An ex-Queenslander and former academic, Jeannette has also managed a three-screen arthouse cinema in upstate New York, sold theatre tickets in London, and baked brownies at a cafe called Sweet Stuff.
Jeannette has written 38 articles on AussieTheatre
German actor Klaus Kinski (1926-1991) was an emotionally unstable, self-proclaimed sex addict. His autobiography recounted, in gleeful detail, his appallingly destructive obsessions. Two lawsuits led to its pulping. Kinski simply published another one. But at least one copy of the original survived and fell into the hands of ABC film reviewer CJ Johnson, who based his show… Read more.
Slut is a short and snappy Fringe Festival contribution, directed by Natarsha Wrensted who has melded a great ensemble from the performers. Patricia Cornelius’ 2008 script presents multiple characters—a gaggle of school girls—who circle around the slut: Lolita. The black stage is minimally dressed with functional plastic-and-metal chairs and white rectangles of screen and scrim… Read more.
This inspired program is something very special. It brings together the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, French soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, and seven members of Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. The program of French Baroque music is divided into two portions. The first—the shorter of the two—is concert-like, conducted by harpsichord player Paul Dyer, Artistic Director and co-founder of… Read more.
Really, there’s not a lot I can say about this play. Not because I can’t think of anything to say, but because the audience is specifically asked not to spoil the experience for those who haven’t seen it yet. It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it’s all part of the fun, and apparently audience and… Read more.
There’s no doubt that audiences are challenged by double-crosses and deceit of the story told in Vivaldi’s opera Bajazet. But this Pinchgut Opera presentation makes it worthwhile. All elements come together to deliver an experience that is thrillingly beautiful, psychologically grim, and—in the end—emotionally satisfying. This suggests a productive working relationship between Director Thomas de… Read more.
It seems at first like an improbable idea, combining circus with the courtly music of the Baroque era. Sure, circuses have music … but it’s not usually elegant Baroque music played on period instruments. And yet Circa and French Baroque—in Sydney and Melbourne during July and August—is indeed a collaboration between circus company Circa and… Read more.
Like Me, a Mongrel Mouth production directed by Duncan Maurice, is strange. Grotesque. Unnerving. Disorienting. Confronting. And it’s all around me. The action plays out in eight rooms of Merchants House in The Rocks. The context: a group of narcissistic patients has taken over a derelict treatment centre. We spectators are visitors to this centre, active… Read more.
“A community in crisis leads to doubt,” the dinosaurs sing. And—they tell us—doubt leads to chaos. As the singing, dancing Triassic Parq community unravels, the dinosaurs’ doubts pile up. All the old certainties about gender, sex, love, faith and science suddenly seem like some kind of huge confidence trick. This musical presents the dinosaurs’ point… Read more.
We can be fairly sure that Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi wasn’t completely happy with his opera Bajazet in the weeks before the première at Verona in 1735. We know this because Erin Helyard—Artistic Director of Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera—travelled to Italy on the trail of this almost forgotten opera. In a Turin library, he examined… Read more.
“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” This statement—the final words spoken by Anne Frank in this play—have particular resonance. The young girl appears on-stage after her father (warmly played by James Bean) discloses that she has died in a concentration camp—that is, after she has experienced the worst of human… Read more.
