christy Mahon, late of County Mayo, to the drinkers in Flaherty’s tavern. Those fabulous fibs promoted his reputation as The Playboy of the Western World, the title of JM Synge’s celebrated play from 1907. Ninety years later, Martin McDonagh created Billy Claven, another bare-faced liar looking to get beyond the peat wall and see …

Murray Bramwell reports on Adam Cook’s State Theatre Company program for 2009.

One of the things Adam Cook likes to do is spruik his company and never more so than at the time of the new season’s launch. He is good at it, and he pays attention to detail – the graphics, layout, pics and page size of the brochure and, of course, the signature pea-green stylings and snappy slogans. They are all part of the package. This year’s pitch …

2008

Ghosts
by Henrik Ibsen
Adaptation by Nicki Bloom

State Theatre Company of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
October 13, 2008. Tickets: $21.70 – $51.70.
Bookings BASS 131 246
Until October 25.

In a letter, in June 1882, Henrik Ibsen declared – “I had to write Ghosts: I couldn’t stop at A Doll’s House: after Nora, I had to create Mrs Alving.” Ibsen, ever the probing questioner of received opinions, showed us Nora leaving her doll house before …

2008

Architektin
by Robyn Archer

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
September 2., 2008

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

By any measure, the life and achievements of Margerete Schutte Lihotsky were extraordinary. Born in Vienna at the beginning of one century and living to see the arrival of the next, her life spanned the history of modernism. An architect when women were not visible in the profession she was a notable part of the revolution in building and design …

2008
Adelaide
Theatre

Attempts on Her Life
by Martin Crimp

State Theatre Company of South Australia
The Space, Adelaide Festival Centre.
August 5. Tickets $21.70 – $51.70.
Bookings BASS 131 246
Until August 23.

Pirandello’s famous experimental play was entitled Six Characters in Search of an Author. Perhaps State Theatre Company’s production of Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life could be called Six Actors in Search of a Narrative. The play opens with a succession of recorded telephone messages, all …

2008

Blue/Orange
by Joe Penhall
State Theatre Company of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse, July 8.

Beetle Graduation
by Susan Rogers
Brink Productions
The Space, July 19.

The Mistress
by Arnold Wesker
A Solitary Choice
by Sheila Duncan
Holden Street Theatres, July 23.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

After the lull in proceedings since the Adelaide Festival, theatre has returned with a range of engaging works about alpha doctors, alpha mothers and two women with very little say at all.

Blue/Orange, by …