murraybramwell.com

August 01, 2001

Triptych

2001

Art
by Yasmina Reza

State Theatre Company
Space, July, 2001.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Plenty of people have bought paintings, and paid more than they could afford, but few have become as well known as Serge, the first-name-only character in Yasmina Reza’s hit play Art. First the French heard about him in Paris back in 1994. Then Sean Connery decided to back an English language version – scintillatingly provided by ace translator Christopher Hampton. After that, it was a …

Continue Reading Back to top

July 23, 2001

Adelaide Theatre

2001

Wit

By Margaret Edson.

Bluetongue Theatre

The BakehouseTheatre,  Adelaide,

ends 28 July.

Murray Bramwell

The building on the corner of Angas and Cardwell Streets has been a familiar address for Adelaide’s more intrepid theatre audiences. It was once the home of the Red Shed Company, noted, among other things, for a succession of Daniel Keene premieres. Long before that, it was a venue for Troupe Theatre in its first incarnation. And now, for the past four years, the space …

Continue Reading Back to top

July 01, 2001

Liquidating Assets

2001

Killer Joe
by Tracy Letts

Brink Productions
with State Theatre Company
Space, June 2001

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Brink Productions are back, this time in co-production with State Theatre, for Tracy Letts’s Killer Joe, a grim little dog-eat-rottweiler saga about the Smith family.

Buried alive in a trailer park on the margins of Dallas, Texas, are Ansel and his second wife Sharla, and, from a previous marriage, son Chris and twelve year old daughter Dottie. Chris, in deep to …

Continue Reading Back to top

Back to Beguinnings

Filed under: Archive,Music

Roger McGuinn
Governor Hindmarsh

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

I first heard of Roger McGuinn when he was known as Jim. He was the serious young ectomorph in the houndstooth coat and little black lozenge spectacles on the cover of the first Byrds album. Foppish in their American Carnaby gear, singing harmonies four and five deep, the Byrds swooped on Bob Dylan songs and showed there really was another side to them. They layered and enriched the sketchy sound of early …

Continue Reading Back to top

Tivoli Nights

Filed under: Archive,Interstate,Theatre

2001

Tivoli

A Dance Musical

by Graeme Murphy

The Australian Ballet

Sydney Dance Company

Festival Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The Tivoli Circuit represented a rich part of the history of Australian vaudeville and burlesque, and the two distinct spans of Tivoli entertainments – 1893 to 1929 and then 1931 to 1966 – cover more than seventy years. A fine and ranging subject, then, for inclusion in  Centenary of Federation celebrations, especially when many projects this year have proven lacklustre …

Continue Reading Back to top

June 01, 2001

Cabaret in May

Filed under: Archive,Cabaret

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2001

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The recent Adelaide Cabaret Festival has been a curious event. Or at least it has come into being for some rather curious reasons. In part, it is a reaction to last year’s Fringe. Certainly there were those close to the Fringe who thought that the popular comedy acts around the Rundle Street epicentre had swamped everything else – particularly those theatre companies, some of them international, who struggled to break even with …

Continue Reading Back to top

May 01, 2001

A house among the stars

2 May, 2001

Murray Bramwell

House Among the Stars
by Michel Tremblay.
State Theatre Company of South Australia
The Playhouse. Until 12 May, 2001

State Theatre’s newest production, House Among the Stars, from prolific French Canadian writer Michel Tremblay, is set in a log cabin in rural Quebec-“at the beginning of a beautiful evening in July.” In fact, it is set in three Julys- one in 1910, one in 1950 and a third, forty years on, in 1990. Three generations …

Continue Reading Back to top

Return Journey

Filed under: Archive,Music

Emmylou Harris
with Buddy Miller and Kasey Chambers

Thebarton Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Emmylou Harris is surely one of the true Daughters of the American Revolution. And she has been at the centre of not just one, but several, musical insurrections. The first was in the early seventies when she teamed up with Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman and others of their Burrito brethren to make what soon came to be called country rock. After Parsons’ death, it was Emmylou …

Continue Reading Back to top

April 01, 2001

Come Out Theatre

2001

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Come Out is back for its  biennial best and Artistic Director, Catherine Carter has put together the sort of program we have come to expect – school outreach activities, the Friday street parade, indigenous events, comedy workshops, the Allwrite literature festival and a diverse range of international, national and local theatre.

Belvoir Company B brings to the Playhouse Neil Armfield’s restaging of  David Holman’s The Small Poppies. First commissioned in 1986 by then Magpie director, …

Continue Reading Back to top

March 24, 2001

Big World

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Womadelaide 2001
Botanic Park

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Womadelaide Mark Six has come and gone and its remarkable continuity is again assured. The key to its success is clear. It is well-funded, well managed and has a modus operandi that not only works but is shared by the up-to-25,000 crowd that fills Botanic Park at its peak attendance. Few outdoor festivals enjoy the support that Womad has – from Government departments, quangos, NGOs, arts organisations, Botanic gardeners, St John, the …

Continue Reading Back to top
« Newer PostsOlder Posts »