1998
Adelaide Entertainment Centre
15 April, 19998.
Murray Bramwell
When Kenny Rogers last toured, ten years ago, he performed with Dolly Parton. Which sure proves that he’s not afraid of a bit of competition. This time, opening his Australian tour in Adelaide, he shares the stage with yet another country pop luminary, Reba McEntire- and it is not hard to see why, between them, they have sold 120 million albums. The Kenny and Reba show has it all. It looks …
Continue Reading Back to topFringe Reflections
Murray Bramwell
Since its relocation in the Rundle Street precinct the Festival Fringe has, seemingly, had a charmed life. But I say seemingly, because sometimes in among the razzle dazzle it is hard to work out exactly what is actually going on. In identifying the success of the Fringe you wonder, in the words of the poet, how you might tell the dancer from the dance ? There is certainly a lot of action in town. The nights …
Continue Reading Back to topFestival Notes
Murray Bramwell
With daylight saving over and the nights, as they say, drawing in, the Adelaide Festival, just two weeks after being squeezed back in its box, seems rather like a dream. But it was not. We do not but slumber here. It happened, and with considerable distinction.
There are a number of factors which made Robyn Archer’s 1998 event such a success. The first is that again, the festival captured the attention and enthusiasm of the city. …
Continue Reading Back to topThe Department
David Williamson
State Theatre South Australia
The Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Set in 1967, first performed in 1974, David Williamson’s The Department, like other early works such as The Club and Don’s Party , is both generic and prophetic. While bearing some resemblance to Swinburne College of Technology, where Williamson taught in the Engineering faculty in the sixties, The Department is also archetypical of a staff meeting in any educational institution. Or, for that matter, anywhere that …
Continue Reading Back to topThe Architect’s Walk
Daniel Keene
Red Shed Company
Arts Theatre
Such was his sense of manifest destiny that Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, drew artist’s impressions of the buildings of the Reich as two thousand year old ruins. Much later, in an interview for European TV, Speer observed, like a naughty schoolboy, that he was glad the Fuhrer was not around any more. He would not be pleased with Speer’s work, it was all built of such inferior concrete that it …
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