That was the year that was

I don't know what happened to 2007. One moment it was shining before me, bright with everything that new years are supposed to be bright...

Data disaster

I'm afraid it looks as if all those emails are presently irretrievable. Which includes (the real nuisance) my database of addresses for ...

Review: Aether / Brindabella

Brindabella, choreographed by Phillip Adams and Miguel Gutierrez, composed by David Chisholm. Set and lighting design by Andrew Livingston, ...

Emails. Deleted.

In a moment of IT genius, Ms TN accidentally deleted her email program - and with it (temporarily, I hope) several thousand emails and hundr...

Garrett speaks...

...in the Age today. Pretty much what I predicted in the Guardian: lots of nice noises and no firm commitments. Money par:On Thursday...[exe...

A series of digressions

Little Alison is still in reset mode. On Wednesday night she saw Lucy Guerin's Aether, a work of exquisite complexity and beauty, but ca...

Ushering in some more canards

I don't believe it. Robin Usher is at it again - there he is today in the Age's opinion pages (interestingly, not the arts pages), u...

Outta gas

Eagle-eyed TN readers will notice my last two reviews are not, as they normally would be, extended from the versions in the Australian. It...

Review: Not What I am: Othello Retold

Not What I Am – Othello Retold by William Shakespeare, directed by Anne Thompson. Conception and dramaturgy by Anne Thompson, Stuart Orr, Da...

McMullan for the arts?

Nicholas Pickard is tipping the hot word is Bob McMullan will be Minister for the Arts. Which I must say, makes me feel a bit more optimisti...

TN talks to Sheehy, the new face of MIAF

The appointment of Kristy Edmunds' successor as artistic director of the Melbourne Festival has been feverishly anticipated. Well, TN c...

Oh dear...

This morning Ms TN has some strange symptoms - sensation of a small animal decomposing overnight in one's mouth, an aversion to light, e...

Review: Motortown

Motortown by Simon Stephens, directed by Laurence Strangio. Design by Peter Mumford, lighting by Richard Vabre. With Richard Bligh, Brett Co...

Review: A Large Attendance in the Antechamber

A Large Attendance in the Antechamber, written, designed and performed by Mr Brian Lipson and Sir Francis Galton. Tower Theatre @ The CUB Ma...

Election jitters

Update: Phew.Little Miss Alison has had a difficult week. My synapses have been dangling forlornly in empty space like shorting cables, and ...

Hard lines

Next week the MTC is running its sixth annual Hard Lines Play Reading Program, presenting selections from four new plays by Peter Houghton, ...

Review: Letters from Animals

Letters from Animals by Kit Lazaroo, directed by Jane Woollard. Design by Amanda Johnson, lighting design by Bronwyn Pringle, sound design b...

Elsewhere in Melbourne

For her sins, Ms TN is on a strict theatre diet of two shows a week, so I'm missing out on quite a lot; but the bloggers are out there a...

More politics

It's the zeitgeist. Not only are in we in election fever (well, a kind of low buzzing headache really), but it seems that for the theatr...

Playwright as social symptom

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post responding to an article about Hilary Glow's new book, Power Plays: Australian Theatre and the Pub...

Now for the numbers...

We've all said the 2007 Melbourne Festival was a stunning success (some say life-changing). And now MIAF has released its figures. These...

Review: The Madwoman of Chaillot

The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux, adapted by Maurice J. Valency, directed by Simon Phillips. Designed by Stephen Curtis, lighting ...

Chat amongst yourselves...

Ms TN is in another world at present, at Stage 2 of the endless project of Completing The Novel. Stages 3 and 4 involve copy-editing and pro...

Australians in London

Your fearless correspondent reports for today's Guardian theatre blog on Nigel Jamieson's Honour Bound. It opens at London's Bar...

The Malthouse goes green

Last week, the Malthouse Theatre launched what looks like a very promising Season 1 for 2008. As well as a timely intention to address its c...

Coupla things

First, on Sunday afternoon, I'm co-ordinating the conversation on a Writers Panel to be held at fortyfivedownstairs. The putative title ...

