Witness Performance | Matthew Peckham | Activity https://witnessperformance.com/members/matthewpeckham/activity/ Activity feed for Matthew Peckham. Tue, 09 Jan 2024 00:24:08 +1100 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-AU 30 hourly 2 2812a563ac97ab20276bdc5e9187e8d5 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/absolutely-wilde/#comment-10937 Thu, 17 Dec 2020 06:29:46 +1100 As reviews go, that one was certainly worth waiting for.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post The Picture of Dorian Gray is spectacular, yet somehow never succumbs to the seductions of spectacle, says Alison Croggon It’s commonly said that western society is in an age o […] ]]> 30711a91b80e1dc693ef28b00dff8497 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/audio-lab-the-turn-of-the-screw/#comment-9585 Tue, 25 Aug 2020 23:28:14 +1000 Beautiful voices, beautiful, rhythmic and readable prose. But I wondered what the director actually did, apart from hand out six copies of the book and a packet of highlighter pens. Robert is so right – MTC are leaving most of the medium unexplored.
They can do so much better, and I’m sure they will. This project deserves, and needs success…[Read more]

In reply to - Robert Reid wrote a new post If some real thought were applied to the MTC’s audio treatment of The Turn of the Screw, says Robert Reid, it could have been amazing Ugh… and I thought that the Audio Lab’s Great […] ]]> 4ba8d7719d9fdaadbcdb5b7be6c78530 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/arts-funding-a-survey-of-destruction/#comment-7647 Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:15:46 +1000 Three features distinguished the rump Parliament that sat to enact the regulations permitting the JobKeeper allowance. One was that the session seemed utterly farcical – the votes could have been counted at the Members’ entrance, long before anyone even took a seat. Another was Tony Bourke’s informed and eloquent speech in favour of amending the B…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon thinks it’s time we faced up to the fact that everything is going according to plan Over the past month, a lot of people have been asking me about what I think […] ]]> c2dbc3ac70976d86b6b5eb588d4f2aa0 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/arts-funding-a-survey-of-destruction/#comment-7618 Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:03:38 +1000 Your words have captured the feeling that we are drowning, sinking slowly into the quicksand of ignorance and apathy, too exhausted even to struggle.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon thinks it’s time we faced up to the fact that everything is going according to plan Over the past month, a lot of people have been asking me about what I think […] ]]> cf8b84062f24502d8558c08b99a48b02 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/art-in-dark-times/#comment-7527 Sat, 04 Apr 2020 22:53:34 +1100 Your prescience is disturbing.

When plague descends and cities burn,
Then, then to Art the people turn.
When cities burn and plague descends,
On Art recovery depends.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘Think of all the great art!’ Let’s not. Alison Croggon ponders art in dark times.  After the election of Donald Trump, a meme started doing the rounds on social media. Well, at […] ]]> b0bfb018ee90dd3f95388e1a53a9688a Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-shadows-of-understanding/#comment-5223 Sun, 13 Oct 2019 13:15:09 +1100 I haven’t seen it yet (looking forward to it) but I want to ask: is it OK to critique a show for what it DOESN’T say? Seems unfair.

In reply to - Jane Howard wrote a new post Back to Back Theatre’s The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes is thick with what is left unsaid, says Jane Howard We are failing as an audience. “I don’t think they’re getti […] ]]> 88c8628a5fe24c1da27c8712d63c2af1 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/all-right-almost-there/#comment-4682 Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:25:32 +1000 My prediction for the 2020s: the boundaries separating commercial, independent and subsidised theatre will fade away, evaporate and dissolve.

