OCR |
 | [...]0 HMS PINAFO 0 YEOMAN OF THE GUARD THE ZOO o COX AND BOX 0 T L BY JURYMarketed in Australasia[...] |
 | [...]ywrights which includes THE BEST AUSTRALIAN PLAYS and SEWELL, NOWRA DICKINSINTERNATIONAL/ UK/[...] |
 | [...](02) 357 1200 VIC: Suzanne Spunner (03) 387 2651 QLD: Jeremy Ridgman (07) 377 2519 WA: Margaret Schwan[...]for the Arts, the Western Australian Arts Council and the assistance of the University of Newcastle.MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts and editorial correspondence should be forwarded to t[...]1200. Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts and visual material supplied for this magazine, the publishers and their agents accept no liability for loss or damage which may occur. Unsolicited manuscripts and visual material will not be returned unless accom[...]within Australia. Cheques should be made payable and posted to Theatre Publications Ltd. 1st Floor, 153 Dowling Street. Potts Point NSW 2011. For institutional and overseas subscription rates see back page. Theat[...]otts Point NSW 20] 1. Distributed by subscription and through theatre foyersetc by Theatre Publications Ltd. and to newsagents throughout Australia by Allan Rodne[...]Whitlam largesse, was to develop fledgling talent and provide each year a new crop of writers that the[...]e Boom has suffered an insidious seeping away — and the Con- ference become a place for known writers[...]Blunde1l’s 1981 fortnight was flakked for this and George Whaley’s present one, with names like Sandy McCutcheon, Michael Freundt, Craige Cronin, Bob Herbert and Len Radic, will not escape similar criticism. Wh[...]mply because they cannot get a hearing elsewhere. And it pays off. Alma de Groen’s (and she’s no greenhorn talent) Vacations from last year’s Conference was taken up by the MTC and is to be made into a film. The theatre companies[...]y it is the stalwart few whose works are produced and increasingly the local segment of the season is b[...]ed to second venues. History proves that funding and 11'1- digenous growth go hand in hand; The Doll w[...]n 1954; the last new wave of iconoclastic writers and directors coincided with the establishment of the then named Australian Council for the Arts in 1968 and had its heyday in the Whitlam years 1972-5. “I[...]y it is that genuine creative talent will prosper and works of true value emerge.” Gough Whitlam. Even with the phyrric victory after the Stage Crisis Day and accolades to the new Council supremo Tim Pascoe,[...]asy to lose faith in times of financial stricture and return to “overseas is best” — or at least[...]ness we’re over that with regard to our actors and directors). Many directors believe they “prove[...]C has a policy of presenting the best of national and international writing for theatre of every period. Its current percentage of Australian plays is between 20 and 30% in the major house seasons and 100% in the alternative wing — QTC Tangent Productions. As our audiences grow and more good Australian plays become available this[...]uld be seen here; it’s a question of proportion and of indigenous development. Of course it is diffic[...]he hands of artistic directors. If they evade it, and the decline continues, they do a great disservice to our heritage, our cultural identity and our future. In the meantime many of our t[...] |
 | [...]that positive, optimistic note that makes public and business alike feel they’re onto a good thing, backing a winner and all that. New Moon Theatre in North Queensland claim to be dragging in the crowds in Townsville, Rockhampton and Cairns by selling themselves as the hottest shows[...]of particular interest. Anderson created the mime and mask show after training at the le Coq School and first presented it in[...]QTC’s 1981 Tangent season. In a highly personal andand indeed where most theatres’ programs are increa[...]rvey’s Buena Vista, Gordon Dryland’s Seadrzft and writer-in-residence Barry Dickins’ A Couple of[...]the more experimental Peter Handke, David Mammet and Jilly Fraser. And in St Martins is a small classics season — Brittanicus and Long Day ’s journey. . .WOMEN AND ARTS FESTIVAL The Women and Arts Festival to take place in October this year,[...]ers Week, music concerts community perfor- mances and other theatre, mural painting, pageants, day-long entertainments in Hyde Park and at the Opera House, lunch hour performances, songs and dance, exhibi- tions, playwrights festival. . . the list goes on and on. And not everything will be happening in Sydney - the[...]AP funding in 