Jane Franklin: An Examined Life

Presented by Silkweed
Albert Hall, Thursday 26th August

Lady Jane Franklin serves as a figure of fascination as much as anyone in Tasmanian history. Unlike the fondly remembered bushrangers, she was a member of the establishment, but her reforming instincts have endeared her to a wide range of Tasmanians.

Zero Project

I speak to Tina, who is busy stripping leaves from lengths of Phragmites Australis, the common reed. Now that I know what they are, I see just how common they are, upright and swaying in the cool westerly wind gusting at the foot of the Tamar River. A few reeds hang from string and click away like knitting needles. Something she prepared earlier.

Sex, Death and a Cup of Tea

Four playwrights were immersed in four of the most regional of Tasmanian communities, - Zeehan, Swansea, Miena and King Island - and four very different plays address the dilemmas of transient populations, of people who leave and never come back, of people who settle down to die.The strongest of the plays Sex, Death and Fly-fishing, is a powerful depiction of the relationship between a young visitor to a freezing highland community and a dying, elderly man who has found his rest in fishing. Carefully balanced between narration and dialogue, Adam Grossetti's short play is an affecting vision of a lake's apotheosis in quiet, willing eyes.

The other plays have their strengths: an easy command of vernacular in Swansea; the humour of an overly-enthusiastic swimmer (or is he a seal?) who sets a relationship back on track on King Island; but one doesn't feel they quite inhabit the towns as members of the local population. They may be passing through, spending some time, but they're not quite locals yet.

Poetry Wall

Six poets have reacted in wildly different ways to the phrase ‘Open Camouflage’. Tim Thorne’s bleak treatise on modern warfare; Joy Elizabeth’s chilling true account of the abuse of female international students; North Hobart’s football oval on an autumn afternoon…

She Had Immortal Longings

Australian Shakespeare Festival
(A collaboration between Michael Campbell, Helen Noonan, Alison Bauld and William Shakespeare)
Peacock Theatre
August 19 & 21, 2010
By Anica Boulanger-Mashberg

This is an ambitious and challenging work for both performers and audience. It combines dense text (largely, but not exclusively, Shakespearean), a sparse contemporary operatic score, and a relentless live video projection of the action on stage. It also demands an intense engagement with the most emotionally and dramatically extreme points in the lives of five Shakespearean women – moments usually embedded in the full length of a production. It’s a lot to ask in an hour.

Special Delivery

Patch Theatre Company

Theatre Royal

11 August 2010

Also playing Theatre Royal 12 Aug at 5.30pm, and continuing its national tour

By Lucy Wilson Magnus

Special Delivery by Patch Theatre was like being an enchanted child eating a triple scoop ice cream in a cone. I knew the score and relished every mouthful.

This is children’s theatre that has them in stitches. The story by Greg Cousins and Jane Leicester is set in a dingy alleyway where a stock-standard deliveryman tries to fulfil the duties on his clipboard. But when nobody’s there to receive his trolley of boxes, one opens itself up with a dramatic tree-cutting saw, and out pops a look-a-like deliverywoman who hijacks his day in a playful, fantastical, magical way.

Special Delivery

Patch Theatre Company
Theatre Royal
Wednesday August 11 2010

by Stephenie Cahalan

Patch Theatre Company have an excellent track record of making engaging, intelligent theatre for children. Productions such as Sharon, keep your hair on and Emily loves to bounce have been highly successful in captivating children and adults alike, while also introducing young people to theatre.

And let's face it, theatre is such a valuable experience for children who are constantly surrounded by the world of digital images, short, sharp sequences and a maelstrom of visual and aural input. The steady pace and logical sequence of events in theatre is almost a relief for small people who don’t need as many trappings as us grown–ups to transport them to another world.

FOX

FOX

Theatre Royal

5 August 2010

By Lucy Wilson Magnus

Fox is a story about an injured magpie, a one-eyed dog and a seductive wolf, based on the classic picture book by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks This slick one-hour adaptation by Monkey Baa (in association with Siren Theatre Co) is pitched for “eight to 108 year olds”.

FOX

Monkey Baa in Association with Siren Theatre Co.
Theatre Royal , Hobart 5-7 August
Earl Arts Centre, Launceston 10-12 August
by Kylie Elizabeth Eastley


An intimate audience both young and old gathered at the Theatre Royal to experience FOX, a theatrical work adapted from a picture book by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. It’s the story of an injured magpie that is rescued by a one-eyed dog, the friendship that transpires and the ‘three’s a crowd’ interloping Fox, who manipulates the situation for his own gain.There was so much about this performance that was effective. The cast of Jane Phegan (Magpie), Jay Gallagher (Fox), David Buckley (Dog) and Sarah Jones (Soprano) portrayed their characters well, and the costumes and stage elements suited the narrative perfectly.

Heart Matters

Tasdance
Theatre Royal
Friday 23 July 2010

By Lucy Wilson Magnus

The heart of Tasdance’s premier, heart matters, beats from the orchestra pit, where the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Young, sat in relative darkness. It’s no surprise that Artistic Director Annie Greig’s dream to collaborate with the TSO was the seed for this production.

Heart Matters

Tasdance
Theatre Royal
Friday, July 23 2010
by Stephenie Cahalan

The Theatre Royal was abuzz on Friday night. Regular subscribing patrons who had not realised this was a special night looked a bit bemused by the fully-packed foyer. ‘What’s so special about tonight?’ was one overheard query.

The answer could have been a number of things; the opening night of a new work by Tasdance, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra departing the main stage and squeezing itself into the orchestra pit or that Graeme Murphy had come home.

