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February 16, 2021

Fringe review: Sea Wall

Filed under: 2021,Adelaide Companies,Archive,Fringe,Theatre

Adelaide Fringe
Murray Bramwell

A sea wall is a massive, unexpected chasm under the ocean often deceptively near the shore. In this tightly-scripted monologue, husband and father, Alex (splendidly played by Renato Musolino) explores his own dark abyss after a sudden, freakish accident.

***** Five stars

Asked at short notice in 2008 to write a play for the Bush Theatre in London, Simon Stephens came up with Sea Wall. “I wanted to write a monologue,” he said. “I wanted …

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December 12, 2020

The Bleeding Tree (Theatre Republic)

Filed under: 2020,Adelaide Companies,Archive,Australian Texts,Theatre

Vengeance and resolution, exorcism and benediction, this excellent new production captures the visceral drama of Angus Cerini’s remarkable play.

Four and a Half Stars . Ngunyawayiti Theatre, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide.

Reviewed December 11, 2020
by Murray Bramwell, published online December 12, 2020.

Amongst the anxiety and havoc of Covid-19, the performing arts in 2020 have been systematically clobbered. So many productions abandoned and cancelled, so much effort and commitment brought to nothing.

Adelaide independent company, Theatre Republic’s …

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September 09, 2020

Joyous return of an illuminating stage hit

Filed under: 2020,Archive,State Theatre Company,Theatre

Gaslight
by Patrick Hamilton
State Theatre Company South Australia
Her Majesty’s, Adelaide.
September 8. Tickets $ 35 – $ 69.
Bookings : 131 246 bass.net.au
Until September 19.

The first night of a show is always an event. But the opening of State Theatre’s Gaslight has put so many things into the spotlight that it is a matter for particular celebration.

When Mitchell Butel announced his 2020 program, his first for State, who could have known that seven scheduled productions …

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March 10, 2020

Adelaide Festival – Morbid pleasures within theatrical invention

Filed under: 2020,Archive,Festival,International,Theatre

Cold Blood
by Thomas Gunzig.
Michele Anne De Mey, Jaco Van Dormael,
Kiss & Cry Collective.
Ridley Centre, Adelaide Showgrounds.
March 5. Duration: 1 hour 15 mins (no interval)

Mouthpiece
by Kieran Hurley
Traverse Theatre Company
Odeon Theatre.
March 6. Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Tickets: $30 – $69. Duration 1 hour 35 minutes (no interval)
Until March 15.

The Belgian Kiss & Cry Collective, led by choreographer Michele Anne de Mey and filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael have turned Cold Blood into a …

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February 29, 2020

Adelaide Festival – Exactly what this Doctor ordered

Filed under: 2020,Archive,Festival,International,Theatre

The Doctor
by Robert Icke
Very freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhardi.
Almeida Theatre, London.
in association with Adelaide Festival.
Dunstan Playhouse. Adelaide Festival Centre.
February 28. Tickets $ 45 – $129.
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au.
Duration: 2 Hours 40 minutes including interval.
Until March 8.

Robert Icke has energised current UK theatre with his versions of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and George Orwell’s 1984. He describes adaptation as “like using a foreign plug. You are in a …

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February 26, 2020

Adelaide Festival – The energetic tango of youth, one step at a time

Filed under: 2020,Archive,Festival,State Theatre Company,Theatre

Dance Nation
by Clare Barron
State Theatre Company South Australia and Belvoir
In association with Adelaide Festival.
Scott Theatre, University of Adelaide.
February 25. Tickets $ 39 – $ 79. Bookings adelaidefestival.com.au.
Until March 7.
Belvoir season from March 14.

Shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize in 2019, Dance Nation is a funny, ferocious and closely-observed study of a group of pre-teen girls (and one boy) in a dance troupe competing in a series of play-offs to reach national prominence.

Writer …

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January 02, 2020

Murray Bramwell’s Cultural Moment of 2019

Filed under: 2019,2020,Archive,Festival,Theatre

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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October 31, 2019

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

Filed under: 2019,Archive,Fringe,International,Theatre

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

Filed under: 2019,Adelaide Companies,Archive,Theatre

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

Filed under: 2019,Archive,Festival,International,Theatre

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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