1976, Theatre Board funding in 1980 and two months ago Shopfront CYSS was axed by the Fe[...]ubsidies went to Theatre ACT’s On Our Selection and the Marionette Theatre to bring in General MacArthur and Smiles Away. A great innovation was the import of street theatre troupes for the Patriotic Show and the Wine and Food Frolic — outdoor, day-long, conglomerate events with performers appearing at add times and in odd places. METCALFE AT THE NATIONAL Edgar M[...]ar M etcalf cation along with those of top actor and fine director, for the head of WA’s state comp[...]ing things running smoothly with guest directors, and negotia- tions for the right Artistic Director co[...]re — the new home for the Drama Studio, Sydney, and a new full—time classical dance school, Attitud[...]e building is owned by the Electricity Commission and has been promised to the SCTC group as soo[...] |
 | [...]orcing the two schools into a desperate situation and the closure of the interim Dance Course. Elcom’[...]ile the space remains empty collecting more water and no rent.SUCCESSFUL CELEBRITY NIGHT Lilian and Ken Horler shone on the dance floor of Paddo Town Hall; Katharine Brisbane and Dibbs Mather managed a nifty foxtrot; others were[...]porarily from speech- making (see his column p 8) and even Geraldine Turner and John 0’May had difficulty making their songs heard. Amidst the candlelight, flowers, cham- pagne and balloons, people were too intent on enjoying them[...]yesteryear — ex-ANPC Director, Richard Wherret and Aubrey Mellor, to name but two. Those that did at[...]n, to Judith Cobb, who turned 21 only in February and has come to the company straight from finishi[...]be at MTC were so impressed with ]udith’s work and her potential, the recently formed MTC Society’[...]least with them. PERFORMANCE SPACE Mike Mullins and his committee of the Performance Space, having b[...]ning for professional theatre including 5,. radio and television - En trance by A udition. ENQUIRIES:[...]83 Sydney City Theatre Centre Courses in Acting and Dance. Casual classes and workshops. Rehearsal space available. The Drama[...]des Dance 3 Year full time training for Classical Ballet. Childrens classes from Beginners to Intermediate. Adult classes from Beginners on. For information and Prospectus on all activities of the S.C.T.[...] |
 | [...]b for the theatre profession with cheap good food and wine will eventually be a goer.LIGHTS UP AT LIG[...]ut one that naturally grew out of his other plays and his fascination with how important love is to us all and the fear of loneliness. “Spellbound is a play[...]ach other, of how unconsciously cruel they can be and of how desperate they can be for SPECIALISTS IN[...]involvement in show production anyone between 12 and 25 can take the opportunity to learn the craft in[...]wick — The Musical, directed by Helmut Bakaitis and Slive of the Service by young writer Bill Marshal[...]. This original play with music tells of the life and times of Evelyn Owen, inventor of the Owen[...] |
 | [...]l funding from $268,000 to $134,000 (February TA) and affecting to be cockahoop about an extra $80,000[...]more or less exactly what the Council’s Theatre and Music Boards them- selves are doing.Projects cu[...]include financial involvement in the Queensland Ballet’s tour of Can- berra, Albury, Melbourne and Geelong; Sydney seasons for Circus Oz and the revue, Squirts; the Marionette Theatre’s pr[...]st money on the visits by Piccolo Teatro di Milan and Pina Bausch’s Wuppertal Dance Theatre, as it qu[...]er 1982 activities — the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Barnum and Sesame Street Live. It is striving, so far witho[...]orporate sponsors or through social activities by and for its members. To me, this seems both humiliating and shameful. To more positive matters, I hear entre[...]early next year American actress Estelle Parsons and the one-woman show she staged at this year’s Pe[...]a recent product-buying flying visit to New York and London, Artistic Director Peter Williams and Execut- ive Producer Garry Penny secured the auth[...]for 1982, even giving the opening date as July 31 and Barnum — the Trust ’s hopefor recoupi[...]ing dissatisfaction with the second act. Williams and Penny had to do some very persuasive talking to g[...]Australian musicals — St. Ma1y’s Kid in 1977 and Paradise Regained in 1980 —- is launching another this month, Safety In Numbers, by Phillip Scott and Luke Hardy. The cast of four is Mariette Rups, t[...]phy in Evita; Robyn Arthur, who was also in Evita and recently in Busking With Brel at the Nimro[...] |
