Tag Archive: Theatre
Blonde (Joyce Carol Oates)
(published 2000) We at TVC have never been charmed by the pasty, lumpy creature ‘Marilyn Monroe’; the bundle of affected moues, fleshy wiggles and whispers that the Frankenstein Studio reportedly stewed-up from some bits of lovelorn redneck Norma Jean and handfuls of sexpot glamour queen Marilyn. Other than her almost-acting in “The Misfits” and her quite realistic impression of a starlet in “All About Eve“, her performances are tedious repetitions of wide-eyed Marilyn cooing and writhing her way through a sea of leering men. So, while we have little faith in Marilyn’s ability ever to inspire, we have much in…
Continue Reading →The Dark Master
Oz Asia Festival Space Theatre, Adelaide, October 29, 2019 (Director: Kuro Tanino) Japanese rural inns are a mainstay of horror films and video games. The Dark Master merges these genres when a hapless young backpacker (Koichiro FO Pereira) is bizarrely inveigled into running a once popular bistro in an undefined area of Japan (possibly Osaka). The former proprietor (Susumu Ogata), who may or may not have operated the inn for the last 30 or 35 years, disappears upstairs and issues instruction to his apprentice, via earpiece. The young traveller, who has never so much as boiled an egg, learns quickly…
Continue Reading →An Evening with Oprah
Oprah (photo by Alan Light)
Oprah Winfrey, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, 4 December 2015 (reviewed by Lynette Pugh) Advertised as ‘An Evening with Oprah’, there should have been no doubt that it would be all about Oprah, but in anticipating the evening I kept thinking ‘Oh God’ I hope she tones the narcissism down for the Australian setting – or she will face walk outs and tut tuts from the Adelaide crowd. I need not have worried! She had the delivery down pat, with the balance of celebrity, egoism and humble authenticity, exactly right. I was totally engaged for the whole 2 hours, with her story…
Continue Reading →Suddenly Last Summer
Sydney Theatre Company, Opera House, March 2015 A thin story, not as shocking now as it was when Tennessee Williams wrote it, or even when it was filmed in 1959. Presented here as a sort of live cinema – for much of the play the actors are videoed as they perform in a pot-plant garden behind the screen on which the video is shown. Doors and windows open and shut. Robyn Nevin doesn’t really have much to do. Eryn Jean Norvill as Catherine and Mark Leonard Winter as Dr Cukrowicz are impressive. Sebastian’s part is effective and powerful. An odd choice of play for such an…
Continue Reading →The Lonely Critic Laments
'The Critic' by Allen Robert Branston (1817) (Wikimedia Commons Images)
I sense the ending, lack the script, A familiar story’s meaning stripp’d, Of what and when and who and how Whatever, I want the ending now. I go to shows and realize The makers of them do despise Their customers; ’tis crystal clear Mammon not art, is worshipp’d here. But have I miss’d a salient point? Got it wrong, destroy’d the joint? Confounded meaning with the clear Unconscious cause of being here? Art is always doomed to flunk. From highest brow to utter junk, Through countless, low, fun-free travails To rare, derided, epic fails And as…
Continue Reading →