Sydney is a fun city for a weekend. Beyond that I can make no informed comment about the place. Here are the funnest of the funs from the weekend in the ‘arbour city with my traveling partner Sean #3 (I knew two Seans before him).
I.
Gatz
What an amazing piece of theatre/experience-that-wasn’t-really-like-theatre-at-all. You’ve never been so emotionally invested in a show like you are if you sit through those final ten minutes/few pages of Gatz/The Great Gatsby having been there for the preceding 7 hours. There’s a nice recent review of Gatz from the SMH here. That’s Sean #3 above checking out the bald head of Gatz himself.
II.
Me finding a copy of Ursula Dubosarsky‘s out-of-print Bruno and the Crumhorn in that mega-stock book shop Kinokuniya.
III.
Me buying Tintin figurines for only $13 each from said Kinokuniya store. How could I not for that price? I was just going to get Haddock but I thought I’d be a lot funnier if he could be staring down an oblivious Castafiore.
IV.
The Sydney Writers’ Festival was pretty nice too – in particular the panel that discussed the question ‘Are some teenage novels too ‘hard’/literary for teenagers’. Obviously, they’re not, der, was the conclusion Margo Lanagan, Mal Peet and M.T. Anderson all came to. I’m about half-way through M.T. Anderson’s first Octavian Nothing novel The Pox Party and it really is as good as everyone keeps saying. Hard and literary and appropriate reading for teens too.
V.
T’was wet’n’windy. As Sean #3 demonstrated.
Did you sit through the entire 7 hours of Gatz? It sounds like an incredible piece of theatre. I am very envious. Of your staying power as much as anything.
Yep, all the way through. If they come to Melbourne you must do it. It doesn’t feel like seven hours although by the end I was pretty drained.