 | [...]This the speech I spent three days writing and finally didn’t give for reasons of cowardice and acoustics and the scarlet face of Grame Blundell whose ten good[...]I am brought before you gormless and futile by wills stronger than my own, in my very first unrented tuxedo (waste, all criminal waste) and tastefully clashing brown suede shoes, as befits a tame eccentric in the company of the rich, and Amosan on my shrivelled gums, and Grecian 2000 on my pubic hairs and hope in my heart, in this last gasp of my fortiet[...]. . limbo, that some young person, lithe of limb and sweet of glance, from Brisbane perhaps, or furthe[...]righted by the great Guy Doleman V since 1949: “And you must play the Maori princess” and still believe I yet have influence in a cocaine-fuelled and accountant-fardled film industry that has passed[...]uloid Masada, giving blissfully in to the Romans, and coming down off the Rock alive, ashamed and rich, saying Rome is the future, a wave we cannot resist, its values must be our values and its gods our gods, there is no Israel. . . and the temple is down.Playwrights ’ Conference.[...]rns, slouch hat Butch Cassidys, vegemite Samurai, and Kirk Douglas’ joggling dimple twice over and the seven mutant bikies of the Saltbush Apocalypse drum through my nightmares in Dolby sound. Robert and Rupert, Adams and Packer, Gyngell and Stratton, Gulf and Western, Engulf and Devour. . . nose jobs and nork jobs and hand jobs and blow jobs and talk jobs and tax jobs. . . beyond all human imagining, cocktai[...]ree — which is known as creative accounting — and the still unending world- straddling miracle of Murdoch and Stig- wood hype: see Gallipoli and die; you’ll be so glad you did. Robert and Rupert broke up, I hear. 8 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY[...]made last year, had he been, like most of England and Australia, in the employ of his son. The wind bloweth where it listeth however, and my wet finger as always is up, and I am writing a GallipoIi—style road movie mysel[...]th a marihuana smoking draft-dodger via Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise to Canungra. They arrive in Vietnam and find to their amazement that killing is going on. Music is by Sherbert and Mozart. It should make a lot of money. So too, I[...]Miller II, as Evan Williams has come to know him, and to co-star once more the great Jack Thomps[...] |
 | has come to know him, called Clancy of the Overdraft, and based on the life of Michael Edgely, in which fi[...]s with a glorious crimson sunset over Los Angeles and the mogul hero’s silhouetted profile looking out, and in Burt Lancaster’s moving voice-over, the vale[...]In my twilit helicopter with a starlet going down And the tickertape a-chatter of the bums on seats tha[...]boisterous, conscienceless Pommy migrant producer and agent with telltale flaws in her Sussex accent and far too much to lose. The fatal words in the controversial review, “the best Australian film since Picnic at Hang[...]r interfering with his plans for world domination and yesterday blockaded him- self on an island besieg[...]llipines could only stand one dictator at a time, and has busted himself by rewriting the role of the c[...]st Australian film to get total American backing andand night, as anyone who can within half an hour, and without prompting, point out the relevant contine[...]t version of the same story, called Carry On D H, and is hoping to interest Frankie Howerd in the role[...]which I understand he contributed the A flat — and on receiving the award called out to the vast television world audience “Hello Australia” and nearly got the pronunciation right. Aust- ralian[...]alian film goes into profit at Village Roadshow. And Nancy Reagan has shyly confessed that her very fa[...]ely obsequious is he to the moneyed powers around and beneath him, when he didn’t have to be.But Australian content is more than that, and the country’s one true living auteur, John Lamo[...]f the Australian film industry, set in the plush and kinky, black-silken and lute-strumming interiors of the AFC, starring Mark Lee as Peter Weir, and Mike Preston as Tim Burstall, and Sir Les Patterson as Michael Thornhill, called Willie Wanker and the Chocolate Factory. In the great man’s messa[...]rene, more rational, less prone to ruling cliques and only a trifle more expensive, but it has its little dramas too. The death of Plays and Player: has been a dreadful loss to the heads of[...]another’s productions instead of Peter