Lynne's Theatre Notes

  VISUAL ARTS THE ARTIST AMADEO MODIGLIANI : A SHORT, BRILLIANT AND TURBULENT LIFE 26 JANUARY 2021   LYNNE LANCASTER Marking the centenary of his death this fascinating film brought to us by the Art on Screen team examines the short, turbulent life of AMADEO ( Dedo  or  Modi)  MODIGLIANI (1884-1920).  Modigliani was a prolific artist in various media and the film jumps from his beginnings in Livorno, Tuscany, to his bohemian life in Paris with  Picasso  and  Brancusi , London, America and elsewhere.  We see works from various museums – for example, the  Albertina in Vienna, the exhibition dedicated to the artist at Livorno’s City Museum,not forgetting the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the various collections and museums in Paris. We see closeups in luxurious detail of some of his paintings and there are comments by various experts and gallery directors. Using voice overs of letters and re-enactments ,the film is presente...

  SYDNEY FESTIVAL: BANGARRA DANCE THEATRE : SPIRIT : A RETROSPECTIVE 24 JANUARY 2021   LYNNE LANCASTER After ten months off stage because of Covid , Bangarra  presented SPIRIT , one of the highlights of this year’s Sydney Festival , at the  brand-new, pop-up stage at Barangaroo Reserve. The work draws on Bangarra’s past 30 years of repertoire and looks at the connection between Country and  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the land and their  traditions involving respect for humans , flora and fauna and the order of the universe. In SPIRIT , Dreamtime creation stories are interwoven with vignettes of  urban black social issues. All of the stories , Artistic Director  Stephen Page  says ,” are from ancestors’ stories, all of them connected to a specific mob or community around the country.” Jennifer Irwin’s  spectacular, glorious costumes  (some of them  amazingly  textured) are combined with very atmospheric...

  SYDNEY FESTIVAL : RAPTURE @ THE HEADLAND BARANGAROO 21 JANUARY 2021   LYNNE LANCASTER This is regarded as one of the major events of the 2021 Sydney Festival and stars multi-award-winning vocalists and performers Paul Capsis (Threepenny Opera, Angela’s Kitchen, Cabaret) and iOTA (Smoke and Mirrors, Graeme Murphy’s Berlin, Hedwig ) in this concert version of a planned upcoming musical. RAPTURE: a song cycle of Desire and Ecstasy, Murder and Mayhem, where new songs are featured blended with reimagined classics by Megan Washington, Deb Conway and Willy Zygier, Blondie and The Kinks. The work was introduced by host Yumi Stynes. It is a strange, plotless , somewhat disturbing contemporary allegorical song cycle for what could possibly be the end of the world as we know it , involving themes of ecstasy and desire, exorcism and repression, life and loss, greed, sin and morals, murder and love. Some of the songs have strong language – the work blends borderline blasphemous to love b...

  SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY IMPERMANENCE ROSLYN PACKER THEATRE    FEBRUARY 2021   This is the first time Sydney Dance has been able to perform live since Covid hit last year. Bonachela has expanded the work which has developed into a full length piece .    It attempts to express the human spirit , of coping with destruction and beauty , 2019 and 2020 and bushfires , flood , the Paris fire that horrendously damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and Covid and how hardship at makes us focus on ‘ living in the moment ‘ . Bonachela’s demanding choreography demands high octane energy and supple fluidness from his dancers . Solos , duets and ensemble work is at times highly synchronized and precise , at other times intimate and enfolding .At   certain points the stage is explosively full of tumbling , whirling dancers or they are writhing in sculptural groups , or slipping and sliding in slithery floorwork . Some of the solos are breathtaking and ex...