July 2007 - Sydney Theatre

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Sydney Theatre - July 2007

Review of Stella by Starlight (Ensemble Theatre)

July 29th 2007 08:05

Stella by Starlight - Ensemble Theatre - Sydney

Stellar performances by well-known Australian actors make Stella by starlight a very enjoyable theatre experience. The production played to a full house of appreciative theatre-goers. Contrary to the Sydney Morning Herald review of this play, I had no problem with the play's pace. There was no weak link in the cast and the Irish accents were refreshingly consistent throughout

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Posted By: HAL_9000 - Category: Ensemble Theatre

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Review of Exit the King (Belvoir St Theatre)

July 25th 2007 08:29

Exit the King - Geoffrey Rush - Belvoir St Theatre

The first thing to note is that Geoffrey Rush is fucking good. Rush blows 'em away. He has more scope on stage than in film, and in full flight he's remarkable -- continually interesting, inimitable physical life and vitality, resonant and flexible voice, and with a different action every moment -- flirting with an audience member, being childish, being feminine, dishing out insults, dancing amusingly, expressing with his whole body. One has to be perfectly relaxed for this sort of work and perfectly in sync with the audience -- and, believe me, all of this is even harder than it looks.

You're unlikely to see a more virtuoso performance this year (emotionally bigger, sure -- but not better). The guy has gone through what must have been a punishing run of seven shows a week, for nigh on two months, and yet even such gags as drinking out of a hot water bottle, spitting it at the front row, and then apologising ("I shouldn't have done that. That's what you get for booking so early"), come across as fresh and spontaneous

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Posted By: cultural_philistine - Category: Belvoir St Theatre

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Review of Love Lies Bleeding (Sydney Theatre Company)

July 19th 2007 21:30

You walk in on a very well-lit set -- I've never seen Wharf 1 so bright -- to find a sandy desert stage. It's bare but for a couch and two chairs, on one of which rests an old man, unmoving, attached to a drip feeder. The old man will sit immobile for the next 100 minutes, until he rises to take a bow, at which point the audience will laugh -- perhaps uncertain, right up to the last second, whether it's an actor or a dummy.

In the meantime, earlier versions of Alex Macklin (played very capably by Max Cullen) will eerily re-enact events in front of him, and the question of euthanasing him will be debated by his family. Maybe he hears them, maybe he doesn't. The case for the affirmative is pushed by his increasingly angry son Sean (Benjamin Winspear) and his increasingly reluctant second wife Toinette (Robyn Nevin) -- the old patriarch was independent and larger than life, and he never would have wanted this, and how can we go on waiting. Whereas his fourth wife Lia (Paula Arundell) resists the pair, because, sure, Macklin's brain has shrunk, but there's still some life in him, and he never expressed any suicidal preferences although he knew this would happen, and do you want to kill him for his own sake or for yours, and whatever remains of him is what he is, and what right do we have to take that

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Posted By: cultural_philistine - Category: Sydney Theatre Company

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January 2008

1 Posts

November 2007

4 Posts

October 2007