murraybramwell.com

April 29, 2005

Untiring Courage

Filed under: Archive,Australian Texts,Theatre

Weary
by Alan Hopgood

Dunstan Playhouse
13 April, 2005

Murray Bramwell

Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop waited more than forty years before he turned the scattered notes of his wartime diaries into publishable form. Recorded in dreadful circumstances while he was a prisoner of the Japanese, first in camps in Java and then along the Burma-Thailand Railway, they now stand as one of the most remarkable documents of World War II. As senior medical officer he recorded with scrupulous precision the …

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April 15, 2005

REM with Bright Eyes and Little Birdy

Filed under: Archive,Music

Entertainment Centre
6 April

Murray Bramwell

REM’s Adelaide show, their third here, marks the 25th anniversary of their first gig as a band. And while it may seem like the blinking of an eye to some of us, when we hear that Nebraskan support band Bright Eyes’s lead singer Conor Oberst was one month old at that time, it is a reminder what an extraordinary stretch the REM twenty album history really is.

Not that there is anything backward-looking about …

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April 01, 2005

Running, Jumping, Standing Still

Filed under: Adelaide Companies,Archive,Theatre

2005

Come Out 2005

Murray Bramwell

Come Out, the Australian Festival for Young People has been showcasing new work for more than thirty years and its achievement  is impressive. For much of that time, Come Out was not just the leading festival for young people in Australia, it was the only one – and an important opportunity, through forums, performances and collegial exchange, to take a look at the state of the arts for audiences ranging from pre-school to late …

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The Power of Two

Filed under: Archive,Comedy

2005

The Pleasure of Their Company

Shaun Micallef and Glynn Nicholas

The Arts Theatre

Murray Bramwell

There have been plenty of comedy double acts in recent times – HG and Roy, John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, Mick Molloy and Tony Martin, to name just a few. But, on first glance, Glynn Nicholas and Shaun Micallef seem an unlikely combination. For a start, Nicholas has forged a very successful career as a solo comic with a memorable range of signature characters …

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March 18, 2005

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Filed under: Archive,State Theatre Company,Theatre

2005

The Government Inspector
by Nikolai Gogol

State Theatre Company
of South Australia
Dunstan Playhouse
1 March, 2005.

Murray Bramwell

For State Theatre’s contribution to Come Out and as a spritzy opening to the 2005 season, newly arrived Artistic Director Adam Cook has assembled a talented cast to stage an energetic revival of a European classic. The Government Inspector, Gogol’s tangled tale of mistaken identity and civic corruption offers plenty of chances for funny business and Cook makes the most …

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Fine-Tuning the Festivities

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Womadelaide 2005
Botanic Park

Murray Bramwell

2005 will probably be known as the Wet Womadelaide. But only because – apart from some passing morning showers in 1992 – the event has been long blessed with ideal weather. Not that the Friday night rains this year proved especially irksome, especially since most of us had umbrellas amongst our kit. And, as a reward for audience loyalty perhaps, the first evening also provided some of the best music of the weekend.

The …

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March 11, 2005

Power in a Sheep Pen

Filed under: Archive,Australian Texts,Theatre

9 March, 2005
Murray Bramwell

Emily Loves to Bounce
Inspired by the books of Stephen Michael King
Patch Theatre Company
Odeon Theatre, Adelaide
9 March. Tickets $15 – $7.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 19 March.

The Green Sheep
Based on the book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
Windmill Productions.
The Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
9 March. Tickets $ 15 – $7
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 19 March.

The Come Out 2005 Australian Festival for …

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March 04, 2005

Shakespeare’s Villains

Filed under: Archive,International,Theatre

Shakespeare’s Villains
Steven Berkoff
Festival Theatre, February 16.

Murray Bramwell

In the polite world of English theatre Steven Berkoff has always been the bad boy, and, even at sixty eight, he is still a bit of a lad. We owe much to him – for the turbulent rough magic of East, for the curdled wit of his play Decadence, for the outrageousness of his Salome and the camp guignol he has brought to a posse of Hollywood baddies. But this …

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Remaining in Light

Filed under: Archive,Music

David Byrne
Norwood Concert Hall

Murray Bramwell

Talking Heads, as their name suggests, were very much a high concept band and, like other Seventies exponents of art pop such as Devo and Kraftwerk, their’s was a studied, highly theatrical persona. So it is not just refreshing, but a complete surprise, to find Talking Head frontman David Byrne so affably direct as he lights up the stage at the Norwood Concert Hall.

With a platinum quiff and dressed in matching grey …

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March 03, 2005

Lively production overlooks dark satire

Filed under: Archive,State Theatre Company,Theatre

2 March, 2005
Murray Bramwell

The Government Inspector
by Nikolai Gogol
Translated by May-Brit Akerhold, Neil Armfield,
Leah Mackiewicz and Geoffrey Rush

State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
1 March. 2005. Tickets $ 16.70 – $ 49.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 19 March.

Between the colourfully decorated stage curtain and a row of babushka dolls doubling as footlights, a motley group of players, dressed in styles ranging from comic peasant to Soviet nerd, lugubriously …

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