2005 - looking back

It's that time of year again, when it is conventional to drink too much, to rush around snarling at your fellow harrassed shoppers, and ...

Billy Maloney

Billy Maloney by Bill Garner and Sue Gore, directed by Denis Moore, designed by Shaun Gurton, lighting by Nick Merrylees. With Don Bridges, ...

Notes on LA, Mother Courage and politics

Your peripatetic crrrritic is back from LA, which was a gas. I read poems and talked about myself to people who were polite enough to be int...

Off again

Yes, your indefatigable blogger is off to the States for the next month, to do some poetry readings and a couple of appearances as a Fantasy...

Test Pattern

Test Pattern by Angus Cerini, directed by Nadja Kostich. Lighting design by Richard Vabre, set & costume by Marg Horwell, sound design b...

MIAF: Good Samaritans / Berggasse 19

Alison's Festival Diary #6Good Samaritans, written and directed by Richard Maxwell, with Rosemary Allen and Kevin Hurley. New York City ...

Harold Pinter

Looking up briefly to belatedly acknowledge Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize. Onya, Harold! Theatre Notes has the deepest admiration for Pi...

MIAF: Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées)

Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées): Part One - Le Fleuve cruel (The Cruel River) and Part Two - Origines et Destins (Origins and Destinies)...

MIAF: Death and the Ploughman / La Clique

Alison's Festival Diary #4Death and the Ploughman by Johannes von Saaz, translated by Michael West. Directed by Anne Bogart, with Will B...

MIAF: The Odyssey

Alison's Festival Diary #3The Odyssey by Tom Wright, directed by Michael Kantor, designed by Anna Tregloan. With Paul Blackwell, Leon Ew...

MIAF: Songs of Exile

Alison's Festival Diary #2Songs of Exile, Diamanda Galas; Hamer Hall, Victorian Arts Centre. There's no question that Diamanda Galas...

MIAF Knob-Jockey Awards

Theatre Notes is proud to announce the MIAF Knob-Jockey Awards, for particularly stunning instances of critical philistinism during the Melb...

MIAF: Green / Small Metal Objects / Weyreap's Battle

Alison's Festival Diary #1It's feeding frenzy time for Melbourne culture vultures: yes, Theatre Notes has been donning her gladrags ...

Fringe: Material Mouth

Material Mouth, performed and devised by Carolyn Connors. Directed by Margaret Cameron, lighting by Gwendolyna Holmberg-Gilchrist. La Mama ...

Forumitis

On the train home from today's forum, I opened Giorgio Agamben's book of essays, Means Without End: Notes on Politics, to this seren...

Fringe: Drink Pepsi, Bitch and Bremen

Drink Pepsi, Bitch performed and written by Eddie Perfect, co-written by Tom Wright. Directed by Tom Healey. Music performed by Ben Hendry, ...

Empanelled...

Yes, your favourite blogger is doing the dreaded critics' panel thing again, in which we crrrritics Socratically examine our chosen voca...

Fringe Festival: Telefunken

Telefunken written and performed by Stuart Orr, directed by Barry Laing. Table 9 Productions @ the Tower Theatre, Malthouse, until September...

Bloggers

I'm not the only person who thinks that serious arts commentary is moving wholesale to the internet. Blogging is go! It's even happ...

The Crucible

The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Directed by Anne Thompson and William Henderson. Designed by Bruce Gladwin, lighting design Niklas Pajanti. W...

Ivanov

Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, translated by Natalia Axenova. Directed by Ariette Taylor, deisgned by Adrienne Chisholm, lighting by Philip Lethle...

The Black Swan of Trespass / Stalking Matilda

The Black Swan of Trespass by Lally Katz and Chris Kohn. Directed by Chris Kohn, with Jacklyn Bassanelli, Christopher Brown, Gavan O'Lea...

Au revoir

This is a brief good bye - I'm off on a six week tour of England and Ireland, where I'll be reading poetry to those foolish enough t...

Boulevard Delirium

Boulevard Delirium with Paul Capsis, directed by Barrie Kosky. From Schauspielhaus Wien, @ the Malthouse Theatre, June 1 until June 26. Now...

