Theater and Dance
The element of social tragedy in King Lear
King Lear by William Shakespeare, at the Stratford Festival of Canada, directed by Jonathan Miller
By David Walsh, November 21, 2002
King Lear is among the most complex and contradictory of Shakespeare’s works. While the play has no single character with the intellectual or sensual appeal of a Hamlet, Falstaff, Cleopatra, Ric...
A serious attempt to encourage Sri Lankan opera
Sonduru Varnadasi (The Alluring Courtesan), directed by Premasiri Khemadasa, libretto by Lucien Bulathsinghala
By Piyaseeli Wijegunasingha, October 16, 2002
Sonduru Varnadasi, Premasiri Khemadasa’s latest opera, was recently staged at the Elphinston Theatre in Colombo. Based on one of the many traditional stories about the life of Buddha, the opera ...
Trisha Brown Dance Company: Just scratching the surface
The legacy of Postmodernism in contemporary dance
By Andrea Peters, March 6, 2002
Over the first weekend in February audiences in Southern California had the opportunity to view recent work by Trisha Brown—the most widely acclaimed choreographer to emerge out of the “Postmodern...
Remembered horrors of a religious education
The Christian Brothers at The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House until November 3
By Erika Zimmer, October 26, 2001
Ron Blair’s one-man play The Christian Brothers deals with a significant social issue—education in a religious school and a system of teaching that he exposes as violent and incompetent. F...
A gentle appeal for justice
Aliwa, by Dallas Winmar Directed by Neil Armfield at the Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
By Kaye Tucker, October 10, 2001
Aliwa, a recent joint production by Company B in Sydney and the Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre Company from Western Australia, is set in the south of Western Australia in the 1930s. It tells the story o...
A failed attempt at "relevance"
The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, directed by Andrew Benedict
By Stephen Griffith, September 12, 2001
At first glance, stories and plays by the celebrated Russian writer Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) are deceptively simple. His play The Three Sisters, which was recently staged by the Sydney Theatre Compan...
Pappa Tarahumara, a Japanese contemporary dance company
Frustrated resignation
By Andrea Peters, September 10, 2001
As part of a short, two-city tour of Australia, the Japanese contemporary dance company Pappa Tarahumara performed Love Letter, its most recent work, at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. The production wa...
Expressions Dance Company
A one-dimensional exploration of narcissism and love
By Andrea Peters, August 15, 2001
Expressions Dance Company, one of Australia’s principal modern dance troupes, brought the newest work of company director Maggi Sietsma to Sydney at the end of July. While drawing a small crowd for ...
Australian play from the 1930s strikes a contemporary chord
By Erika Zimmer, August 8, 2001
The recent Sydney Theatre Company production of Morning Sacrifice by Dymphna Cusack was a fervent and unsparing exposé of a hidebound education authority in Australia in the 1930s. In the course of t...
The Lingalayam Dance Company
Exploring human expression but struggling with a theme
By Andrea Peters, August 4, 2001
The Lingalayam Dance Company’s recent performance of The Courtesan’s Daughter at the Seymour Centre in Sydney, Australia provided audiences with an opportunity to experience the intricate beauty o...
Artistic integrity at the "big end of town"
Up for Grabs by David Williamson
By Kaye Tucker, May 31, 2001
Up for Grabs is a new satire by veteran Australian playwright David Williamson. Having completed its season at the Sydney Opera House the production will now be performed at Parramatta, Wollongong, Ca...
Angry young man going nowhere
Thomas Ostermeier's adaptation of Büchner's classic Danton's Death at the Berlin Schaubühne
By Stefan Steinberg, April 28, 2001
Thomas Ostermeier is the 33-year-old head of one of Berlin's leading theatres, Schaubühne. Appointed to the theatre just over a year ago to revive its ailing fortunes, Ostermeier has concentrated on ...
