murraybramwell.com

July 30, 1992

Birds of the Moon

Filed under: Adelaide Companies,Archive,Australian Texts,Theatre

Birds of the Moon
by Anna O’Connor
Patch Theatre Centre
South Australia
Director- Dave Brown, Designer- Kerry Reid, Composer- John Shortis, Choreographer- Guy Detot, Performers- Rosalind Aylmore, Nic Hurcombe.

Birds of the Moon, Dave Brown’s first production as Artistic Director of Patch Theatre Centre has been touring junior primaries with a simple tale of two migrating shearwaters. Otherwise known as muttonbirds, shearwaters breed in the islands of Bass Strait and along the southern coast of the mainland. Barely have they …

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July 01, 1992

What the Orton Saw

Filed under: Archive,State Theatre Company,Theatre

Surely we’re all mad people, and they
Whom we think are, are not.

-The Revenger’s Tragedy

Is the world mad ?
I’m not paid to quarrel with accepted facts.

– Joe Orton

Joe Orton’s plays are disquietingly funny not because of their nihilism but because of their relentless logic. Few satirists are as unsparing of human behaviour and of human institutions. The lineage probably begins with Kafka. In The Trial, the authorities knock at the door of Josef K, arrest …

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Missing Persons

Filed under: Archive,Comedy

I, CONnolly

Gerry Connolly
Space

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The title of Gerry Connolly’s latest one person show is indicative of the performer himself. The literate pun has the same chill of cautious pre-meditation and self consciousness that characterises this and Connolly’s other live work. Shielded by television post-production or confined in the careful structure of something like Clarke and Stevenson’s Royal Commission, Connolly’s gifted impersonations have a steely presence. In his own show he seems to lack that last …

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Soul Survivor

Filed under: Archive,Music

1992

Wilson Pickett
Thebarton Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It would have been interesting to know how many people who bought tickets for the Wilson Pickett show thought he was Irish. Certainly his fortunes have received some word-of-mouth resuscitation from Alan Parker’s 2-D movie about a Dublin pub band. Much mentioned but never seen, Mr Pickett served as a grail hero for the Commitments, a retro-soul tribute band playing note-for-note Stax and Atlantic hits from the mid sixties.

The fact …

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Shivers Regal

Filed under: Archive,International,Theatre

1992

Ramaz’ Gala Performance

Rustaveli Company

Space

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

When the Rustaveli Company performed in Australia in 1986 they remained imprinted in the DNA of everyone who saw them. The most distinguished state company from the distinguished theatrical state of Georgia, the Rustavelis have toured extensively in Europe and North America presenting their unique readings of classic works – Shakespeare, a staple in Georgian theatre since last century, and Brecht, whose Threepenny Opera and Caucasian Chalk Circle are …

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