Stage

Don't bother waiting for Godot; he's not coming. The Regent Theatre is back in the news today, with the Courier-Mail's Tonya Turner revealing that an acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot starring Sir Ian McKellen won't be coming to Brisbane due to the lack of a suitable venue. The story quotes me saying that the Regent could be restored into a theatre much more cost-effectively than building a new venue from scratch. Godot is one of many productions that haven't found their way to Brisbane because of scheduling conflicts at QPAC. Godot producer Liza McLean says: "Commercially, everybody would love for there to be another venue in Brisbane". Lyndon Terracini, the former Brisbane Festival boss who now runs Opera Australia, agrees. With the city growing at the rate it is, we absolutely need another new venue as soon as possible or risk becoming seen as a cultural backwater. Restoring the original Regent auditorium as part of the current office-tower project for the site would be an efficient way to give our city a versatile theatre/concert/cinema space while protecting Brisbane's last remaining Hollywood-style picture palace for future generations. Anna Bligh, it's not too late to make this happen.

According to a tweet from the Queensland Theatre Company, its artistic director, Michael Gow, will not renew his contract and will leave in August after programming the 2011 season. While Gow has led the company to some great artistic heights, his departure creates an opportunity for the QTC to renew itself. I think he's been wise to step aside while he's on top, although some will undoubtedly say that he stayed a little too long. No doubt there'll be a lineup of the usual suspects when the job is advertised, but true theatre lovers will hope the QTC board mounts a thorough search and brings in an AD who can lead the company to great success on the local, state, national - and international - stage.

Is Brisbane's Arts Theatre haunted? The Sunday Mail has a fun video here featuring the theatre's president Alex Lanham, who says he can feel the presence of the company's founder, Jean Trundle, back stage. Meanwhile, in the world of the living, the Arts Theatre's latest production, a revival of John Birmingham's He Died with a Felafel in his Hand, is doing a roaring trade. Last night's performance was a sell-out, but tickets are available for performances for performances on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Details here. Later this year, the Arts will host the premiere of Birmingham's The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco.

January 14 will see the Australian premiere of Bran Nue Dae, the movie. The Brisbane opening of the stage musical on which it is based remains one of my favourite nights in the theatre, and if the film - starring Rocky McKenzie, Jessica Mauboy, Ernie Dingo and Geoffrey Rush -- goes any way towards recapturing that magic, it will be brilliant. Here's the trailer.

Hamlet will be the 2010 season-opener and new artistic director David Berthold's directorial debut for Brisbane La Boite company. Toby Shmitz will play the distracted Dane. The season will also include Eugene Ionesco's absurdist drama The Chairs starring Jennifer Flowers and Eugene Gilfedder, and Neil Armfield directing Gwen in Purgatory. Details here.

Tex Perkins' star turn as Johnny Cash in The Man in Black has, according to the show's publicist, had Brisbane audiences "crying out for more". The producers, Folsom Prison Productions, have extended the season at the Twelfth Night Theatre until December 13. In a not-so-similar vein, Eurovision parody Eurobeat, starring Rhonda Burchmore and Glynn Nicholas with guest appearances from Glenn Shorrock and Wilbur Wilde, opens at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, on November 25.

Wil Anderson, Claire Hooper, Frank Woodley, Greg Sullivan, Tom Gleeson, Stav Davidson, Lindsay Webb, Terry Hansen, Fred Lang, Katrina Davidson and Mark McConville are among the top-notch comics who will perform in the Doin' It For Dave gig at the Sit Down Comedy Club, at Brisbane's Paddington Tavern on Sunday, November 22 at 4pm and 7pm. The money raised will help popular comic Dave Grant in his fight against pancreatic cancer. Book tickets, at $45 each, on 3369 4466.

As I post this, the Brisbane Arts Theatre is about to launch its 2010 season. Rather than me tell you what's in store, here's a video explaining it all:

Britney Spears is under fire for lip-synching when she should be singing. Give the girl a break, I say. Haven't we all been guilty at one time or another of pretending to work?

The producers are calling it "the show the Thetare Royal didn't want you to see". After being rejected by Hobart's most historic theatre, Simon Bryce and Andrew Guild have found a new venue for their show, Busting Out, and a planned Tasmanian tour will go ahead next year. It will run at the Derwent Entertainment Centre, in "lyric mode", on June 11, along with dates in Launceston, Burnie and Devonport. Bryce said in a media statement: “I’ve taken it as a personal challenge to get this production to Tasmania. Why should a show that’s been seen by over 230,000 people in over 50 other theatres around Australia and New Zealand, miss out on coming to Tasmania?” You can read more about the saga and the show, starring Emma Powell and Bev Killick, here and here.