Hall’s and their standards are consequently slipping and desperate measures are called for, like even revisiting London, and therefore their Cockney relatives. One solution has been the wholesale importation and installing in the Sydney Hilton with crates of champagne and caviar of starving left-wing British playwrights, and hurling buxom actresses through the milk hatch on the hour. One small joking reference to Barry and Bruce in the text will then suffice as Australian[...]rk of genius, populated by actors of every colour and creed flown in first class from every latitude, and the smiling Australian taxpayer, flattered by th[...]ight, near to the grave of our national identity, and the Cenotaph designed by those great Australians Skrizinsky and Riomfalvy, Bloch and Murdoch, of all that we were and could have been, the message, long repeated ofthe[...]oon the lightning will come that breeds confusion and the tower will be down. Jerusalem is not reached,[...]his august company, by acts of greed, as a Reagan and Thatcher and Fraser are daily finding out, or acts of grasping dictatorship as John Sumner and Leonie Kramer and Peter Weir may never know, but by the reasonable[...]the Playwrights’ Conference where, in poverty, and promiscuity, and comradeship, and undernourishment, and lust, and kindred help, the sum of man’s thought, and scope, and compassion is added to, ever so slightly, year af[...]though I am open to offers beginning at that sum, and from those that will not go this year or next I u[...]are so minded, for they keep worse hours than you and do get lonely, and to you I also commend their example of excellence under pressure in a blind and dying world. I thank you. Bob Ellis THEA[...] |
 | [...]MPHORN has been whizzing from Melbourne to Sydney and back again winding up business in both states. Al[...]p with this city — its playwrights, performers, and its pace.Things don’t change overnight, but a[...]mposer’s centenary. Since rehearsals began Rex and his cast of five have been cashing in on the excitement and activity centred around the Percy Grainger Museum[...]ll leave audiences with an impression of the man, and not just an en- cyclopaedic picture of his life.[...]from Sydney where he worked with Kate Fitzpatrick and Malcolm Robertson on a Restoration comedy[...] |
 | [...]. “It has the unique advantage of being younger and fresher and more energetic than the larger organisations in t[...]ak I’ve gone back. But this time I want to stay and really get to know this place.”FLOATING WORL[...]ds of the day. It was directed by Lindzee Smith, and had memorable performances from Bruce Spence as Les, on the Cherry Blossom nightmare to Japan and his own head, and from Peter Cummins as the deranged comic. Peter[...]of that time, managing to contain both the actors and the audience inside an environment which was the cruise ship, a concentration camp and Les’s concentration-mind all at the same[...] |
 | [...]y APG/Hoopla/Playbox .‘ person Graeme Blundell, and designed for the proscenium this time, by Peter C[...]slow as Les, Marion Edward as Irene, Syd Conabere and Brian James, distinguished performers all, and in a nice expression of the new deal, former APG great Evelyn Krape, rocker and theatre musician Red Symons and magician Doug Tremlett from the burgeoning theatr[...]recursor was in The One Day of the Year.Romeril and Blundell view the play as a “clash between Japanese culture at its highest and Australian culture at its lowest”, for possession of Les. Romeril like Shepard, Hare and other living writers, says that tragedy is possib[...]thing, objectively, to a contempor- ary audience, and that it does not require the slavish acceptance o[...]in the performances of actors who can sing, dance and do magic as well as act. It’s to be hop[...] |
 | ...continued from page 7 Theatre and more recently in straight roles in The Dresser and Chinchilla and, making his musical debut, Simon Burke, of TV’s Restless Years, the Nimrod’s controversial The Choir and three movies, including The Devil’s Playground.[...]company’s highly successful Privates on Parade, and musical direction by composer Philip Scott who was musical director of The Rocky lflorror Show and a long list of | musical shows at Marian St and elsewhere. ‘ During john Mi1son’s brief spel[...]as wide a range of tastes as possible. The board and Theatre Manager, John Frost are persevering with[...]a late night show from May 7 at 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays with Myra de “...