#59. (NY Times): Richard Roxborough & Cate Blanchett on Broadway

(A version of this article appears in print on January 29, 2017, on Page AR7 of the New York edition with the headline: How to Act Drunk).Sitting on a bar stool, the glass in front of him mostly drained, the actor Richard Roxburgh leaned in to make a point. It was early afternoon on a Tuesday, but the muscles in his jaw were slack, his blue eyes vague. He spoke with quiet urgency, his words faintly misshapen, and when he gestured for emphasis, he didn’t seem to notice that his hands were right in my face. The sober boundaries of social behavior had dissolved, abruptly, in an alcoholic haze. That was the idea, of course. Perched in the window of an espresso bar on West 47th Street, drinking nothing stronger than a cortado, Mr. Roxburgh, 55, was demonstrating a well-honed skill: playing drunk. “In terms of the study of alcohol and its effects, I probably have an unfair advantage in that I am, A, Australian, and, B, an actor,” he said, his eyes perfectly clear now, glinting with humor. “I’ve had probably an unhealthy overexposure to the shenanigans of booze over time.”

If so, he’s putting it to good use. Through March 19 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, he’s starring opposite Cate Blanchett in “The Present,” a Chekhov adaptation that floats along on a vodka tide, gradually snaring his character, Mikhail, in the undertow. (It does not help that Mikhail downs a whole bottle of the stuff in Act III.) Back home, on the Australian television series “Rake,” Mr. Roxburgh has spent several seasons playing a different sort of alcoholic, a lawyer determined even in middle age to keep the party going (see NY Times for the rest of the story)

(Richard Roxburgh and Cate Blanchett in “The Present” at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. This Chekhov adaptation floats along on an unrelenting tide of vodka).

#58. #AusDaySyd

#57. OMG

Renovation begins

#56. Pot of gold in Beach Rd?

Nature put on a terrific display down at Bondi this evening

#55. A good question, indeed

#54. Bluey's XIX

According to Lucy, it's 19 years since the first Bluey's. Fun as usual despite mixed weather and even though attendance figures down slightly on previous years