(Uncle) Vanya
by Howard Barker

Brink Productions
Red Shed

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Howard Barker’s version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is not so much deconstruction as detonation. He has taken one of the great plays of the modern era and turned it into intertextual terrorism. Not since Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead ( or Barker’s own Women Beware Women) has a play so successfully roosted under the roof of another. But unlike Stoppard’s hit, Barker’s Vanya is no …

1996

Knots

Double Bind Company

Tandanya

DARKpaths

Stephen Sewell

Junction Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

As the psychiatrist R.D.Laing moved from clinical practice to social commentary, from the Divided Self to the Politics of Experience, he began to write in different forms. One of his most accessible, engaging and incisive works is Knots, a slim volume of psycho-conundra elaborating the many ways relationships can get tangled. Laing called them double binds and that is the name taken by director/composer …

1995

Murray Bramwell

Over the past six weeks or so  there has been  a profusion of new work and interesting ventures – more than this reviewer could keep up with. I am sorry to report that, despite repeatedly surrendering the X Files, I failed to get to everything on offer. Among my regrets is the Oddbodies Theatre Co-op’s production of Kafka Dances, the well-regarded new play written by Timothy Daly and directed by Sean Riley.  By all accounts …

Murray Bramwell

There is much to admire about the Red Shed Company. You might start with its excellent production values. Or its increasingly confident and innovative writing. Or the distinctive clarity and precision of its acting styles. Or the range and intelligence of its themes. Wherever you want to begin the list, it is clear that in eight years of operation the company, which burst into being, waggishly announcing itself as the RSC, has earned the affection and respect of …

1994

Because You Are Mine

by Daniel Keene

Red Shed Company

Space, September, 1994.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

In the Festival Centre Trust’s Brave New Works season there could be few works as brave and new as Daniel Keene’s Red Shed commission Because You Are Mine. The Shed has presented other works by Keene -Low, a taut two-hander of underclass crime and punishment and the densely poetic dream play, All Souls. They were strong productions – some of the Shed’s …

Two Feet
Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre
Created, Directed and Performed by Meryl Tankard
Visual Design by Regis Lansac
Costume Design by Dianne Bridson
Lighting Design by Toby Harding
Assistant Director Peggy Watson
The Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
10 February

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is not putting it too strongly to say that Meryl Tankard has been exhilarating audiences in Adelaide in the past year. Since taking over as Artistic Director of the now eponymous Australian Dance Theatre, Tankard, …

Songs with Mara
Meryl Tankard ADT
Balcony

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Without wanting to offend demarcation protocol with the Special Dance Correspondent I feel compelled to add some paragraphs on Meryl Tankard’s latest work, Songs With Mara, because quite simply it is one of the best theatre pieces we have seen in town for some time. ADT has had an impressive season – the quizzical wit of Court of Flora, the insistent afterimages of Nuti, the energy and invention of …