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 …

2004

Euripides’ Trojan Women
Adapted by Rosalba Clement and Dawn Langman

State Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is not surprising that the Greek drama speaks so strongly to us now, because it also spoke strongly to its own audience. And none more so than the works of Euripides. His plays confronted the Athenian audience with an unwelcome mirror of its prejudices, its cruelty and its follies. Even such legendary victories as the sacking of Troy Euripides …

17 November, 2004
Murray Bramwell

Euripides’ Trojan Women
Adapted by Rosalba Clemente and Dawn Langman

State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
16 November
Tickets $ 17 – $ 45.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 27 November, 2004

Even in Euripides’ grim repertoire there are few more harrowing plays than The Trojan Women. His subject, once again, is the cruelty and pity of war. The occasion is the gloating victory of the Greeks over the Trojans …

Boston Marriage
by David Mamet

State Theatre Company of South Australia
The Space

Murray Bramwell

David Mamet is well-known for the testosterone dialogue of plays like American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross and the intriguingly minimalist expression of his film scripts, so it is interesting to see him venture into the very different world of Boston Marriage, a play he wrote for his wife the actor Rebecca Pidgeon.

A Boston marriage is a late nineteenth term for a partnership of …

20 October, 2004
Murray Bramwell

Boston Marriage
by David Mamet

State Theatre Company of South Australia.
The Space, Adelaide Festival Centre.
19 October.
Tickets $ 17 – $ 45.
Bookings BASS 131 246.
Until 6 November, 2004

In the late nineteenth century when two women lived together, whether for companionship, or somewhat more than that, it was known as a Boston marriage – reflecting both the feminist sophistication of the arrangement and its prevalence in that American city. It is …