In reply to - Robert Reid wrote a new post The final episode of Robert Reid’s first series of Witness Histories brings us up to the present day This final episode in Robert Reid’s first series of Witness Performance Histories […] ]]> 01538560af8583cfd5eb2efd1b571727 Matthew Peckham posted an update: I saw Lazarus last night, having read Alison Croggon's […] https://witnessperformance.com/activity/p/891/ Sun, 26 May 2019 03:42:36 +1000 I saw Lazarus last night, having read Alison Croggon’s review in the Saturday Paper (May 25 -31, 2019) under the headline, ‘Space Oddity’. I arrived at the Arts Centre with very low expectations, mostly the result of reading that
[Anna] Cordingley’s design bisects the stage with a scrim that doubles as an abstract hotel window. Sometimes we can s…[Read more]

]]> 0 c4a49e06dacdd4366d83d25ab6f56aa1 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-rush-trial-a-backgrounder/#comment-2751 Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:52:13 +1000 And another thing: a rule of noli me tangere onstage or in the rehearsal room would be the death-knell of some of our best-beloved theatre. Intimacy, violence, treason, murder & rape, like every crime, have been enacted onstage for centuries. Enacting them with care, understanding and safety, without threat or exploitation – that must be a goal of…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘The trial has prompted a deep anger within the theatre community. Its reverberations will echo for a long time’: Alison Croggon looks at the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial and its […] ]]> fc1317cb202992d249670148dfb7ccf2 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-rush-trial-a-backgrounder/#comment-2750 Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:41:11 +1000 Some of us, many, I hope, are determined that it must not happen again. I will never again be silent while my theatre is not a safe place.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘The trial has prompted a deep anger within the theatre community. Its reverberations will echo for a long time’: Alison Croggon looks at the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial and its […] ]]> 09270910f8384a39a485e0311a384da3 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-rush-trial-a-backgrounder/#comment-2653 Sat, 13 Apr 2019 09:53:02 +1000 First, a disclosure of interest: I have been employed at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne for many years and my previous employer was the Sydney Theatre Company. I have professional acquaintance with many of the people involved in the case, and am aware of certain facts that are not generally known. Now that a verdict has been delivered, I can…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘The trial has prompted a deep anger within the theatre community. Its reverberations will echo for a long time’: Alison Croggon looks at the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial and its […] ]]> afc2a28f8aeb2f44f5b69c7dead73ec3 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/rage-humiliation-and-opportunity-metoo-in-the-performing-arts/#comment-1398 Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:25:52 +1100 This is, by a long way, the most reasoned and reasonable commentary I have yet seen on this terribly loaded topic. As an industry, we cannot risk letting it lie here; we must continue Dan & Catherine’s discussion until we arrive at the answers, plural. We must:
1. Protect the vulnerable. This must mean teaching people to think about their…[Read more]

In reply to - Dan Spielman wrote a new post ‘We should be thinking, not about how these processes inhibit our expression, but how they might liberate it’: actor Dan Spielman explores the implications of #MeToo in the performing […] ]]> 047dc3f026aff6ddb0a9cc0490d7d362 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/perth-festival-ned-kelly/#comment-1294 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 01:26:02 +1100 For years, many of us have dreamt, argued, speculated and written about the “Great Australian Drama/Musical/Opera”. For some reason, iconic history is looked-to for the source, and Ned Kelly, Eureka and Gallipoli pop up again. So unnecessary, and such bad stories for the stage.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post A stale retelling: Alison Croggon on Lost & Found’s Perth Festival opera, Ned Kelly There’s something going on in the zeitgeist. Why these recent recountings of the Ned Kelly st […] ]]> 8d068d2a215392ec4ff2773f0641cb61 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/this-is-real-this-is-us/#comment-1253 Sat, 16 Feb 2019 10:11:15 +1100 Barbara and the Camp Dogs, wow. A joy to see two so-complete performers so thoroughly plugged in to each other’s notes and rhythms.

