When I was first starting out as a theatre reviewer I received some advice from Katharine Brisbane, the doyenne of the form in Australia at that time and now the publisher and much-cherished theatre matriarch! I should choose: either keep my distance from the artists and players and run my own race; or get in close, to mix as much as a could with the very same people whose work I would be writing about. Brisbane herself had chosen the second option and she advised that it was more difficult - but, in her view, more rewarding.

I hope, by the close of this entry, we will have discussed the excellent production of Sizwe Banze is Dead, directed by Peter Brook, still playing for a few more days at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. But why not let’s start somewhere else and, in the wandering manner of Aboriginal story-telling, begin with:

I visited Melbourne recently to complete some interviews on tape with ‘eminent theatre practitioners’ for the OralHistory Unit of National Library of Australia. One my inteviewees was Mike Mullins, who gave Sydney and, indeed, the national theatre scene, a good rattle with his cutting-edge practice, and engagement in debate, for two decades from the late 1970s.

THE PRIMATIVE IN THE MODERN

Some of Australianstage’s more devoted readers might have noticed that I have been contributing the occasional review to this excellent and burgeoning website. Most notably, I have been keeping an eye on the Actors Company at the Sydney Theatre Company which, despite various controversies (especially of late), turned out a number of truly outstanding productions in the past year including The Art of War and, best of all, Benedict Andrews’ stunning rendition of Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla.