CATE AND ANDREW: WHEN NO NEWS IS NEWS

January 21st 2012 3:40 pm | Theatre | News - By Diana Simmonds

Dateline: January 21, Hickson Road. Over the past couple of days the Sydney Twitterverse has been … um … twittering with the sound of tiny minds in a state of feverish excitement. The "news" that sparked the tweeting was of the impending departure of current co-artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton from the Wharf, global HQ of the Sydney Theatre Company.

The announcement of their departure can only be a surprise to anyone who hasn't heard them say, over and over, that they would stay two terms and be gone by the end of 2013. Which is exactly what will happen and which was announced by the STC today (Saturday) in a terse media release. The tight-lipped nature of the communique is because of the story in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning that begins, "It's been an interesting experiment but enough is enough." 

The story is a masterpiece of innuendo and confected phraseology such as "…deciding to end the reign…" (Trs. they were given the shove and didn't want to go.) And "It is believed…" (yellow journalese for - nudge nudge wink wink, know what I mean?). While descriptions such as "the high-profile couple" (tall poppy hideously famous pair) and thoughts attributed to "some members" of the theatre community (aka "sources close to the whatever" or "someone we talked to in a queue for the loos").

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - BEAUTIFUL BURNOUT

January 21st 2012 12:04 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

BEAUTIFUL BURNOUT, Frantic Assembly and National theatre of Scotland at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre; 18-29 January 2012. Photos: main, Eddie Kay, Kevin Guthrie and Taqi Nazeer; Blythe Duff.

ENGLISH playwright Bryony Lavery most recently and notably gave us Kursk (Sydney Opera House), a forensic and thrilling dive into the strange and dangerous milieu of naval submariners. That experience would appear to have given her a taste for male-dominated worlds and this time, in Beautiful Burnout, it's the boxing gym. In close collaboration with Frantic Assembly and the National Theatre of Scotland she's written a funny, exciting, unpredictable and perceptive script. It charts the shifting relationships between a clutch of young hopefuls, and with their master, the omnipresent martinet otherwise known as the trainer.

"Blood on a tissue on the floor of the train / Sun goes down, temperature drops / Beautiful burnout, beautiful burnout…" so go the lyrics to the Underworld track, Beautiful Burnout, a classic techno piece from 2007 to be found on the album, Oblivion With Bells. As well as flooding the York with instant energy and urgency even before the show begins, it also matches the adrenaline pumping routine of the boxers in training. And the fragmentary lyric offers a glimpse of the grim reality that underpins the show. 

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE

January 19th 2012 4:39 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE, Cheek by Jowl at the Sydney Theatre, 17-21 January 2012. Photos: Prudence Upton; Lydia Wilson and Jack Gordon.

WRITTEN by John Ford in 1633, directed by Declan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod for Cheek by Jowl as a touring production in late 2011, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore arrived in Sydney direct from a packed house, hot ticket December in Paris. With the Cheek by Jowl imprimatur, it was always going to be one of the Festival's headline shows for 2012 and it signals to homegrown theatre-makers that Jacobean drama is in one of its periodic upswings on the fashion pendulum.

Marion Potts anticipated the trend at Melbourne's Malthouse with her own 2012 production of this play. It received the classic "mixed reviews" including a well-worth-reading one from Alison Croggon in Theatrenotes (theatrenotes.blogspot.com). Alison begins her thoughtful piece by suggesting that there's a good reason for the continuing interest in Jacobean tragedies. She wrote: "Aside from their unapologetic theatricality, which generates its realism from extreme emotional truths, their dark machineries reflected a godless world in which human passion flamed out and extinguished itself in a materialistic, cynical and bloodily hierarchical society. Morality in this universe walks uneasily … 

"Women - their role, their power, their destruction in the crushing sexual morals of their time - are at the centre of these tragedies, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore is no exception. When the Jacobean tragedies were written, political and public life was dominated by men. There were, however, notable exceptions, just as there are now: women such as Elizabeth I and Lucrezia Borgia subverted the expectations and limitations of the social roles expected of their sex, and the conflicts raised by their presences are reflected in the plays."

