Tag / Michael Schell

by nightwritessydney

Chimerica | New Theatre

Image by Chris Lundie

China is a prominent topic of conversation in Australian media, especially in recent times with shuffling political positioning between China, America, and Taiwan or between China and the Pacific island nations. As close neighbours, Australia likes to keep an eye on China, for better or worse, but we’re not the only ones as the term “Chimerica”, coined in 2006 by historian Niall Ferguson and economist Moritz Schularick to denote the relationship between the United States and China and its impact on global economic and cultural systems, indicates.

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by nightwritessydney

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll | the Genesian Theatre

Image by Craig O’Regan

Times change, people grow older, and nothing lasts forever. Ray Lawler’s 1950s classic remains a mainstay of the Australian theatre repertoire for its dry-eyed portrayal of the end of the boom time. In this most recent reprisal, Barney, Roo, Olive, and Pearl serve as reminders of how thin the facade of endless growth is and the consequences of failing to see the reality underneath.

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by nightwritessydney

Peer Gynt | Endangered Productions

Image by Marion Wheeler

While Henrik Ibsen is most known among theatre audiences for his stage plays A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler but his stage adaptation of his epic poem “Peer Gynt” with musical composition by Edvard Grieg remains one of his most performed works as a story steeped in Norwegian culture and folklore.

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by nightwritessydney

The Spook | New Theatre

Image by Bob Seary

The Cold War was a time of great paranoia with international powers Russia, China, the US, and the UK all vying for political and ideological dominance. In Australia, growing suspicions about communism meant a ramping up of national intelligence and ASIO surveillance of everyone, including everyday Australian citizens.

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by nightwritessydney

Murdered to Death | the Genesian Theatre

Image by Vicki Skarratt Photography

The queen of crime fiction Agatha Christie isn’t above the occasional trope or red herring. Besides, if all the clues were available to the audience, Poirot and Miss Marple wouldn’t seem as genius as they do. Murdered to Death takes all the quirks and foibles of a Christie classic and amps them up for a deadly satire.

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by nightwritessydney

The Lovely Bones | New Theatre

Image by Bob Seary

In 1973, a few weeks before Christmas, 14-year-old Susie Salmon goes missing when walking home from school. She’s been murdered by her neighbour and now she watches on from Heaven as her community pieces together the last day of her life and learns to navigate the future without her. Adapted from the 2002 international best selling novel by Alice Sebold, the Lovely Bones is about living and loving with grief.

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by nightwritessydney

Double Trouble | Endangered Productions

Image by Marion Wheeler

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach are two of the most grand, well-known composers of the 18th century but they also had frivolous, comic sides. In Double Trouble, Endangered Productions brings together two short operas to laugh at some of the unchanged tropes of humour and human nature.

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by nightwritessydney

A Passage to India | the Genesian Theatre

Image by Craig O’Regan

In an attempt to capture a poetic representation of 1920s English and Indian relations during British occupation, EM Forster’s classic novel and Martin Sherman’s stage adaptation place an exoticising lens on Indian people, place, and culture to explore power imbalances of race, class, and gender.

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by nightwritessydney

Glengarry Glen Ross | New Theatre

Image by Chris Lundie

It’s the 80s and the air is thick with money; the promise of endless American economic growth just recently cut down by a recession. But the greed is still palpable and it’s gaining momentum amongst the desperate Chicago real estate agents of David Mamet’s imagination.

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by nightwritessydney

Sherlock Holmes & the Death on Thor Bridge | Genesian Theatre

Image by Craig O’Regan

Crime fiction has long been a source of dark entertainment; imaging the worst case scenario, exploring the evil that lurks in plain sight, using a smattering of clues to hunt down a killer. Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective, and his faithful assistant Dr Watson return to the Genesian stage in this new adaptation of the Death on Thor Bridge.

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