On the way to the theatre on a Sunday, the streets of Kings Cross are slightly stained with the night before’s rambunctious pursuits. The train station feels like a haunted bathroom, and in doorways are bottles in brown paper bags and hollowed out beggars loiter near the pizza shop. Read more

Last week, I had the great fortune to venture beyond the usual triumvirate of Stables, Belvoir and Wharf to visit areas of Sydney’s theatre landscape that I do not often frequent – Bankstown Arts Centre (Bankstown), Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (Penrith) and Riverside theatres (Parramatta). This is not due to snobbery, or ignorance or lack of interest. It is largely to do with logistics of being a long term public transport devotee and being based in the inner west of Sydney. However, I thought it was really very interesting that three shows – each which represent and reveal important aspects of our identity, our past and our present by local artists – were so different in style and tone and story. Read more

There is something about theatre, and art for that matter, that brings out the very extremes of humanity. Art can reveal great hideous cruelty and also the most tender-hearted altruism. The act of theatre production, is largely an act of faith and hope (I’m making this as my gift to you, it’s a story I need to share with you) … which can often manifest in arrogance (I MADE THIS, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS! OR ELSE!) – and it is in the former, that Ian Zammit started Emu Height Productions late in 2010. Read more

Urban Theatre Projects latest theatrical offering is a saucy and irreverent departure from their usual fare, created by two utterly unique and charismatic performers – Effie Nkrumah and Alan Lao. As the inaugural show for the new Bankstown Arts Centre theatre, this is an bright and fun start to the theatre. Billed as “Part stand-up, part-theatre, part live-to-internet cooking show,” there is more medicine to this sugary pill, than first meets the eye. Read more

As a long time fan and follower of Lachlan Philpott’s writing – yes let me list them for you – Catapult, Colder, Bison, Bustown this is perhaps one of the most anticipated productions noted in my diary. Directed by Lee Lewis Associate Director/Literary Advisor of the Griffin Theatre, Silent Disco is the 2009 Griffin Award-winning play and makes it’s debut at the Stables. It’s exciting to see a company dedicate not only an award, but the truly rewarding exciting prize of production to Australian playwrights. I’ve always said, if its worth an award it’s worth a production.

A chain link fence. The city skyline traced in plastic cups. Shall we begin? Read more

As You Like It. Really! Shakespeare telling me what I like from beyond the grave? I’m offended! How could he assume what I like? How I like my plays? I like my plays fresh and intense and unique. So generally, I don’t selected Shakespeare lightly (as mentioned in my response to Anthony Skuse’s recent Julius Caesar and you can read about that here)… and this is my third production of As You like It. The first was as a teenager sitting amongst the trees of the Coffs Harbour Botanic Gardens (I was 16 I think?) and the one after that was a SUDS production at the Seymour Centre in the late 90s… and now Kate Gaul’s production at Carriageworks. Read more

New Theatre in Newtown is no stranger to revolution. With a communist heart and a 70-odd-year history, New Theatre has been at the fore front of making theatre that matters. It has also been a theatre which has been run by a very part-time staff and has been a place where theatre folk have cut their teeth in a Pro-Am/Pro bono fashion. But in 2011, thanks to a government grant, New Theatre have offered 4 independent companies the opportunity to come into the theatre under a co-production (predominantly a co-op structure) to make work. Not just any work – new work. Most of which is new Australian work. How could I let this momentus occasion pass? How could I not acknowledge the shift in identity this has for the work at the New? This is big. BIG. And this program has my full support, as does the artists housed within the program – and the artists who are still under the pro-bono old structure of the New Theatre productions. Always.

Now, to talk about Dirtyland by Elise Hearst. Read more

In the half nest of Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre, there is nothing to give us any sign of what is about to happen. For those that skim programmes in foyers – or flick over postcards – or read reviews or previews, perhaps you already know. I didn’t. I like to sail blind -I always read reviews after the event -because really, they’re not to be trusted – only because words in print (or online) can only barely replicate the moment – mainly perhaps because theatre is not such a linear experience and our language, it seems, is trapped on lines. Trapped in sentences. But the language of theatre, or memory, or feeling – swirls like thick red wine in a glass, leaving the ghost shadow of a sensation. I sail in. Blind. Read more

I don’t see Shakespeare if I can help it. I know, I can hear you tsk tsking. There are many and varied reasons for this – Read more

Try as we might, there is no escaping history. We carry it in our bones, our skin – the wrinkles, freckles, scars carry the impact of a life lived – a life of suffering, struggle that no one can avoid. This tender organ – the largest in our body – constantly shedding, in minute scales – contains our unique genetic information which we leave as a trail where ever we go – like Hansel and Gretel’s bread crumbs. Read more