In the Time of Distance
Para//elo
Queen’s Theatre
September, 2003

Murray Bramwell

The rehearsal room for Parallelo’s Distance Project has not been in a building but on a website. For several years the company – previously known as Doppio Teatro – has, through the auspices of artistic director, Teresa Crea, brought together a diaspora of artists from Teatro Kismet in Italy, Theatre Athenor in France and the Nottingham Playhouse in the UK. Crea and video artist, Laurent Dupont co-ordinated contributions …

29 September, 2003
Murray Bramwell

The Snow Queen

Windmill Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company
Adelaide Festival Centre, Dunstan Playhouse
Until 4 October. Bookings at Bass 131 246
Tickets $ 15 – $ 23. $ 68 Family.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson is a children’s story but it is a mighty complicated one to stage. For one thing, it is not a single story but a series of episodes – involving quests and danger, magical situations and animal …

Robinson Crusoe
Adapted by Gillian Rubinstein

Windmill Productions in association with
Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image
The Space
July, 2003

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Windmill Productions have completed their first year of operation and there is much to celebrate. In the capable hands of Creative Producer Cate Fowler, Windmill is firmly in the first rank of companies which specialise in work for young audiences. Windmill, it would seem, has stepped straight into the first tier as a national and international …

Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany
and Contemporary America
by Stephen Sewell

State Theatre Company
in co-production with Playbox
Dunstan Playhouse
July, 2003

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

A new play by Stephen Sewell is always an event. And more often than not, his plays are heralded by marvellous titles. There is a cadence to them – The Blind Giant is Dancing, Dreams in an Empty City, The Father We Loved on a Beach by the Sea. These plays sound …

The Last Acre
by Sean Riley

Oddbodies Theatre Company
The Bakehouse
February, 2003

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

We know, and absolutely don’t want to know, how a single action, a single impulse can change everything. This is what we mean by a life-or-death moment, that split second, as we call it, when something irrevocable occurs and it can’t be changed back. This is the moment that can’t be believed even when it is re-lived repeatedly, the moment that is still …

21 February, 2003
Murray Bramwell

Ristorante Immortale
A Floz Production
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
Ends 1 March. Tickets $28 -$ 42. $96 Family of 4.
BASS ph. 131 246.

The Ristorante Immortale is unlikely to get a listing in the Michelin Guide, or anywhere else for that matter. It has zany waiters, an accordion wielding cook, an endlessly hopeful owner and, it would seem, no customers at all. This restaurant is not so much immortal as in a state …

Salt
by Peta Murray
State Theatre Company
The Space
November, 2002.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

The State Theatre slogan for 2003 promises to spice up our lives. In fact the culinary metaphor already applies. For their final production this year the company has chosen Salt, a work by Peta Murray about mothers, daughters, and food, food and more food.

This play has enjoyed seasons around the country, originating at Playbox in Melbourne, after which it has been served in WA, …

30 Sept, 2002
Murray Bramwell

Twinkle Twinkle Little Fish
Based on the Works of Eric Carle
Windmill Performing Arts
Her Majesty’s, Adelaide
Until 5 October. Tickets $20 Adult,
$12 Children/Concession $56 Family.

Windmill Director Cate Fowler describes Twinkle Twinkle Little Fish as a production which was determined to be born. Commissioned for the 1998 Out of the Box Festival in Brisbane, it nearly stayed in its box when ACT based Company Skylark crashed after an embezzlement scandal. Fowler found rescue …

The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch
by Hilary Bell
Vitalstatistix
Queen’s Theatre

Copenhagen
by Michael Frayn
Sydney Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse.
September, 2002

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

While these are two very different productions – they are a world apart in theatrical style – they share a common reflection about what happens when Science Goes Wrong. Or do I mean : too Far, or too Weird, or when it presses on even when it can’t see what is further up …