Poetry and theatre

Ms TN is stirring the possum on the Guardian theatre blog, with a post suggesting that poetry and theatre ought to be introduced to each oth...

Knuckling down

Little Alison has to get some serious work done in one of her other lives, or she will be pursued by angry editors bearing meathooks. So TN ...

Ursula Le Guin

A little belatedly - Radio National's The Book Show broadcast my review of Ursula Le Guin's Voices last week. As I say of Ms Le Guin...

Review: A Dollhouse

A Dollhouse by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Daniel Schlusser. Set design by Jeminah Reidy, costumes by Tiffany Abbott, lighting design by Kimbe...

What is it about writers?

Ms TN has never understood the concept of "writer's block". I agree that sometimes one can't write and, as Orwell said, if...

Amo, amas, amateur

"Amateur", it is worth remembering, derives from the Latin verb "to love". Wall St Journal theatre critic Terry Teachout...

Review: The Chosen Vessel

The Chosen Vessel, from stories by Barbara Baynton, directed by Stewart Morritt. Design by Peter Mumford, lighting design by Felicity Hoare....

True camp

Seen outside a shop for camping supplies in Hawthorn (some time ago, so sadly I can't supply a photo): This is the winter of our discoun...

Review: King Lear

King Lear by William Shakespeare, directed by Brian Lipson. Set design by Noami Wong, costumes by Jessica Daly, lighting design by Tom Willi...

STC saga #354

Boy, they like a good feeding frenzy up in Sydney. Nicholas Pickard is doing a good job of logging the controversy. Meanwhile, the latest ST...

The issue of "issues"

A bonus for all you happy readers: Victoria Chance from Currency Press has a special offer to TN readers: if you order Power Plays online be...

Mopping the blood

So much for bloggers being scummy scandal-mongers only interested in drawing blood. In Sydney, Nicholas Pickard is scornful of the Fairfax s...

MIAF: The wrap-up

In today's papers, the 2007 Melbourne Festival is annointed as a brilliant success. Kristy Edmunds' faith that Melbourne audiences c...

Review: Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Melbourne Festival #12Programs A and B, Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Choreography by Merce Cunningham, musical direction by Takehisa Kasu...

Review: Glow

Melbourne Festival #11Glow, conceived and choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek. Concept and interactive design system by Frieder Weiß. Original...

Moody Moody

...while we're on the subject of State theatre companies, actor Colin Moody is in the Age today tearing strips off the STC. Moody's ...

Miscellany

I know that the Melbourne Festival has been the epicentre of the universe lately, but a couple of things have banked up while I've been...

Review: European House

Melbourne Festival #10European House, conceived and directed by Alex Rigola. Design by Sebastià Brosa, Bibiana Puigdefàbregas, lighting desi...

Me in the Guardian

Little Alison today makes her debut on the Guardian theatre blog page, with a short piece on the Melbourne Festival. Which is nice.

Review: Titus

Melbourne Festival #9Titus, after William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Created by Kuno Bakker, Manja Topper, Oscar van Woensel, Gillis Bi...

Along the grape vine...

...the word is that MTC associate director Julian Meyrick has resigned. And, according to several sources, he's resigned not in sorrow b...

Review: Hunger

Melbourne Festival #8Hunger, devised and created by rawcus and musicians from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, directed by Kate Sulan. Desi...

Review: Meow Meow

Melbourne Festival #7Meow Meow: Beyond Beyond Glamour: The Remix. Meow Meow with Paul Grabowsky on piano. The Famous Spiegeltent.“What does ...

Review: Homeland/Kagemi

Melbourne Festival #6Homeland by Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson with Eyvind Kang, Jamshied Sharifi and Skuli Sverrisson. Hamer Hall until ...

Review: The Show Must Go On

Melbourne Festival #5The Show Must Go On by Jérôme Bel. Playhouse Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, until October 18. Bookings: 1300 136 166If...

Review: Sizwe Banzi Is Dead/medEia

Melbourne Festival #4Sizwe Banzi Is Dead by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, directed by Peter Brook. Adapted into French by Mar...

Review: C-90/This Show Is About People

Melbourne Festival #3C-90, written directed and performed by Daniel Kitson. Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre, until October 27. Booking...

