I had a good weekend, perhaps a better weekend than I deserved, with the spectre of unmarked essays looming, and the little voice in my head whispering, "You should be resting." I did rest. A bit. I also went to a party or two, and the theatre (Gutenberg! The Musical!), and out for good eats. And then tonight I sat in front of the television for ( Read more... )

Recently I saw the STC's production of Our Town. As the script directs, the play was performed on a bare theatre stage, with no set, and chairs and ladders forming the majority of the props. The directions of the Stage Manager character and the audience's imaginations supply the rest. Does the story suffer for all this? Hell no. It's such an ( Read more... )

It is so difficult to be away from Australia right now. It's all happening: a female PM, a World Cup knockout so we can stop pretending that we care about soccer, and Masterchef is down to the top seven. Not that England is without its assets: a place in the next round of the World Cup, lovely warm weather, and Minstrels sweeties ( Read more... )

Recently I've been reading medieval treatises on time reckoning, particularly how to calculate the date of Easter, which used to be a massively complex exercise ( Read more... )

I have suddenly acquired stage fright, due to all my shiny new LJ friends! I have also been nauseous all day, requiring lashings and lashings of ginger beer, as well as frequent applications of this:

Click to view

It's just so overwrought and angsty! With cheesy smoke effects! Strange facial expressions! Oh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, never change. Which he clearly ( Read more... )

So the double-edged sword of life in Sydney is that while I loathe the impersonal crowds and the inner-city arrogance, I love so many other aspects of city life. I have always been a city girl at heart, and I love losing myself in crowds, being able to shop until late in Myer or David Jones, and the numerous cultural opportunities like museums and ( Read more... )

I went to Mamma Mia! today, and while it was some hilarious entertainment, it was not quality theatre. There's only so many times I can take the stage being plunged into darkness with a spotlight on one person singing, while everyone else onstage freezes and acts like they can't hear. That's a lazy and boring technique, but it was the show's ( Read more... )

I saw STC's production of A Streetcar Named Desire on the weekend, and I really wanted to gush about how brilliant it was, but it wasn't. It was very good, but it wasn't completely AMAZING. Possibly I expected too much. It's probable that the fault is all mine -- somewhere in the second act I realised that I just didn't care too much what happened ( Read more... )

I have recently seen two Sydney Theatre Company productions that included music, but were not musicals. The first, When the Rain Stops Falling, was a play that included an original score played live by a pianist on the apron of the stage. The music worked like a film soundtrack to underscore the emotional intensity of the action onstage, and I ( Read more... )

Dear Matthew Newton,

Wow, you can sing! I mean, you can really sing. Thank goodness you never joined a boyband because then I'd be even more tragic than I already am. I mean, I thought I was kinda over you, but my goodness, you are really talented. You were awesome in Poor Boy. I think I understand you a little better now. I get why you play so ( Read more... )