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - YOUNG, HARD AND SOLO

January 18th 2012 11:42 pm | Music | Review - By Diana Simmonds

iOTA -YOUNG, HARD AND SOLO, Playhouse Theatre, Sydey Opera House; 17-21 at 9pm, 21 January at midnight. Photos: Prudence Upton.

AT AN HOUR and 15 minutes, iOTA's semi-solo concert show is sharp and sweet in equal measure. He's accompanied by a first-rate trio of guitars, bass and drums (no program: sorry guys), plus The Geek and a guest appearance by The Rabbit. After the immense effort of the recent Smoke and Mirrors, this Festival outing seems to be in the form of a mini-retrospective and regroup before the next big creative push. 

Young, Hard and Solo is raucous, rude, witty, clever, fun, sad and utterly charming. If more rock stars where more like iOTA there'd be mass outbreaks of uncontrolled groupie behaviour, so it's as well that he's unique. He has a wonderful voice and a wicked sense of humour. He's also an iconoclast and, on stage, unafraid to push himself and the audience to the limits. On opening night, the audience was thrilled to go along with him: obediently reciting ever more outrageous and silly stuff. The reason for the obedience quickly becomes evident: the rewards are delicious.

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I'm Your Man

January 17th 2012 2:57 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

I'M YOUR MAN, Belvoir and Sydney Festival in association with BYDS; Downstairs Belvoir, 14 January-14 February 2011. Photos: Heidrun Lohr. Main: Justin Rosniak; right: Michael Mohamed Ahmad and Billy McPherson.

CREATED AND directed by Roslyn Oades, I'm Your Man is the end result of a chance meeting 10 years ago in London with an ex-boxer and, more recently, with Bankstown actor-writer Michael Mohamed Ahmad - also an ex-boxer. Both wanted to make a play about the sport. Oades hung out at the fabled Lakemba gym where fighters such as Tony Mundine and Jeff Fenech trained and talked to them and many others. The opportunity arose to follow Australia's IBF World Featherweight Champion Billy Dib for more than a year. During this time he talked to them, they accompanied him on the daily gym grind of training; he won the vacant title, then successfully defended it. And he is the central figure in this dynamic 70 minute play.

The action is set in a working gym - one of those sweat, leather and liniment-scented establishments where exhortations such as "It's better to give than to receive" are stuck on the walls. And the sentiment is not meant in the gentle Jesus meek and mild sense, lest you be even slightly naive. The walls are plastered with posters of fights and fighters - Muhammad Ali in his beautiful prime is prominent - and there are mirrors for checking your form and all manner of punch bags to belt and dodge. (Ralph Myers is listed merely as "design consultant", and whomever is responsible for the transformation of the downstairs theatre seems to have absorbed the sense and feel of a boxing gym as if by osmosis.)

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Tony Sheldon in NYC

January 17th 2012 9:04 am | Theatre | News - By Diana Simmonds

SOME 300+ of Sydney's finest whooped and knees-upped at the Paddo RSL and the 2011 Sydney Theatre Awards on Monday night. Meanwhile, across the other side of the globe our much-loved Tony Sheldon was enjoying a celebration of his own. He sent this email:

I am very chuffed about this. BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS has donated $20,000 on my behalf to our Aussie equivalent OZ SHOWBIZ CARES in honour of the Priscilla company's fundraising efforts last December. How jolly!

xxx

And the message to him reads:

"Thank you Tony for leading the cast of Broadway’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert in the recent fundraising campaign that raised $107,000 prior to the performances of the 23^rd Annual Gypsy of the Year Competition on December 5 and 6! We are proud and happy to share some of the wonderful resources you have made possible for us with your friends and colleagues back home."

"OZ SHOWBIZ CARES /oscefa.org.au

"Tom Viola"

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