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 …

2007

The Real Thing
By Tom Stoppard

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
November 20, 2007. Until December 8.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

There is no doubting Tom Stoppard’s brilliance and he has written a number of modern classics – Travesties and Jumpers in the early Seventies, more recently the marvelous Arcadia, as well as (a neat program match for this year’s Hamlet perhaps ?) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The Real Thing, however, is not in the …

The Real Thing
By Tom Stoppard

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
November 20. Until December 8.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

As Adam Cook’s 2007 State Theatre season draws to a close, it cannot be said that it has been his best. To seize the word back from Summer Heights parlance, it has been a random experience. While Cook has never made claims for any themes and threads – in fact, quite the reverse – the jump from …

2007 The Australian

The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard

State Theatre Company
Of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
Adelaide Festival Centre
November 20, 2007. Until December 8.
Tickets $17 – $55. Bookings BASS 131 246

The scene is a living room – lounges, low tables, a carpet square – and Max is drinking wine, waiting for Charlotte to return from abroad. There is light, bright banter when she enters but Max knows that she has left her passport hidden among the …

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 …

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 …

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, …