Review: Half Life

Melbourne Festival #2Half Life by John Mighton, directed by Daniel Brooks. Design by Dany Lyne, lighting by Andrea Lundy. With Richard Clark...

Review: The Temptation of St Anthony/The Tell-Tale Heart

Melbourne International Arts Festival #1 The Temptation of St Anthony, from the novel by Gustave Flaubert. Direction, set design and lightin...

File this one under "petty"

You all know that my worser self takes over now and again. I'm afraid I had a day like that yesterday. Oh, I could just slap myself.Andr...

Culture vulturing

This beak is not just a prosthetic: over the next few weeks, Ms Alison will be plunging her wits - or what's left of them, anyway - into...

La Mama funding

News just in: after some nervous waiting, La Mama Theatre tonight announced that it has had its funding confirmed for 2008. Not only that, t...

Review: The Homecoming

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter, directed by Duncan Graham. Designed by Sarah John, lighting design by Nic Mollison, sound design by Andrew ...

Return of the prodigal blogger

George Hunka is back at a smart new site, a new play in his pocket, after a meditative few weeks hanging out Montauk with burbling nature (a...

Review: Cake / Kin

Fringe Festival: Cake by Astrid Pill, directed by Ingrid Voorendt. Designed by Gaelle Mallis, lighting design by Geoff Cobham, composition b...

Reprise: Know No Cure

Apropos of a discussion of Adam Broinwoski's Know No Cure in the review and comments of Hotel Obsino, Age writer Maher Mughrabi sent me ...

Meanwhile in England...

They're still dancing the ol' blogger-print tango. This time it's Rónán McDonald, who has written the latest in a series of book...

Woolf x Three

So here's why I've been flying along the Australian coastline like a confused fruitbat. From today's Australian, your peripateti...

How Alison Flubbed the Fringe

I just couldn't manage the Fringe. Here's why, with a potted summary of my week so far. Thursday and Friday: two openings, with an i...

Review: Hotel Obsino, The Jerilderie Letter

Fringe Festival: Hotel Obsino, written and directed by Adam Broinowski. Sound by Andrew Williamson, lighting by Gwendolyna Holmberg-Gilchris...

The blank blogs of Burma

Anyone who feels sanguine about the possible freedoms of new media should contemplate the blank blogs of Burma. As the military cracks down ...

Meme schmeme

Isaac from Parabasis bravely tagged me for a blogging meme. I've been very beetle-browed this week, so the fancy takes me. But what is a...

Iain Sinclair on London

Six months after this beautiful book found its way into my lustful hands (my fault entirely, I fear; it took me a long time to read it), my ...

Review: Boston Marriage

Boston Marriage by David Mamet, directed by Wayne Pearn. Designed by Paul King, lighting by Stelios Karagiannis, sound design by Chris Milne...

Review: Dickens' Women

Dickens’ Women by Miriam Margolyes and Sonia Fraser, directed by Sonia Fraser. With Miriam Margolyes, live music performed by John Martin. L...

Tarkovsky's Stalker: A Poet in a Destitute Time

Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker is more like a poem than any film I know. I watch it every few years, and on each viewing it is more profound...

Hot conversations

Update: Lyn Gardner at the Guardian weighs in on the critic/blogger question with a typically thoughtful post which claims that blogs have g...

Reviews

As Little Alison drops the ball, others pick it up. Phew for the hardworking blogosphere. For reports on Shadow Passion and Dogs Barking at ...

Sunday sermon

For the past few days TN has been a dull bunny indeed. I lay prostrate on my chaise lounge feeling sorry for myself and canceled all my thea...

Space, time and the Melbourne Fringe Festival

TN is getting a little obsessive about time. In the brave new 21st century, there seems to be less of it around; a month passes in the flick...

Web fame - yesss!

This has nothing to do with theatre, but I can't resist telling you about the new site for my fantasy series The Books of Pellinor, whic...

Sydney conversations

On Friday, TN flew out of a Melbourne where the skies were blue as a robin's egg, clear as lark's eye, etc etc etc, and journeyed al...