(ontemporari, Groot and her Musical Director, Garey Campbell, in Noel and Cole, a one—hour pot-pourrie of the words and music of Noel Coward and Cole Porter. As I write, the theatre is still se[...]une 11, it has Patricia Kennedy as Lady Bracknell and Barbara Wyndon as Miss Prism. A new hazard seems[...]Pamela Stephenson joining Tim Curry, George Cole and Annie Ross in leading roles and Wilford Leach repeating his New York staging. A[...]rs Important, Alive, Australian and lun...” l’llll|l0X. or Suppliers of goods/[...]ooking to provide a broader range of performances and activities in all areas of the arts, theatre and music. Applications are invited — preferably in[...]rmation, promotional material etc. BY 30 MAY 1982 and should be directed to:- Ellen Blunden, Pro[...] |
 | [...]well established writers, such as Patrick White and Ray Lawler, returning with new plays; and we have a wide group of new, younger writers exp[...]l dramatic culture which was “sudden, brilliant and permanent” and we listed over 30 good playwrights to prove it. S[...]difficult new forms — exciting for enthusiasts and cognos- centi but bewildering for even the theatr[...]community memory. With the old feeling of social and community importance lost, audiences are fracturing into in-groups and claques of supporters — but without the general[...]d in Adelaide that the difference between English and Australian audiences’ reactions to plays was that the English are poor and unhappy and they turn to their THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 p[...]why, whereas Australians are relatively contented and they turn to their playwrights, if at all, for an[...]ice really one between sentimental box-office pap and obscure in-group experimen- tation? We don’t k[...]uggest where an enduring repertoire may be begun. And we look at some recent writing in an attem[...] |
 | [...]al order. ON OUR SELECTION (1912) by Steele Rudd and Bert Bailey The apotheosis of Australian melo- d[...]e play the conventionality of melo- dramatic plot and characters, the rough sentimentality of the Australian bush legend, and the homely, small-family wisdom and comic gentleness of the original Steele Rudd stor[...]he leading influence of Bert Bailey, part author and creator of the role of Dad, it played on and off for 17 years, before being taken up in a string of movies, radio serials and TV series. A new adaptation has been done by George Whaley. DAD: For years I’ve faced and fought the fires, the floods and the droughts of this country, I came here and cut a hole in the bush, when I hadn’t enough mo[...]without a shirt to put on my back, I worked hard and honestly, living on dry bread, harrowing me bit[...]art for one single moment, Me cattle would perish and die before me very eyes and me roof go from over me head with the wind. But my spirit was never broken, and do you think you can break it now, by the Lord n[...]ake me bits of things, take me few head of cattle and get out. (Turns up C.) CAREY: You talk about spi[...]at the men ofthis country, with health, strength, and determination are always doing. I can start again[...]TRALIA MAY 1982 . *> . " \ . er, Nonillazlehurst and Geoffrey Rush in thejane Street/Nimrod to be seen as an alien enemy force, andandand set its scene in the middle of the dry open plains. Briglow Bill is injured in a stampede, and must be left by his mates to die — the cattle h[...]sooner or later. I ’ve lived my life, careless and free, looking after my work when I was at it, and splashing my cheque up like a good one when I struck civilisation. I ’ve lived hard, droving and horse-breaking, station work, and over- landing, the hard life of the bush, but there ’s nothing better, and death ’s come quick, before I ’m playe[...] |
 | [...]miss me a bit. . . the tracks I ’ve travelled, and astar or two, and the old mulga. BOSS: And I’ll miss you. I’ve never travelled with a be[...]end: exploiting its sentimental power to the full and then sadly, but affectionately, revealing its hollowness. The cane-cutters, R00 and Barney, come south to Melbourne for the off-season, and discover that, by 1955, the new urban Australia h[...]le who had never seen a play swam flooded rivers and drove hundreds of miles to see it. Its emotional[...]a of the inarticulate. ROO: (grabbing her wrists andand she falls to the floor, grief-stricken, almost an[...](from L) Kenneth Warren, J une J ago, Madge Ryan and Ethel Gabriel. the same time) Kill me, then. But[...]o more eagles. (Going down on one knee beside her and striking the floor with his hand) This is the dust we ’re in and we ’re gunna walk through it like everyone else[...]SOUL (1963) by Patrick White The awful goodness and terrifying cheerfulness of Miss Docker in this pl[...]ist, the whisperings of the chorus of old ladies and townspeople more insistent and the heightened language stronger. THE LEGEND OF KING O’MALLEY (1970) by Michael Boddy and Bob Ellis Included more for what it represents t[...]he crude larrikinism of the Australian music hall and apply it to a serious contemporary political issu[...]lf-interested, bible- bashing, American loudmouth and, by making him the hero, implied much abou[...] |
