Keith Gow, Writer

Painting with Words & Fire  in Melbourne As you might have seen from my Favourite Theatre 2012 list , I saw lots of theatre in lots of different places this year. I also had multiple productions of my own work across four different cities: Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and a reading in New York City. First of all, I’d like to thank my collaborators in the Wooden Leg – our little theatre company, that’s still learning to make theatre but has plans for the future, so look out! Thank you, Wallis Murphy-Munn, Andrew Dodds and Hayley-Lawson Smith for challenging me, supporting me and giving of yourselves in the form of new works we will develop over the course of 2013. And in chronological order: Thank you David Attrill and Erin McMullen for their work on Like a House on Fire , as part of Short & Sweet Sydney 2012. Thank you – please don’t let me forget anyone – Renee Palmer, Christine Husband, Adrienne Sloan, Andre Stefan White, Ryan Hodge and the team at Revolt

This year, I saw shows in Adelaide, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. Here are my Top Ten, Runners-Up and Honourable Mentions. They are listed in alphabetical order . I didn’t want to torture myself by having to rank them. THE TOP TEN BOY GIRL WALL - The Escapists, Melbourne Theatre Company A smart, insightful, cleverly-written, engagingly-performed monologue about a Boy, a Girl and the Wall in between them. THE BOYS - Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney Sam Strong’s powerful production of the heavy-hitting Australian classic. A tour-de-force for everyone involved. INTO THE WOODS - Public Theatre, New York Any show, even one of Sondheim’s best, might not be able to live up to the expectation I had for wanting to see it in Central Park so badly I based my trip to New York around when it was playing. It exceeded expectations. ONCE - Broadway The perfect little movie is developed into a perfectly crafted immersive stage musical. A revelation. ON THE MIS