Latest news with #EnsembleTheatre
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This was the best Shakespeare I've seen in Sydney this century. And now it's back
Last year, one play rattled my bones like no other: Sport for Jove's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. My five-star review enthused that it had 'a truth, an energy and a ferocity to make the blood drain from your face', and a 'visceral, raw, compelling and moving' performance from Damien Ryan as Timon. Seldom performed, the play, here retitled I Hate People; Or Timon of Athens, tells of Timon being so profligately generous that he runs himself into bankruptcy, whereupon his 'friends' turn on him, so he renounces Athens and retreats to live in the 'natural' world in abject poverty. Now this production – the best Shakespeare I've seen in Sydney this century – returns. Director Margaret Thanos connected with Ryan, Sport for Jove's artistic director, when, having won the 2023 Sandra Bates Director's Award, she was the assistant director to Ryan on Ensemble Theatre's Mr Bailey's Minder. They found many convergences in their thinking, and Thanos mentioned her love of Timon, pitching her vision as 'Mount Olympus meets the Greek financial crisis', with a strong emphasis on ensemble movement. Ryan was hooked. Despite being the company's artistic director, he had to audition for the lead role. 'That was really important to both of us,' says Thanos, 'because I can say undeniably he was the best choice … His audition for this production is one of the best auditions I've ever had the privilege of witnessing in my life as a director – and I've seen hundreds of auditions in the past few years.' Ryan is also Sydney's finest and most experienced Shakespeare director, so he and Thanos arrived at an arrangement whereby in rehearsals he focused purely on his role, and only outside that room did he discuss the show's ideas with his artistic director's hat on. 'Timon is a story of an extremely wealthy man losing everything,' Thanos explains. 'It's almost a fable in its quality. The imagery of Timon stripping down to wearing nothing but little boxer shorts in that second half is extremely indicative of the destitution that he faces.' Indeed, it is as though Timon's naked soul is being mirrored in his naked body. 'We see,' she continues, 'this extravagant imagery at the beginning – the parties, the orgies, the luxury of it all – and then we move into total destitution… It's inherent in the text that he returns to this so-called natural world to reject mankind, which he perceives as un natural.' The on-site rehearsals before the show opened at Leura Everglades in January 2024 were rained out, so opening night was the first proper run.
The Age
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
This was the best Shakespeare I've seen in Sydney this century. And now it's back
Last year, one play rattled my bones like no other: Sport for Jove's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. My five-star review enthused that it had 'a truth, an energy and a ferocity to make the blood drain from your face', and a 'visceral, raw, compelling and moving' performance from Damien Ryan as Timon. Seldom performed, the play, here retitled I Hate People; Or Timon of Athens, tells of Timon being so profligately generous that he runs himself into bankruptcy, whereupon his 'friends' turn on him, so he renounces Athens and retreats to live in the 'natural' world in abject poverty. Now this production – the best Shakespeare I've seen in Sydney this century – returns. Director Margaret Thanos connected with Ryan, Sport for Jove's artistic director, when, having won the 2023 Sandra Bates Director's Award, she was the assistant director to Ryan on Ensemble Theatre's Mr Bailey's Minder. They found many convergences in their thinking, and Thanos mentioned her love of Timon, pitching her vision as 'Mount Olympus meets the Greek financial crisis', with a strong emphasis on ensemble movement. Ryan was hooked. Despite being the company's artistic director, he had to audition for the lead role. 'That was really important to both of us,' says Thanos, 'because I can say undeniably he was the best choice … His audition for this production is one of the best auditions I've ever had the privilege of witnessing in my life as a director – and I've seen hundreds of auditions in the past few years.' Ryan is also Sydney's finest and most experienced Shakespeare director, so he and Thanos arrived at an arrangement whereby in rehearsals he focused purely on his role, and only outside that room did he discuss the show's ideas with his artistic director's hat on. 'Timon is a story of an extremely wealthy man losing everything,' Thanos explains. 'It's almost a fable in its quality. The imagery of Timon stripping down to wearing nothing but little boxer shorts in that second half is extremely indicative of the destitution that he faces.' Indeed, it is as though Timon's naked soul is being mirrored in his naked body. 'We see,' she continues, 'this extravagant imagery at the beginning – the parties, the orgies, the luxury of it all – and then we move into total destitution… It's inherent in the text that he returns to this so-called natural world to reject mankind, which he perceives as un natural.' The on-site rehearsals before the show opened at Leura Everglades in January 2024 were rained out, so opening night was the first proper run.
