MORE BLISS

March 18th 2010 5:54 pm | Theatre | News - By Diana Simmonds

Mid-way into the Sydney run of Bliss, its star, Peter Coleman-Wright will appear as guest of honour with wife and diva Cheryl Barker, at a special intimate lunch. Here, guests will be able to talk with the two singers and hear about their lives as Australia's modern star opera couple.

For those who have seen, or are planning to see Bliss, it also offers a terrific opportunity to hear about the coming together of the production and gain personal insights into the production. How has Cheryl helped Peter prepare for it, the most challenging role of his career so far? What has Peter looked to his wife for, in getting ready both personally and professionally for the demanding role? How does one household fare with two opera singers practicing for roles on a daily basis? And do the neighbours ever complain about the noise?!

Hear the answers to these questions and more when Opera Australia presents "A Celebrity Lunch with Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright" 12.30pm Wednesday, 24 March at The Victoria Room, Level 1, 235 Victoria Street Darlinghurst. Enquiries and bookings: events@opera-australia.org.au.

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ARCHIBALD 2010

March 18th 2010 2:33 pm | Visual Art | News - By Diana Simmonds

YES it's that time of year again. The Packing Room Prize has been awarded to Nafisa for her portrait of Glenn A Baker. Titled "Glenn in black and white." The prestige nod from the gallery staff is worth $500 cash and a $500 ANZ Visa debit card.

The rock brain is depicted in a somewhat photographic fashion and is about as exciting and inspiring as the rest of the field. While it's traditional to moan that the Archibald choices are dull and predictable, this year it really does seem that way.

Nevertheless, the packing room plumped for Nafisa who was born in Mumbai. She has exhibited work in more than 100 group shows and won 50+ awards and commendations including the First Prize (Gold Medal) at the 2007 Florence Biennale. She has been a finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the Blake Prize for Religious Art and in numerous portrait prizes including the Portia Geach Memorial Award. She won the 2008 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture.

But what else is there?

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TARA MORICE IN PERSON

March 14th 2010 8:40 pm | Theatre | Feature - By

TARA MORICE is an actor whose distinctively beautiful face - compelling eyes, quirky eyebrow and tangible warmth - has been part of Australia's movie and theatre landscape for longer than you'd think.

"Once you've got your head around turning 40 it's quite liberating," she says, in a break from rehearsals for Animals Out of Paper, a play by rising American writer Rajiv Joseph. "But it's tricky for women. And not the same for men, no matter what anyone says. There are interesting, rich roles for men as they get older, but far fewer for women. And the thing is, we're much more interesting and better now than we were when we were 22." Ain't that the truth.

Not that Morice is whingeing - perish the thought - but we had been discussing the Oscars and the Divine Meryl (60), Sandy Bullock (45) and Kathryn Bigelow (58) and the fact that even they are shovelling s**t up hill to get the Hollywood boys' club to shift their asses out of Neanderthal gear and join the 21st century. But we digress. Back to the play she's spruiking.

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King Lear

March 12th 2010 4:59 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

KING LEAR Bell Shakespeare Company at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, March 10-April 10, 2010, then touring. Pictured above: Josh McConville and John Bell.

KINSHIP is at the heart of Shakespeare's grand and rambling tragedy of 1606 - or thereabouts. At that time, in Elizabethan England, heirs, inheritance and blood were of supreme importance in the governance and maintenance of the state and its high families. So, although it's thought the playwright based this play on an old English tale of an aged king ill-treated by his daughters, the outcome here is much more complex. Nothing is black and white and the shades of grey are many.

Lear commonly begins with a couple of the king's men discussing their favoured and not so favoured sons, but director Marion Potts has chosen to cut to the chase. The ageing king enters in a flurry of entourage and furs in the act of telling his three daughters he plans to divide his realm between them, depending on their love for him. Instantly backs stiffen in the auditorium as a ripple of anxiety passes through the crowd. Who hasn't been involved in an inheritance war - even as an onlooker? The news is full of the fall-out from Wills contested, overturned, lost, rewritten, doctored; feckless offspring usurping the legitimate claims of siblings; parents wreaking revenge on ingrate brats; children wreaking havoc on withholding parents - and on and on it goes.

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MEOW MEOW

March 12th 2010 1:30 am | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

Meow Meow - Crisis is Born: Again The Studio, Sydney Opera House, March 2-14, 2010

BEST cabaret was the verdict of the Sydney Theatre Awards last year and on her return to the Opera House "by her own demand", Meow Meow has not taken her foot off the gas pedal.

The show is sharp as razors, wicked as witches, funny, clever, satirical and unlike anything else around. Backed by a band of four tight and terrific musicians - piano, cello, guitar and drums and a lot of sparkly white underwear - Ms M delivers an extraordinary mix of comedy and song, story and narcissism. She is unpredictable, apparently fearless and shameless, original and also oddly vulnerable and sweet - in the way that an unexploded bomb might be vulnerable and sweet.

When she bothers to do anything as mundane as simply sing she has a glorious voice, but mostly, she is way too busy entertaining the adoring troops with an outrageous and eclectic series of ideas that should not be described if you haven't seen them because that spoils the fun.

When this all too short re-run is over Ms M is off to London and to lay siege to the Edinburgh Festival people. God help them all. It's not often this kind of wacky genius comes calling.

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THE BACKSTAGE CAT SEZ

March 11th 2010 2:28 pm | Theatre | News - By Puss in Boots

NOTHING official yet, but it's more than a definite maybe that a new Reg Livermore show is not too far off. That is, a Reg show rather than Reg in somebody else's show. And Madam Wondrous, Nancye Hayes, is closely involved in it.

Whether it'll be titled Living National Treasures on Tour is anyone's guess, but as uber-indie producer Christine Dunstan is also up to her neck in the undertaking you can be sure it won't be afraid to leave the metro area and travel. Regional Australia: watch your theatre schedules for late 2010 and 2011 and watch this space. Btw, pictured here is Reg as a gorgeous young thing, a role he played almost as well as he does the Gorgeous Mature Thing.

APPARENTLY there's an idea in the wind to do another "three divas" - this time with Yvonne Kenny joining Judi Connelli ad . It's a great idea, if you think about it for a minute. Aside from the great voices, there's the humour - all three have over-developed funny bones. And Kenny came up with a possible title: Jurassic Divas. True.

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