2000
The Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare
State Theatre South Australia
Playhouse, November 2000
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
There is nothing else in all of Shakespeare that has caused the sort of qualms that The Taming of the Shrew has over the past twenty years or so. The subduing of the fiery Katherina by her mocking suitor Petruchio and the proofs of her obedience in the final scene have not been welcome spectacles in a time when equality …
Continue Reading Back to topBare
by Toa Fraser
Madeleine Sami and Ian Hughes
Space
November, 2000
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Bare is an odd title for a stage work as richly arrayed as this. It is certainly unadorned – a two hander for actors who perform with minimal lighting and two chairs. But its language, narrative complexity and emotional energy mark this suite of twenty four monologues as impressive. I find myself going back to productions such as the South African play Woza Albert …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
Collected Stories
by Donald Margulies
Northside Theatre Company
with State Theatre and AFCT
Playhouse, October 2000
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Collected Stories might well have been entitled Recollected Stories because its subject is the writer’s responsibility to respect the privacy of others. Somewhere between the right to free trading in a good yarn and the obligation to protect the feelings and integrity of individuals there is a line- not to be written – but drawn.
It is, of course, …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
Sweet Road
by Debra Oswald
State Theatre South Australia
and Playbox
Space, September 2000
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Life, as everyone from your aromatherapist to your personal trainer will tell you, is a journey. We are all out there, pounding away on the four lane black top. That is, when we are not cruising the information superhighway or moping about the road not taken. In popular culture the open vista has beckoned everyone from Jack Kerouac to Toad of …
Continue Reading Back to topPoM pOm
by Pamela Allen
Patch Theatre
Odeon Theatre
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
It is often said that young people deserve the best theatre. And yet, just as often, they end up with the very opposite. Not only have we seen a reduction in the amount of work on offer in all age ranges in the past five years, but, seemingly, there has been a failure of nerve by performing companies desperate to compete with Sony Playstations and the global …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
Equus
by Peter Shaffer
State Theatre South Australia
Optima Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Peter Shaffer wrote Equus several years after a friend told him about a crime committed by a young man. The friend knew none of the particulars, only that a stable had been invaded and horses had been mutilated. Shaffer’s informant died some months after and the playwright was unable to find out anything further. The image stayed in his mind, though, and he wrote an …
Continue Reading Back to topCDs reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Electronica et al
Anyone who knows their polypeptides will tell you that endorphins are a little gift from your brain to you. And because he offers a beguiling equivalent in musical analgesia, Endorphin aka electronics composer Eric Chapus, is well-named. Skin (Columbia/Sony) is his second album, follow up to his debut work, Embrace.
Chapus, born in France and widely travelled, has been based in Kuranda in Northern Queensland before recently relocating to Sydney. He …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
CDs reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Anyone who knows their polypeptides will tell you that endorphins are a little gift from your brain to you. And because he offers a beguiling equivalent in musical analgesia, electronics composer Eric Chapus, aka Endorphin is well-named. Skin (Columbia/Sony) is his second album, after goodly numbers of Australian fans wrapped themselves around his debut work, Embrace.
Chapus, born in France and widely travelled, has been based in Kuranda in Northern Queensland before recently …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
How I Learned to Drive
by Paula Vogel
State Theatre South Australia
Space
Secret Bridemaids’ Business
by Elizabeth Coleman
Playbox with State Theatre
Optima Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
In How I learned to Drive, American playwright Paula Vogel uses humour as a vehicle, you might say. And with it she takes us down some pretty dodgy back roads. If anyone were to tell you that this is a play about the intimate relationship between a seventeen year old …
Continue Reading Back to top2000
How I Learned to Drive
by Paula Vogel
State Theatre South Australia
Space
Secret Bridemaids’ Business
by Elizabeth Coleman
Playbox with State Theatre
Optima Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
In How I learned to Drive, American playwright Paula Vogel uses humour as a vehicle, you might say. And with it she takes us down some pretty dodgy back roads. If anyone were to tell you that this is a play about the intimate relationship between a seventeen year old …
Continue Reading Back to top