In reply to - Carissa Lee wrote a new post ‘It’s only February, and I think I’ve already seen the show of the year’: Carissa Lee on the scorching music theatre work Barbara and the Camp Dogs It’s only February, and I think […] ]]> 7e826e7542514e9a65318b4fd8e73bd0 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-rush-trial-a-backgrounder/#comment-769 Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:04:05 +1100 Two great Australian talents have been sacrificed to sell newspapers. Guilt and innocence are no longer the issue, if they ever were. It’s no more thancelebrity-salaciousness, and the paper’s insistence on a ‘truth’ defence has made the case into an adversarial contest betwen Norvill and Rush, which it should never have been. All of us in the…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘The trial has prompted a deep anger within the theatre community. Its reverberations will echo for a long time’: Alison Croggon looks at the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial and its […] ]]> 9281e7da4c3473d7233471ae733248da Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/the-rush-trial-a-backgrounder/#comment-729 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 07:31:24 +1100 As ever, Alison, your writing is the very voice of reason and your balance as precise as a jeweller’s scale. I have been reluctant to comment on this matter for many reasons, but will just say this: can we resist the pressure pushing us to take sides?
What Rush is alleged to have done is inappropriate and unwelcome. Those are the words in the…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘The trial has prompted a deep anger within the theatre community. Its reverberations will echo for a long time’: Alison Croggon looks at the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial and its […] ]]> a0be2b5d29e9bcd5f9eee97ad06282a9 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/ich-nibber-dibber/#comment-528 Wed, 19 Sep 2018 11:58:28 +1000 Thanks (typing very deliberately) Keith Gow. What I enjoyed most, after the laughter, was the feeling of fermentation going on in my brain afterwards. I really think a profound theatrical experience is not fully realised without a tram journey to finish it off. Trams may be one reason why Melbourne is Australia’s cultural capital. Tramsylvania.

In reply to - Keith Gow wrote a new post ‘These actors’ walls are down, although admittedly the walls in their stories are usually low.’ Keith Gow reviews post’s Ich Nibber Dibber One might simplify this by saying: men act […] ]]> a04a2cf5d413b5aee19eab245b50174b Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/ich-nibber-dibber/#comment-525 Tue, 18 Sep 2018 13:04:14 +1000 GOW – it’s bloody auto-corrected me twice.

In reply to - Keith Gow wrote a new post ‘These actors’ walls are down, although admittedly the walls in their stories are usually low.’ Keith Gow reviews post’s Ich Nibber Dibber One might simplify this by saying: men act […] ]]> e373cf65545e2eab2be7e74a8884d471 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/ich-nibber-dibber/#comment-524 Tue, 18 Sep 2018 13:02:33 +1000 Sorry about the typo. Keith Goy seems, of course

In reply to - Keith Gow wrote a new post ‘These actors’ walls are down, although admittedly the walls in their stories are usually low.’ Keith Gow reviews post’s Ich Nibber Dibber One might simplify this by saying: men act […] ]]> b0621e351bdb1f059e5519b0912b17c1 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/ich-nibber-dibber/#comment-523 Tue, 18 Sep 2018 13:00:49 +1000 Keith Got seem to have been impressed, but doesn’t really say whether he liked the show. It’s quite brilliant. Three intensely entertaining women riffle-shuffle through a playlist made up of a lifetime of conversations, chats, stories, arguments. Three characters, each utterly unlike the others, spinning a web of their commonplaces. It’s fiercely…[Read more]

