Sometimes going to the theatre is far, far more than “a nice night’s entertainment” – it’s a visceral experience – and such was Bernstein on Stage, a truly lovely event.
Adelaide Reviews
It was a dramatic start to Freeze. The 70 or so audience members were asked by Dutch visual/performance artist, Nick Steur, in the ABC Grainger Studio’s attractive foyer to be silent throughout, told that we could stand, walk about or, as most did, sit on the floor – and watch.
This is the third of the trilogy and concerns the Polish woman Marie Curie who with her husband discovered radium and polonium and after his death, so much more.
Alice Oswald describes her text as “a translation of the Iliad’s atmosphere, not its story”. I immediately asked myself, does atmosphere need a translation?
Five of Shakespeare’s plays are encompassed in this four and a half hour show – Henry V, the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III all based on documents of the time and Shakespeare’s remarkable imagination and dramatisation.
It was the beginning of the heady, courageous, often violent, cruel and dispiriting “Votes for Women” campaign of which Muriel Matters was in the forefront.
This is not only a beautiful venue with a huge picture window behind the performance area, but possibly the best acoustic in Australia for listening to chamber music for strings.
I wasn’t going to start this review by talking about the music, because it was not the only thing about this show that was magic, but I will take my cue from the audience.