'I think therefore I am.'  Descartes            'I AM THAT I AM.'  Exodus.3.        'I am what I am.'  La Cage aux Folles

30 August 2014

Les Illuminations, The Effect, The Actors Workshop, Caligula, Sex With Strangers, Keep Everything, Gloria

A collection of shows with some amazing friends performing.
Les Illuminations
Saturday 14th June  2014 Concert Hall QPAC
Beautiful concert by the Qld Symphony Orchestra and mesmerising dancing by the Sydney Dance Company with my favourite Thomas Alfred Bradley and absolutely sublime and ethereal singing by Katie Noonan to the music of Benjamin Britten.


The Effect
Thursday 26th June  2014 
QTC Bille Brown Studio
Love: the most revered of human emotions, or simply a side effect? Psychology student Connie signs up for a clinical trial of a new, super anti-depressant where she meets charming, cocky, cheeky fellow volunteer Tristan.  Sealed off together, with no contact with the outside world, it’s not long before their attraction becomes fully-fledged flirtation. Soon, the naturally occurring chemicals running rampant through their youthful bodies ignite clandestine canoodling. This threatens to throw the drug trial off track – much to the annoyance of the supervising clinicians, who have secrets of their own to keep.
Cast : Anna McGahan, Angie Milliken, Eugene Gilfedder, Mark Leonard Winter 

The Actors Workshop
Friday 27th June 2014

First and Second Year Advanced Diploma Students performing scenes from Ray Lawler's 'Kid Stakes', David Williamson's 'The Removalist', Andrew Bovell's 'After Dinner' and  Bertolt Brecht's 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'

Caligula
Friday 4th July & Thursday 10th July 2014 - 
Judith Wright Centre 
The Danger Ensemble

Director/Designer Steven Mitchell Wright
Associate Directors Chris Beckey and Stephen Quinn
Performers and Co-devisors: Chris Beckey, Gabriel Comerford, Nerida Matthaei, Stephen Quinn and Lucinda Shaw
Designers Benjamin Hughes and Nathalie Ryner
Just a tiny extract from one review :- 'Gabriel Comerford utterly steals the show with a performance that seems more like a cross-species possession, and can be interpreted in so many ways. It began with what looked like gratuitous nudity (behold the mankini!). Cringe swiftly turned to horror as Matthaei begins to carve up Comerfords body with red pen. All the while, the dulcet voice of Shaw guides us on the “art” of skinning a beast as if she is guiding us through a mindful mediation. Comerford’s performance is devastating and unsettling and the true shock of the night – the image is still with me and will be for some time.'
 I enjoyed this so much as I do all performances by the Danger Ensemble, so I went twice.

Sex With Strangers
Saturday 19th July 2014 at the Powerhouse

The show stars Brisbane’s own Thomas Larkin as Ethan, a sex blogger who falls in lust with Veronica Neave’s Olivia, a gifted and complicated novelist. When the pair meet at a writer’s retreat, romance and the digital age collide, as the pair confronts the dark side of ambition and the near-impossibility of reinventing oneself when the past is just a click away.
 I saw this play twice as it had a return season and I went again on 17th February 2015. It starred two very dear people I know, Thomas Larkin and Veronica Neave. Quite sensational chemistry on stage.
Getting a hug from Thomas and I have had a lot of them over recent times. Nothing nicer.


Chunky Moves 'Keep Everything'
Thursday 31st July 2014 
The Powerhouse
Creative Team:
Director & Choreograper:
Antony Hamilton
Lighting Design:
Benjamin Cisterne
Sound Design:
Julian Hamilton & Kim Moyes
AV Design:
Robin Fox
System Design & Operation:
Nick Roux
Costume Design Consultant:
Paula Levis

Performers:
Benjamin Hancock (a beautiful friend), Lauren Langlois, Alisdair Macindoe
Keep Everything is a scrapbook for the stage – a collection of things that don’t fit. Via a series of divergent offerings, it presents a glimpse into the human psyche, which ultimately offers a broader understanding of the individual. It champions the absurd and sometimes vulgar nature of the spontaneous, by understanding that sometimes, it’s important to keep everything.