In reply to - Keith Gow wrote a new post ‘These actors’ walls are down, although admittedly the walls in their stories are usually low.’ Keith Gow reviews post’s Ich Nibber Dibber One might simplify this by saying: men act […] ]]> f770b983e5fdac76be428b0fe3946591 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/blasted/#comment-512 Sun, 16 Sep 2018 12:17:08 +1000 OK. It’s a week since I saw Blasted, and I think I am now sufficiently recovered to make sentient comment. First I must explain something – some months ago my neck was injured in an accident. I have two displaced cervical discs, and somehow I seem unwittingly to have trained my neck-muscles to respond to any semblance of stress with an agonising…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘Riveting, real and unreal, like a nightmare’: Alison Croggon on Anne-Louise Sarks’ crystalline production of Sarah Kane’s Blasted CW: Discussion of trauma and violence, esp […] ]]> a9daad1ef27564ad350bfcae5cdb1968 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/blasted/#comment-493 Fri, 31 Aug 2018 07:36:34 +1000 Wow. I’m going.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post ‘Riveting, real and unreal, like a nightmare’: Alison Croggon on Anne-Louise Sarks’ crystalline production of Sarah Kane’s Blasted CW: Discussion of trauma and violence, esp […] ]]> f08fbdec5a5523b9e8088149059f65c8 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/idealwildecaesar/#comment-482 Wed, 22 Aug 2018 12:11:21 +1000 Last Saturday we saw Colin Friels in Scaramouche Jones. I’ll start by saying I adored every moment. I saw the original, with Pete Postlethwaite, and fifteen years on, comparisons are hardly plausible. I remember enough to know that the two were very different; Friels seems to range further with his voice, mimicking many accents and intonations;…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Australian main stages are finally catching up with multiracial casting. It’s about time. Alison Croggon on An Ideal Husband and Julius Caesar Last week saw the opening of two […] ]]> 8f57fdb34df55c6e057fad8e3ddf0bcb Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/idealwildecaesar/#comment-462 Thu, 02 Aug 2018 10:43:09 +1000 We saw MTC’s Ideal Husband last night and it seemed to me that Wilde’s plays are a bit like a gardening suit that used to be Sunday-best. The script still sparkles like chandeliers and champagne, but in amongst the crystal bubbles the cast find little opportunity to express any meaningful passion – it can all seem such a sham. Zinzi Okenyo’s Lady…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Australian main stages are finally catching up with multiracial casting. It’s about time. Alison Croggon on An Ideal Husband and Julius Caesar Last week saw the opening of two […] ]]> 4ebeccc655dadfce693c749bd3d1811a Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/gloria-the-tyranny-of-form/#comment-412 Sat, 30 Jun 2018 14:40:13 +1000 My background takes me to the theatre with a very different perspective, but I arrived at conclusions almost identical. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has set a monstrous challenge by constructing a play with lots and lots of words, culminating in (but, outwardly, not leading to) a devastatingly shocking act one dénouement, followed by lots and lots more…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post “Gloria is television theatre, for a television generation.” Alison Croggon reviews Gloria, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play at the Melbourne Theatre Company I usually do my reading […] ]]> 51060a207655ef58f31bf5bb3e4f2929 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/abigails-party-all-bling-no-bang/#comment-297 Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:58:39 +1000 Food for thought. I don’t type fluently enough to carry this on. Perhaps one day we’ll meet and talk.
One thing I shoild have mentioned: we saw Abigail’s Party on Saturday. Your review is pitch-perfect. The play is good, the cast were right, but seemed man-handled. Anna’s set? I think it didn’t quite work.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon reviews the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party I don’t usually read programs before a show, as I prefer to keep myself in the […] ]]> 2294473e0094fe80cb7ad8c8a55d4f22 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/abigails-party-all-bling-no-bang/#comment-296 Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:51:10 +1000 Food for thought. I don’t type fluently enough to carry this on. Perhaps one day we’ll meet and talk.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon reviews the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party I don’t usually read programs before a show, as I prefer to keep myself in the […] ]]> 8c44e8613837a73d1dd48516ab7bd59f Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/abigails-party-all-bling-no-bang/#comment-294 Wed, 04 Apr 2018 02:15:57 +1000 Dear Alison, I was attempting metaphor.
The thing is, a theatre only presenting Art for Art’s sake will:
A. Starve or
B. Turn on its Artistic Director or
C. Both.
Perhaps the wolf-pack must turn to husbandry, feeding, guarding, taming (perhaps caging) its flock to keep it fat.
No, wait – that’s what Disney does.

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon reviews the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party I don’t usually read programs before a show, as I prefer to keep myself in the […] ]]> cec3d9da2bea653cdfefaf948553e8e8 Matthew Peckham posted a new activity comment https://witnessperformance.com/abigails-party-all-bling-no-bang/#comment-292 Tue, 03 Apr 2018 22:12:00 +1000 A theatre company, if it will survive, is a wolf-pack. It roams a vast range, feeding on tbe audience-herds that graze there. Its favourites are the old and infirm, or the weakest and youngest, and it depends upon the cunning of the pack-leader to guide it to them. Sometimes, perhaps once in a season, it will trap the herd in a luscious pasture,…[Read more]

In reply to - Alison Croggon wrote a new post Alison Croggon reviews the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party I don’t usually read programs before a show, as I prefer to keep myself in the […] ]]>