Little wonders: the small-cast plays putting theatre back on the stage
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By Peter Craven
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After a year of closed theatres around the world, Australia is leading the way in bringing performance back to the stage. The dramatic spotlight has focused on plays with small casts - one-, two- or three-handers - which have been instrumental in enabling companies to open their doors again, and which bring their own special rewards.
The artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, Brett Sheehy, says, “I have been as dazzled, challenged and transformed by a solo performance of Beckett in Melbourne as I have by 65 actors on stage at Theatre du Soleil in Paris.”
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This year marks 60 years since Holly Golightly stepped on to Fifth Avenue in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) in her iconic LBD with its pearl back. It’s a two-hour treat and I always pull my chair closer to the screen for a better view of Hubert de Givenchy’s costumes, especially those awesome funnel-neck coats.
I don’t even notice Grace Kelly’s voice anymore when watching
High Society (1956). All I see are those achingly gorgeous costumes designed by MGM’s Helen Rose, who went on to design Kelly’s wedding dress. Favourite fashion moments are when Kelly slips out of a Grecian robe to reveal a white halterneck bathing suit and, later, when she dances with Frank Sinatra in swirling layers of embellished grey and pink chiffon, a dress which now lives in the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co Kildare.
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