Within the wooden and glass rotunda of the Spiegeltent, small wooden chairs are unfolded and lined up like obedient disciples of punk cabaret goddess Amanda Palmer.

Dedicated fans armed with iPhones and Palmers lyrics ready to recite anthems of confessional realisations, lists of wishes and carefully caught regrets, desire, defiance, passion wait in the dim light of the Spiegeltent.

The stage is set with a keyboard and a chair. Eyes forward we’re caught by a sound from behind us – a voice supported by a steady beam of white light. A long silhouette offering a trembling voice… Read more

It seems Sydney loves circus.

Circus Oz is at the Big Top in Darling Harbour.

The Sydney Festival is full of it!
La Cucina dell’Arte (Belgium) , LIMBO (Australia), Ockham’s Razor (UK), Scotch and Soda (Australia), Kaput (Australia)

We love it like we love an outdoor, pop-up beer beer garden with mulit-coloured bunting.

We also love America (especially New York) with it’s fast-paced fast talking… its ambition and glamour and demands…

We love fishnet stockings and romantic acrobatic routines. We love strong women and silent men… Read more

Summer is the season of circus. Spiegeltents and big tops spring up around the city. At the start of the year, when still rubbing the exhaustion and excess of the festive season from our eyes, we flock in droves to the canvas interiors and the makeshift homes of the entertainment gypsies – circus folk and musicians to find the timeless relief of persistence or iconic tricks and trickery.

Circus Oz, now in it’s 35 year (alongside several of Australia’s arts companies– Griffin Theatre Company for example) demonstrates a defiance of any rumour Australians might have of its artistic/cultural pessimism/cringe. After all longevity is in and of itself a remarkable feat inspiring awe and respect. Read more

Some things are worth unearthing and digitizing…

Thought I’d share with you some of my very early writings – this is a book I wrote and illustrated when I was four or five (my sister who is four years younger is illustrated as a baby). It’s called “Being Happy and Knowing Things” by Augusta Supple. It’s full of enduring wisdom and hilarity – which I hope I still possess today. Read more

It’s taken me a while to actually write about this show. Several factors contributed to what can from all external evidence would suggest as a dragging of ones feet (pen?) – but it’s more like the cogs and the levers have been clamorous inside my head and heart about this piece – more so than I had anticipated straight after the show. My internal machine noisy. Read more

It took me some time to write about “The Godot” currently playing at the Sydney Theatre, produced by the Sydney Theatre Company. I knew that the delighted opening night foyer, the thunderous applause and the casting of two of Australia’s most accomplished celebrity theatre actors in the lead roles of Di-di and Go-go was a recipe for success. The desire to peck out a rapid-fire review was diminished: after all this play is about Waiting. Ruminating.

So I thought I’d follow its lead. Read more

We know what makes a romantic comedy. It’s the premise by which love conquers all obstacles – and in the current Hollywood model – this usually refers to the foolishness of the man. So what makes a romantic tragedy? Well that is when the will of love can not over come its circumstance or context – eg Romeo and Juliet. Sweet Nothings is a romantic tragedy and is billed as “A sexy, funny and daring new adaptation of Liebelei by Arthur Schnitzler (the writer who inspired Eyes Wide Shut and The Blue Room), Sweet Nothings explores the power of sexual longing, the cruelty of tradition and the vulnerability of those in love.”

However, I found nothing sexy nor funny nor daring nor particularly new in this adaptation or production. Read more

Romeo and Juliet – you know the blurb “The greatest love story of all time? Certainly. But it’s also a prototype for some of culture’s other great narratives: the rebellion against generations past, and the need to escape from a predetermined future. One of the most thrilling things about young love is that often it is forbidden. And that very act of prohibition makes it all the more alluring.”

And so when we know the story so well – the star crossed lovers who end up destroying their lives (and the lives of those around them) – that in the production it becomes more about the journey than the destination. Read more

“Two sets of identical twins are separated at birth when they’re rescued from a shipwreck. And when they end up in the same shifty, transitory port-town of Ephesus fully grown, we join them on their bizarre journey of reconciliation. As they collide unknowingly with each other’s friends and family, it’s not long before this absurd tale of mistaken identity and far-fetched coincidence unfolds in chaotic hilarity.”

The strength of every comedy lies in its truth. And every truth needs comedy to help find its way into our hearts and minds. At the core of The Comedy of Errors is a story of identity, violence and reconciliation: we see the unfortunate disparity between master and servant, between the home-dwellers and the displaced visitors. The greatest tragedy in The Comedy of Errors is that everyone is honestly telling the truth, no-one is being underhanded nor deceptive and as such the injustice of the violence is amplified. It’s a really interesting play that looks to the idea of familial loyalty as the bedrock to patience and understanding. Read more

We owe a lot to history. The record of events or opinions that shape our opinions in overt and covert ways. Australia’s history at it’s most prideful is our participation in War – the Aussie battlers who defended the mother country and her allies against “the other.” It is the one theme in our history that is told and re-told, glorified and marks two days on the calender for rememberence. We don’t find the same pride in our settlement – how can we with the vicious murder of the indigenous Australians. We don’t find same pride in our convict heritage. But war is something different. Read more