With memories of the Brisbane Festival still fresh, the Queensland capital is to get another, albeit more modest, performing arts event. The BITS Festival is described as "an open-access, one-day event for independent theatre makers to showcase their work". The organisers say it's a preview for a larger event in 2010 that aims to give performing artists an opportunity to present their work to an audience and to their peers. If you're an artist who wants to be involved, or a potential audience member, the details are bitsfestival.com.

Two quotes from different writers:

This production is QTC's triumph of the decade, so see it and be prepared to be taken out of your comfortable world and sit shivering on the edge of your seat - that is, when your heart starts beating again.

Powerful moments of fragile vulnerability are drowned out by yawning dullness. Provocative subtext is lost by basic presentations of the script. Moments of high drama seem contrived and uncomfortable ... And so the audience is left with awkward embarrassment.

Both are reviews of the same theatre production -- Queensland Theatre Company's revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, directed by Michael Gow and now playing at the QPAC Playhouse in Brisbane. The first quote is from the A Little Gossip arts newsletter and written by Alison Cotes, who I have known for a long time and has been reviewing theatre in Brisbane for more than 30 years. The second quote was published under the headline "How the Queensland Theatre Company crucified Miller's Crucible" and was published on the Brisbane Times website. It's written by Katherine Feeney, who I don't know but I believe has been writing for the BT website since its inception a couple of years ago, and pens a sex and relationships column called CityKat. While I have read arts interviews and listings under her name, I can't recall reading a review by her before. Readers who rely on published reviews to shape their ticket-buying choices would be confused by such a stark contrast in critical assessment, the likes of which I have not seen in years. Of course, I'm not claiming that one is right and one is wrong. I haven't seen the play but, from what I can gather online, the audience reaction on opening night was very positive. Another critic well known to me, Katherine Lyall Watson, says at ourbrisbane.com that the play is "not without its flaws, but the joys of the production far outweigh them". And Eric Scott, a vastly experience journalist whose opinion I also value, says at his absolutetheatre.com.au website: "This is the most powerful production from the Queensland Theatre Company I think I’ve seen. Director Michael Gow’s casting was perfect in this 20 character play, which used 19 actors, and he moulded them brilliantly into a gripping, suspenseful piece of theatre drama. It was the finest piece of direction I’ve seen from the company’s Artistic Director." At the end of the day, if you're thinking of shelling out the money for a show, I guess you have to trust the people you know and/or whose assessments have generally aligned with your own. After all, nothing can replace seeing it for yourself.

1) The Queensland Theatre Company has, no doubt, spent a lot of money on the billboard promoting its 2010 subscription season. It's strategically placed on Milton Road so it can be seen by motorists and train passengers. It's such a shame that a big chunk of it is impossible to read by somebody passing by at a moderate speed because it appears to employ white type on a yellow background. This is one of the worst combinations for legibility.
2) As Spencer Howson pointed out this morning on 612 ABC, The Queensland Orchestra has changed its name to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra -- which was the name of one of the two ensembles that merged back in the 1990s. As Spencer says, it's disrespectful to the former Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and its members, some of whom still play with TQO. In fact, the media release that came with the company's 2010 launch season doesn't even mention the Philharmonic. Additionally, I'd like to know how much money was wasted on TQO stationery and signange that now can't be used and the costs of converting to the new name, including commissioning a new logo (pictured). It's public money, so we should be told -- along with the reasoning for the change in the first place.

Simon Bryce, the producer of Busting Out, has posted a comment on this site, reaffirming his position that the Theatre Royal in Hobart did censor the show and would not hire the venue to him based on its content. He says he received communication from the theatre saying "the majority of our team were not in favour of proceeding with this hire. ... It was a decision based on whether or not this show aligns with our board's artistic policy and the majority (not all) of the management team believe it is not a good alignment, as such I’m afraid that the Theatre Royal will not be prepared to present this show". Bryce adds: "Theatre Royal receives significant funds from Tasmanians through taxation and as such they are funded to provide a facility for all Tasmanians. My belief is whether individuals personally choose to see Busting Out or any other show is a matter and right for individuals. When agencies of government start using public funds to decide what free thinking adults can and cannot see, then I believe accountabilty warrants that these matters be discussed in the public domain."

Congratulations to the winners of the Deadly Awards for indigenous Australians, including singer Jessica Mauboy, actors Leah Purcell and Luke Carroll, and musicians Gurrumul Yunupingu and the Saltwater Band. There's more here.