AUDITORIUM

✮✮✮✮ Patrick Marber's Three Days in the Country after Turgenev National Theatre | London directed by Patrick Marber Patrick Marber's condensed version of Turgenev's long-winded, novelistic A Month in the Country begins slowly, excruciatingly slowly, like most classic Russian plays. After about half an hour it suddenly fizzes into life, its intriguing mix of tragicomic plot, sub-plot, counter-plot (and counter-counter plot) gripping the audience's attention until the curtain c

✮✮✮ Lisa D'Amour's Detroit Darlinghurst Theatre Company | Sydney directed by Ross McGregor When people hit “rock bottom”, they are forced to evaluate values, and in the case of Lisa D’Amour’s Detroit, an opportunity to build a new life presents itself at the most troubling of times. Sharon and Kenny are ex-junkies trying to get their act together, but no easy solution exists, and all we see is their struggle to make every day count. The story is one of resilience, about the h

✮✮✮✮✮ Caryl Churchill's The Skriker Manchester International Festival | Manchester directed by Sarah Frankcom There's nothing new about tough fairies: Angela Carter's retellings are a punchy reminder that they used to be meant for adults, not children, while the vogue for dark stagings of the Grimm Tales has firmly reminded their audiences that the Cinderella's ugly sisters cut their own toes off, or that Rapunzel gave birth to illegitimate twins in the wildness. But Caryl Ch

✮✮✮✮ Tchikovsky's Iolanta / Stravinsky's Perséphone Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix en Provence Peter Sellars | Teodor Currentzis Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta is based on a story by Danish poet Hendrik Hertz. Iolanta lives a well-protected life with her servants, but she is not happy. Her father, the King René, wants to keep the fact that she is blind a secret from her. It is forbidden, on pain of strict punishment, to speak to her about colour and light. That, however, is exa

✮✮✮✮ Caryl Churchill's Love and Information Sydney Theatre Company | Sydney directed by Kip Williams Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information is a 90 minute play, composed entirely of very short sequences that look to be extracts from a wide range of stories running the gamut of genres in conventional theatre. Each independent bite-sized piece, no matter how small, provides enough for us to make sense of events taking place in the moment, but the scenes do no immediately relate

✮✮✮ 1/2 Ana Sokolović's Svadba Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix en Provence Ted Huffman & Zack Winokur | Dáirine Ní Mheadhra The Serbian-born Canadian composer Ana Sokolović’s opera Svadba was first performed in concert in Toronto in 2011. It went on to win the country’s prestigious performing arts award, the Dora Mavor Moore, for Outstanding New Opera before embarking on a national tour. It has since received the American première at Opera Philadelphia. Earlier this year, Alexan

✮✮✮✮ Jonathan Dove's The Monster in the Maze Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix en Provence Marie-Ève Signeyrole | Simon Rattle The idea of creating an opera with singers of all ages, from children to adults, with young instrumentalists side by side with professional orchestral musicians, was an educational idea of "the Simons", Sir Simon Rattle and Simon Halsey. Composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton were collaborators selected for the task, and the Berlin Philh

✮✮✮✮✮ Kafka's The Trial Young Vic | London directed by Richard Jones At his first court appearance following his arrest for unspecified crimes, Rory Kinnear's Josef K says to himself, aloud, face contorted with bemused shock and fear: “ee musten proclaim im innocent, an im put all facts before ee judge, im wrong arrest...” This strange language in Nick Gill's excitingly terrifying adaptation of Kafka's nightmarish classic is baffling at first, and won't be everyone's cup of t

✮✮✮✮ Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow Southwark Playhouse | London directed by Alice Hamilton “A critic is a man that knows the way but can’t drive the car.” So coined Kenneth Tynan, who in Austin Pendleton’s play finds himself locked in the boot while two jealous drivers wrestle for control of the wheel, ignoring the critic’s muffled pleas to at least agree on one side of the road. Orson’s Shadow sees the titans of the age, Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles, slung together

✮ Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix en Provence Martin Kušej | Jérémie Rhorer The entire stage is one vast bed. Tytania sleeps in it, Puck bounces on it, Oberon struts proudly over the covers. The sky is a midnight blue, both on the stage and above it. Robert Carsen's 1991 production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a piece of history. It was the young director's first international big break, and gave the Festival a fresh new take