Oops, out of date bio – Gully has been reviewing for us since last year! Will update!

Well, as I said right at the beginning of this conversation: a lot of the beauty of art is that different people have different responses to the same work, for all sorts of different reasons. You are very welcome to disagree, but you seem rather to be claiming that any response that differs from yours is invalid. It would be more interesting to…[Read more]

Hey, Hideaway was literally telling Storm Boy he couldn’t speak to any strangers, or be visible in any way, and punished him if he did. Storm Boy was completely isolated from human contact by his father. Classic abusive behaviours, for those sensitive to the red lights. None of this happens in the book, fwiw, nor in the first film adaptation, w…[Read more]

For my part, for about the first third I thought I was watching a story about an abused child…so I don’t think it’s such a stretch. All the themes Monique mentions are in the play, and how each of us responds or picks up on them depends on each of our experiences. Perhaps this is a perspective we’re not used to seeing in our criticism.

Hi Luke, one of the interesting things about theatre – in fact, art in general – is that it’s possible to have very different responses to the same work. Why would Monique’s experience be more “preconceived” than yours? Like everyone else, she watched the show and this was her response. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that someone who has Stolen…[Read more]

I think you shouldn’t avoid his work, I’ve really enjoyed a lot of it. The baffling thing about this play is why it was programmed. It’s not derivative of Copenhagen – which I didn’t like either, ftr! – but it draws on that metaphor. As do many many other works of art!

It would actually be super great to see a remount of this production!

*Strikes forehead* Of course! Will fix and thanks for the note.

Thanks Matthew. As I said in this piece, neither Rush nor Norvill were on trial and this trial didn’t determine anything except whether Nationwide News had defamed Rush (which in my opinion it did). The DT was found to have defamed him, and its defence of truth – which means that defamation is allowed in certain circumstances – was thrown out of…[Read more]

Thanks Samsara – to think I’ve spent all these years spelling it right! Corrected now.

I suppose…the reality of that violence, that we see constructed in front of us, says something about how violence is constructed and represented? But yeah, for me it just said that we have the power to construct this violence, whether it’s real or imagined. It’s interesting how that violence for me obliterated everything else in the rest of the…[Read more]

I’d say in this case it’s about protecting the confidentiality of the complainant rather than any lack of courage or some kind of protective self interest on the part of Dan. Also, as Dan points out, it’s not enough to hang a few scapegoats, because these problems are endemic and occur throughout the industry.

Thank you, Samsara! 🙂

Thanks – it’s nice to be linked to! x

No problem! It’s great if you can link back if you quote. And I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I agree that William McKenna was a big surprise!

Thanks Al! As you have probably guessed, I know a bit more about the Rosicrucians and alchemy and so on than I know about the musical history of opera 🙂 I understand e flat in the overture and the opera also references Masonic symbolism?

Hi David – Yes, that inner circular monologue goes on and on in my head too. Despair is paralysing and guarantees our diminishing futures… Maybe what art can do is give people courage, especially to imagine that things might be otherwise, which is not a small thing.