1991

Spring Awakening

by Frank Wedekind

State Theatre Company

Playhouse, April, 1990.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is almost one hundred years to the day since Spring Awakening was written. It’s author was twenty-six at the time and he was writing as no-one had ever done before about sexual and social development in adolescence. Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Wedekind was conceived in San Francisco, raised in Switzerland, and, in defiance of his cranky, autocratic, marxist father, was to become an altogether …

1991

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

State Theatre Company

Playhouse, February, 1991.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Of all of Shakespeare’s work, Julius Caesar seems to most invite the intervention of modern sensibilities. There is no way that the text can be left to tell itself (if such a thing were ever possible in the theatre).It presents such a spectrum of political shenanigans that any  production has to make choices straight off – whether to favour the Brutus team or take …

Power Play

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

State Theatre Company

Playhouse, February, 1991.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Of all of Shakespeare’s work, Julius Caesar seems to most invite the intervention of modern sensibilities. There is no way that the text can be left to tell itself (if such a thing were ever possible in the theatre).It presents such a spectrum of political shenanigans that any  production has to make choices straight off – whether to favour the Brutus team or …

1991

The State Theatre Company opens its 1991 season next Tuesday night with Julius Caesar. Murray Bramwell talks about the production with director, Simon Phillips and actors, Carmel McGlone and Hugo Weaving.

Although written in 1599, straight after Henry V, Julius Caesar has little of the historical and moral certainty of Henry. Instead, it is an examination of the perils and complications of power. Shakespeare’s audience, well used to cautionary tales from history, would have recognised the pertinence of the …