Festival of Voices

Grand finale – Concert Hall, Sunday July 11, 2010
Big Sing – Salamanca, Saturday July 10 2010
Pilgrim’s Choir – Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Friday July 9 2010

By Stephenie Cahalan

Oklahoma. What an awesome number that is. Exuberance, animation, a beautiful arrangement of voices in all their ranges… I had forgotten what a classic piece of music that is until I heard it sung as part of the Grand Finale of the 2010 Festival of Voices at the Federation Concert Hall. And it if weren’t for this festival it is highly likely it would be another ten years until I would hear it.

The Age I'm In

Force Majeure

Theatre Royal, Hobart

Thursday 3 June 2010

By Anneliese Milk

‘It’s not about how old you are, but how you are old.’

At twenty-five I panic! I fret! I should have done this, been there, seen that and have one of those. Age is intrinsic to our perceptions of one another. We impose a different set of expectations on someone who is thirteen than on someone who is thirty. Age alters our bodies. It is physical. It is ephemeral. It is definitive. But as The Age I’m In illustrates: it is also meaningless.

The Age I’m In

Force Majeure
Theatre Royal
June 3 & 4, 2010
By Anica Boulanger-Mashberg

I’m linguistically opposed to the word ‘vignette’ – it is nonchalantly overused and often carries negative connotations of being superficial or somehow nominal.

However, vignette should also carry connotations of embellishment, elegance, delicacy, and evocative detail. My beloved Oxford dictionary defines photographic portrait vignettes as images with ‘...the edges of the print shading off into the background’. How poetic.

It is with conscious allusion to both the superficiality and the lovely poetry of the word, then, that I say The Age I’m In comprises a series of vignettes which are each a melange of voice-over, soundscape, dance, theatre, gesture, humour, digital illustration, intimacy, and humanity. The cast of ten navigate their way through a series of relationships, narratives, and encounters, encompassing topics as diverse as religion, cancer, adolescence, disability, and motherhood.

Don't Think Twice

A Double Bill:
Partly It’s About Love... Partly It’s About Massacre (Fiona Sprott) and
Andrew Corder Thinks Twice (Finegan Kruckemeyer)
Tasmanian Theatre Company
Backspace Theatre
May 27, 2010
by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg

If you think you can’t make fantastic theatre out of one actor in one small theatre, then think again. Think twice, if you will excuse the cheap pun.

As a rule, I don’t adore one-person shows. I find them hard work, and I get lonely: I crave interactions on stage. But with the Tasmanian Theatre Company’s latest offering, I am reminded that restriction is not always a negative, but rather can be the generator of great beauty and surprising moments.

The Company I Keep

Performed by The Second Echo Ensemble

Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart

Thursday 20^th May 2010

By Anneliese Milk

She loves me. She likes me. He is my son. She is my sister. He is my enemy. He catches the same bus as me. She has our mother’s eyes. She is our mother.- Finegan Kruckemeyer

Despite our many differences we all experience the same breadth of emotion and nurse the same desire to be loved. Although our relationships may be unique, complex and varied, we each form the nucleus of the ever-evolving company we keep. At the same time, we all experience times when we have no company at all.

Online (fishing)

Curated by John Vella
Plimsoll Gallery, Centre for the Arts, Hobart
Friday 21st May 2010

By Anneliese Milk

How long is a piece of fishing line? The answer depends on the artist using it. In Online (fishing) curator John Vella has reeled in a small and exciting group of contemporary Australian artists by using fishing line as ‘bait.’ Featuring the work of four artists and one artist collective, Online consists of five separate installations aligned solely by their use of fishing line.

The Company I Keep

Performed by the Second Echo Ensemble
Tasmanian Theatre Company and Cosmos
Thursday May 20, Friday May 21, Saturday May 22
Peacock Theatre

by Stephenie Cahalan

Eleven actors on stage and many more on a screen, minimalist lighting, movement, soliloquies on love, nervousness, wanting to look and be our best. The need for approval. The need for love.

This is essentially what The Company I Keep explores, and does so artfully and engagingly. The story stands alone and would work for any cast, be they professionals or amateurs, from any background. This cast happens to include five people who might be considered intellectually disabled, yet are clearly emotionally intelligent performers and highly competent actors. Creator and director Finegan Krukemeyer has made a piece of theatre that makes the stage a level playing field for every person that occupies it; a liberating experience for performer and audience alike.

RENDEZVOUS

Rhonda Voo with the Croo

Exhibition /Installation/ Performance / Residue
Entrepot gallery, Hunter St, Hobart.
9-5 daily until May 20th

By Gai Anderson

If you have a chance this week, get down to the Entrepot Gallery where a group of artists continue to play together responding to the word ‘Rendezvous’ through performance and live art. They aim to keep the space “alive” and inhabited by changing artists on a daily basis. Following the “live “ creation in the gallery, a trace or residue of the work is left to accumulate over the weeks of the exhibition, leaving tantalising, exciting, and sometimes oblique traces of what has happened here.

ArtRage 2009

Tasmanian School of Art, Centre for the Arts, Hobart

Friday 7^th May 2010

By Anneliese Milk

When the work of eighty secondary school art students from across the state is brought together under the one roof, you can expect the atmosphere to be diverse and electric, with the occasional nuance of teen-angst. Presented by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, ArtRage 2009 encapsulates all of that and more. It is an engaging and sprawling exhibition representing every possible medium, theme, colour and emotion.

What is initially striking about these emerging artists is their evident mastery within their chosen mediums. A sweeping statement, perhaps, yet a large portion of the work on display is as technically sound as you would expect to encounter in the work of artists twice their age.