Happy New Happy Old

tis the season for season wraps. Mine is very selective. Lot's of travelling and surprisingly little theatre-going. For Melbourne, my picks can be expressed by a "Fantasy Theatre" wish: to see Anita Hegh (The Yellow Wallpaper) playing Lady Macbeth opposite Peter Houghton (For Samuel Beckett) as Macbeth. That idea is now public property, somebody grab it! My other Oz highlight was Minmi and Me, a work for children at the Melbourne Museum:

This show really got me thinking about good theatre and the relationship between good theatre and working for children: the way that an audience of 10 year olds really clarifies some of the basics. Minmi and Me packed in the sophistication of some beautiful shadow theatre and puppeteering, with equally stunning low-tech effects thanks to Michael Camilleri's "live-drawing". Bernard Caleo, who is known around town for his raconteuring gifts, pared back some of his florid excesses and kept his audience (young and old) educated, amused and on tenterhooks (while operating his own sound) for the whole show. Simply brilliant.

My "Blimey he's good" award would go to Brett Adam for his exquisite handling of Ross Mueller's Construction of the Human Heart and my "who the **** is that?" discovery award goes to Tom Wright for his hypnotic performance in Osama The Hero at The Old Fitz.

My London highlight was a production of Joyce's Exiles directed by James Macdonald at The National. For only the second time in my life, I was enraptured by Naturalism (the first was Zadek's Cherry Orchard in '96) When executed with care, it really is a magical form.

Finish Tango by Nina Wehnert and Eva Burghardt (pictured top), was an exceptional dance-theatre piece that premiered in Berlin and will be seen often this year.

Other features of 2006:

favourite inter-cultural moment: being screamed at by a triumphant Italian, after I had barracked for the French in the World Cup final, in a pub in Bermondsey.

favourite musical discovery: Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum

favourite "books never prepared me for the heart-stopping grandeur of it all" moment: Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

favourite 2nd-hand bookshop find: 1st Edition copy of The Root Letters.

favourite gift received: Arrested Development, Season 1

favourite footy-speak: "...there's no doubt that I'll be trying to exit him out rather than exit him in". (G. Thomas, about R. Harvey)

and to end, my favourite lyric of 2006:

what do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
and how does a man like me remain in the light?
and if life is really as short as they say, why are the nights so long?

(thanks M.Ward) and Merry New year to you all.