Keith Gow, Writer

June has been an incredible month for theatre in Melbourne. Even though my theatre-going month started with MTC’s The Waiting Room , which was inept on most levels – it’s hard to know where to place the most blame, with MTC’s Neon season in full swing and the premiere of three more mainstage works (two at MTC, one at Malthouse), the quality of work picked up considerably. I also saw a great show at La Mama and the Owl and Cat. But let’s begin with the cream of the crop – three shows that are still running through next weekend. Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information is given a stunning production at the Malthouse, with superb direction by Kip Williams, populated with stunning performances on a modular set (David Fleischer) with evocative lighting (Paul Jackson). The script is divided into seven sections. Within the seven sections there are seven scenes. The sections must be played in order but the scenes within the sections can be played in any order. This sounds

When it was announced that Bryan Fuller ( Dead Like Me , Wonderfalls , Pushing Daisies ) was making a TV series about Hannibal Lecter, I was skeptical . An ongoing narrative about the cannibal psychiatrist? It seemed like a concept that wouldn’t work. It seemed like another show that was using name recognition to sell it, rather than a compelling story. Thomas Harris’ first two novels that featured Hannibal Lecter, "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs", had both been turned into films – Manhunter in 1986 and Silence of the Lambs in 1991. Lambs won five Oscars and is still the only horror movie to win Best Picture. If, indeed, you think it fits neatly into the horror genre. (Also, Silence of the Lambs  is in my top five films of all time and it has influenced a lot of my writing - if only by learning that you can use genre tropes to tell compelling human stories.) But the books, and the adaptation of the books, had taken a turn for the worse. Harr

A monthly round-up of what I've seen, watched and listened to. SEE I took a trip to Sydney this month, plus a whole lot of new work opened in Melbourne - mainstage, independent and a combination of the two in MTC's third Neon season. Spotlight on...   Wizard of Oz  at Belvoir, directed by Adena Jacobs Adena Jacobs' work is often interested in the cinematic, while being transposed into the theatrical. Her production of Persona  was a revelation - somehow she was able to capture the essence of that film while making a memorable stage work. Her Wizard of Oz  is even more remarkable - it's bold, it's unforgettable and it's confronting and troubling. She knows you've seen the film a hundred times and this is the nightmarish version of that Oz that was once Dorothy's dream; now it's a nightmare about growing up - where brains, heart and courage can also put you on a path to doing terrible things. There are touchstones in there, characters we k