May 2010
Adelaide Theatre

Carmel Johnson talks with Murray Bramwell about her part in State Theatre Company’s current production of Arthur Miller’s The Price.

It has been a busy time for Carmel Johnson. One of Adelaide’s most respected and versatile actresses, she has been on a two year roller-coaster with Brink Productions’ staging of Andrew Bovell’s hit play When the Rain Stops Falling. Opening at the 2008 Adelaide Festival the production has had seasons in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra …

October 2009

John Gaden, back in Adelaide for State Theatre Company’s latest production, talks to Murray Bramwell about playing King Lear – for a third time.

John Gaden is, and has always been, one of Adelaide’s favourite actors. He performed at Theatre 62 in the late 60s, headlined often for the South Australian Theatre Company in its early years, and as Artistic Director from 1986 to 1989, he not only pulled the State Theatre Company out of the cactus, but …

Murray Bramwell reports on Adam Cook’s State Theatre Company program for 2009.

One of the things Adam Cook likes to do is spruik his company and never more so than at the time of the new season’s launch. He is good at it, and he pays attention to detail – the graphics, layout, pics and page size of the brochure and, of course, the signature pea-green stylings and snappy slogans. They are all part of the package. This year’s pitch …

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 …

2006
Draft

Michael Gow talks about his play, Away, currently on a national tour twenty years after its first performance.

Murray Bramwell

When the Griffin Theatre production of Away opened at the Stables in Sydney on January 7, 1986, no-one, least of all thirty-one year old playwright Michael Gow, had any idea what a successful, and much beloved play it would become. Written swiftly between November 1985 and the following January the play reflected Gow’s preoccupations at that time:

“It …

2006

Murray Bramwell talks with director, Michael Hill, in week three of rehearsals, about State Theatre’s up-coming production of Waiting For Godot

Waiting For Godot is probably the most famous play of the 20th century . Written over six weeks in 1949, it made a legend of its author, Samuel Beckett, when first performed in Paris in 1953 and its reputation spread when it opened in London and New York two years later. Described by Martin Esslin as a leading …

2005

Murray Bramwell talks with Brett Sheehy about preparations for the 2006 Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts

Asked how he is feeling, six weeks out from the launch of the 2006 Adelaide Bank Festival, and Brett Sheehy says he’s thrilled. According to his general manager, Simon Bogle, in the first month of sales the Festival has broken a forty year box office record. Fifteen thousand tickets snapped up and one show already sold out.

Brett Sheehy is thrilled. But he …