murraybramwell.com

October 28, 2005

Incendiary Devices

Bombshells
by Joanna Murray-Smith
State Theatre Company
With Melbourne Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse

A Thing Called Snake
by Stephen House
iNSPACE
Adelaide Festival Centre
October, 2005

Murray Bramwell

It is not hard to see why Bombshells has had successful seasons in Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Edinburgh and London’s West End – Caroline O’Connor is a champagne performer, as classy as she is spritzy. Written for her by Joanna Murray Smith, Bombshells is a vehicle for her energy and warm comedy. Tautly …

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October 21, 2005

Narratives Entwined

Theatre
Murray Bramwell

Checklist For an Armed Robber
By Vanessa Bates
Vitalstatistix
Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide.
October 19. Tickets $12- $23. Bookings (08) 8447 6211
Until November 5, 2005

It is almost three years to the day since Chechen rebels stormed the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow during a performance of the popular musical Nord-Ost. The siege lasted three days and resulted in the deaths of fifty rebels and 117 hostages – the latter, for the most part, as …

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September 30, 2005

Father of Night

The Daylight Atheist
By Tom Scott

State Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company co-production
The Space

Murray Bramwell

A daylight atheist, New Zealand playwright Tom Scott tells us, is someone who doesn’t believe in God until it gets dark. Dan Moffat, the dominant of many voices in Scott’s monodrama, is a man for whom the night is closing in. An Irish emigrant to New Zealand after the end of the war in 1945, Moffat is followed by his wife and infant …

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August 12, 2005

Dark heart of goatness

2005
Murray Bramwell

The Goat, or Who is Sylvia ?
by Edward Albee

State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
9 August, 2005 Tickets $ 16.70 – $ 49.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 20 August.

Edward Albee writes that “every civilisation sets quite arbitrary limits to its tolerances”. And in the Tony award-winning play, The Goat, he tests those limits and tolerances in both his characters and his audience.

Martin is turning fifty. An architect …

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July 22, 2005

Crime and Penitence

2005

Frozen
by Bryony Lavery
State Theatre Company of South Australia
Space, Festival Centre
6 July. Until 23 July, 2005

Murray Bramwell

Whenever we wonder about the nature of human nature we invariably turn to criminal behaviour, especially that of predatory serial killers, for speculation and explanation. Are such crimes, especially against children, proof of the existence of evil, or are they manifestations of derangement and illness ? And how do our judicial processes – and our personal moral reckonings …

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July 08, 2005

Cold comfort after difficult journey

7 July, 2005
Murray Bramwell

Frozen
by Bryony Lavery

State Theatre Company of South Australia.
The Space, Adelaide Festival Centre.
6 July. Tickets $ 16.70 – $ 49.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 23 July, 2005

Are terrible crimes, such as those of serial killers, a proof of evil or an extreme aberration ? And how, judicially and personally, do we deal with such events ? How do we reconcile outrage with a need to understand and, even, to forgive …

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July 01, 2005

Horse Opera

Midnite
An Opera created by Raffaele Marcellino
and Doug McLeod based on the novel by Randolph Stow

Windmill Productions and OzOpera in association
with State Theatre Company of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
5 July. 2005

Murray Bramwell

Randolph Stow’s zany bushranger story, Midnite, is a very likely choice for a theatre work for children. Along with his quirky companions – Khat the talking Siamese pussycat, Major the cockatoo and Red Ned his trusty steed – Midnite (spelt that way , …

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May 13, 2005

Stepping Up at the Bakehouse

One Small Step
by Heather Nimmo

Bakehouse Theatre
Angas Street
28 May, 2005

Murray Bramwell

It is often said that if the shoe fits we have to wear it – or is it the bed we have lie in ? At any rate, in Heather Nimmo’s good-natured monodrama, One Small Step, the central character, Regina, a machinist in a footwear factory is ready to give everything the boot. A live-wire sheila with two children – teenager Sinbad and pre-schooler Angel …

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April 29, 2005

Untiring Courage

Weary
by Alan Hopgood

Dunstan Playhouse
13 April, 2005

Murray Bramwell

Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop waited more than forty years before he turned the scattered notes of his wartime diaries into publishable form. Recorded in dreadful circumstances while he was a prisoner of the Japanese, first in camps in Java and then along the Burma-Thailand Railway, they now stand as one of the most remarkable documents of World War II. As senior medical officer he recorded with scrupulous precision the …

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April 01, 2005

Running, Jumping, Standing Still

2005

Come Out 2005

Murray Bramwell

Come Out, the Australian Festival for Young People has been showcasing new work for more than thirty years and its achievement  is impressive. For much of that time, Come Out was not just the leading festival for young people in Australia, it was the only one – and an important opportunity, through forums, performances and collegial exchange, to take a look at the state of the arts for audiences ranging from pre-school to late …

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