Category: English

English

The Opera Machine: Step Behind the Curtain and Into Life Beyond the Stage

The best seats in the house are often in the stalls, front row and centre, but just imagine the wondrous views behind the curtain. In The Opera Machine, produced by the Royal Opera House UK, these exclusive views are opened up to the public, providing a rare insight to the behind-the-scenes makings of an operatic performance. Featuring the 2012 show of the last act of Wagner’s musical drama Die Walküre, The Opera Machine shines a well-deserved light on the work of the stage crew, technicians and management. It’s those backstage rather than onstage who are the stars in this series of footage captured by 17 cameras placed around the theatre. Continue reading The Opera Machine: Step Behind the Curtain and Into Life Beyond the Stage

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English

Julius Caesar: A Well-Known Tale of Betrayal, Reinvented

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. The metaphorical curtain opens on a barren space with a spotlight focused centre stage. If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, you may be expecting a group of men to storm the stage, but director Phyllida Lloyd has something entirely different in store. This 2012 Donmar Warehouse production is the first in an all-female Shakespeare trilogy performed at Donmar King’s Cross in London. Continue reading Julius Caesar: A Well-Known Tale of Betrayal, Reinvented

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English

Negative Space: Knock Down the Walls of Your Lockdown Blues

Negative Space, the work of UK-Belgian company Reckless Sleepers and director Mole Wetherell is a whirlwind of visual theatre, captured live at Adelphi Theatre, University of Salford in 2019. It takes the established worlds of physical and devised theatre and fits them out with an armoury of hammers, trapdoors, rose ceremonies of sorts, and broken walls. The performance presents a symphony of body language, inviting you into a place beyond words where movement and logic translates into a hypnotic composition of codes and riddles. There is no sense of a conventional narrative – instead, the doors are thrown wide open to the audience’s own imagination. Continue reading Negative Space: Knock Down the Walls of Your Lockdown Blues

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English

Dear Australia: Reply All

Dear Australia, the recent project of Playwriting Australia, is like taking a walk through the suburbs. In the midst of a pandemic, it serves as a singular account of a time that has demanded us to reflect on the heart of the nation. Watching Dear Australia reveals the breadth and diversity of our national experiences, from stories about personal vulnerability to the impacts of colonisation. Continue reading Dear Australia: Reply All

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English

Buried Child: The Modern American Classic that Shocks

Sam Shepard’s 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Buried Child explores a Midwestern-American family holding onto a dark secret in the ‘70s. The arrival of their grandson Vince, whom they do not recognise, sparks the intense unravelling of that secret. In The New Group’s 2016 production, directors Scott Elliot and David Horn capture the essence of Shepard’s original work, creating a show that manages to be both hilarious and horrifying in the same minute. Continue reading Buried Child: The Modern American Classic that Shocks

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English

Hamilton: A Shot in the Dark, a Cultural Crowd Pleaser

A dramatic re-imagining of the life of the first US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, the Broadway show is a pastiche of colonial history and urban culture. With its songs boasting rapid fire, tongue-twisting raps and riffs, Hamilton repackages a history lesson in hip-hop form that is sure to entice adults and children alike. Continue reading Hamilton: A Shot in the Dark, a Cultural Crowd Pleaser

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English

Fleabag: Sexy, Scathing and… Sad?

It is interesting to retrospectively consider the humour and gender politics of this performance in 2020. Fleabag, now almost inseparable from Waller-Bridge herself, was championed as an anti-heroine of the 21st century, who shifted the boundaries of what women were allowed to say about their own sexuality and biology. It was transgressive and taboo-smashing; a shocking revision of the female voice that was unapologetically vulgar, vulnerable and, crucially, unvictimised. Continue reading Fleabag: Sexy, Scathing and… Sad?

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