Theatre as life and death

"So now it is time to go back into the theatre, and it feels right because I've always been a great believer that one of the functions of theatre is to help us to discover how to live even in the face of death, and that all great storytelling helps to heal."

And so goes Lyn Gardner's beautiful account of what the theatre means to her. It's a stunning blog post that is one of the more touching and passionate entries I have read about this most amazing art form that I love similarly.
It would be refreshing if a bit more theatre criticism was a little more passionate and little more personal. Simply put, why do critics try and pretend to be objective when criticism is nothing more than subjective opinion?

Thankfully there is a bit of passion going around at the moment. Alison Croggon at Theatre Notes brought my attention to a bit of passion from Senator Kim Carr who has always impressed me - especially when he was the number one opposite to the then Arts Minister George Brandis.

His speech at last week's National Press Club address is a ripper and ends with this;

I believe the creative arts – and the humanities and the social sciences – make a terrible mistake when they claim support on the basis of their commercial value.

Whatever they may be worth in the marketplace, it is their intrinsic value we should treasure them for.

We should support these disciplines because they give us pleasure, knowledge, meaning, and inspiration.

No other pay-off is required.

I wonder what Carr would have said about Henson if he had been the Arts Minister?

And the passion continues with the announcement that my dear colleague James Waites has finally sorted out his relationship with the inconsistent Australian Stage Online and set up his own blog. Nothing like going out on your own. Good one James.

In fact, my dream is coming true and the Sydney Cultural Blogosphere is expanding, as one by one more people join the fold. Kevin Jackson, a teacher at NIDA has also recently started a review website which always proffers some interesting perspectives on shows around the city.

Another welcome arrival to the Sydney blog scene is the arrival of Esoteric Rabbit from Melbourne. Even though he is presently juggling the time pressures of his new and fabulous job opportunity at The Australian, I am told that the more important work of blogging will resume in the not too distant future.

And the theatre companies are really engaging with us, appreciating that we are providing a legitimate alternative to the mainstream media. In fact, after nearly two years of running this blog I am reliably informed that it is generating nearly the same amount of hits the arts web pages at the SMH receive. Which is frankly probably not that difficult.

But there is something afoot in Sydney and I am not sure what it is.

Just last night, I attended a cultural forum put on by Clover Moore's independent team who are running in this weekend's Local Government elections. John Wardle, who is on her ticket and is the man responsible for the brilliant Raise the Bar campaign gave a great introductory speech to the forum which was held in an 'illegal' place of public entertainment in Surry Hills.

Moore responded with an excellent and considered speech that appeared to be mostly ad-lib, showing that cultural policy is now at the forefront of the City of Sydney. (Read: we are sick of being jealous of Melbourne).

But the highlight of the night was a speech by local artist and arts organiser Jess Cook who had a fabulous ten minute rant about what the arts mean to her in Sydney. I am going to try and get the text of the speech because I wish I had recorded it and uploaded it onto here. Her message was clear - stop importing and start supporting. 

What a great attitude. Something is definitely happening here.