Hi all -
Reviews on TN this week -
Eldorado by Marius von Mayenburg, directed by Benedict Andrews. The Session
written and performed by The Ennio Morricone Experience. Both at the
Malthouse Theatre until June 25.
A black mirror is a fit metaphor with which to begin this riveting play, a
parable about human self-destruction. Marius von Mayenburg presents a vision
of humanity as desolate as that of WG Sebald in his novel Vertigo, when he
speaks of the slow, inevitable conflagration of the earth: we consume all
life on our planet with the creeping flame of desertification or the swift
fire of war, leaving behind us a wasteland of ash.
Eldorado begins with a monologue murmured by the property speculator
Aschenbrenner (Robert Menzies), who leans half-lit against the window, his
voice artifically miked so we hear every inflection of his speech. He
reports, seductively, tenderly, on the progress of an urban war. It is
unsettlingly familiar: the language could be taken from any contemporary
news report on the invasion of Baghdad or the destruction of Falluja. Only,
it seems, this war is occurring in the same unnamed western city in which
our suave businessman is living, not in some distant theatre of conflict in
the Middle East or the Third World; this is a play which collapses
perspectives of distance and time. It finishes with Aschenbrenner again, but
this time he speaks as one of the dead: and now he tells us of a new life on
Mars, of atmospheres artificially created by water, where humanity can find
a new home. Like Aschenbrenner (whose very name conjures flame and ash),
planet Earth is dead.
More at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Circus Oz: Laughing at Gravity tour. At the Big Top at Birrarung Marr until
July 9.
I have been very spoilt in the past couple of weeks. It is as if Melbourne
theatre has decided to show me the best it has to offer, from its tiny
alternative theatres to its main stages. And then, just to remind me that
vital theatre isn't exactly a new thing here, I found myself in the Big Top
at Birrarung Marr, just off Federation Square, watching Circus Oz's latest
show.
More at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Apologies for cross-posting
All the best
Alison
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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