First Published on www.australianstage.com

Dave Bloustien is an award-winning comedy writer, “grand-champion improvisor, lover, fighter, candlestick-maker, amateur sleuth, and professional derring-doer” according to his website- it also turns out he studied Philosophy- and it’s a good thing too- his show for the Sydney Comedy Festival “A Complete History of Western Philosophy” is based on it. Read more

The promotional poster for Henry Rollins’ Frequent Flyer tour says “Knowledge without mileage equals bullsh*t” and has Rollins depicted as a screaming torpedo- speeding across the city skyline. It’s a great poster- and reflects the show beautifully.

Before now, I had not ever encountered his work- not in any conscious way- I just spend a huge amount of my waking hours seeking out new experiences- recently I have embraced visual art as my new obsession- and have been consuming history and theory of art in vast binging quantities, insatiably slurping it up with an unquenchable desire to know, see, understand, experience more… Mostly I spend my time reading new plays- I read everything I am emailed by playwrights… and other things too- scientific papers, the back of cereal boxes, letters to the editor, shopping lists left on trains- anything… and before now, I had heard of, but not seen Rollins- I had heard of but not seen his band/s- ignorant. Utterly ignorant of what I was missing. Read more

Every now and then I like to mix up the type of shows I attend.

Sometimes I surprise myself with my choices of what to see, what to review… one occasion was seeing The Shaolin Monks perform a martial arts show at Luna Park- another was seeing The Waifs at the Metro- another was Tripod’s Christmas Special in the Speigletent. Every now and then I like to break out of traditional theatre, new writing and Australian writing and peek into another world. Read more

In the dizzying haze of Stories from the 428- I didn’t get out much to other theatres- I spent alot of my time with a laptop on my lap top or gesticultating wildly at actors (and occasionally chasing them around rehearsal rooms)… and so was mildly shut off from my regular review circuit. During that time, however, one play was mentioned to me in passing by people who had access to “the outside world” as I remembered it- and that play was none other than Tom Holloway’s Love Me Tender. Read more

Blood Wedding by Lorca is one of the classics- written during the Spanish Civil War- inspired by a newspaper article written about a bride who ran off with her former lover on the night of her wedding- explores the perils of repressed passion. It is a steamy, sexy and violent play which exposes the dark undercurrent of desire in the face of duty/obligation. Read more

I know nearly nothing about Bob Dylan… nothing special anyway.. nothing that doesn’t float around in the universal collective consciousness… I’m no scholar and I’m no enthusiast. But that’s a-ok because “The Chronic Ills of Robert Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan (A Lie)- a theatrical talking blues and glissendorf” is according to the programme, no tribute show. Read more

It’s been a week since week 2 of Stories from the 428 closed- and I thought it would be nice/handy or interesting to write a little reflection on Week 2- and perhaps on the whole reflection of the project. I am in the process of de-briefing with all the directors about the project (and the process) – and this is always an important part of everything I do- it helps steer my projects, my design, my plan and focuses my passion for new work. Read more

It’s no secret. I love playwrights. Completely. Utterly. Obsessively.

And occasionally (probably twice or three times a year) I have the great fortune of spending some time with playwrights in the form of short courses at various places and I have been honoured to have the time and company of some of Australia’s most respected, award wining, creative, prolific writers: Hilary Bell, Timothy Daly, Noelle Janaczewska. There are many reasons why I like short courses- Read more

Two very different bus trips by the writers of week 2 inspired tonight’s suite of stories… an astute audience member last week told me that she has figured out something- that week 1 was written when the bus was travelling in the rain… and yes- she is right! Week 2 had several influences- I wonder if the audience will be able to pick the conditions the writers were writing under/up against? Read more

Week 1 Cast

Week 1 of Stories from the 428 was a really amazing experience… and I was amazed primarilly at the dedication and ability of so many people to step up and make things happen- to push through all the incidental disappointments, and momentary lapses of memory and awkwardness and to keep going- after all… the show must go on.

For anyone who understands an opening night deadline- this was a doozy! Read more