Biblioscript

Books * Theatre * Screen
Concise notes and reviews
Curated by Diane Stubbings

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Another gem from director Bert LaBonté. Striking production of a noteworthy play. https://t.co/Ms1mfaWFdG

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

The Glass Menagerie
@MelbTheatreCo
Barely six-months ago Mark Wilson imposed on Melbourne audiences his ill-judged reading of Shakespeare’s 'Much Ado About Nothing' (MTC 2025). He has now been let loose on Tennessee William’s delicate memory play 'The Glass Menagerie', only to come up with a production that is, in many respects, even more coarse and overblown. By pushing Alyson White’s performance as Amanda Wingfield into caricature, and making Tim Draxl’s Tom more overtly gay than William’s text suggests, Wilson undermines the play’s central tension and destroys the poetic sensibility that gives the play its ethereal realism. Designer Kat Chan’s dour and muddy realisation of the Wingfield apartment might have been perfect, had it been allowed to inhabit just a little more of the MTC’s main stage, rather than being reduced to absurdly tight proportions. The only scene of the play that really works – and largely because the overplayed characters of Tom and Amanda are absent – is that between the crippled Laura and her gentleman caller. But even then, the disproportionate darkness that overwhelms the scene blinds the audience to any of the more subtle emotions the actors (Mille Donaldson and Harry McGee) might be conveying and, critically, neuters the play’s central metaphor. (Image: Pia Johnson)

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Julius Caesar
@BellShakespeare
★★★
Compelling performances from Leon Ford (Cassius) and Brigid Zengeni (Brutus) anchor an otherwise temperate 'Julius Caesar' from Bell Shakespeare. Despite an ensemble that for the most part seems comfortable with Shakespeare's language (not always guaranteed in an Australian production) Peter Evan's direction tends to flatten the play's inherent drama. Septimus Caton's Caesar makes you wonder why he wasn't assassinated years ago.

[Brian Brushwood @shwood]

Today is the first day, in all of human history, that a woman has viewed the totality of Earth at once.

[UNITED24 @U24_gov_ua]

You know that you are a human.
To mark World Poetry Day, Sir Stephen Fry recited a beautiful poem by famous Ukrainian poet and journalist, Vasyl Symonenko.

Thank you, Stephen, for promoting our culture. You are a gentleman and a scholar, as well as a true friend of Ukraine💙💛

[Natural Philosophy @Naturalphilosy]

“Practice any art… no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.”

- McKellen reciting Vonnegut

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

The Bride
Maggie Gyllenhaal / @thebridefilm
★★★★
Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The Bride' is a fierce gothic mash-up of Mary Shelley, 1930s gangster movies and Mel Brook's 'Young Frankenstein'. Featuring irresistible performances from Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale as the lovers, 'The Bride' unsettles the boundaries not just between life and death, human and monster, but also between fantasy and reality. Sure, not everything works, but a lot can be forgiven when ambition and vision are this big.

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Anemone
@FocusFeatures / Ronan Day-Lewis
★ ★ ★ ★
From its opening scene of wind sweeping through trees and grasses, there is in ‘Anemone’, the debut feature from Ronan Day-Lewis, a tantalising mysticism, one that suggests this story of two estranged brothers (Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean), is both of this world and beyond it. If Day-Lewis is reaching for something mythical that he doesn’t quite seize, it in no way undermines the quiet power of the story he tells. The landscape – physical and metaphorical – within which the drama plays out is its own character, anchoring the film as firmly as its two mesmerising central performances.

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

To be fair, Beckett never wanted 'Dream of Fair to Middling Women' to be published

[Aaron Gwyn @AmericanGwyn]

Worst Books By Our Greatest Writers:

1. The Orchard Keeper, Cormac McCarthy
2. Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner
3. Across the River and into the Trees, Ernest Hemingway
4. V., Thomas Pynchon
5. Pierre, Herman Melville
6. Dream of Fair to Middling Women, Samuel Beckett

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

West Gate - @MelbTheatreCo
★★★★☆
The thirty-five workers killed in the 1970 West Gate bridge collapse could not have hoped for a better memorial than Dennis McIntosh’s West Gate. Beautifully written and powerfully acted by the entire ensemble, the production hardly puts a foot wrong. Adeptly balancing comedy and tragedy, and underpinned by an astute sound and stage design – and an incredible coup de theatre – West Gate is unmissable. This is exactly the type of work our state theatre companies should be developing – plays where the story itself is the star and where the pivotal moments of our history are kept vividly alive.

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

First review of the New Year. Chloe Zhao's glorious adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's 'Hamnet' - https://t.co/aryDchIh5n

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

How about a photo of the person taking the photo of the person taking the photo?

[History Nerd @_HistoryNerd]

Remember That Photo Of The Construction Workers Having Lunch On The Unfinished Empire State Building? Well Here’s The Photographer Charles Ebbets Taking That Photo. 9/20/1932

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

This is going to turn up in Karl Ove Knausgaard's next novel (if Jon Fosse doesn't get to it first).

[Channel 4 News @Channel4News]

A Norwegian man who was asleep in is home on the edge of a fjord had a lucky escape when a huge cargo ship ran aground a few metres from his house.

Johan Helberg was eventually woken up by a neighbour insistently ringing on his doorbell to alert him to the fact that the 135-metre-long vessel had embedded itself in nearby rocks.

Local police from near Trondheim are trying to establish why the it ran aground but said there was no suspicion that drugs or alcohol were involved.

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Kudos to Uncle Mark Brown for maintaining his dignity in the face of ignorance and hostility at this morning's #ANZAC Dawn Service in Melbourne. That takes a lot more courage than to stand in the darkness and 'boo'.

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

@daraobriain What men like to do when they're not testiculating (thanks Susie Dent for that word)

[Australian Book Review @AustBookReview]

'Failure to adhere to the underlying parameters of science when discussing Covid has allowed assorted fictions and conspiracies to run rampant.'

Diane Stubbings reviews 'The Best Australian Science Writing 2024' edited by Jackson Ryan and Carl Smith

https://t.co/LFcTZMc2u7

[Australian Book Review @AustBookReview]

Read ABR's annual Arts Highlights, as nominated by twenty-one cultural and critical powerhouses, including @goldsworthyanna, Andrew Ford, @ds271828, Christopher Allen, @jordanprosser, @tbyrne74, Andrew Fuhrmann, Julie Ewington, @tregear and more!

https://t.co/knx26Ol1q3

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Can the art not be allowed to stand on its own rather than being hijacked by a self-promoter? @NGVMelbourne

[StreetArtGlobe ™ 😱 @streetartglobe]

Illusion or reality? 🌺✨

Julia Fox dreams of infinity in Yayoi Kusama’s Flower Obsession at @NGVMelbourne.

Stylist: @brianaandalore 
Garment design: @wackie.ju
Directed by @ngvmelbourne and @streetartglobe

[Biblioscript @ds271828]

Difficult to understand why Vicky Krieps work in 'The Dead Don't Hurt' isn't part of the conversation this awards season. It's a subdued performance that nevertheless pulses with love and strength and resilience. She pretty much carries what is a very good film. @PercevalPics