THE STRANDBEEST ARE COMING!

January 4th 2012 9:13 pm | Visual Art | News - By Diana Simmonds

THEO JANSEN'S STRANDBEEST at Federation Square, corner Swanston and Flinders Street, Melbourne; February 1-26 2012. Free

You've probably marvelled at them on YouTube – ambling eccentrically along broad, windswept Dutch beaches – but I bet you don't know they're actually beautifully engineered demonstrations of evolution!

Artist Theo Jansen first began creating his strandbeest ("beach animals" in Dutch) in 1990. Since then, each successive generation of these kinetic "artificial life" sculptures has learned from the previous generation, incorporating improvements and adaptations, and discarding less successful elements – sound familiar?

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LIVE ON ABCE 2: DEBT DEFYING ACTS! THE WHARF REVUE

December 22nd 2011 11:27 am | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

Debt Defying Acts! - The Wharf Revue is on ABC2 LIVE, Saturday, December 24 at 8.30pm (Production shots: Tracey Schramm).

There is a slim chance you may have missed the Sydney Theatre Company’s latest Wharf Revue, aka Debt Defying Acts! if you haven't been paying attention, and that's a pity as it's the perfect thing for this often frenetic and stressful time of year. 

But never fear, the dear old ABC is sending a crew down to Hickson Road with a few handicams to capture the year's funniest, sharpest and cleverest show for our Christmas Eve viewing pleasure.

Direct from the tawdry yet strangely magical world of Upton's Family Circus, for the first time ever ABC2 LIVE brings us the wondrous talents of Mr Jonathan Biggins as he channels Lord Mayor Clover Moore (among many and peculiar others). Miss Amanda Bishop will demonstrate why she is more Julia than Julia as Julia, Flame Haired Temptress and Queen of the High Wire Balancing Act. And, as it's an economical show, she also doubles as the Faded Rose of Yesteryear Miss Kitty Keneally among assorted pulchritudinous popsies.

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NOTHING PERSONAL

December 10th 2011 12:44 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

NOTHING PERSONAL, Ensemble Theatre, 1 December 2011 - 28 January 2012. Photos by Natalie Boog: Greta Scacchi and Emma Jackson; Andrew McFarlane.

WHEN A PERSON looks at you apologetically and says: "Nothing personal", it's the verbal left hook which is often preceded by the right uppercut "With all due respect". Both are always delivered with a maddening self deprecating smile and both are lethal. The main triangle of characters in David Williamson's new play are especially familiar with the delivery – and reception – of these weasel phrases. They inhabit the scary world of modern Australian publishing, where the plug has been pulled on old-time values and methods and all bets are well and truly off.

Bea (Greta Scacchi) is the doyenne of Australian publishing; she has published more bestsellers, discovered more now-famous authors and demolished more rivals than anyone else in the industry. Unlike the real and legendary Beatrice Davis (also known as Bea in her day) she didn't turn down the without-literary-merit, yet multi-million selling Let Stalk Strine by Afferbeck Lauder. Nevertheless, Bea too sets much store by literary merit and "good writing", and she's slipping. She won't look at a young Aussie-Vietnamese author, won't talk eBooks, and she shudders at the new breed of grunge author and marketing-driven publisher.

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AS YOU LIKE IT

December 5th 2011 12:00 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

AS YOU LIKE IT Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre,19 November -24 December 2011. Photos: Charlie Garber, Casey Donovan, Alison Bell; right: Yael Stone. By Heidrun Lohr.

IT'S ALWAYS INTERESTING to see how a production settles (or not) after a week or so in front of audiences. For instance, director Eamon Flack's As You Like It is one that's got its head around who and what it is; and it's very keen to be – or not to be – whatever it is, but that is the question you have to ask and answer yourself.

This production is determinedly different, exuberant and jokey. If you don't get it, don't worry; there is much underlining of punch lines and repetition of funny bits so you really can't miss them. So, for instance, lest you don't know who Casey Donovan is by now, there's a nudge-nudge explanation. Except, of course, it overlooks that since Donovan won Idol she's worked hard to become a legitimate performer and surely shouldn't be defined by something she did seven years ago at the age of 16. Ironically, the over-egging actually reduces the laughter quotient by its insistence that you "geddit? Geddit?"

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RICHARD III

December 2nd 2011 10:29 am | Theatre | Review - By Diana SImmonds

RICHARD III – The Bridge Project produced by The Old Vic, BAM & Neal Street; in Australia by Andrew Kay & Liza McLean at the Lyric Theatre, December 1-11, 2011. Photos: Kevin Spacey as Richard III.

In this "international" production, with its mix of English and American actors, Spacey's Richard starts out reasonably posh and English, but as he slips further and further into megalomania and rage, so does his accent slither back across the Atlantic. And, as at the same time, occasional bars of the traditional Yorkshire song "Ilkley Moor Baht'At" thread through the soundscape, it"s impossible not to think of Mrs Slocombe, the camp old battleaxe from Grace Brothers and Are You Being Served.

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THE UGLY ONE

November 28th 2011 3:41 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

THE UGLY ONE Griffin Independent at the SBW Stables Theatre 26 November17 December 2011

In The Ugly One Marius von Mayenburg has written a play that's both funny and sad and which says a lot that's serious and seriously silly about contemporary western society.

Lette (Eden Falk) has invented a revolutionary new plug and is all set to show it off at a Swiss plug convention when he discovers a junior is being sent instead. If that's not bad enough, the reason why he's been substituted is that he's too ugly to be put in front of an audience. In shock, he goes home and asks his wife what she thinks and – yes – she also thinks he's unspeakably awful to look at, although he's very nice and kind and she loves him anyway.

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