when: 8pm Friday November 11, 2011
where: Belvoir Street Theatre
produced by: Belvoir Street Theatre
rating: 4.5 (out of 5)
celebrity watch: Richard Roxburgh was present in the audience.
Belvoir Street Theatre's production of Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll is one of the best seen at the venue in the last three years. Considering the consistently high quality of plays staged over that period this is no mean feat. Former long time artistic director of the Belvoir, Neil Armfield, returned to Surry Hills to direct a play considered the most significant in Australian theatre history.
A plot summary is available on Wikipedia.
Susie Porter's performance is breathtaking, especially in the final scene when the audience is left with no doubt as to the torrent of emotions Olive is feeling, even when the character is not speaking. Steve La Marquand was impressive also, projecting the tough character of Roo successfully without slipping into to an "ocker" caricature. As usual Helen Thomson injected good humour into the character of Pearl, the outside observer.
But really the entire cast, full of familiar names such as Robyn Nevin, Yael Stone and Dan Wyllie, was excellent in its execution of a provocative Australian play.
The three hours (with two intervals) simply flew by as we were swept into an unconventional life in 1950s Australia. Ray Lawler's classic is still absorbing after half a century, and isn't timelessness the common trait in all great theatre?
where: Belvoir Street Theatre
produced by: Belvoir Street Theatre
rating: 4.5 (out of 5)
celebrity watch: Richard Roxburgh was present in the audience.
Belvoir Street Theatre's production of Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll is one of the best seen at the venue in the last three years. Considering the consistently high quality of plays staged over that period this is no mean feat. Former long time artistic director of the Belvoir, Neil Armfield, returned to Surry Hills to direct a play considered the most significant in Australian theatre history.
A plot summary is available on Wikipedia.
Susie Porter's performance is breathtaking, especially in the final scene when the audience is left with no doubt as to the torrent of emotions Olive is feeling, even when the character is not speaking. Steve La Marquand was impressive also, projecting the tough character of Roo successfully without slipping into to an "ocker" caricature. As usual Helen Thomson injected good humour into the character of Pearl, the outside observer.
But really the entire cast, full of familiar names such as Robyn Nevin, Yael Stone and Dan Wyllie, was excellent in its execution of a provocative Australian play.
The three hours (with two intervals) simply flew by as we were swept into an unconventional life in 1950s Australia. Ray Lawler's classic is still absorbing after half a century, and isn't timelessness the common trait in all great theatre?