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BGT star says 'I'm here to fight' as he has life-saving surgery before live show
EXCLUSIVE: Britain's Got Talent singer CJ Emmons has undergone life-saving surgery as he vows to still perform at this weekend's live show despite still being in pain Singer CJ Emmons has revealed he's recovering from life-saving surgery as he takes to the Britain's Got Talent on Saturday night. The musician underwent a major operation less than four weeks ago and says he's still in pain. But determined to win a place on the ITV show final, he plans to sing through his agony tonight. 'I won't let it stop me from my dream and goal,' vows CJ, as he recovers from gallbladder surgery. 'They cut into my abdominal wall and every time after that, it's been hurting to sing. But my doctor's like, 'keep singing, strengthen it, strengthen it, and it's going to get better.' So there's still a bit of pain. But I can tell it's getting stronger and stronger. 'I'm here to fight. I'm here to win.' CJ wowed with his first audition, performing Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. Simon Cowell called it a 'masterpiece'. Returning home to California to prepare for the semis, his dreams were thrown into doubt earlier this month. He took himself to hospital with severe abdominal pains on May 1. Collapsing at the nurse's station, he was rushed in for tests which found he needed emergency surgery as his life was in danger. 'My gallbladder was completely dead,' he explained. "It was turning gangrene and it was about to explode and turn sepsis, which would have proved fatal. 'They were going to do an emergency surgery that night, but I was so badly infected. They had to pump me full of antibiotics for two days and then I had the surgery on May 3.' Kept in the hospital for five days, he returned home to recover and was back on stage just a week later. 'I tell you, I'm determined,' he explained. 'It can't stop me. I'm ready to hit that stage. 'When I did my first gig on the 14th, that was literally a week after the surgery, I broke down crying because I was so thankful to God that I was able to sing a note. I was able to perform. I found strength in that.' Professional singer CJ, 42, says it gives him an extra edge ahead of tonight's performance. 'It does add an extra layer because in the back of my mind, when that doctor told me that if I wouldn't have checked myself into the hospital at the time that I did, if I would have waited one more day, it would have proved fatal. 'At that time, I've never felt so human in my life. So this lets me know that I'm supposed to be doing this.' Singing since he was two years old after his talent was discovered by a babysitter, he once attended a summer camp at Ensemble Theatre with Destiny's Child stars Beyoncé, Kelly Rowlands. Celebrating their success, CJ said: 'I was always in awe of the girls for having a team behind them to help them rise to success, I think that's what's held me back from having my big break out moment, I had to do everything by myself till now.' CJ has gone on to perform on the biggest stages. From the Oscars to the Grammys, where he was a backing singer for Mary J Blige and Sam Smith. He's been part of the band in America's Dancing With The Stars, where he knows Bruno Tonioli from. He says a lot of people hear his voice but they don't know who's singing but is using BGT as an opportunity to be firmly in the spotlight. 'I'm like Tina Turner, I will be reborn in my 40's.' He's hoping to impress judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno tonight - as well as returning guest judge KSI. Saturday's semi-final also sees eight-year-old dancer Binita, Welsh singing duo Han & Fran, magicians Manho Han and Harry Moulding, Manchester lad Jerry Pop, stunt group Lazy Generation and unicyclist Red Panda take to the stage. Britain's Got Talent will air on Saturday night at 7pm, ITV
The Age
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
The playwright who humanised hitmen decades before Pulp Fiction
Decades before Quentin Tarantino humanised hitmen by having them discuss burgers before a kill in Pulp Fiction, Harold Pinter had them in a basement flat talking tabloid news stories in his 1957 work The Dumb Waiter. Both Tarantino's 1994 movie Pulp Fiction and Pinter's 1957 play set the banal against the brutal, teasing out the humour amid a rising sense of foreboding. 'It's that banality of what's right in front of you, coupled with knowing what's behind it … It makes me … very, very tense, because, you know, it's almost like violence is always lurking,' observes Ensemble Theatre artistic director Mark Kilmurry. Kilmurry is directing The Dumb Waiter for a Pinter double-header with The Lover in a season beginning at Ensemble next month. The Dumb Waiter follows the idle conversation between two hitmen, Gus and Ben, who wait in a basement flat for their next job while a dumb waiter (a kind of lift) delivers puzzling food orders to the pair. Anthony Taufa plays one of the hitmen opposite Gareth Davies, who is on double duties performing The Lover with Nicole da Silva. 'It's killing time, killing people … it is also the idea of doing this so on the regular that this becomes just another day. This is just work, and this is the things that these two people have to do,' Taufa says. 'So I think it's like waiting on a set as well. You're always waiting to do something for like three minutes, then you leave again.'
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The playwright who humanised hitmen decades before Pulp Fiction
Decades before Quentin Tarantino humanised hitmen by having them discuss burgers before a kill in Pulp Fiction, Harold Pinter had them in a basement flat talking tabloid news stories in his 1957 work The Dumb Waiter. Both Tarantino's 1994 movie Pulp Fiction and Pinter's 1957 play set the banal against the brutal, teasing out the humour amid a rising sense of foreboding. 'It's that banality of what's right in front of you, coupled with knowing what's behind it … It makes me … very, very tense, because, you know, it's almost like violence is always lurking,' observes Ensemble Theatre artistic director Mark Kilmurry. Kilmurry is directing The Dumb Waiter for a Pinter double-header with The Lover in a season beginning at Ensemble next month. The Dumb Waiter follows the idle conversation between two hitmen, Gus and Ben, who wait in a basement flat for their next job while a dumb waiter (a kind of lift) delivers puzzling food orders to the pair. Anthony Taufa plays one of the hitmen opposite Gareth Davies, who is on double duties performing The Lover with Nicole da Silva. 'It's killing time, killing people … it is also the idea of doing this so on the regular that this becomes just another day. This is just work, and this is the things that these two people have to do,' Taufa says. 'So I think it's like waiting on a set as well. You're always waiting to do something for like three minutes, then you leave again.'
