Lynne's Theatre Notes

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/traffic-jam-galleries-will-maguire-leaning-in-to-letting-go/#more-73875 CULPTURE ,  VISUAL ARTS TRAFFIC JAM GALLERIES : WILL MAGUIRE : LEANING IN TO LETTING GO 31 AUGUST 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER A relatively small but striking ‘ pop up ‘ exhibition is currently on display at Traffic Jam Galleries, by sculptor Will Maguire entitled LEANING IN TO LETTING GO . Maguire is one of very few contemporary blacksmiths in Australia. Traditional skills are combined with contemporary design, seeking to bring out the commanding presence of the materials. The works are intensely personal.The timbers Maguire used were ironbark and turpentine over a hundred years old from an old wharf, the sheoak from his parents property – a tree which came down in a storm. Most of the works combine wood and metal, with swooping lines and emphatic shapes. Much attention is paid to the grain of the wood and how it contrasts with the metal. Turpentine Construction 1 is sha...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/selby-and-friends-transfigured/ SELBY AND FRIENDS – TRANSFIGURED 1 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER For the latest online Selby and Friends concert, TRANSFIGURED, presented and filmed at the City Recital Hall we were given a feast of glorious music. .Selby was joined by ACO Principal Violist Stefanie Farrands, Grace Clifford on violin, iconic Australian cellist and long-time Selby & Friends collaborator Julian Smiles and ACO Principal Double Bass Maxime Bibeau. The five have a tremendous rapport. Selby began the concert by stating that their planned 2020 programming has been disrupted even further by the continuation of the Covid pandemic, so this concert became another one available to watch online ( hooray !). Each piece was introduced by a discussion with one of the performers. First on the program was a superb rendition of W A Mozart’s (1756–1791) Piano Trio in G major, K.564 (1788) full of exquisite beauty, elegant ad lyrical . Clif...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/streamed-shakespeare-the-merchant-of-venice/ FILMED THEATRE/ OPERA ETC ,  THEATRE STREAMED SHAKESPEARE : THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 5 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER The trial scene in ‘The Merchant Of Venice’ In this era of the Covid pandemic, the latest production by Streamed Shakespeare , a Sydney company that was formed roughly five months ago , is Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE . It has been updated and adapted somewhat with the use of adroit asides , mobiles , and a fun aside of a TV show ( Wife or No Wife ) and a huge banner headlines of newspapers for example ( plus the daily TV news ) and a little adjustment of language at times all to make it relevant to today’s audience. But under the direction of Roslyn Hicks close attention is paid to the text, poetry and pacing of the production. Much use is made of the split screen and multiple characters appearing simultaneously, mobiles held up to the screen to show who is calling and so o...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/adelaide-festival-60-years-1960-2020/ BOOKS & WRITING ,  JOURNALISM ,  MEMOIR ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 60 YEARS 1960-2020 8 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER The Adelaide Festival , or Festival of the Arts as it was originally known , has now been going for an amazing 60 years. This is a beautiful, large and heavy coffee table book. It is divided into nine ‘chapters’ and is lavishly illustrated throughout with both black and white and colour photos. At the back is a tabulation of sixty years of posters advertising the Festival, then a list of short biographies of the various contributors. It is not an archival, chronological record of the Festival but rather a collection of memories and photos. The editor,  Catherine McKinnon,  is an award-winning novelist and playwright. She studied theatre performance and cinema at Flinders University. Her play ‘Tilt’ was selected for the 2010 National Playwriting Festival, and As I Lay Dre...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/secret-impressionists/ DOCUMENTARIES ON FILM AND SMALL SCREEN ,  EXHIBITIONS ,  VISUAL ARTS SECRET IMPRESSIONISTS 14 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT This is a beautifully photographed look at the recent exhibition in Rome held in the Bonaparte Palace in Piazza Venezia. There are sweeping aerial panoramic views of Rome with panning shots of some of the exhibition rooms and some of the paintings are examined in luminous extreme close up so we can observe the brushstrokes. Among the artists included are – Monet , Pissaro, Degas ,Renoir ,Berthe Morrisot and Cezanne to name just a few. Fifty paintings are included in the exhibition, most of which have not previously been available to be viewed by the public as they come from private collections. There is also black and white footage of Paris during the late19th century and voice overs of letters written. The exhibition looks at the Impressionist school of paintin...