The old and the new

A couple of events worth noting: one looking back at the "New Wave" theatre of the early 1970s, and the other showcasing some new ...

Sydney/New York action

Ms TN is swanning off to Sydney for a theatrical weekend, catching shows at Belvoir St and the STC. It's a hard life, I admit. Still, I ...

Review: Mercury Fur

Mercury Fur by Philip Ridley, directed by Ben Packer. Designed by Adam Gardnir, sound design by Kelly Ryall, lighting design by Danny Pettin...

More critical amusings

Every now and then my brain seems to dissolve in my skull and turn into something resembling fish paste. At such times language deserts me, ...

Review: Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Flies, based on the novel by William Golding, adapted by Nigel Williams, directed by Bob Pavlich. La Trobe University Studen...

Poet's theatre

The zeitgeist is a wonderful thing. Days after my mini-discourse about poetic idioms in contemporary theatre in the comments of my review of...

Flogging the critical horse

So George Hunka is asked along to a show at Playwrights Horizons in New York, and his invitation stipulates that he is asked to blog his tho...

Review: Villanus

Villanus, by Vlad Mijic and Rhys Auteri. Performed by Vlad Mijic, with Raphael Hammond (video). Lighting and set design by Vlad Mijic, music...

Stopgap

Little Ms Alison is a bit wan today: the last week has been full-on, and I've been out and about and missing my burrow. So I'm putti...

Review: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, directed by Peter Evans. Design by Christina Smith, lighting design by Matt Scott, sound de...

Melbourne Writers Festival

If you pop along to the Melbourne Writers Festival at 1.30pm this Sunday and wander into the Beckett Theatre, you'll find me on stage wi...

Uber-scooping

TN jumped the gun last week when we announced Maryanne Lynch's defence of Sleeping Beauty at Arts Hub. Yes, the reason there was no link...

Williamson returns

In 2004, our most popular commercial playwright David Williamson decided to go into semi-retirement. His decision was on doctor's order...

Brook's Lear

It's a truism to say that Peter Brook's film King Lear is a masterpiece. But what is a masterpiece? Saying this of a work can be a w...

Tanja Liedtke

The death of Tanja Liedtke, the brilliant young dancer who was to take up the leadership of the Sydney Dance Company in October, stunned the...

Update: Cross-Racial Casting

The threads are spinning on this discussion. The comments are flying on Lee Lewis's paper on Cross-Racial Casting, with some interesting...

The northern hemiblogosphere

Here at TN, we proudly stand at the cutting edge of the art of ugly neologism. I guess it goes with an unfortunate passion for awful puns th...

Cross-Racial Casting: or The Social Pages

Last night, Lee Lewis' Platform Paper on Cross-Racial Casting was launched at the Beckett Theatre with vim, espièglerie and lashings of ...

On banishing crrrritics

A quick pointer to an excellent post by Chris Boyd which, while pointing to some recent contemplations in the blogosphere (including Ming-Zh...

Interesting things

Yes, I know, Ms TN has been blogging like a maniac. Rest assured, I'll calm down over the next few days - I have a quieter week ahead. B...

Review: Holiday/Chapters from the Pandemic

Holiday by Raimondo Cortese, directed by Adriano Cortese. Design by Anna Tregloan, sound design by David Franzke, lighting design by Niklas ...

...and again

Update: More reader responses from Arts Hub here.Our self-appointed arbiter of public taste, Age journalist Robin Usher, has a big bee in th...

A confession of sorts

Taking a deep breath before leaping into reviews of the two other shows I've seen over the past week (Ranters' Holiday and Angus Cer...

Review: Criminology

Criminology, devised by Rosemary Myers and written by Lally Katz and Tom Wright. Design by Anna Tregloan, video design direction Peter Brund...

Salt Magazine

Salt Magazine, which under John Kinsella's editorship became one of the most stimulating literary journals of the 1990s, has resurrected...

News just in: Hamlet/MIAF bites back

Great news for those who missed the MIFF screenings of A Poor Theatre's brilliant film The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. Malthou...

95 Sentences About Theatre

Your weekend reading: over the past few weeks, George Hunka at Superfluities has been nailing his equivalent of Martin Luther's 95 These...