 | Sandra Lee Paterson,_]eam'e Drynan and Sean Scullyiin Makassar Reef. Photo: Robert McFar[...], romantic, melodramatic, comic trick in the book and wins through, like the traditional Aussie battler[...]emotionally fore-shadowed the failure of spirit and nerve which led them to vote him out three years[...]ished David Williamson as a master of observation and of the theatrical craftsmanship needed to get it down and get it right. MAL: They were great days. DON: G[...]pe with your job or anything else for that matter and why did I have to cook all your meals and wash all your clothes? Eh? Because your little mu[...]xuriant in its mixture of the vulgar, the erudite and the poetic. The play is not so much Australian as[...]e indomitable optimism of many plays about death, and the defiant irreverence so essential to the basic[...]n psyche. MONK: Reminds me of the time Les Darcy and I scaled Mount Kosciusko. Les was in training at[...]. . Australia. . . attired only in boxing trunks and slouch hats. . . our bare feet comingling with th[...]ustralia, that great nation out there of soldiers and sports and athletes, cereals and wool, will one day rule the Pacific. I believe th[...]merica will extend to us an equal hand. The Indon and Kanaka we 17 |
 | [...]ise germ. . . the germ of the future. With water and work it will breed and grow and spread into an empire of fair play and health and wealth and power, and wealth and literature. He had tears in his eyes. I took hi[...]en has sapped your intellect. Put up those dooks, and we ’ll go a round or two for a pound or two. .[...]sh. It is about the transience of human closeness and about loss. The portrait of Dan and Aggie Cassidy has more love in it than there is in any other Australian play, and that is what makes the loss so moving, when Aggie[...]llection of carefully observed authentic material and mixing it with funny, savage theatricality. It te[...]region which surrounds his country, but which he and most Australians have only known in war. The expe[...]g is 18 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 ___j_ .m__ and disappointment, rather than cancer and death. It is the most stylish Australian play, dr[...]TRAVELLING NORTH (1979) by David Williamson This and M akassar Reef reveal the new maturity of concern, mastery of craft and subtlety of effect which the “old guard” of t[...]n flees north to the sun, sexual passion, old age and death; the younger stays south with the cold, bitterness, fecundity and a new generation. The play charts comically and movingly the ties that bind them and the forces that drive them apart. THE MAN FROM M[...]elebration of a community in the wheatbelt of WA, and it manages to bring in both the nostalgic detail of the day to day lives of the characters and the grand issues of life and love and war and death which rule over them. It uses songs, verses, poetry and comic turns in a bewildering but entertaining pro[...]ance on a rope amongst the stars. ZEEK: Sun, moon and stars, all sweet things. CLEMMY: But Ifell, Ifel[...]ars are above, wherever we are. We walk the earth and gaze into eternity, we ride with/lndromeda, see[...]ty Bugles, Reedy River, The Chapel Perilous, Norm and Ahmed, Traitors, or others. Also the list above s[...]t The Precious Woman or Welcome the Bright World, and certainly Patrick White’s new master- pi[...] |
