murraybramwell.com

July 18, 1993

Fiesta-ville

Filed under: Archive,Music

Murray Bramwell

From September 10 -26 Adelaide and environs will be alive with the sound of fiesta. The Honda Adelaide Music Fiesta will be getting into gear on a number of fronts- jazz, country, popular, rock, dance, choral and a broad classical program. There will be a variety of international and interstate performers but the focus for Fiesta is also in showcasing and promoting local talent.

The Music Fiesta originated in 1991 with a festival of more than 140 events …

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July 01, 1993

Class Action

School for Scandal
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
State Theatre Company
The Playhouse

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The last time director Simon Phillips worked with designer Mary Moore it was for Edward Bond’s Restoration. Now with School for Scandal they turn from satiric pastiche to the real thing. But these days the real thing- in the case of Sheridan- means blending Restoration manner with a good deal of satiric pastiche.

This State has done with considerable flair. Characteristically, Moore’s design is …

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Crime and Punishment

Death and the Maiden
by Ariel Dorfman
Sydney Theatre Company
Space

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Since Ariel Dorfman’s ethico-political thriller Death and the Maiden has emerged as one of the most admired new works performed in London for some time, the inclusion of the Sydney Theatre Company version in State’s current season provides a welcome opportunity to see the play- if not, perhaps, in the production it best deserves.

Whodunnit, sexual dialectic, theatrical nailbiter and timely reminder, Death and the …

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Night Terrors

All Souls
by Daniel Keene
Red Shed Company
Cardwell Street

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

All Souls continues the productive relationship between Daniel Keene and the Red Shed Company. Last year’s Low, a grim underclass tragedy featuring Ulli Birve and Syd Brisbane, drew admiring, often young, audiences to Cardwell Street. With All Souls, a Red Shed commission, Keene has extended his writing- sometimes over-extended it- but the result is a new work of considerable distinction.

All Souls is a dream play …

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June 01, 1993

Marvellous

The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow
Heaven

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

A Rose is a ruse is a total freakout -as the packed and ogling house in Newmarket Heaven discovered when the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow made its only- shall we say- appearance in Adelaide. Out of Seattle, the Weimar of the New World, and late of the Lollapalooza road show in the US, Mr Rose and his associates do their very best to keep their audiences entirely captivated. We are …

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May 01, 1993

Uncle Tom’s Cabaret

Ain’t Misbehavin’
The Fats Waller Musical Show
Festival Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

While it is one of the great twentienth century art forms and an instance of American culture at its most inventive and vigorous, the blues sometimes gets the blues itself. With a shift to an African aesthetic many Black Americans no longer warm to the music of oppression, some would say defeat. And the shift in sexual politics in the past twenty years has left the blues …

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Uncle Tom’s Cabaret

Ain’t Misbehavin’
The Fats Waller Musical Show
Festival Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

While it is one of the great twentienth century art forms and an instance of American culture at its most inventive and vigorous, the blues sometimes gets the blues itself. With a shift to an African aesthetic many Black Americans no longer warm to the music of oppression, some would say defeat. And the shift in sexual politics in the past twenty years has left the blues …

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April 01, 1993

A New Name and Renewed Purpose

Murray Bramwell talks with Meryl Tankard and Regis Lansac about what’s afoot at ADT.

We are sitting in the Red Ochre Grill, Gouger Street billabong for the Australian Dance Theatre. Or as it now is- the Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre. Along with the eponymous Meryl is her partner and creative associate Regis Lansac and ADT administrator Rainer Jozeps. In between stabs at the emu pate Tankard and Lansac talked about preparation for the company’s season and their views on …

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Summer Pudding

Summer Festival
Adelaide Festival Centre Trust

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The Summer Season, our solace in the off-year between festivals continues to give comfort. In fact, combined with Womadelaide, we can hardly complain about the available fare in these early months when holidays are over, daylight saving fades and the tomato plants have died off. It began with Julian Clary, who has in short time won hearts and minds as the love-child of Kenneth Williams. And continued with John Waters.…

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Come Out is Icumen In

Come Out, the national biennial youth fest is about to sprout again. For the fortnight of 2-15 May the festival will overtake Adelaide with a variety of activities in all art forms. As always, the statistics are impressive- 1,690 performer, three hundred performances by fifty-six companies. But Come Out extends far beyond this as school and community programs plug in to activities that take place throughout South Australia. In its scope and vision Come Out is remarkable, unique in Australia …

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