Lynne's Theatre Notes

  SYDNEY DANCE MOMENTA   MAY/JUNE 2024   Freshly returned from an international tour, Sydney Dance is in magnificent sparkling form. Momenta grabs and dazzles you from the start.   It is about breath and life, explores time and space and how human emotions are forged and disrupted by time. The work integrates with the subliminal via powerful intensity and a dramatic look. Momenta opens with the dancers like ghostly sculptures and then uses mechanical arm movements in the first few scenes. Bonacheala’ s dynamic,extremely demanding choreography is sweeping , with many levels and fluid – at times the dancers sit like sculptures , at others they slip , ripple , slide and   glide , crawl on all fours , contrasted with high ,difficult lifts , a creamy stretched ‘ line’   and lots of slinky floorwork and spiky motions . Their refined grace, flexibility,mastery of technique and powerful stamina are always visible. The ensemble dancing is tremendous and we...

  AUSTRALIAN BALLET ETDUES/CIRCLE ELECTRIC Sydney Opera House MAY 2024 This is a double bill of very contrasting works that severely divides critic and audiences. Technically the dancing for both pieces was outstanding .The Orchestra under the baton of Jessica Gethin was fabulous. The opening work was the world premiere of Stephanie Lake’s Circle Electric. Lake is currently Resident Choreographer for the Ballet. Sorry readers, but I was disappointed – yes the dancing was amazing and some aspects of the piece great, but the choreography for this plotless work was repetitive and needed editing and cutting - the piece went on way too long. The work purportedly is about an infinitesimal examination of being alive, investigating existence, rapport and aspirations . The set, costumes, and dramatic lighting (Paula Levis, Charles Davis, and Bosco Shaw) were very well done. Robin Fox’s score was at times a hammering mix, lending live Orchestra with electric-acoustic sound and pe...

  THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET IN ALICE IN WONDERLAND CAPITOL THEATRE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024   The Australian Ballet first presented Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice in Wonderland in 2017. Not a traditional classical ballet, it is bright, bold and dazzlingly eye catching, with smoke haze, projections, puppetry ,tap dancing and more . It is too big to fit into the Joan Sutherland Auditorium at the Opera House, hence the Capitol. Audiences are flocking to it and treated to superb dancing. The story has been changed in parts, with the addition of a romance, and there is a contemporary outlook at the end with the use of a mobile phone for example. The set designs and costumes (Bob Crowley) are sensational harking back to the Victorian era but also contemporary. Much of the design harks back to Victorian times, with the set for the tea party like a Victorian era cut out paper theatre.But then it is also updated to now. Note there is strobe lighting and smoke haze used. Joby Talbot’s ...

 Hi readers Sorry but I have been very ill and in and out of hospital a lot I am much better now , but still at the ' respite' centre Lynne 

  The world premiere of Rafael Bonachela’s SOMOS , meaning ‘ We Are’ in Spanish , is a most stunning production . It is captivating and thoughtful , drawing on Bonachela’s Spanish background . SOMOS is profound and revealing .The atmospheric set ,with a mirror floored rostrum,( a Kelsey Lee design) with the audience   seated on all four sides ,consists of diaphanous ,soft red strips . Eventually the strips rise. With lighting by Damien Cooper, at times there are sudden blinding flashes and theatrical haze .The music , coordinated by Nick Wales, consists of a dozen songs from five of Bonachela’s favourite composers - Silvia Perez Cruz, Chavela Vargas,Estrella Morente and Rosalia that blend bolero ,Flamenco and rich ,luscious vocals as well as astringent mechanized street sounds . Bonachela’s choreography , showing off his integral style , is slinky, slithery, fast paced and very energetic. We are so close to the barefoot dancers , who seem effortlessly boneless ,we can see ...

  ‘ Let all yield to the sweet enchantments of my harmonies “ Pinchgut have brought us another luscious, elegant, luxuriously captivating , musically superb production. We are to imagine we are at the court of Louis XIV The Sun King , attending a performance in his private apartments , light entertainment after an arduous day at his Court . It has been updated to now to a degree - the cast is dressed in fashions sort of 1920’s-1940’s   . Designed by Melanie Liertz , the set  includes a topiary-set and raised fake plastic grass stage, a giving the impression of a broad terrace, some cushions , rugs etc , a high tea trolley and a changing background composed of a trellised arch to which it overlooks .We we have projections of the garden , fountain , birds , butterflies ,  mirrors and the famous portrait of Louis among other things . Directed by Shannon Burns, and with Artistic Director Erin Helyard leading the Orchestra of the Antipodes , the performance begins with a ...