2003

Nixon’s Nixon
by Russell Lees

P&S Productions
in association with Arts Projects Australia
Dunstan Playhouse, March 2003

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Much of what I know about Richard Milhous Nixon came from the unbiased testimony of Hunter S. Thompson. Throughout the Watergate hearings in 1973 he reported for Rolling Stone, despatching down his infamous mojo wire the most scabrous accounts of the disgraced president which were duly published alongside exhilaratingly vehement illustrations by Ralph Steadman.

Nixon was fair game. …

Three Arts Projects

3 Dark Tales
Theatre O
Scott Theatre

Kayassine
Les Arts Sauts
Torrens Parade Ground

Hopeless Games
fabrik Potsdam & DO Theatre
Union Hall

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Theatre O from the UK is a hypermobile company which uses the signature performance techniques of Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Their Edinburgh Festival hit, 3 Dark Tales is one of three international productions being offered in the Adelaide Fringe program by Arts Projects Australia.

Using two heavy costume racks, …

2001

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Come Out is back for its  biennial best and Artistic Director, Catherine Carter has put together the sort of program we have come to expect – school outreach activities, the Friday street parade, indigenous events, comedy workshops, the Allwrite literature festival and a diverse range of international, national and local theatre.

Belvoir Company B brings to the Playhouse Neil Armfield’s restaging of  David Holman’s The Small Poppies. First commissioned in 1986 by then Magpie director, …

Saltimbanco
Cirque du Soleil
Ellis Park

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is called the Grand Chapiteau and massive it certainly is. With its turrets, minarets and domes the massive $18m travelling venue for Cirque du Soleil is a show in itself. Almost phosphorescently white it is a formidable feat of engineering. And it can hardly be accidental that it resembles Fantasyland, which as all mouseketeers would know, is the happiest land of them all.

With seven different entertainments currently on …

Reverberations

The Seven Streams of the River Ota (98 Version)
Devised by Ex Machina
Directed by Robert Lepage

Ex Machina
Thebarton Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

When he first visited Hiroshima, a city, a word, synonymous with thermonuclear destruction, Quebecois director Robert Lepage expected to be dismayed by an enduring grimness. Instead he found “a lively, reconstructed modern city with large parks planted with tall trees: a vibrant night life and some of the most interesting contemporary art galleries in …

1997

Shopping and Fucking

Mark Ravenhill

Out of Joint Company

Playhouse

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

That old F word just goes on causing problems. Take the case of Mark Ravenhill’s very recent play Shopping and Fucking. A publicist’s nightmare, it has caused a flurry of asterisks and strategic figleaves. In Adelaide it received a self-imposed R rating. In New Zealand there were rumours it wouldn’t play at all.

On tour around the country the play has remained enmeshed in …

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare

Royal Shakespeare Company
Festival Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell.

It may take forty minutes for Puck to put a girdle round the earth but it takes the RSC a little longer. It is ten years since we saw Anthony Sher’s Richard III and a lot longer back to Peter Brook’s legendary Dream. Now, boosted by a British Council celebrating its jubilee, the RSC returns like an infrequent comet, bringing with it a considerable reputation …

Cyrano
Adapted by Anthony Burgess

Theatre at Large
Space

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The story of Cyrano has been a stage favourite since Edmond Rostand’s syrupy romance hit the Paris boards almost exactly a century ago. Since then it has become a regularly revived cinema property- who could forget Gerard Depardieu as the schnozz ?- and an English rep staple as well. Ralph Richardson’s biographer describes how Rafe and Olivier vied for the part. The choice was between Cyrano and …