01/01/2017

The best of thespellofwakinghours (2010 – 2016)

Over the past seven years, I’ve had the pleasure and fortune to see over three-hundred-and-twenty productions in Sydney and interstate, across various mainstage, independent, and underground venues, by a variety of artists and companies with diverse resources, and the results contained within this blog speak for themselves.
As I write this, the future of this blog is uncertain – new adventures await, and I am putting it on hold until I can figure out the best way to continue it in the future. It will stay here as a record and a resource for theatre-makers and theatre-lovers alike.
Thank you to all the artists – mainstage and independent alike – who have invited me to your shows, who have taken the time out to share your thoughts and knowledge, and who have got in touch for one reason or another.
Sometimes you see a show that sticks with you for whatever reason hours, days, weeks, months – even years – later, and it is in honour of these shows that I have compiled the following list, celebrating the rich and wonderful hours of adventures I’ve spent in theatres over the past seven years. So, in a roughly chronological order, here are the brain-wormy experiences that comprise the spell of waking hours.


Best in Show
Twelfth Night – Bell Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Opera Australia
Rocket Boy – Dramac
As You Like It – Belvoir
Faustus Bell Shakespeare
Julius Caesar Bell Shakespeare
Food – Belvoir
Babyteeth – Belvoir
Peter Pan – Belvoir
The Bull, The Moon and the Coronet of StarsGriffin
The Seagull – STCSA, Adelaide Festival
Henry V Bell Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs – Russall S. Beattie at The Vanguard
Children of the Sun – Sydney Theatre Company
Ukchuk-ga: Pansori Mother Courage – Sydney Festival
The Tempest Bell Shakespeare
What Rhymes with Cars and Girls – MTC
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s Globe
Golem – 1927, presented by STC
The Golden Age – STC
Fase, four movements to the music of Steve Reich – Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Sydney Festival
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Theatre for A New Audience

Honourable Mention
The Animals and Children Took To The Streets – 1927, Sydney Opera House
Candide – Opera Australia/Sydney Festival
The Duchess of Malfi Bell Shakespeare
Angels in America – Belvoir
Summertime in the Garden of Eden – Sisters Grimm & Griffin Independent
Switzerland – Sydney Theatre Company
Jump for Jordan – Griffin Theatre Company
A Streetcar Named Desire – Young Vic (NTLive)
Manic Pixie Dream World – SUDS
Man of La Mancha Squabbalogic
A View from the Bridge – Young Vic (NT Live)
Orlando – Sydney Theatre Company
Thomas Murray and the Upside Down RiverStone Soup & Griffin Independent
Disgraced; The Hanging STC
Inner Voices Don’t Look Away
The Literati – Bell Shakespeare & Griffin Theatre Company
Babes in the Woods – Don’t Look Away

Best New (Australian) Plays
Rocket Boy, Kendall Feaver
Food, Steve Rodgers
Babyteeth, Rita Kalnejais
The Bull, The Moon and the Coronet of Stars, Van Badham
Vere (Faith), John Doyle
Jump for Jordan, Donna Abela
Procne & Tereus, Saro Lusty-Cavallari
What Rhymes with Cars and Girls, Aidan Fennessy
Manic Pixie Dream World, Tansy Gardam
Skylab, Melodie Reynolds-Diarra (National Play Festival)
Thomas Murray and the Upside Down River, Reg Cribb
The Turquoise Elephant, Stephen Carleton
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Tom Wright, after Joan Lindsay

Dishonourable Mentions
The Seagull – Belvoir
Every Breath – Belvoir
Hedda Gabler – Belvoir
Tabac RougeSydney Festival
She Only Barks at Night – Living Room Theatre
Jumpy – STC/MTC
Mother Courage and Her Children – Belvoir
The Blind Giant is Dancing – Belvoir
The Great Fire – Belvoir
Twelfth Night – Belvoir
Power Plays – STC
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – STC

Shakesproud
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Opera Australia, dir. Baz Luhrmann
Faustus Bell Shakespeare, dir. Michael Gow
As You Like It – Belvoir, dir. Eamon Flack
Julius CaesarBell Shakespeare, dir. Peter Evans
Henry 4 Bell Shakespeare, dir. John Bell and Damien Ryan
Henry V Bell Shakespeare, dir. Damien Ryan
William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs – The Vanguard, dir. Steven Hopley
All’s Well That Ends Well – Sport for Jove, dir. Damien Ryan
The TempestBell Shakespeare, dir. John Bell
Hamlet – Montague Basement, dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
Love’s Labour’s Lost – Sport for Jove, dir. Damien Ryan
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Theatre for a New Audience (filmed), dir. Julie Taymor
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s Globe (live web-stream), dir. Emma Rice
Antony & Cleopatra – Sport for Jove, dir. Damien Ryan


Other
Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night tour
They Will Have Their Way: The Songs of Tim & Neil Finn
Symphony in The Domain: Midsummer Shakespeare
Sarah Blasko – I Awake – Live at Sydney Opera House
Compassion: Songs with Orchestra – Lior & Nigel Westlake
Nils Frahm, Sydney Opera House (The Studio)
Sarah Blasko – Eternal Return (GRAPHIC Festival, 2015)

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