Review: The Glass Soldier

The Glass Soldier by Hannie Rayson. Melbourne Theatre Company, Playhouse Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre. August 8. Until September 8. Bookin...

Review: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

As I left the Melbourne International Film Festival premiere of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, it occurred to me that I will prob...

Gongland

Yes folks, it's time for the thrill and glamour of the Helpmann Awards, which are presented tonight at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. Ha...

Comments policy

I haven't uploaded an official comments policy, and I suspect it's time I did.One of the aims of Theatre Notes is to be a forum for ...

Review: 4:48 Psychosis

4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane, directed by Alyson Campbell. With Richard Bligh, Olivia Connolly, Tom Davies and Suzette Williams. Red Stitch ...

Traditional grousing

I don't think Robin Usher can help it. Bubbling with enthusiasm at the present domination of Melbourne stages with what he calls "t...

Status update

A minor crash in the electronic cloudscape known as my brain means that my review of Sarah Kane's 4:48 Pyschosis, on at Red Stitch, is u...

Review: King Lear/The Seagull

King Lear by William Shakespeare and The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, directed byTrevor Nunn. Designed by Christopher Oram, lighting design by ...

Sleeping Beauty fistfight

To my frank surprise (I would have picked the show as uncontroversially enjoyable), my review of Sleeping Beauty has prompted more comments ...

Review: Love Me

Love Me by Lucy Guerin. Motion graphics by Michaela French, lighting design by Keith Tucker, visual art by David Rosetzky, music and sound d...

Review: Thom Pain/The Eisteddfod

Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) by Will Eno, directed by Julian Meyrick. Lighting by Kerry Saxby, design consultant Meredith Rogers. With Neil ...

On politics

In the comments below, Paul Martin asked about the politics of this blog. Here's something I prepared earlier for a 2003 Writers Symposi...

Australia as a paradigm of the mentally impaired

A quick flash: a disturbing piece on censorship by David Marr in the SMH this morning. In its ceaseless quest to backpedal to the 1950s (and...

World Croggon Redux

World Croggon is a little ott at the moment (for those not hip to the cyber-acronyms, it means over the top). While some of my beetle-browed...

Sondheim not happy

There's a jaw-dropping story in today's Sydney Morning Herald concerning a Sydney production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. The ...

Measuring out my life...

To my distress and dudgeon, I did Matt's Which Book Are You? quiz and found out that I am J. Alfred Prufrock. I guess it could be worse,...

Review: The Quivering

The Quivering: A Matter of Life and Death, devised by the cast and director. Directed by Nikki Heywood, dramaturgy by Virginia Baxter, set d...

...and now the press

Checking out Robin Usher's positive MIAF preview piece in the Age this morning, it's good to see not one mention of the "f...

Warming thoughts

Brrrr. It's colder than a nun's nasty, so it is. The weather - and its attendent ills - mean Ms TN has been down for the count this ...

Round the Sphere

Some very interesting conversations are enlivening the blogosphere at the moment. Over at Nicholas Pickard's blog, the race issue is sti...

Blogmeet

I'm off shortly to wine and dine at the inaugural Melbourne blogmeet - despite the online Melways informing me, rather alarmingly, that...

Review: Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty: This Is Not A Lullaby, directed by Michael Kantor. Devised Paul Jackson, Maryanne Lynch and Anna Tregloan. Scenario by Mary...

A Critical Life in the Thee-ay-ter

Amid much on-going blogospherical discussion about theatre criticism: veteran print critic/blogger Terry Teachout reports in the Wall Street...

Review: The China Incident/Newtown Honey

The China Incident, written, directed and designed by Peter Houghton. Lighting design by Michael Jewell, sound design by David Franzke. With...

A sporting diversion

Some of you might be surprised to hear that Little Alison is a bit of a dilletante sports fan (which is, as it happens, another kind of perf...

Grrr

My statcounter - for those not up with webspeak, the gizmo that tells me how many people come here - appears to have blown up and is resisti...

Blogrollin'

Ms Procrastination has FINALLY updated the ol' blogroll. I can't claim it's comprehensive, but it's slightly more reflective...

