Ears ahoy! ‘ere’s a trio of Mysterious Universe tracks tracked down in the forest, over the mountains and under the ground, and cast into the Bandcamp arena (with druids!). The songs Paradise, Keep Me Guessing and Some Other Way, original compositions all, have all had their tours of duty in the Mysterious Universe live set.
March 20, 2024
Tree Oh!
Posted by David Levell under Music, Mysterious Universe | Tags: Bandcamp, Music, Mysterious Universe, Tree Oh! |Leave a Comment
March 21, 2023
Haunted Summer
Posted by David Levell under Four Shadows, Ghost Hunting, ghosts, Plays, Uncategorized | Tags: Four Shadows, Ghost Hunting, Ghost Plays, theatre |Leave a Comment
Four sold-out shows over two days in January’s haunted summer: I’m glad to report that Four Shadows was a great success, with all four one-act plays on the program (Ghost Hunting; Sweet Dreams Baby; Underground; If The Moon) going down a treat.
To lay the Ghost of Stage-Plays Past to rest, here are some pictures from Ghost Hunting. Some were taken by our official photographer Kylie Blakemore during the final performance; others I snapped during dress rehearsal.
The four cast members all did a sterling job of turning a community hall into a haunted house.
Myriam Besso played Adelaide Swift, President of the Ladies’ Ghost Society of New South Wales. Daisy Levell enacted Adelaide’s junior ghost huntress, Beatrice Starling. Josephine Pennicott was Clarissa Peacock, clairvoyant of ‘no society whatsoever’, and Olive Blakemore brought the mysterious Harriet Hawke to life.
I wrote and directed, and our superlative sound and lighting chap – so crucial for the overall effect – was Mike Hamilton.
Ian Batty’s ingenuity with essential props was vital.
Furthermore, three cheers for the Four Shadows Productions organising committee of Brian Twomey (guru), Paulina Kelly (artistic director), Nettie Sladden and Ian Batty (production/stage managers), and David Hobbs (font of wisdom), without whom etc, etc, etc…. Grateful thanks too, to Christine Watts for her magnificently mood-setting gothic foyer diorama (plus catering!) and Alan Cory for riding shotgun front-of-house.
Thanks too, to the audiences who came along for the show. I enjoyed talking to the people who approached me afterwards, especially those young children who confirmed that our ghost was indeed scary. Now that was particularly gratifying to hear!
July 30, 2022
Giving up the ghost
Posted by David Levell under Blackheath Theatre, Ghost Hunting, ghosts, Out Of The Blue, Plays | Tags: blackheath, Blackheath Theatre Company, blue mountains, Ghost Hunting |Leave a Comment
This weekend, my one-act play Ghost Hunting was going live on stage in the Blue Mountains, NSW, part of the Blackheath Theatre Company’s Out Of The Blue show of four one-act plays.
Over five performances, a community hall was to have become, for one enchanted half hour, a haunted house for the entertainment of audiences. We were delighted to be sharing the stage with three other magic spaces of wonder created by the talents of three other local writers.
Sadly, it was not to be.
Ten days before our premiere, the Blackheath Theatre Company informed us that the entire season of Out Of The Blue was off, claiming the July 2022 weekend in question posed too great a Covid risk.
They became, in all likelihood, the only performing arts company in Australia to pull shows this weekend citing Covid risk.
Meanwhile, other local cultural events are enjoying full houses.
I deeply apologise to all theatre-goers affected. The decision was made without any consultation with cast or crew. Many affected found the validity of the excuse (never made public, I believe) very difficult to accept, or believe. Rats were smelt.
The loss of Out of the Blue came as a major blow for the actors, crews and volunteers who put heart and soul into it over a very long time (we were postponed three times before due to lockdowns, against which I had no objection).
The trust it may well have fractured could potentially damage live theatre generally in the Blue Mountains community. If so, I sincerely hope that full trust can be recovered. A thriving live theatre scene is something I’m sure we all want to see.
Author photo: Kylie Blakemore (copyright). From left: Iain Fraser, writer-director, Underground; Brian Twomey, writer, Sweet Dreams, Baby; David Levell, writer-director, Ghost Hunting (three of the four Out Of The Blue playwrights).
November 21, 2021
December’s Reader’s Digest has surfaced early, its cover story my account of the amazing recent discovery of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest orca aggregation, as told by its discoverer, wildlife filmmaker Dave Riggs.
Orcas or killer whales were thought of as occasional, rarely seen visitors to Australian coastal waters. The idea they were hiding in plain sight in the midst of a busy shipping lane seemed too outrageous to be true.
Dave’s story is a cracking good one, a real mystery of the sea, with plenty of twists and turns – check it out!
November 20, 2021
Ruthless and reckless
Posted by David Levell under Uncategorized | Tags: Australian history, bushrangers, True crime |Leave a Comment
TODAY IN BUSHRANGING: November 20, 1863. The ashes have settled at Goimbla station, the home of David and Amelia Campbell near Eugowra, central western NSW. Policemen and passers-by converge on the farm to see the corpse of John O’Meally, shot through the neck the night before while attacking Goimbla with his partners-in-crime Ben Hall and John Gilbert. The lawless trio bombarded the house with gunfire and set fire to the barn, burning horse to death and destroying over a thousand pounds of property. It was pure luck no-one was murdered. O’Meally, called ‘as ruthless and reckless a criminal as ever infested the territory’, had been on the rampage all year with Hall and Gilbert. All year they had been among Australia’s most wanted men. All this and more in my upcoming (I hope!) book.
Bushrangers Attacking Goimbla Station by P.W. Marony (1894)
July 28, 2021
TODAY IN BUSHRANGING: July 28, 1862. Police chief Frederick Pottinger brings five prisoners into Forbes on the western NSW goldfields. He arrested them the day before on suspicion of Australia’s biggest ever armed holdup, the ambush of the gold escort coach at Eugowra Rocks. Three are guilty – Ben Hall and Dan Charters as participants, and John Maguire as an accessory – but none will be convicted, and for three very different reasons.
Pottinger had been tirelessly hunting the escort robbers for over a month. Earlier in July he was escorting two other suspects along a bush road when his police party was ambushed by others in the gang, who rescued their accomplices after a very one-sided gunfight.
The controversial and flamboyant Pottinger was the most famous policeman of his day. Strangely, these days he’s best known for something he did not do – inspire the proverbial ‘Blind Freddy’. It was never his nickname and the misconception dates only to the late 20th century.
All this and more in my upcoming book.
Painting of Eugowra Rocks holdup by P.W. Morony, 1894.