Arts - news and reviews

RUCKUS tames Time
Keith Gallasch, Real Time, #133, June-July 2016
... Set against a background of the turbulent rush of history and juxtaposed with a sinuous time-defying Cambodian dancer, Speed of Life’s transition from fraught labour to artistic freedom and philosophical reflection was magical ...

Film Review: 'My Feral Heart' (UK)
Dennis Harvey, Variety, 1 June 2016
... very pleasing and credible tale of a man with Down Syndrome suddenly forced into a group care facility when his elderly mother dies ... Luke (Steven Brandon) is a sunny bloke roughly in his thirties who lives with his widowed mother (Eileen Pollock). Though she’s sometimes impatient and snappish, they have a good relationship, and at this point he’s gone from being cared for to being her sole caregiver, basically running the household by himself. Yet when she passes away in her sleep one night, the authorities ignore all evidence that Luke can (and does) live independently, claiming there’s no option but for him to move into a state-funded “home” some distance from his lifelong one ...

Trailer (via IMDB)



Actors with Down Syndrome take spotlight at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Vicki Ortiz Healy Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2016

Even their parents had serious doubts: How could a group of theater students with Down syndrome perform a play by Shakespeare — with its conflicted characters, surprising plot twists and quick-paced soliloquies?

But Katie Yohe, 31, a professionally trained actress who studied at the Globe Theatre in London and now directs a troupe of high school-age actors with Down syndrome, had seen it done. And she knew that with enthusiastic teachers, a supportive theater staff and energizing music, young people with Down syndrome could bring audiences to tears by performing the playwright's masterpieces. So she developed a script, scheduled auditions and alerted parents that her acting group would tackle Shakespeare classics. One mother pulled her daughter out of the troupe immediately ...

Restless at 25
Alan Brissenden, Adelaide Review,15 June 2016
A sigh of relief went through Restless Dance Theatre with the news that the company’s application for an Australia Council grant had been successful when so many others had lost out. The assurance of $1.2m over four years means plans for new works, invited choreographers and touring can now go ahead ...
Down Under review: bold parody strips down Cronulla riots to caricature
Sandra Hall, Sun-Herald, 14 August 2016
Don't expect any illuminating forensic insights to emerge from Abe Forsythe's film about the aftermath of the Cronulla riots. ... All up, it's a brave, boisterous attempt at capturing the mindlessness that powers mob fury ...

• Chris Bunton has a role in this movie (released 11 August 2016), and appears in the trailer accompanying the review - he has some good lines.