Little Alison's Sudden Ascension

No one is more surprised than I am. As of now, Ms TN is moonlighting as the Australian's Melbourne theatre reviewer, standing in for the...

Review: The Burlesque Hour More/A Slight Ache

The Burlesque Hour More More More! with Moira Finucane, Azaria Universe, Yumi Umiumare and Angus Cerini. Fortyfivedownstairs, City, until Ju...

The not-so-new media

My blogroll is shockingly out of date, causing me a minor cris de conscience. (If that's not good French, well, it's because I can...

On Paul Capsis

The other evening, as I walked homewards through the lashing rain of a wintry Melbourne night, my heart too swollen and luminous with blood ...

AA Gill sticks his fork in

You have to pity the London crrrritics. Just as the spat over Nicholas Hytner's full-frontal attack reached an uneasy detente, AA Gill r...

Review: Osama the Hero/Ying Tong/Circus Oz

Osama the Hero by Dennis Kelly, directed by Syd Brisbane. Designed by Kate Davis, sound design Tommy Spender, lighting design by Nik Pajanti...

Blackface/black faces

Serendipity rules. Hot on the heels of a debate in the comments on my review of Bell Shakespeare's Othello, in which Anon outlined his o...

Review: Othello, Enlightenment

Othello by William Shakespeare, directed by Marion Potts. Set design Ralph Myers, costumes by Brice McKinven, light design Nick Schlieper, c...

Me and Rilke

I know I've been talking a lot about myself lately, and I swear I'll battle me down and let some theatre get a look-in. But permit m...

Back to regular programming...

A couple of things I've been meaning to note, to clear my desk before I catch up with the reviews that were sidelined in my frenzied bur...

Champagne and chocolate

Yes, I'm feeling celebratory today. In fact, it's a double whammy, so I'm feeling particularly self-indulgent.First, it's Th...

Recent conversations

Over at Mink Tails, Ming-Zhu is hosting an interesting conversation about, well, all sorts of things - Melbourne theatre in the 80s and 90s,...

Stuff

A combination of a lingering cold and the pointy end of my novel has meant that for the past couple of weeks I've been cancelling ticket...

Review: Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, adapted and directed by Simon Stone. Design: set by Jolyon James, Mark Leonard Winter and Simon Stone; c...

Unbelievable

Our very own Max Gillies in excellent form. From the good folks at GetUp! And thanks Richard...

Olympic stupidity

Newsflash: Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School, has had its funding cut, as the first high-profile casualty of the Lon...

Sydneycentrism

Ms Alison has a bad cold. I will spare you the details. In the snotty gloom that is my reality at the moment, inspiration is sadly lacking. ...

Shameless self-promotion

My poem Ars Poetica is up today on the Ars Poetica blog.

Masthead persons doing good

Here we take a tender interest in those writerly souls gathered into the nest of Masthead. Or at least, we need an excuse to tie together a ...

Review: The Perjured City

The Perjured City, Or The Awakening of the Furies, by Hélène Cixous, directed by Kirsten von Bibra. Design by Jeminah Reidy, costumes by Jes...

Cixous in Melbourne

It's worth keeping an eye on the VCA Drama program: you'll see work produced here that no one else has the time, money, people or in...

Bits and Bobs

1. The VCA blog Spark Online makes my heart beat faster this morning with the brilliant news that Oscar Redding's The Tragedy of Hamlet,...

Review: The Pillowman

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, directed by Simon Phillips. Design by Gabrila Tylesova, lighting by Matt Scott, composer Ian McDonald, ani...

Pricklings of conscience

Readers, and not only of this blog, will no doubt be thrilled to know that The Novel (hereafter known as The Novel) is heading like an expre...

Review: The Birthday Party, Fourplay

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, directed by Adrian Mulraney. With Chris Brown, Jo Buckley, Bruce Kerr, Adrian Mulraney, Nicki Paul and ...

Attention Sydneysiders

Sydneyites interested in bold new writing should get to the premiere season of Jasmine Chan's extraordinary monologue Corvus. Jasmine, a...

Coming up...

A stopgap note to alert you all to a couple of independent (and unfunded) plays, both of which opened last night, both of which are well wor...

