What the Butler Saw
by Joe Orton
State Theatre Company
Playhouse
Joe Orton’s plays are not everybody’s cup of tee hee. There is humour that confirms our sense of the world and there is humour which unsettles it and Orton is definitely the latter. His comedy, all elliptical word play and glassy epigrams, has the mannered artificiality of Wilde. But unlike Oscar, Orton is not endearing. His is pitiless, unlikeable comedy and when he makes you laugh it often sticks …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
John Ford
State Theatre Company
Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Simon Phillips’ season of classics in tandem, -Elizabethan and Jacobean, comedy and tragedy, dream and nightmare- is an ambitious one. It is physically demanding on actors, tricky to design and difficult to publicise. More than just works in repertory, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore have been joined at the hip, or more likely …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
John Ford
State Theatre Company
Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Simon Phillips’ season of classics in tandem, -Elizabethan and Jacobean, comedy and tragedy, dream and nightmare- is an ambitious one. It is physically demanding on actors, tricky to design and difficult to publicise. More than just works in repertory, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore have been joined at the hip, or more likely …
Continue Reading Back to topBirds of the Moon
by Anna O’Connor
Patch Theatre Centre
South Australia
Director- Dave Brown, Designer- Kerry Reid, Composer- John Shortis, Choreographer- Guy Detot, Performers- Rosalind Aylmore, Nic Hurcombe.
Birds of the Moon, Dave Brown’s first production as Artistic Director of Patch Theatre Centre has been touring junior primaries with a simple tale of two migrating shearwaters. Otherwise known as muttonbirds, shearwaters breed in the islands of Bass Strait and along the southern coast of the mainland. Barely have they …
Continue Reading Back to topSurely we’re all mad people, and they
Whom we think are, are not.
-The Revenger’s Tragedy
Is the world mad ?
I’m not paid to quarrel with accepted facts.
– Joe Orton
Joe Orton’s plays are disquietingly funny not because of their nihilism but because of their relentless logic. Few satirists are as unsparing of human behaviour and of human institutions. The lineage probably begins with Kafka. In The Trial, the authorities knock at the door of Josef K, arrest …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
Ramaz’ Gala Performance
Rustaveli Company
Space
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
When the Rustaveli Company performed in Australia in 1986 they remained imprinted in the DNA of everyone who saw them. The most distinguished state company from the distinguished theatrical state of Georgia, the Rustavelis have toured extensively in Europe and North America presenting their unique readings of classic works – Shakespeare, a staple in Georgian theatre since last century, and Brecht, whose Threepenny Opera and Caucasian Chalk Circle are …
Continue Reading Back to topMoney and Friends
David Williamson
State Theatre Company presents
RQTC, Queensland’s State Theatre Company
Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
There is an increasingly widespread perception that David Williamson is a man more sinned against than sinning, that after more than twenty years he has not been embraced for the plays he has given us and the institution he has become. He is presented as our loftiest poppy, a Gulliver of the theatre constantly needled by Lilliputian envy and peevishness.
This …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
Murray Bramwell talks to Director Simon Phillips and Designer Shaun Gurton about their forthcoming season of classics in tandem
The State Theatre Company’s first in-house production for the year is a double bill – or more correctly, a Bill and a John. Performed in repertory, William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore represent what the company are calling in their promotion two classic tales of forbidden love. Certainly when Lysander, the confused …
Continue Reading Back to topTheatre Sports
Improd Theatre
The Big Ticket
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Theatre Sports, trademark registered by Keith Johnstone and the Loose Moose company, is Canada’s best-running export since maple syrup. A zappy combination of charades, It’s a Knockout and thespian wrestling, Theatre Sports began fourteen years ago and, especially in the past five years , has invaded the known world.
Their appeal is not hard to fathom. They have brought a refreshing unpredictability to the theatre. The frenzied, often ludicrous …
Continue Reading Back to topFunerals and Circuses
by Roger Bennett
Music by Paul Kelly
Magpie Theatre, South Australia
Director: Steve Gration
Assistant Director: Kaarin Fairfax
Designer: Kathryn Sproul
Choreographer: Debra Batton
Lighting: Laraine Wheeler
Cast: Wayne Anthoney, Roger Bennett, Robert Crompton, Fille Dusseljee, Francis Greenslade, Michael Harris, Nick Hope, Paul Kelly, Kate Roberts, Mandi Sandilands, Lillian Sansbury, Simone Tur.
Rarely does a theatrical work speak to its audience as directly and potently as Funerals and Circuses. In the midst of the Adelaide Festival, …
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