TWTWTW #1

That Was The Week That Was

Over at Behind The Critical Curtain, the Margaret Pomeranz of The Theatre World continues to find himself dodging hate comments about his unceremonious slam of the Melbourne Festival’s Sight Unseen. But the winning comment of them all is Chris Boyd's “ … Prolier Than Thou faux-homeless in St Kilda" to the same, but different, event. Very post-traumatic.

The David Stratton of The Theatre World has been threatening to abandon her blog Theatrenotes for what seems like centuries now; and it would appear that this constant threat has finally become a reality. Ms TN is taking time off from her blog (for which, in case you didn’t know, she doesn’t get paid – unlike the rest of the world’s bloggers I suppose) to work on her art (for which she does get paid). It will, however, be fascinating to read Joanna Murray-Smith’s and David Williamson’s reviews of Ms Croggon’s theatre – reviews bound to be specially commissioned by The Australian, who will be desperately looking for content people actually want to read now that the pape has disappeared behind a paywall.

Also on the subject of things you can do without when you actually have to pay for them, The Sydney Festival has launched its program for 2012 and, rather alarmingly, suggested that there might have been something wrong with the score that was actually recorded for the soundtrack of Robert Wise’s West Side Story. Just in case you were wondering, there isn’t – and this could be described as a random act of cultural vandalism. If we cared enough about silly old Sydney to give it a second thought.

The Spoleto, sorry, Melbourne Festival Board, are killing time flipping calendar pages and wondering whether Ms Provan and her Melbourne International Comedy Festival luvvies will burn the Arts Centre to the ground if, as anticipated, the Melb Fest shoves its big, fat. over-produced arse into February/March as it is expected to do in 2013.

And while we’re on the subject of over-producing, Arts Victoria luvvies got off with slightly less printer cartridge toner on their hands than many had been anticipating this week, when someone found them not guilty of any improper dealings with the toner company who sold them enough toner to keep ten small independent theatre companies producing the complete works of William Shakespeare in repertory with entire casts on Award wages until the end of the world.

Which – on the odd occasion – just can’t come soon enough.