Wars of the Roses

Wars of the Roses by Williams Shakespeare, directed by John Bell, designed by Stephen Curtis. With Joe Manning, John Batchelor, Robert Alex...

Phobia

Phobia: text and direction by Douglas Horton, music and sound concept by Gerard Brophy. Design coordination by Jacqui Everett. With Teresa...

Boy Gets Girl

Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Kate Cherry. Designed by Christina Smith, with Belinda McClory, Stephen Phillips, John McTern...

Black Medea

Black Medea by Wesley Enoch, directed by the writer. Designed by Christina Smith, lighting by Rachel Burke, sound design by Jethro Woodward...

The Maids

The Maids by Jean Genet, directed by John Bolton, lighting by Armando Licul and Govin Ruben. With Suzannah Bayes-Morton, Zoe Ellerton-Ashl...

Hating the theatre

The blog's running late this week. Yes, your indefagitable crrrritic has had a minor brain implosion, due to a number of trivial domest...

Torque

Torque: Liquid Paper 1: Making Light of Gravity by Hellen Sky and The Proscenium by Margaret Cameron. Three performance "showing"...

Critics and "objectivity"

Fellow theatre blogger Spearbearer Down Left has a post on Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel (how's that for alliteration, f...

Two Brothers

Two Brothers by Hannie Rayson. Directed by Simon Phillips, designed by Stephen Curtis. With Rodney Afif, Caroline Brazier, Diane Craig, Ni...

The Ham Funeral/Journal of a Plague Year

The Ham Funeral by Patrick White, Journal of a Plague Year by Tom Wright. Directed by Michael Kantor, designed by Anna Tregloan. Lighting ...

Blog report

No reviews this week - I'm taking it a bit easy, due to recent ill health. But a couple of big shows coming up for next week's blog...

Felix Listens to the World

Felix Listens to the World, devised and performed by Joseph O'Farrell, Miles O'Neil and Glen Walton. Suitcase Royale @ Gertrudes, Fi...

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, directed by Peter Evans, performed by Anita Hegh. Design Adam Gardnir, lighting design Luk...

Sixteen Words for Water

Sixteen Words for Water by Billy Marshall Stoneking, directed by Lawrence Strangio, designed by Peter Corrigan, with Tim Robertson, Caroline...

The Big Con

The Big Con by Guy Rundle, directed by Aubrey Mellor and Denis Moore, with Max Gillies and Eddie Perfect. Malthouse Theatre until April 3. S...

Masthead

Just to blow my own trumpet for a moment...I have just uploaded issue 9 of my annual literary arts ezine, Masthead. Yes, theatre is part of...

Cruel and Tender

Cruel and Tender by Martin Crimp, directed by Julian Meyrick, design by Ralph Myers. With Catherine McClements, Jacek Koman, Paul Ashcroft,...

The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project, written by Moises Kaufman and members of The Tectonic Theatre Project, directed by Chris Baldock, scenic design by Jani...

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, translated by Marion Potts and Andrew Upton, directed by Simon Phillips, design by Gabriela Tylesova....

Out on a Limb

Out on a Limb: unsynchronised body parts, conceived, devised and performed by by Sarah Mainwaring, in collaboration with Lloyd Jones. La Ma...

After the Rain

After the Rain by Sergi Belbel, directed by Scott Gooding, designed by Kathryn Sproul, with Gloria Ajenstat, Penelope Bartlau, Simon Kearney...

Subclass26A

Subclass26A, directed by Bagryana Popov, performed by Rodney Afif, Ru Atma, Natalie Cursio, Simon Ellis, Nadja Kostich, Majid Shokor; music ...

Vale Arthur Miller

So another of the giants of 20th century drama has gone. It's a measure of Arthur Miller's enduring distinction that his death has ...

Trapped by the Past

Trapped by the Past: Why our Theatre is Facing Paralysis, by Julian Meyrick. Platform Paper No. 3, January 2005, Currency House, ISBN 0 958...