Shepherd on the Rocks
By Patrick White
Playhouse, Festival Centre
In wanting to honour Patrick White on the occasion of his 75th birthday, the State Theatre Company did him little service by staging the world premiere of his recent play, Shepherd on the Rocks.
The story is based on the bizarre case from the Thirties of the Rector of Stifikey (pron. ‘Stookey ‘), the Rev Harold Davidson, an Anglican sky pilot with earthy ideas about his ministry. A former …
Continue Reading Back to topShepherd on the Rocks
by Patrick White
State Theatre Company
Playhouse
Patrick White’s plays have a long association with Adelaide from the controversial first season of The Season at Sarsparilla to the more recent Lighthouse productions which revealed Netherwood and hailed Signal Driver. All that history notwithstanding, the State Theatre Company’s decision to stage Shepherd on the Rocks was an unfortunate one. The production does little credit to either White or the company, and, all things considered, they would …
Continue Reading Back to topCome Out 1987 was a testing time for youth theatre. After the sporadic bookings in 1985, directors Malcolm Moore and Kerry Comerford were faced with the task of not only compiling an appealing programme, but also filling theatre seats. They did well on both counts. Also, with ASSITEJ, the international jamboree of youth theatre heavies, being held in Adelaide at the same time, Come Out was on International display.
Director Michael Fitzgerald made it plain that ASSITEJ might turn into …
Continue Reading Back to topDavid Holman talks to Murray Bramwell.
In Adelaide in time for Come Out, David Holman might have been forgiven for thinking that his works were the main fare for the Festival. For a start, Magpie were doing two plays which Holman originated in Australia. No Worries, one of the great sleepers from the 1984 Adelaide Festival and The Small Poppies, one of the most keenly anticipated plays from the 1986 Festival. In addition, Frankie, the young people’s opera …
Continue Reading Back to topI’m Not a Racist, but …
by Richard Lawrance
Multicultural Youth Theatre, SA
Directed by Tessa Bremner
Cast: Vicki London, David Saddler, Aimee Thomas,
Nicolas Primaro, Raphael Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, Ha Tran.
On the face of it the flyers for the Multicultural Youth Theatre’s production were not promising. (Narelle is fifteen, alone and pregnant. Cong and Trinh are trying to hack it in this strange new country. Dog Track’s in debt and on the run and Petar’s caught between the …
Continue Reading Back to topSong For the Navigator
by Michael Cowell
Honolulu Theatre for Youth
Directed by John Kauffman
Set Design: Joseph Dodd
Costume Design: Laura Crow
Lighting: Lloyd S. Riford III
Amongst a mixed bag of Australian productions at the ASSITEJ Congress, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s play is a likeable piece but not one to put fear in the hearts of local theatre practitioners. Song For the Navigator by Michael Cowell was commissioned by the HTY, as they describe it, “to celebrate …
Continue Reading Back to topMy Place
by Christine Anketell
Patch Theatre. South Australia
Directed by: Christine Anketell
Design: Kathryn Sproul
Music: Stuart Day
Production Manager: Richard Meyman
Cast: Joanna Cooper, Gwenda Helsham, Karen Inwood
There’s no place like home, as Dorothy once said to her red shoes. And as it is the International Year of Shelter for The Homeless, the Patch Theatre Company have used it as the occasion for their Come Out 87 contribution, My Place.
Perhaps one reason why the International …
Continue Reading Back to topI Hate Mime
Chris Willems
Price Theatre
Chris Willems says he hates mime but nothing could be further from the truth. What he hates is the fact that white mime has become so refined that it has lost all its nutrients.
I Hate Mime is Willems’ third solo show and it follows Son of Romeo, his highly successful lip readers’ digest of Romeo and Juliet. Though unlike Romeo, with its familiar narrative, Willems’ new work is a more …
Continue Reading Back to topCome Out
The Come Out Festival started in 1974 because many professionals in the arts and education were peeved that the Adelaide Festival was taking no notice of young people in the performing arts. They set up in various parks in inner Adelaide and the momentum began. It was then decided that Come Out would utilise the Adelaide Festival’s administrative resources in the “off” year between Festivals and plan a full-scale programme of the kind that has been offered now …
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