Things on Sunday

Feeling idle on Sunday? Pop on down to the Malthouse, where your intrepid blogger will hosting this month's Things on Sunday session. It...

Make It New

David Williams over at Compromise Is Our Business passes on the news that the Australia Council is inviting responses to its latest planning...

Fight! Fight! Fight!

UPDATE: Encore Theatre Magazine follows up with editorial and more reaction from London's critical elite, who have lined up as one man t...

Helloooo, Helsinki!

Tonight was Eurovision night here, and addicts of Europop kitsch (which seems to include 90 per cent of Australian theatre bloggers) refused...

Review: OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament

OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament, devised and directed by Christian Leavesley and Phil Rolfe. Lighting by Paul Jackson, additional record...

Street theatre

Scene: Coles New World, Douglas Parade, Williamstown, around 10.30am this morning. Shoppers, dogs, people gossiping, etc.Two YOUNG MEN sudde...

Slightly bigger carrots

More on the Federal Budget in today's Age. The arts did unusually well this year, but there's some justice in Opposition spokesman P...

Small carrots

Anyone would think there was an election coming up. But hey, if Costello is distributing big carrots in his 2007 Budget, us arts rabbits ar...

Sarko

As widely expected, Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency on the weekend. It's an election that has been somewhat anxiously observed...

Review: Ghosts

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Louis Nowra and May-Brit Akerholt, directed by Melanie Beddie. Design by Emily Barrie, lighting design by...

Brief fantasia

Those who think it's been a bit quiet here might recall that I temporarily blew up last week, driving a deep hole in my novel schedule. ...

Review: Tense Dave

Tense Dave, devised and directed by Lucy Guerin, Michael Kantor and Gideon Obarzanek. Dramaturge Tom Wright, design by Jodie Fried, Andrew L...

A note on Tense Dave and Numb Alison

I fear your webmistress has been somewhat defatigable this week. Fluency has abandoned me, words flee my questing tongue and ideas shrivel u...

Review: The Receipt

The Receipt, by Will Adamsdale. Performed by Will Adamsdale and Chris Branch. Comedy Festival @ The Malthouse until April 29Now I've got...

Oddments

My robust (and esteemed) colleague Chris Boyd is feeling understandably smug for breaking some exciting advance news about this year's M...

Review: The History Boys

The History Boys by Alan Bennett, directed by Peter Evans. Design by Dale Ferguson, lighting by Toby Sewell, sound/music design by Ian McDon...

Review: B-File

B-File, based on text by Deborah Levy, directed by Paulo Castro. Co-written and performed by Jo Stone, Karen Lawrence, Paolo Dos Santos, Pau...

Hamlet: the Movie

Film adaptations of theatre are mostly tragically disappointing. Recently I slipped into the DVD player a disc that purported to record Aria...

Review: The Pitch, The Sound of Music Drag Show

COMEDY FESTIVAL: The Pitch, written and performed by Peter Houghton. Directed by Anne Browning, sound design by David Franzke, lighting by P...

Brooding

Even though she lives in a glass house held together with ice cream sticks, Little Alison likes to throw stones. And as anyone who regularly...

Blogroll

After writing my 2000 words yesterday, something went ping in my brain. So I did a long-planned overhaul of my blogroll, which is now on a s...

Green Room Awards

The Green Room Awards were announced yesterday. The big winners were La Mama and the Malthouse, with the latter winning 10 awards. La Mama i...

Newsy bits

TN has got a little behind lately on various Bits, but I'm not going to make any more mimsy excuses. You all know why, and if you don...

Review: Exit the King

Exit the King by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Neil Armfield. Designed by Dale Ferguson, lighting by Damien Cooper, composer John Rodgers, sou...

Ghost writer

If you haven't caught up with it, allow me to point you to a fantastic post (really, an essay) among the responses to my review of Ross ...

Review: The Season at Sarsaparilla

The Season at Sarsaparilla by Patrick White, directed by Benedict Andrews. Design by Robert Cousins, costumes by Alice Babidge, lighting by ...

