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November 09, 2007

Sky Writing

2007

Dogfall

By Caleb Lewis

TheimaGen

The Bakehouse

Until  November 17

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

We talk about it raining cats and dogs – and lately we wish it would more. But in Dogfall, an intriguing new work presented at The Bakehouse by TheimaGen, dramatist Caleb Lewis has taken the image to a disturbing other level. In this ambitious, epic play which begins at The Somme and continues to the present post 9/11 geo-political mayhem, Lewis examines the debates, …

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October 19, 2007

Theatre Adelaide

2007

LyreBird : Tales of Helpmann

by Tyler Coppin

State Theatre Company

Of South Australia

Space Theatre

Adelaide Festival Centre

October 16. Until November 3.

Tickets $17 – $55.  Bookings BASS 131 246

It was in 1964, in The Display, the first fully home-grown work by the Australian Ballet, that choreographer Robert Helpmann introduced the dance of the lyrebird as a metaphor for Australian male attitudes. Now, in a welcome return, nine years after it premiered at the 1998 …

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October 12, 2007

Family First

2007

The Homecoming

by Harold Pinter

Floogle

Holden Street Theatres

Directors’ Choice 2007

October 3. Until October 20.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

They have been called comedies of menace and the term is apt. There is something claustrophobic about the settings of Harold Pinter’s domestic dramas, whether it is the crummy Brighton boarding digs of The Birthday Party, the derelict house in The Caretaker or the dingy North London location of The Homecoming. Each is a closed little …

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October 01, 2007

Adelaide OzAsia Festival 2007

China
By William Yang
Space Theatre
Adelaide Festival Centre
September 26.

The Eyes of Marege
By Julie Janson
Australian Performance Exchange
And Teater Kita Makassar
Dunstan Playhouse
Adelaide Festival Centre
September 27.

To look from Arnhem Land, across the horizon of the Timor Sea towards Sulawesi, is to see with the Eyes of Marege. For four hundred years the Yolngu people traded and intermarried with the Makassan fishermen and mariners from Indonesia – until 1904, when all dealings were terminated …

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September 28, 2007

Cooking up Season Four

2007

Adam Cook talks to Murray Bramwell about actors, audiences and his big ideas for the State Theatre Season for 2008.

From the time he first presented himself as a candidate for the job of Artistic Director Adam Cook made it clear that the pitch is very important. It doesn’t matter how good the season is if no-one turns up to the shows.

Three years later, and he is still enjoying playing Saatchi to his own Saatchi as, over coffee …

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September 14, 2007

Uncertainty, Suspicion and True Belief

Doubt
By John Patrick Shanley

State Theatre Company presents
The Sydney Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse.
September 6. Until September 22, 2007

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It has been a productive time for Adelaide theatre in recent weeks. At the Bakehouse, Vitalstatistix has staged an excellent production, directed by Catherine Fitzgerald, of Love, Patricia Cornelius’s award-winning Australian play about a lovers’ triangle plunging into addiction and youthful despair. And for young audiences, Windmill Productions has presented a charming home-grown version of …

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August 25, 2007

Love is an addiction

2007

Theatre

Adelaide

Love

By Patricia Cornelius

Vitalstatistix

The Bakehouse Theatre,

255 Angas Street, Adelaide.

August 22. Until September 1.

Tickets $15 – $25.  Bookings Ph.8447 6211

“Love is a given”, observes writer Patricia Cornelius. ”We all believe we will feel it one day. Most of the time it is represented in a rather crass and ludicrous package but we buy the package anyway.” In the opening scene of her 2003 play Love, two young women, Tanya and Annie, …

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July 20, 2007

Three-Way Stretch

2007

Triple Threat : A Triple Bill

Talk to Me like the Rain and Let Me Listen
By Tennessee Williams

Hot Fudge
By Caryl Churchill

Central Park West
By Woody Allen

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
Adelaide Festival Centre
July 10. Until July 28, 2007.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

One of the more constant pressures on artistic directors of the State Theatre Company is to ensure there is plenty of work for local artists – whether actors, …

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July 13, 2007

Triple Threat : A Triple Bill

2007
Theatre
Adelaide

Talk to Me like the Rain and Let Me Listen
By Tennessee Williams

Hot Fudge
By Caryl Churchill

Central Park West
By Woody Allen

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
Adelaide Festival Centre
July 10, 2007 Until July 28.
Tickets $17 – $55. Bookings BASS 131 246

In theatre parlance a triple threat is someone who can dance and sing as well as act. But with this winter program on the mainstage of the Dunstan …

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May 25, 2007

Something to Celebrate

2007

The Birthday Party

by Harold Pinter

Flying Penguin Productions

Queen’s Theatre

May 16.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

A room is never a safe place with Harold Pinter. Once inside, you never know what confrontation might occur. But then again, there is also what might be waiting outside – when someone inevitably knocks at the door.  Written in 1958,The Birthday Party celebrates its fiftieth next year and David Mealor’s brisk and engaging production at the Queens Theatre shows this …

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