Ben Apfelbaum

SIX @ SYDNEY THEATRE ROYAL

Sharon Millerchip

Louise Withers co-producer of SIX said that this production was the perfect antidote to the Covid blues with joyous music that will have you toe tapping as you leave the theatre.

Ironically this funky rock and roll, upbeat music is in stark contrast to the subject matter of the ghastly destinies of five out of the six of Henry V111’s wives.

Those wives were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr. Supported by the Six band ‘Ladies In Waiting’ the women transform from tragic Tudor Queens to pop princesses.

In order to achieve this the performers must be triple threats. They are Phoenix Jackson Mendoza, Kala Gare, Loren Hunter, Kiana Daniele, Chelsea Dawson and  Vidya Makan.

Originally playing in the Studio at the Sydney Opera House to performing at the Theatre Royal with triple the audience together with a huge, cavernous space, the production had to make enhancements because of its space. They included enhanced lighting and sound.

This current production is directed by Sharon Millerchip and must flee the Sydney Theatre Royal by October 1 as “the Mousetrap’ is coming shortly afterwards.

Featured image : The cast of Six. All photos by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.