1995
Murray Bramwell
Over the past six weeks or so there has been a profusion of new work and interesting ventures – more than this reviewer could keep up with. I am sorry to report that, despite repeatedly surrendering the X Files, I failed to get to everything on offer. Among my regrets is the Oddbodies Theatre Co-op’s production of Kafka Dances, the well-regarded new play written by Timothy Daly and directed by Sean Riley. By all accounts …
Continue Reading Back to top1995
The Floating World
by John Romeril
State Theatre
Space
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
It is timely to have State Theatre’s revival of John Romeril’s APG classic, The Floating World. Timely in that its subject matter- the experiences of Australian soldiers on what was then called the Burma-Siam Railway- coincides with the Australia Remembers project. But on closer inspection its themes sit uncomfortably with the blandness of the current celebrations. Fifty years on, Australia is remembering- but about as selectively …
Continue Reading Back to top1995
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard
State Theatre in association with
The Sydney Theatre Company
Playhouse, September, 1995.
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Arcadia, like its setting, Sidley Park, is a major property. Probably Stoppard’s best work since the plays from the Seventies such as Jumpers and Travesties, it marks an impressive return to form. It is maddeningly over-written and plagued with tropes he should be able to resist by now. But it is also propelled by ideas and energies which, in …
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