After a sophisticated large scale, main stage dose of Lally Katz in the form of Neighbourhood Watch at Belvoir, Sydney audiences have an opportunity to view some of her earlier work, small-scale, intimate and full of possibility programmed as a part of the Griffin Independent season. more…
“Mary Street. It is dawn. The dawn light is a sort of thin violet colour, similar to evening, but with the feeling of it rising.
The street is still and quiet, not quite woken up yet.”
We sit in silence as the world of Lally’s Katz’s play is wheeled out before us… garbage bins on wheels and the weekly routine that unites us all. more…
Seagulls are, as any ornithologist knows, carnivorous scavengers. Pack birds. Birds that possess a unique mob-mentality and a very clear pecking order. Baby gulls bully their parents with powerful squawks. They will ready to elongate their necks and let forth an alarming noise when courting or challenging other gulls. As a teenager trapped, growing up in the pastoral “paradise” of a northern NSW coastal town, I would sit on the dunes and watch as the gulls scurry about, robbing teenage surfer boys (and their accompanying bikini babes) of their fat, hot chips swaddled in butchers paper. I’d watch the gulls squawk and flap, demanding chips. I’d watch the surfers squawk and flap at the seagulls. I’d overhear the myths (or were they?) of if you give a seagull an aspirin (hidden in a chip) they explode.
That was half my lifetime ago. more…
Like the assassination of JFK, the collapse of the Twin Towers, it can be argued that one’s first kiss is equally a transforming experience. more…
I’ve been typing. I have been sitting here typing. There are four sentences half-formed and mangled below this sentence. It’s been five days or so since seeing The Business and I have been sitting on it. 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. more…
Belvoir. No longer with the “St Theatre” tail, tagging behind. Like Madonna or Oprah. This company needs no explanation… it’s built it’s reputation – and now the new artistic directorate (complete with a shiny brand new literary manager Anthea Williams) – is busy defining it’s new direction. There’s a fresh coat of paint in the foyer – lollipop ice-cream parlor colours to offset the new flavours, the new taste (?) of the Belvoir pick’n'mix. There’s been an overhaul. The print program look different – all but one artistic associate from the old Neil Armfield family remains in the form of a new work associate… And I am very curious to see how the old guard respond to this shift in aesthetic. more…
Part 1: bloody funny. Part 2: bloody tragic.
If reviews were condensed into 8 words and a scattering of semi colons (and written by someone else) that would sum up B-sharp’s A Distressing Scenario.
A double bill of two of Australia’s most fascinating performance makers – Post (a triumvirate of three women – recently finalist for the Philip Parson’s Award) and Version 1.0 (who recently presented The Bougainville Photoplay Project in the upstairs theatre.
Unlike many of the BSharp shows over the years, this double bill comprises of two new devised productions. Such work has previously been the realm and speciality of places such as Carriageworks and Performance Space, PACT and festivals such as Next Wave… and seen as alternative theatre in a landscape of predominantly text based theatre.
As a style, or genre, devised work is very challenging and demanding – of the devisors and of the audience. Much of the making of this style of work is based on trust, risk, daring, conversation, experiment, and a series of accidents, “what ifs” and the willingness to say something. There is no room to be coy, tardy or elusive – it just wont work. It is a slippery shifting style – that I must admit I am continually evolving my opinion and ideas about… When it works it is profound, surprising, terrifying and stimulating – when it doesn’t work it can be self-indulgent, tedious navel gazing posturing… but you don’t need to think about that. A Distressing Scenario works. more…
Good afternoon. Welcome. I’m Ms Augusta Supple and I am a graduate of the University of Sydney’s Performance Studies department.
All those years ago I was immersed in a department whose focus was/is viewing performance (please note the word “performance” – as opposed to the word “theatre”) from an ethnographic point of view. I very casually involved myself with the identity of the “academic ethnographer” as I saw myself (or had aspirations of being…at least in my involvement in SUDS) as a practitioner sitting inside the goldfish bowl of academia. I thought if I was outside ethnography – I was inside practice (and no, it doesn’t work like that – if you are outside academia, it doesn’t automatically thrust you into the realm of practice.) It has taken me many years of struggle to recognise that my unique position in the theatre community (no, Ms Croggan, I assure you, I won’t use the word “industry”) is that of practitioner who feels like an outsider in my own field part practitioner part ethographer in my slashy identity as a theatre documentarian (read “blogger” – yes an ugly word, Mr Waites) /producer/new Australian play activist/artistic director/writer/commentator. more…
Merit vs Misogyny in Australian Theatre – and what we’re going to do about it
There has been a simmering discussion amongst AWOL (Australian Women Playwrights On Line) about the presence (or lack of presence) of female writers included in the mainstage theatre seasons. Currently in Main stage seasons women are grossly unrepresented – and it’s not because there aren’t any women writing plays. There are. When curating the multi-playwright seasons I have produced in the last 4 years, I have not struggled to find quality female playwrights, and not just any female playwrights – excellent playwrights.
In late 2009, the Philip Parson’s Award hosted a panel discussion “Where are the women?” to which 200-ish female theatre workers turned up to prove exactly where the women are (Just in case Belvoir couldn’t see them, as their 2010 suggested) – they were filling the theatre. that day I sat with Suzie Miller and Vanessa Bates. When confronted with the argument that women aren’t being programmed because scripts and directors are assessed on merit not gender – Miller told of her experience which was having a play of hers knocked back for an Independent Season at Belvoir, only to have the very same play receive awards and productions overseas. Rachel Healy turned to Neil Armfield and said, “Well, Neil, it looks like we stuffed up.” And I think everyone in that audience agrees: there has been some major stuff-ups when it comes to theatre companies being committed to equal opportunity employment. So much so Melbourne Theatre Company have since implemented an EEO policy. more…