 | AND DICKINS ]ohn McCallum analyses the newest wave[...]rviews with four important Australian playwrights and an editorial entitled “A National Drama?”. If[...]then it has come at a time when their articulacy and seriousness of purpose have never been greater. I[...]three in particular: Stephen Sewell, Louis Nowra and Barry Dickins. The problem is summed up by the c[...]alian writing of the ’70s was droll, caricature and satire. It strikes me that the theatre, the write[...]kinds of contradictions operative in our society (and the individuals who are part of it) in the process of transforming it”. And yet the response to Welcome the Bright World, his[...]the credibility gap between the world of the play and that of the audience is enormous”. It seems imp[...]to buzz of foyer—talk — all about chardonnay and home renova- tions and meaningful relationships —to be aware of the cr[...]eving that you can involve yourself in your work, and work for compartmentalised causes, without considering the total social and political context of your actions. The play reveals the personal and moral catastrophe such an attitude can cause. And yet the play is set in Germany not Australia —[...]nterests in- dependently of their social context. And perhaps that is why Nimrod audiences do not feel[...]ut as a propaganda piece, a bit more complicated, and longer, than usual. To me this is a naive respons[...]s Nowra is a writer of such fine theatrical sense and ability to excite, that it is astonishing that it[...]hown, in Visions, a love of intriguing ambiguity, and in Inside the Island a refusal to pursue any meta[...]ral violent action — an action of dis- location and social breakdown which in other hands might be us[...]Nowra has a great reticence about being specific, and yet his plays are full of grand, violent concrete[...]clear note. This is, of course, quite deliberate, and a product of his concern with the ambiguities and contradictions of people attempting to exe[...] |
 | [...]Woman is different. The characters’ statements and actions are still all confusingly relative to eac[...]r path to consider ‘ the relation between power and compassion. The play argues that it is easy to fe[...]he events of the play makes compassion inevitable and a virtue. Su-Ling’s final act of com- passion,[...], her son, is therefore very confronting.Sewell and Nowra have been ac- claimed as our two great new serious dramatists, and yet in each there remains an austere distance fro[...]a (a fact in which each seems to take some pride) and so what specific personal or social relevance ea[...]880-» rrp $35.95 0 The Currency Press - Sydney and Melbourne Currency Press New Titles THE GOLD[...]STRALIAN OPERA Harold Love gives an entertaining and scholarly account of the musical world and its personalities during the important time of Au[...]may be precisely the huge difference between him and writers like Sewell and Nowra. Where they are intellectual and distant he is aggressively personal and emotional. Where they are theatrically disciplined and craftsman- like, he is wild and a larrikin. Where they write about distant places, times and events, he writes about the grubby streets and bush huts around him. Where they write complex, e[...]ge. He presents talkative, articulate characters, and then uses their drinking to dislocate THIS 0VERC[...]their articulacy and reveal the sad, desperate, lonely outcasts underneath. As they reveal themselves they talk about their past and present experiences and try to make sense of it. In the attempt to make s[...]by the suffering of the world. She takes cyanide, and suddenly all the blacked- out electrical applianc[...]e to say. In the present theatrical malaise Nowra and Sewell are in a politically privileged position,[...]individual humanity in an in- creasingly chaotic and difficult political and social world. Perhaps, as David Hare, and Donald Horne before him, suggest, Australia is st[...]oming. INSIDE THE ISLAND and THE PRECIOUS WOMAN rrp $9. 95 paper Louis Nowra’s plays, published with music by Sarah de Jong and notes by directors Neil Armfield and Richard Wherrett. The first play is set in a rur[...]orld War I, the second in pre-revolutionary China and both dramatically analyse the ways in which power is manipulated. THE OVERCOAT and SIN rrp $7.95 Jack Hibberd’s two pieces of music theatre are published with Martin Friedel’s music and introductions by Paul McGillick and Paul Hampton. The first play is a black cartoon based on Gogol’s famous story and Sin, commissioned by the Victoria State Op[...] |
