This year I saw shows in Melbourne and Sydney. The Top Ten
are my favourite shows of the year, but the Next Ten are basically all in
eleventh place. After a slow start to the year, the Melbourne Theatre Company’s
NEON Festival kicked things into high gear – and after that, the rest of the
year was full of exciting, imaginative, passionate and memorable theatre.
Note: these are listed in alphabetical order
THE TOP TEN
ANGELS IN AMERICA:
MILLENNIUM APPROACHES & PERESTROIKA – Belvoir
The classic American play about AIDS in Reagan’s America in
a stunning production at Belvoir.
BY THEIR OWN HAND –
The Hayloft Project, Neon Festival/MTC
Hayloft shakes up Oedipus in this smart triptych.
LIFE AND TIMES, PARTS
1 to 4 – The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, Melbourne Festival
A ten-hour epic that played out in the Playhouse, bringing
an audience of 600 together to experience a life (and their own lives) in a way
we’ll never forget.
NIGHT MAYBE – Stuck Pigs
Squealing, Theatre Works
It’s difficult to put into words how beautiful this show
was, not to mention how moving and intelligent, passionate and insightful.
Theatrical perfection.
NO CHILD... – Nilaja
Sun, Theatre Works
Sometimes, all you need, is one woman on stage playing a
couple of dozen characters. A tour-de-force.
ROOM OF REGRET – The Rabble,
Theatre Works, Melbourne Festival
And sometimes you need a maze of rooms and corridors and a
strong company to lead you through their unforgettable take on Oscar Wilde’s
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
SAVAGES – Forty-Five
Downstairs
Patricia Cornelius’ poetic and penetrating and powerful examination
of masculinity and misogyny.
THE BLOODY CHAMBER –
Malthouse’
A masterful stage adaptation of Angela Carter’s short story.
Theatre making at the absolute top of its game.
THE MAIDS – STC
Benedict Andrews. Andrew Upton. Cate Blanchett. Isabelle
Huppert. Elizabeth Debicki. Jean Genet’s The Maids. Seriously, what else needs
to be said? Black comic perfection.
THE SOVEREIGN WIFE –
Sixxters Grimm, Neon Festival/MTC
Declan Greene and Ash Flander’s bring their unique
sensibility to an epic story of Australia. A fitting end to the Neon Festival,
with a few digs at conservative theatre companies for good measure. Hilarious
and biting.
THE NEXT TEN
COLUMBINE – MUST Theatre,
Daniel Lammin
Daniel Lammin’s devised and verbatim meditation on the
Columbine massacre. Sharp and devastating.
CONSTELLATIONS – MTC
Sometimes life turns on the words you choose to say and
those left unspoken. Parallel universes and a performance for the ages from
Alison Bell.
MENAGERIE – Daniel Schlusser
Ensemble, Neon Festival/MTC
A tribute to Tennessee William’s work and creative process.
Brilliant and untamed.
ON THE BODILY
EDUCATION OF YOUNG GIRLS – Fraught Outfit, Neon Festival, MTC
An almost silent meditation on youth, puberty and the traps
of a rote education.
PALACE OF THE END –
Theatre Works
Three tragic monologues that take three different points of
view on the American invasion of Iraq. Performances and direction, magic.
PERSONA – Fraught Outfit,
Malthouse
By every right, a stage adaptation of the film Persona
should not work. Adena Jacobs pulls off the impossible.
SOLOMON AND MARION –
MTC
A lovely little surprise at the Melbourne Theatre Company,
that didn’t need star power to pull it off.
SUMMERTIME IN THE
GARDEN OF EDEN – Sixxters Grimm, Theatre Works
Southern melodrama was never so hilarious. What a cast. What
a script. What a crocheted set!
SUNDAY IN THE PARK
WITH GEORGE – Opera Victoria
Sondheim’s masterpiece on the creative process is precise
and delicate and very moving.
THE CHERRY ORCHARD –
MTC
Simon Stone is let loose at the Melbourne Theatre Company
and while the arguments about adaptations continued around him, this show
proved what a smart theatre maker he is.
THE HONOURABLE
MENTIONS
BECAUSE OF REASONS –
Five Pounds of Repertory Theatre
GYPSY – The Production
Company
OTHER DESERT CITIES –
MTC
ROTPETER – Butterfly Club
SHADOWS OF ANGELS – The
Owl and the Pussycat
SONGS FOR EUROPE –
Melbourne Fringe
STORIES I WANT TO
TELL YOU IN PERSON – Malthouse
SUPER DISCOUNT –
Back-to-Back Theatre, Malthouse
WHITE RABBIT RED
RABBIT – Malthouse
ZOO STORY – Revolt Theatre
Note: Before you ask,
I didn’t see The Rabble’s Story of O at the Neon Festival. Probably my biggest
regret of the year. I also didn’t see much at Melbourne Fringe, but that was
around the time I needed a break.
Favourite Theatre of 2012
Favourite Theatre of 2011
Favourite Theatre of 2012
Favourite Theatre of 2011
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