Latest Posts

• Back at home in Oz

  In Apartment, Sydney

  I just got home after a month or so out of town. I’ll be back to full posting soon.

• August, Osage County At the Music Box in New York

  On the plane to SF

  I haven’t seen that much theater in the last month, well, because I’ve been in the states. Being in New York got me back into it, and along with Adam and Alan I went into see the Tony winning August: Osage County. I wasn’t disappointed, even though I was warned that the play lasts three and a half hours.

  August tracks the life of a large, and dysfunctional, extended family centered around Violet, the matriarch of the family. After a crisis, the family gets together at the home in Osage County, Oklahoma in August. Every one of the family members is engaging, and a fully developed character, which I suppose is why the play takes such a long time to be developed.

  Everyone in the family has their own problems to deal with, and it’s delightful to feel that family arguments are so normal. The teenage daughter has a drug problem, one of Violets daughters has marital problems, the others have their own strange men to deal with. The rest of the family has their own little quirks, but really, we see Violet and her daughters struggling to keep and maintain a relationship.

  The beginning of the play starts off with a terrific monologue from Violets husband, Beverly, as he hires a live in housekeeper. She’s a native American Indian, and the only one through the play who isn’t a part of the family. She lives in the attic, watching over the family in a spiritual way. The question for her becomes why she stays working in the family home with all the mania around her.

  There’s a central crisis that brings the family together, which I won’t spoil here, but it pushes Violet over the edge into a cruel personality. How the family reacts is amazing, more so for proving how resilient families can be in a crisis than for anything else. Violet finds herself loved and hated by her entire family, and it’s surprising to see how the play ends.

  I guess I have tried to avoid the obvious point to make here, which is that the cast made this play really incredible. Violet is played by Phylicia Rachad, recognizable for being Bill Cosby’s wife in ‘The Cosby Show’, her sister is Elizabeth Ashley. John Cullum plays her husband superbly (and his monologue is worth the ticket price alone) . The housekeeper is Kimberly Guerrero, who I recognize from Northern Exposure & Seinfeld (as the Indian Girlfriend)

  The hours pass by quickly, and I barely noticed I was there for more than three hours. A really good show to see, and not one that will leave a Hollywood smile type ending on your face.

• When the Rain Stops Falling At the Drama Theatre.

  Sitting late at work.

  I went back to the Sydney Theatre Company last night, after seeing a few awesome things there, and went and saw When The Rain Stops Falling Last night at the Drama Theatre. It’s a new work by Andrew Bovell, of Lantana fame, so there was certainly a lot to expect. It’s a little bit like that movie, actually.

  When The Rain Stops falling, superficially, follows a number of couples, through the 1960s to 2039, covering their ups and downs and seeing how much things change over time and how little they really do. A few things change in the world during that time, such as, by 2039, fish are extinct, but really, not that much changes between men and women.

  All the couples on stage end up bickering and talking clearly, loudly, about the things that worry them. One woman is pregnant and wants to get an abortion. Another man goes to Australia to find his roots, and meets a girl at the same time. There’s of course nothing tying the story lines together, other than seeing how circumstances change and don’t change us. Bovell leaves lots of space on stage (thanks to a terrific airy and well designed set) and in the words to let the actors talk slowly and just let them sink into the audience’s ears. At the beginning of the play, we don’t know why we’re seeing all these couples in the play together, other than, well, they talk about the same things, and have the same lives, despite the times.

  Bovell brings on a really great Australian story, taking a look at the historic ties of English born Australians, and giving a real character to every person on stage. It’s a well formed story about real Australians, something people can relate to. In the beginning, we don’t understand why family is important, but it turns out, by 2039, we understand that all these people are tied together as a family, and that there are many dark secrets that can be unraveled in the past.
  It’s really terrifying to see which way the play goes, but along the way, there’s plenty of really touching moments, the sort of things that you want to believe Australia is like like. Gritty, tough, beautiful, and magical. Part of the play is in Alice Springs, at uluru: the visual singularities in this country. Places that all Australians know, but really aren’t a part of. There’s a certain simplistic escapism with some of the characters, for instance a young woman, at a roadhouse in the country, staring out a window; We all want to believe theres people like that around, but I doubt there are.

  By the end of the play, things resolve: Andrew, who we don’t meet, finds out why his family is so broken, and what in his history has fractured his youth so much.

  I guess overall, it’s very similar to Lantana: A deeply troubling, enchanting drama that comes together really well. The characters speak for themselves, and the great acting carries the show. It’s worth watching, but it’s really heavy going at times, and not a play for someone thats looking for a simple entertaining night out on the town.

Blog Posts

• 26 Jun 2009 » Back at home in Oz
• 24 Jun 2009 » August, Osage County At the Music Box in New York
• 21 May 2009 » When the Rain Stops Falling At the Drama Theatre.
• 19 May 2009 » Erlang preview, And what makes content creation so hard?
• 17 May 2009 » Half Marathon Afterglow.
• 16 May 2009 » Good books - whats the line?
• 15 May 2009 » Whats the answer?
• 14 May 2009 » Back to business
• 28 Apr 2009 » Kafkas Metamorphosis at the Sydney Theatre (All the way from Iceland?)
• 20 Apr 2009 » The wonderful world of Dissocia
• 19 Apr 2009 » Kafkas Monkey - a real letter to the academy.
• 04 Apr 2009 » Get Smart, Whats wrong with it?
• 02 Apr 2009 » Public transport rant of the day.
• 31 Mar 2009 » Ladybird, the 1st BSharp play in 2009
• 29 Mar 2009 » The Man From Mukinupin, A Belvoir Production.
• 28 Mar 2009 » A Reservoir sampling server for erlang, written as a gen_server.
• 26 Mar 2009 » Travesties @ The Drama Theatre
• 24 Mar 2009 » Concussion—The Wharf Theatre.
• 09 Mar 2009 » What do Facebook Search results do?
• 07 Mar 2009 » Dear Discount Fruit and Vegetable Shop.
• 03 Mar 2009 » Downtime sucks!
• 27 Feb 2009 » Junk Mail Targeting—How much is there.
• 23 Feb 2009 » Creative Commons for Australian Beginners
• 19 Feb 2009 » Tuesdays with Morrie @ The Ensemble Theatre.
• 15 Feb 2009 » The Holiday @ The Griffin Theatre.
• 14 Feb 2009 » Hooray for Valentines day.
• 12 Feb 2009 » The Removalists at the Wharf Theatre.
• 11 Feb 2009 » Defining the 'Personal Pub Crawl'
• 10 Feb 2009 » Double Checked Locking: keep it volatile & above 1.5
• 09 Feb 2009 » Trying something new.
• 09 Feb 2009 » Baghdad Wedding @ Belvoir: A quick review.