Theatre

Jakop Ahlbom’s Horror – An Interview with Performer Silke Hundertmark

Emma Batchelor Leave a Comment

  Staying up all night watching scary movies and gorging yourself on enough junk food to make you vomit is a right of passage for most young people. It certainly was for Jakop Ahlbom , Dutch auteur and lover of the horror genre. In his hugely successful work Horror, Ahlbom brings together his signature mix of theatre, dance, mime and music to create an immersive experience that will leave you terrified. Featuring special effects rarely seen outside of film, the play follows a woman who returns to her childhood home where, in a series of flashbacks, she is haunted by… Continue Reading →

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Love, Shakespeare and Theatre: An Interview with Ray Chong Nee

Emma Batchelor 1 Comment

  Let’s do a little exercise together shall we? Close your eyes, take a deep breath and clear your mind. Now think of a famous couple. Just go with the first thing that pops into your head. Now open your eyes and keep reading.   I’m guessing you probably thought of Kim and Kanye. Or Beyonce and Jay Z. Or perhaps, like Leiden’s copy editor Jesse Petrie whom I just made participate in this exercise, you might even have thought of Bert and Ernie. But let’s take it back a little further in history. Back to the beginnings of the… Continue Reading →

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A Chat with Sarah Morrison – Musicals, ABBA and Mamma Mia

Emma Batchelor Leave a Comment

  I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I am not a fan of musicals. All that sing-talking makes me want to puke into my favourite Miu Miu cat clutch. And yet, despite my propensity to vomit at the mere hint of a sentence that screams to be spoken rather than sung, I actively go and see a lot of musicals. And if they are more of a play interspersed with the occasional song, I confess to rather enjoying myself. The latest musical to come my way is the West End and Broadway smash Mamma Mia, a… Continue Reading →

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Playhouse Creatures On The Way to Monaco

Emma Batchelor Leave a Comment

  When you buy tickets to see a play, more often than not, you will be seeing a lot more men on stage than women. It’s the same on the screen. Too often the way women are portrayed in culture is a supporting character. Of course, this isn’t always the case (remember how Bridesmaids helped change the perception that films starring all women couldn’t be commercially successful?) but we still have a long way to go before we see women portrayed in our media as they truly are: complex, strong and unique. A Canberra based theatre company is striving to… Continue Reading →

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A Bloody Adaptation – Adele Querol on Dracula

Emma Batchelor Leave a Comment

  There is no denying that vampires have been the fantasy creature de jour for some time now. We have Twilight to thank for that, plus the slew of other vampire related programming that followed. But where did our fascination with these pale-faced, sharp-toothed beings begin? Now, vampires have been around a long time, but it wasn’t until 1897 when Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula brought them to life in their modern context. This gothic thriller unleashed the now iconic characters of Count Dracula and Abraham Van Helsing on the public. Since it was first published, the novel has inspired many… Continue Reading →

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The Art of Costume

Team Leiden 1 Comment

Clothing can be used almost like a costume, allowing us to slip in and out of different characters with the change of an outfit. Canberra born and Melbourne based, contemporary dance artist Chloe Chignell’s star is on the rise. She has recently received a Keir Choreographic Award, performed in Atlanta Eke’s ‘Miss Universal’ at Chunky Move and is set to perform in James Batchelor’s new work ‘Faces’. With her chameleonic appearance and versatility as a performer, we couldn’t think of anyone more perfect to explore the role of clothes in creating a character.              … Continue Reading →

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