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The tale of Sweeney Todd – the ‘demon barber of Fleet Street’ who slit the throats of his victims and then passed on their corpses to Mrs Lovett, who turned them into meat pies – was first published in a Victorian serialised novel or ‘penny dreadful’ called ‘The String of Pearls’, and almost immediately turned
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S-27 (or Security Prison 27) was a former secondary school in Phnom Penh that was used by the Khmer Rouge to imprison, interrogate, torture and execute those who were deemed to be enemies of the regime. From 1975 to 1979 an estimated 20,000 people were incarcerated there, of whom almost all were killed. Forced confessions
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Humphrey Bower reviews the following shows from Dance Massive held at various venues in Melbourne, March 12-24: Luke George and Collaborators, Public Actions Atlanta Eke, The Tennis Piece Stephanie Lake, The Skeleton Tree Marrugeku, Le Dernier Appel/The Last Cry Joel Bray, Biladurang Russell Dumas, Cultural Residues 2020 * How can dance intervene in the world? And
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Humphrey Bower reviews intimate, text-based theatre from the Adelaide Festival (February 28-March 15, 2019): Bertrand Lesca/Nasi Voutsas’ Palmyra Brian Lipson/Gideon Obarzanek’s, Two Jews Walk into a Theatre Traverse Theatre Company’s, Ulster America Teatro Nacional D. Maria II,’s By Heart Bagryana Popov/La Mama’s Uncle Vanya * As mentioned in my previous Postcard from Adelaide, the social and political themes of masculinity, racism,
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Humphrey Bower reviews text-based theatre from the Adelaide Festival (February 28-March 15, 2019): Belvoir/Co-Curious’ ‘Counting and Cracking’ Young Vic/Isango Ensemble’s ‘A Man of Good Hope’ Verbatim Theatre Group’s ‘Manus’ Milo Rau’s ‘La Reprise’ *** As mentioned in my previous Postcard from Adelaide (on music, dance, physical and visual theatre), the big social and political themes that recurred for me at
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In his first postcard from the Adelaide Festival, Humphrey Bower looks at: Paul Kelly, James Ledger, Seraphim Trio, Alice Keith, 13 Ways to Look at Birds; Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mozart/Schubert/Bruckner; Robyn Archer, Picaresque; Meryl Tankard, Two Feet; Johan Inger/Semperoper Ballett Dresden, Carmen; Luciano Rosso/Alfonso Barón, Un Poyo Rojo; Gravity and Other Myths, Out of Chaos;
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In his final round-up of the 2019 Perth Festival Humphrey Bower writes of a glaring discrepancy between local and imported work as he reviews: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey’s Five Short Blasts The British Paraorchestra’s The Nature of Why Danny Braverman’s Wot? No Fish!! Ursula Martinez’ Free Admission and A Family Outing – 20 Years On Dickie Beau’s Re-Member Me The Last
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Michael Keegan-Dolan/Teac Damsa, Swan Lake/Loch na hEala; Komische Oper Berlin/Barrie Kosky/1927, The Magic Flute When my kids were little, I used to read to them from a storybook called Tales from the Ballet. It contained illustrated retellings of the plots from famous ballets, many of which were originally folk tales. I can’t speak for its
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The Great Tamer is one of those unique festival works that will be talked about for years to come, writes Humphrey Bower from the Perth Festival. As has often been noted, the Greek experimental theatre director Dimitris Papaioannou began his professional life as a visual artist. As such he belongs to the tradition of theatre
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Nouveau Cirque de Vietnam, Lang Toi; Gideon Obarzanek, One Infinity Lang Toi: My Village is a contemporary circus work about traditional Vietnamese village life created and directed by Vietnamese juggler Tuan Le in collaboration with French-born but Vietnam-raised brothers and co-creators Nguyen Nhat Ly (who is also musical director) and Nguyen Lân Maurice (Artistic Director)
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