Glen Street Theatre Season 2012

Glen Street Theatre at Belrose on Sydney’s North Shore has announced its 2012 season of drama, music, comedy and contemporary dance.

To mark the occasion of Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday, the 2012 season begins with the return of Miriam Margolyes in Dickens’ Women. Also returning is Bangarra Dance Theatre with of earth & sky plus the satirical comedy of The Wharf Revue.

Audiences will identify with the comedy in every day events and the goal of aiming for the life you really want to live in Every Single Saturday and Stop. Rewind. Then Biddies delivers a refreshing perspective on life, friendships and the glass ceiling. In the gripping drama The Flood old tensions surface when a family is isolated by rising water levels.

Darren Coggan performs a musical salute to the Anzacs in War Stories, through the perspective of his own family. In a first for Glen Street, the TaikOz drummers will present Shifting Sand in a powerful evocation of the ocean’s many faces.

The Music at the Glen series of matinee concerts returns in 2012 with a line up of talented performers in nine concerts.

The Productions

Dickens’ Women

Following sell-out performances in 2007, BAFTA®-award winning actress Miriam Margolyes returns to Australia for an encore national tour of her one-woman tour-de- force, Dickens’ Women. Bringing to life twenty-three of Charles Dickens’ most affecting and colourful female (and male!) characters, Margolyes presents her powerful, hilarious, and at times shocking exposé of Dickens, his writing, and the real-life women who were the influence for the characters in his novels. Don’t miss your chance to see this acclaimed actor in the role she was born to play.

3- 12 February

Every Single Saturday

A musical comedy about four parents whose only common ground is the football field where their kids play every single Saturday. Meet Neil, an aloof orchestra conductor, unaccustomed to the pressures of being a father to his estranged son; Sandy, a hard-driven working class fitness freak trying to avoid her struggles at home; Liz, a well- educated North Shore mum trying to rebuild her life as a single parent and the team’s coach, Carlo, an Italian soccer dad reliving his days as a former sports hero. Follow their sideline dramas as the junior team goes nowhere fast until Neil’s son, the talented Becks, arrives. Featuring more than a dozen original songs, dancing, plenty of laughs and a few tears, this new Australian musical comedy celebrates the pain and the passion - the oranges and the lemons - of being a parent on the sidelines. After all, that’s where the real action is!

15 - 26 February

of earth & sky

Commissioned by Bangarra’s Artistic Director, Stephen Page, of earth & sky features the work of celebrated choreographer Frances Rings and the talented Daniel Riley McKinley. Artefact by Frances Rings, is inspired by the dynamic between ‘man and object’. It honours Indigenous symbols of ancient and modern rituals that hold great spiritual meaning and connection to place. Riley by Daniel Riley McKinley, explores the cultural resilience of Indigenous Australians. It is a celebration of the life of Aboriginal photographer and film maker, the late Michael Riley, and his internationally acclaimed cloud photographs. At the heart of Bangarra’s work is the inimitable soundscape and musical creativity of David Page, one of Australia’s most successful Aboriginal contemporary composers.

28 March – 1 April

Biddies

Move over Codgers, here come the Biddies! Five ordinarily marvellous women find themselves back in their infants school classroom plying their knitting needles in a good old-fashioned session of “stitch and bitch”. Their confessions are frank, their rivalries intense and their jokes outrageous. They discover a common frustration with the limitations of being female and mature in a world still largely defined by men. Accidentally locked in the classroom, with nothing but ingenuity, Adora Cream Wafers and a bucket to get them through the crisis, unknown reserves come to the fore. Released from their own constraints, they rediscover their capacity to love, forgive - and take control. Men see their wives, adult children see their mothers, grandchildren see Nana, and the mature Australian woman sees herself. Vulnerable, feisty and in full bloom, these gals are everything ... except old!

11 – 22 April

War Stories – A Salute in Story and Song to the Anzac Spirit

Inspired by his own family history, performer Darren Coggan (Peace Train: the Cat Stevens Story) connects audiences to an iconic part of our heritage. Personal stories of Australians at war are woven into songs that provide an intimate perspective of the tales that have helped shape Australia. War Stories takes you on an insightful journey into the lives of the Australians behind the lines, also reminiscing about the generation of women who stayed at home and kept the country running.

1 -2 May

Shifting Sand

Shifting Sand is a new work inspired by the beach and the ocean. From the delicate play of light on the surface of the sea to the raging fury of winter storms, TaikOz’s thunderous taiko drumming and dynamic movement seeks to capture the beauty, majesty and force of the ocean. ‘Taiko’ is the Japanese word for ‘drum’ and TaikOz is Australia’s leading taiko drumming group. A TaikOz performance is more than just the beating of drums: it incorporates a complete world of drumming, song and dance that harks back to ancient Buddhist and Shinto rituals. It is a reflection of contemporary musical life, irrespective of nationality.

17 – 26 May

Stop. Rewind

How well do you know the person at the next desk? Stop. Rewind is a comedy that begs the question: is it too late to live the life you’ve always wanted? As a disparate group of co-workers at a departmental office struggle to hold onto their dreams, glimpse the series of compromises that has led each to their place in this eclectic community. Life continues at its painfully familiar pace until a catastrophic event in the department forces everyone to examine their own lives, what they want, and what they are really prepared to sacrifice to get it.

3 – 14 July

The Flood

The sheep farm is now dilapidated. The farm house, once magnificent, sits dark and squalid by the river, sheltering a mad old lady and her isolated, hard-drinking daughter. The memories are seeping through the floorboards and as the sun sets, the flood waters rise. In the wind and rain, the screen door bangs open and Catherine appears: she has returned home from London. A mother is now trapped in the house with her two estranged daughters; one who takes care of her, one who has been away for twenty years. The friction between the bereft sisters explodes during a sleepless and alcohol-fuelled night as memories of their dead father surface. 

4 – 15 September

The Wharf Revue

A Sydney institution for over a decade, Sydney Theatre Company’s The Wharf Revue returns to Glen St Theatre. Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott will again deliver their unique blend of sketches and music.

9 – 20 October

www.glenstreet.com.au

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