Sometimes we all need a break and for the first time in a long time I avoided the theatre for a month.
Already there are shows I wish I'd seen and I didn't make 100 reviews for the year, but there's 2011 to reach that goal.
So before 2011 reminds us how we're all a year older, thank you to everyone who reads Sometimes Melbourne. Google Analytics shows me that there are a lot of you and I'm thrilled every time you drop by or chat to me in real life.
Sure reviewers certainly don't always agree with each other, and their readers are rarely shy to express their own disagreement, but even when we see the same shows, we all see something different. That's the joy of art. If it were objective and clinical, it wouldn't touch our hearts and we would never care enough to spend such chunks of our lives creating it, sharing it and indulging in as much of it as we can.
Outstanding Artists 2010
WRITING
Raimondo Cortese for Intimacy
and
Declan Greene for Moth
with bonus points, to be shared with Ash Flanders, for Little Mercy and ... Gingo.
DESIGN
Anna Cordingley (set and costumes) and Paul Jackson (lighting) for Sappho... in 9 Fragments
PERFORMANCE
Hannah Norris for My Name is Rachel Corrie
and
Phil Zachariah for Charles Dickens performs A Christmas Carol
I'm sorry that I didn't write a review for this bloody gorgeous show. After years of taking it to country towns and suburban town halls (with a visit to the Carlton Courthouse and the Famous Speigeltent), Phil Zachiriah and director James Adler made it to the centre of Melbourne and the gold-leaf splendour of The Athenaeum theatre. And this tiny show had standing ovations and teary-eyed cheers each night of its short run. Not only does it remind us what a master storyteller Dickens was (really, if you're a writer and anyone has ever mentioned that you need to think about your story... read this bloke), but it lets Phil be Charles Dickens – the role he was born to play. Dickens staged readings of his stories and, as he's no longer around, he's passed the spirit to Phil. From Scrooge to Tiny Tim, Phil inhabits every character with the kind of love that makes them as real as our own mad families at Christmas time and it's the kind of holiday tradition that transcends faith-based celebrations to sit as one of the great stories of love and redemption that should be an end-of-year tradition for everyone.
Outstanding Productions 2010
CABARET
CABARET
Kunst Rock: Die Roten Punkte – Button Eye Productions and Full Tilt
and
Carnival of Mysteries – Finucane & Smith
Special mention
Miles O'Neil's World Around Us
COMMERCIAL
Boston Marriage – MTC
CIRCUS
Dos or Duo – Stuart Christie and Kane Petersen
MUSICAL
[title of show] – Magnormos
Special mention
Another Opening, Another Show – Manilla Street Productions
and I really enjoyed Mary Poppins
DANCE
[title of show] – Magnormos
Special mention
Another Opening, Another Show – Manilla Street Productions
and I really enjoyed Mary Poppins
DANCE
Special mention
Best of the Best
Bare Witness – La Mama and fortyfivedownstairs
and
That Face – Red Stitch Actors Theatre
and
Intimacy – Ranters Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne International Arts Festival
Special mention
