John Pollak did Arts and Law at Sydney uni. He practiced Law for a short while and went into business. He made too much money for his own good and today is not so much retired as having little to do. He plays tennis and carries the bags for his wife when she goes overseas. When prompted and badgered he does the occasional review.
He goes to Ethiopia every now and then and where, with Professor McGuigan of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, he is bringing the Sodis Program for safer water to the Tigray region.
When seen in public he is often hunched over a cup of coffee and a foccacio whilst immersed in a diabolical suduko. Or he is driving his wife to bridge.
We saw this play the other night.
Quite a bit of Sydney theatre is basically elegant pap. Or noisy chaotic pap presented as high drama. Or where actor and director are in an embrace of mutual congratulation and admiration, the …
The ambit of this play felt too wide and overly ambitious …
The scenario finds an old man dying and various relatives gather at his bed side to ostensibly pay their respects. In reality they have come to ensure that …
We saw this last night.
It was brilliant. I could barely remember when I enjoyed comedy as funny and as insightful as this, much of it apparently spontaneous and unlaboured and well paced.
Pacing of course is very important in …
THE SHAPESHIFTER is playing at The Factory at 105 Victoria st Marrickville.
The Factory itself is an amazing space. A punk psychedelic industrial minimalist space, harsh and bare yet practical and functional, situated just down the road from Newtown about …
I first heard Amy Whinehouse a few years ago at a Queen’s Jubilee Concert. This drugged out rag doll of a woman appeared and sang and I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
Fast forward to July 2015. …
Yes, he’s back. It is a more mollified humane Tom Cruise who once again fights the Syndicate and The Establishment. The Syndicate aims for a new world order by upsetting the status quo using acts of terrorism. The Establishment, like …
It is sometime in the future and to the alarm anathema and angst of the Labour Party Kevin Rudd has decided to return the scene of the crime. At a launch of his book he announces “I’m Kevin and I’m …
This is a comic play and it is excellent.
It is in two parts: one written by Brendan Cowell (Dog Part) and the other by Lally Katz (Cat Part)
They are both prominent in Australian theatre. Cowell lives in downtown …
In the heart of New York in famous Fifth Avenue is Die Neue Gallerie. It houses a portrait by Gustav Klimt of Adele Bloch Bauer a beautiful Austrian Jewess.
This movie is about how this, one of Austria’s most famous …
FURY ROAD, as everyone is aware, is part of the Mad Max /Kennedy Miller franchise.
Miller is a qualified medico from the tiny town of Chinchilla in Queensland. His original surname was Miliotis and his family were Greek post war …