Interlude

Yes, patient readers, your hyper-worded blogger ran away from Melbourne and immersed herself in the fleshpots of Sydney, far far away from t...

New plays?

A quick pointer before I dash to Sydney towards the SMH, where entertainment blogger Chris Dobney uses Stephen Sewell's latest play at B...

Review: Black, The Ghost Writer, Ashes to Ashes

Black, created by Anna Tregloan. Sets and costume design Anna Tregloan, composition and sound design David Franzke, lighting design by Paul ...

Review: Grace

Grace, written and directed by James Brennan. Designed by Adam Gardnir, lighting by Nik Pajanti, sound design by Peter Brennan. With Gary Ab...

Me on blogs

It probably won't tell a lot of you anything you don't know: but all the same, Alison's Arts Blog Primer has been given front pa...

The Writer, The Theatre, The Play

The conversation on playwrights v. writers for theatre sparked by Edward Albee and continued in various blogospherical spaces is getting pro...

Review: All My Sons

All My Sons by Arthur Miller, directed by Kate Cherry. Designed by Richard Roberts, lighting by Jon Buswell, composer Peter Farnan. With Jan...

The Playwright as King

Chris Goode, of the admirable Thompson's Bank of Communicable Desire, once made a distinction between those who are playwrights and thos...

Punchus sublimatus

Wanting to punch theatre reviewers is one of the many pleasures of a life in the theatre. This impulse, in TN's very bourgeois view, is ...

Vale: Lindzee Smith

Sad news of the death last weekend of director/actor Lindzee Smith, a major force in Australian theatre over four decades of work. As a memb...

Review: The Spook, Homebody/Kabul

The Spook by Melissa Reeves, directed by Tom Healey. Design by Anna Borghesi, lighting by Richard Dinnen, composition and sound by David Fra...

Green Room Awards

In my new guise as Green Room Awards theatre panellist for 2007, I took more notice than usual of the nominations for the 2006 Green Room Aw...

Review: The Nature of Things

The Nature Of Things, Season 1: Relics and Time, directed by Renato Cuocolo. Concept by Renato Cuocolo and Roberta Bosetti, media by Warwick...

On Dante

My review of Barbara Reynolds' Dante: The Poet, The Political Thinker, The Man was broadcast on ABC Radio National's The Book Show t...

Round the web

Over in London, our favourite anonyme Theatre Worker has been doing some serious renovating. The indispensible Encore Theatre Magazine now h...

Review: Detest / Chocolate Monkey / Rage Boy

Detest (This Thousand Years I Shall Not Weep) created by Angus Cerini, with music by Kelly Ryall, Courthouse @ La Mama until February 17. C...

Contemporary Australian Drama 2

Quick note - Julian Meyrick, associate director at the MTC, has a review of Leonard Radic's Contemporary Australian Drama in today's...

TN blanks out

This by way of apology. Yes, Ms TN has had a horrendous fortnight. My excuses are extreme financial panic, the beginning of the school year...

Advertisement for myself

Yes, I have a new chapbook out, I must be a real poet. It's almost a slim volume, running to 40 pages, and is beautifully made by Cusp ...

Review: Car Maintenance Explosives and Love

Car Maintenance Explosives and Love (CMXL), written and performed by Donna Jackson, original direction and dramaturgy Andrea Lemon. Midsumm...

Two things

Those nice people at Online Opinion have just published the second TN post in their January review of the Top 40 posts of 2006. This one is ...

Orstrilia Day

This is not about theatre, but I am staggering in shock and dismay. Yes, I just read a poem by the inimitable (I hope) Patrick McCauley. It...

Elephant stamps, Rilke and so on

A nice cheery elephant stamp, in fact, and maybe a gold star as well. TN is chuffed today to hear that one of my posts has been chosen by Op...

Review: Don's Party

Don's Party by David Williamson, directed by Peter Evans. Design by Dale Ferguson, lighting design by Matt Scott, composition and sound...

On tragedy

TN is being a good girl and putting her nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, back to the...well, you know what I mean. Yes, I'...

Post-dramatic theatre

As if to prove it's not all pursed lips and blank faces out there in the broadsheets, the Australian's Sydney theatre critic John Mc...