Gloria
Thursday 7th August 2014 
QTC Bille Brown Studio
Sensational new play set in Brisbane.
Gloria Clare has led an extraordinary life. With a searing intellect and boundless talent, she ran from small-town Australia to Europe in her reckless youth, became a diva and found love. She’s been chanteuse and composer, rebel and romantic. But these things are dim and distant for her. In her fifties and having recently suffered a stroke, Gloria’s memories are slipping away. 

Now, Gloria uses the language of her heart to remember things – she sings. Music is the sextant by which she navigates her stormy memory. Singing helps her recall the painful episode in her past when, as a young unmarried mother in ’70s Australia, she was shamed, cowed and harassed into giving up her child for adoption.

Before Gloria’s mind deserts her completely, she has one mission: reconnect with Ned, the boy she lost so long ago, get to know his family, and make some kind of amends. But as you’d expect from such a strong-willed, independent woman, she’s going to do it her way, by her rules.
 Writer: Elaine Acworth
Director: David Bell
Designer: Bill Haycock
Composer/Sound Designer: Andrew McNaughton
Dramaturg: Louise Gough
Lighting Designer: David Walters
Cast Includes: Christen O'Leary, Naomi Price, Steven Rooke, Kevin Spink, Elijah Wellsmore

31 July 2014

Theatre Theatre Theatre

The King and I
Opera Australia - Wednesday 7th May at The Lyric Theatre QPAC
Teddy Tahu Rhodes stared in this and it is a production originally painted by my friend Geoffrey Smith which was shipped off to Broadway and won a Tony award for best production many years ago.
It was great to see it was cast from Asian Australians



An update as of September 2015 is that in the cast was a singer who has just become a sensation after he moved to London to appear on the X Factor TV show.
From the King and I programme 
On X Factor

A Tribute of Sorts
Friday 16th May QTC Bille Brown Studio
Starring friends Dash Kruck and Emily Burton

Australian String Quartet
Speechless- 
Schubert, Berg, Mozart Requiem.
Wednesday 21st May Qld Conservatorium Theatre

Boadicea
Tuesday 27th May La Boite 

The Magic Hour
With Ursula Yovich Friday 30th May QTC Bille Brown Studio
Ursula Yovich a wonderful and dear friend in a sensational one woman tour de Force show.

05 June 2014

Music, Drama, Dance and Olympics

Some late updates of Theatre etc this year.
Guys and Dolls
Harvest Rain Theatre Company at The Concert Hall QPAC Thursday 20th March
 This was my first production by Harvest Rain and they have become so big over recent times. It was a thoroughly wonderful evening. Like a time capsule of the 50s musical as they were true to the original spirit. I doubt it could be done any other way. Some great voices and dancers.
 The chorus of exceptionally good male dancers/singers was impressive and a surprise. They were also very, very attractive.
 Costumes were a stand out in those vibrant colours. 
A great friend and outstanding actor with a very famous beginning Steven Tandy bought tears to my eyes with this beautiful solo.
Photos by http://nickmorrissey.com.au/ 
Matthew Mitcham
Wednesday 2nd April at The Powerhouse
We met, he signed my book and then he did a Q&A. It was so great to have a small chat to this darling man as he is good friends with another friend of mine who is a musician and actor. A Gold Medalist from the Beijing Olympic games and the only Out Gay Athlete at the Games. A charming guy and obviously so beautiful. Hope to see him later in the year when he brings his cabaret show to town after the Commonwealth Games.
Matthew received the highest score in Olympic history for his 10 M Dive in 2008.
Macbeth
Qld Theatre Company at The Playhouse QPAC Thursday 10th April
With visiting great director Michael Attenborough at the helm and the largest cast ever assembled for The Qld. Theatre company this awesome production got underway with a crashing lightning storm electrifying this giant set to the sound of giant rhythmic drums.
The battles and sword fights were choreographed my experts the blood really spurted and the acting was phenomenal.
Never have I sat through a Shakespeare with such easy understanding. One was hardly aware of the period of the language and the precise and sparkling diction revealed the clarity of every word. Such ease of  precision and rhythm lifted the beauty of the performance of this most poetic of the plays.
After the show in front of some of the season posters.
Dance Noir
Saturday 3rd May at The Judith Wtight Centre
It has been a year since I became aware of a beautiful local young dancer Kenny Johnson. I became friends over the internet and at long last I got to see him perform live. On Television he reduced everyone to tears with the depth of his soul which positively glows when he dances.
The photographic art of  http://www.alichoudhry.com/ 




Brian Lucas
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