Humphrey Bower, Author at Daily Review: Film, stage and music reviews, interviews and more.

Postcard from Adelaide Festival: text-based theatre reviews

Reviews, Stage, Theatre | April 4, 2019

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,

Adelaide Festival: epic and intimate text-based theatre

By Humphrey Bower

Reviews, Stage | March 29, 2019

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

Postcard from Adelaide Festival #1: music and movement

By Humphrey Bower

News & Commentary, Stage | March 19, 2019

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;

Postcard from the Perth Festival #4: The imported and the home-grown

By Humphrey Bower

Reviews, Stage | March 11, 2019

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

Perth Festival reviews: Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, The Magic Flute

By Humphrey Bower

Opera, Reviews, Stage, Theatre | February 25, 2019

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

Postcard from Perth Festival 2: Dimitris Papaioannou, The Great Tamer

By Humphrey Bower

Reviews, Stage, Theatre | February 18, 2019

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

Postcard from Perth Festival 2019: Lang Toi, One Infinity

By Humphrey Bower

Dance, Reviews, Stage, Theatre | February 12, 2019

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)

Race and identity politics in theatre in the USA

By Humphrey Bower

News & Commentary, Stage | December 27, 2018

Postcard from Minneapolis and New York City Blackout Improv; Mixed Blood Theatre, Prescient Harbingers; Aleshea Harris, What to Send Up When It Goes Down; Jeremy O. Harris, Slave Play Since I started visiting the US regularly one of my biggest lessons has come from encountering racial politics (and identity politics generally) in a much more

Actéon opera review and Dust on the Shortbread dance review (Perth)

By Humphrey Bower

Dance, Opera, Reviews, Stage | September 26, 2018

Site-specific theatre and performance has become all the rage in recent years. At their best, such productions allow for a mutually illuminating dialogue between venue and work; often they also use the space to refresh our experience of performance itself by immersing the audience visually and spatially in the work with the performers. Last week I

Tristan and Isolde review (WASO, Perth)

By Humphrey Bower

Live, Music, Reviews | August 21, 2018

Tristan und Isolde, Stuart Skelton, Gun-Brit Barkmin, Ekaterina Gubanova, Boaz Daniel, Ain Anger, WA Symphony Orchestra, Asher Fisch, Perth Concert Hall, August 16 and 19 Since becoming Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of WASO in 2014, Asher Fisch has been assiduously cultivating the orchestra’s sound and profile and ambitiously extending its repertoire and programming. A

Author: Humphrey Bower

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