John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

February 10, 2019 / Album Reviews - Archive

CONFRONTATIONS (https://joeoconnor2.bandcamp.com) 7.5/10 If this music contained any more tension it would snap. Each note seems to be stretched dangerously taut, and the instruments do no so much cohere as collide. Melbourne pianist/composer Joe O’Connor invited the incendiary trumpeter Scott Tinkler to join his trio (with bassist Marty Holoubek and…

February 9, 2019 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Ensemble Theatre, January 25 6/10 David Williamson knows all about stage and screen, writers and actors, success and disappointment. His new play concerns two actors and a writer chasing the elusive big time: a snakes-and-ladders game of shattered dreams, backs for climbing on or stabbing, glints of inspiration and reward,…

February 7, 2019 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Belvoir St Theatre, January 24 8/10 You can’t do it passively. This is the blood and fury of war, the lies and greed of men and the fickleness of the gods made incarnate in the greatest epic poem ever written. Actor/director/adaptor William Zappa began work on the project seven years…