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/sydney-fringe-2020-by-virtue-of-the-same-movement/ DANCE ,  FILMED THEATRE/ OPERA ETC ,  PERFORMING ARTS SYDNEY FRINGE 2020 : BY VIRTUE OF THE SAME MOVEMENT 14 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT This is the Australian premiere of this work, brought to us from Israel as part of Week 2 of the Sydney Fringe and is presented as part of Global Fringe Gala Week 2 The work won several awards at the Acco Festival in Israel last year, where it was filmed . Created and performed by Mica Kupfer, with Meshi Olink, Ben Kobi and musician Yaniv Hayoun it examines control and power and questions the blurred boundaries of concrete and abstract, dismantling and construction and asks what is real? For Australian viewers it has similarities to Tanja Lietdke’s ‘Construct’ – the dancers are at times sculptural, are manipulated and become like pieces of board or wood. Choreographically it also has allusions to Butoh and the circus wi...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/sydney-fringe-festival-pasta-e-lava/ SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL PASTA E LAVA 21 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT ‘My homeless lover’. Pic Danny Williams’ PASTA E LAVA is brought to us as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival and is part of the Global Fringe Gala Week 1. The company is called My Homeless Lover and combines Hawaiian and Italian influences – the performers are Eddie Bruno Oroyan and . It was filmed in Genova in 2018 by Danny Willems. It is a strange, unsettling, somewhat uneven combination of tenderness and violence, a blend of food, masks, mime , Butoh, allusions to Pina Bausch’s Café Müller, other contemporary dance and acrobatics fused with haunted memories. There are hot and sweaty intimate enfoldings as well as short, shuffling quick steps,  slo mo movement and angular, jerky choreography. Animal like movements ( dog and chicken for example) are also included. It is a constant experiment of the cycle o...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/traffic-jam-galleries-tracy-dods-and-j-valenzuela-didi/ TRAFFIC JAM GALLERIES : TRACY DODS AND J VALENZUELA DIDI 23 SEPTEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT The current exhibition on at Traffic Jam Galleries is by two artists – Tracy Dods ( hers is called Upon Reflection ) and J Valenzuela Didi( his is called Ballad of the Daily Pilgrimage ) both artists who have exhibited at Traffic Jam Galleries before. In Dod’s work we usually never see the faces of the people depicted , as they are facing away from the viewer (an exception to the rule is Intangible Assets) .While she lives just past the Blue Mountains , she is often in Martin Place researching and soaking up the atmosphere. She seeks to provide both a comical and sombre commentary on her subjects by re-contextualising lawyers, barristers and suited businessmen into the unexpected, expansive, bleached beach and coastal landscapes that are her trademark style . She is intere...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/vida-a-woman-for-our-time-by-jacqueline-kent/  VIDA A WOMAN FOR OUR TIME BY JACQUELINE KENT 5 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT This is a fascinating biography of VIDA GOLDSTEIN, a trailblazing Australian woman, and shows how the treatment of women in politics and society has not changed much in certain aspects even today a hundred years or more later. Jacqueline Kent has written acclaimed biographies of Julia Gillard, pianist and social activist Hephzibah Menuhin, and pioneer book editor Beatrice Davis. The book itself is of medium size and thickness, divided into four parts and twenty two chapters with an introduction and an epilogue. Notes and references, an extensive bibliography and a great index are included at the back. In the middle there re several pages of photographs. Vida Goldstein was an inspirational leader, the first woman to stand for Parliament, a campaigner for women’s rights and social justice. She ...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/the-godmothers-by-monica-mcinerney/ THE GODMOTHERS BY MONICA MCINERNEY 6 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT The latest book by Monica McInerney is a story about life, love, hidden secrets, truth vs fiction, discovery , loss and search for identity. A family saga with a strong protagonist set both in Australia and Europe the book moves between country Australia, Melbourne, an exclusive family hotel in Edinburgh, and an Irish town with an ancient castle. Monica McInerney is regarded as one of the stars of Australian fiction, with over a million copies of her books sold in Australia and New Zealand. This year she celebrates 20 years as a published author, now with over twelve books to her name. It is of medium size and thickness, with 42 chapters and an epilogue, a captivating read – there is an element of mystery throughout as Eliza unearths family secrets. In THE GODMOTHERS, Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only dau...