Politics was so much more interesting in the 1960’s and 1970’s because it was deep and complex. Communism, like a powerful opposition, offered genuine and radical solutions to the problems of the post-industrial age. When you fought over red wine and Camembert, beer and snags or rice and beans with your neighbor, the arguments outweighed […]
August
12
Friday – Daniela Giorgi and the tragic giggle that is politics in a democracy. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
August
12
May We Be Forgiven – A.M. Homes and the post modern ‘after’. (book review)
posted by lisathatcher
In a rather broad brush stroke of a statement, one of the problems I have with books written by women is the reluctance to expand into universal themes, or send their novel to the far corners of the universe in its scope. I say this is a broad brush stroke of a statement, because it’s […]
August
11
Equus – Peter Shaffer 40 years on. (theatre review – Sydney Fringe Festival)
posted by lisathatcher
In 1973 at the National Theatre in London, Peter Shaffer’s Equus opened, ready to shock audiences for the first time. It’s first season ran for two years, winning a Drama Desk Award for outstanding foreign play, a Tony for best play, a Tony for best actress, and the New York Drama Critics circle award for […]
August
11
The Light Box – Natalia Savvides and James Dalton balance us on the thin line between the real and the unreal. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
A complex relationship exists between the real and the imagined that has been the fascination of artists and philosophers since humans began to organize thinking. This relationship is complicated primarily because of the difference between the two, the intensity of the two and the difficulty to discern which is which. It is this idea, through […]
August
08
Now You See Me – Louis Leterrier and the magic of magic. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Do sleight of hand and cinema actually mix? This is the central question for Louis Leterrier, who has made a film that he describes as ‘an ode to magic.’ Using existing magic tricks and making them ‘super big’ or introducing new magic tricks, Leterrier does manage to capture the glamour of large scale modern magic […]
July
28
Dangerous Corner – Peter Lavelle brings JB Priestly into the future. (Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The key to J.B. Priestly’s Dangerous Corner lies not in its narrative or its very interesting and convoluted plot, but in the opening and closing scenes of the play. Time here is crucial to the plots development; Priestly made a series of ‘time plays’ and Dangerous Corner is one of them. However, time is also […]
July
24
Top Girls – Alice Livingstone and Caryl Churchill and the real dilemma facing modern women. (Theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
The question of women “having it all” was never terribly relevant to 1960’s feminism, which was asking the far more radical question of how do women use their new voice to DE-centralize power and DE-stabilize hero-objectivism? Given how shocking this idea is, it is no surprise women were “tossed the bone” of equality in the […]
July
21
The Twelfth Dawn – Time, Pain and insomnia from the 505 Theatre founders. (Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One of the most devastating moments in the Iliad is Priam’s distress at the death of his son, Hector. Between the moment of death and the eventual burial Priam lives in a kind of tormented hell that was so deep and troubled, it aroused the sympathies of the gods. The abuse of Hector’s body was […]
July
21
Destricted – The place where art and pornography connect. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Please note – many of the You Tube excerpts I have added here are sexually graphic. Please don’t watch this material if you suspect this might bother you. According to Jean-Luc Godard the primary role of popular films and almost all television, is to see our “story” reinforced. No where is this more obvious than […]
July
16
Behind the Candelabra – Steven Soderbergh and the ‘appropriate gay’. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
The fear behind colonization and appropriation is the most destructive force on the planet today – and probably has always been. The desire to claim something for oneself, and negate any other interpretation is a force so pervasive we usually do not know that we have adopted it as our own. I’m going to assume […]
Lisa Thatcher 