Lynne's Theatre Notes

wow. Not your standard Romeo and Juliet but a dramatic reworking https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/matthew-bournes-romeo-and-juliet/ BALLET ,  DANCE MATTHEW BOURNE’S ROMEO AND JULIET 19 FEBRUARY 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT Matthew Bourne has done it again in this powerful, bleak, rather shattering radical reworking of ROMEO AND JULIET. The basic narrative of Shakespeare’s play has been kept, but changed, adapted and twisted .Bourne seeks to convey the overwhelming enormity of young love and succeeds triumphantly. It is full of youthful energy and vibrant urgency and the dancing is magnificent. Included among the cast of New Adventures members are some dancers still in training. In Bourne’s reimagining the setting is the cold, grey, intimidating psychiatric Verona Institute – basically a double level white semicircle with three doors, framed by staircases and a balcony, all enclosed by gates of metal fencing and foreboding white tiled w...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/opera-australia-don-giovanni-2/ A terrific production OPERA OPERA AUSTRALIA’S : DON GIOVANNI @ SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 28 JANUARY 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT OA Don Giovanni, SOH January 2020, Lucca Micheletti, Shane Lowrencev, Eleanor Lyons, Jane Ede, Juan de Dios Mateos, Anna Dowsley, Richard Anderson, Gennadi Dubinsky, This is a magnificent revival of the chilling , thrilling  David McVicar  production. As the audience enters, the curtain hangs almost as if partly torn down. Eventually it rises to reveal  Robert Jones’s  huge ash grey set that makes the stage look much larger than it is. It is supposedly a disintegrating palazzo, looking bombed out and with rubble everywhere with marvellous use of perspective. The set is also dominated by a giant staircase that rises and or descends dramatically allowing for further locale changes. David Finn’s  lighting is also integral to the sh...

Totally awesome one of the highlights of the Festival  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/sydney-festival-airplay/ SYDNEY FESTIVAL : AIRPLAY @ ROSLYN PACKER THEATRE 23 JANUARY 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER Go on , treat yourself , rake your friends and family , indulge your inner child with this marvellous show that is visually stunning and full of warmth, joy and delight. Devised and performed by Acrobuffos from the USA – Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone – in collaboration with kinetic sculptor Daniel Wurtzel , AIRPLAY incorporates movement , silent comedy , acrobatics and mime as well as a dazzling display of balloons and other props as well as fabulous billowing material . Each has a hard wheelie travel case that contains assorted props. Sydney Dance Company followers might perhaps be reminded of Graeme Murphy’s ‘Air’ and ‘Other Invisible Forces’, while theatre goers might perhaps think of the joyous sense of wonder and audience enchantment of Slava’s ‘Sn...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/forget-me-not/ This was amazing THEATRE SYDNEY FESTIVAL : FORGET ME NOT @ CARRIAGEWORKS 18 JANUARY 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER Once Upon A Time … As part of the Sydney Festival FORGET ME NOT by brilliant Canadian maestro puppeteer Ronnie Burkett has currently inhabited Bay 8 at Carriageworks. The Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes has going for over 30 years now and the last Sydney Festival show was The Daisy Theatre in 2018. FORGET ME NOT is set in a dystopian world , The New Now, where words are forbidden , and reading , writing or even possessing a bit of paper with words is now a secret act of defiance. And everyone is constantly under surveillance. For those determined to send or decipher a love letter, there is a way – but first they must undertake a dangerous journey to a secret site and find ‘She, The Keeper of the Lost Hand’, one of the few who still know how to read and write – for the ability to do this can now b...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/frontera/ DANCE SYDNEY FESTIVAL : FRONTERA @ CARRIAGEWORKS 9 JANUARY 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER This work as part of the 2020 Sydney Festival is very strong and powerful with incredibly fearless , explosively energetic performances by the dancers. FRONTERA is the latest in a series of socially engaged, cutting edge, large-scale works created by avant garde Canadian choreographer Dana Gingras and her company Animals of Distinction. Gingras and her ten dancers ask: what space remains for the unruly, ungovernable body in this world of constant surveillance, monitoring and artificial borders .What is freedom ? The dancers are at times refugees trying to escape . The dancers are in styled ‘casual’ street clothes – mostly of black and white but then for one section some wear red – and sports shoes . At times they writhe sculpturally as a group , or form a rocklike mass, at other times there are individual phrases of trapped movement rep...

https://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/lynne-lancaster/review-black-cockatoo-ensemble-theatre-nsw-259560 LYNNE LANCASTER Wednesday 15 January, 2020 This is a vibrant, fascinating and challenging production about a part of Australian history that was little-known until now. One of the major shows of this year’s Sydney Festival, it is directed by Wesley Enoch who also directs the festival itself. Written by Geoffrey Atherden, the Sydney season is the world premiere. Black Cockatoo  is not just a story about cricket, rather it is about aspirations, anger, intransigence, preserving history, storytelling, courage and culture clashes. ADVERTISEMENT In 1868, 13 brave Aboriginal men in Western Victoria gathered their cricket bats and embarked on a dangerous voyage to England. They risked ill-treatment and illness, yet Australia’s first international cricket team – including Australia’s first Indigenous sporting hero, Johnny...