 | Playscripts and publishers by John McCallum When Currency Pres[...]ialising in drama, but with a more general market and a more varied list. There are now many good excit[...], such as Angela Fewster’s Black Chrysanthemums and Harry Reade’s The Naked Gun, both of which arou[...]shed long ago, such as Jack Hibberd’s Peggy Sue andand Goodbye Ted; Barry Dickins’ Lonely Lenny Lower; Jack Hibberd’s Captain Midnight VC and Phil Motherwell’s Dreamers of the Absolute. I w[...]themselves next month but for now let us welcome and wish well a publisher who has done what theatre-l[...]keep saying are such a central part of our drama (and particularly many of the Carlton plays) and get them out to people. It is absurd to have a su[...]n plodding away producing scripts for the amateur and schools market for several years. The latest is P[...]the all—male closed community drama of violence and lust. The blurb rather enthsiastically proclaims[...]sexuality, authority, religion, acts of violence and distorted love” — which unlike the play itlse[...]lay publishing, Louis Nowra’s Inside the Island and The Precious Woman in one volume (rrp $9.95) and Jack Hibberd’s The Overcoat and Sin in another (rrp $6.95). The Nowra is commented on elsewhere in this issue. The Overcoat and Sin are music theatre pieces, published in large[...]icities of middle Australia” which the Composer and Librettist in the play meant to write. I h[...] |
 | [...]ese militant times all professional stage, screen and TV writers should belong. Writers who have never[...]ssional production may join as Associate Members, and receive many of the benefits. Write to: Angela Wa[...]ralian National Playwrights Conference. Helps new and establishedreading new scripts at an annual con[...]127 York Street. ph 29 7799 ONLY AUSTRALIAN BOOKS and Books on the Pacific. LANGUAGE BOOK CENTRE 127 Y[...]Books in other languages, Dictionaries. Grammars and Reference, English as a Second Language.[...]EFIY TITLE AVAILABLE FROM Oxlord University Press and Cambridge University Press. Lwriters, mainly by workshopping and North Sydney, 2060. ABBEV'S PENGUIN BOOKSHOP 66[...]ded Hours: Open till 8 pm. daily, 9 p m. Thursday and till 5 pm. SATURDAY 5. SUNDAY PLAYWRIGHTS and scriptwriters. . . Do you feel capable of protecting your own interests with managements and producers without support? Did you know that the[...]r non- commissioned original work in the theatre; and is working on agreements for commissioned work for adaptations and translations? Do you have much Contact or involve[...]ne? Do you know where to go for professional help and advice? Do you know where you can obtain such perks as discount typing paper and photocopying’. writer handbooks, theatre and cinema concessions? Did you know that the Guild p[...]Guild. Most of the country’s major playwrights and scriptwriters are already members. Associate memb[...]vailable. Write or phone for information brochure and application form. AFTE YOU LOOKIN[...] |
 | Theatre International / Triumphs of casting and comedy by Irving Wardle As superannuated spies[...]irely of boys, exuding sophisticated inexperience and representing every shade of response from militar[...]This generates a plot that explores the desires and hatreds of a miscellaneous Collection of people w[...]hic. The boys in question are Bennett, a serious and unashamed homosexual, and Judd, an inflammable Marxist, maddened by the i[...]h ‘may be a joke. But homosexuality is no joke; and when he escapes a thrashing by threatening to rev[...]lready equipped him with the techniques ofsecrecy and betrayal. Result: a spy is born. Stuart Burge’[...]s lead performances from Rupert Everett (Bennett) and Kenneth Branagh ~ (Judd) who has leapt from drama school to ‘ instant stardom; and the show as a whole marks a triumph in juvenile[...]nts a meticulously Rupert Everett as Guy Bennett and Kenneth Branagh as Tommy Judd in Another C[...] |
 | [...]l fable, it is set in three joke provincial towns and features a touring company seething with alcoholism and sexual intrigue who are rehearsing a sub-Ben Trav[...]ing after the house while the master is in Spain, and is showing some doubt over which of the set’s s[...]long with a bunch of flowers, a woodman’s axe, and other props that become increasingly accident—p[...]appearance.Meanwhile, it is one in the morning and the company are floundering through a combined dress and technical rehearsal; and as two couples rampage through the premises, miss[...]hright leading man can never complete a sentence; and the demure leading lady likes nothing better than[...]ships have much deteriorated since the rehearsal, and there is some question of whether the pensioners[...]having barricaded herself into her dressing room, and the leading man having sworn vengeance on his rival to her affections. Amidst this crisis and the secret return of the director (a sublimely de[...]visible drama round the back. It is a calamitous ballet of entrances through wrong doors, mixed-up props,[...]g entrance with his shoe-laces knotted together), and altogether, Michael Blakemore’s production rais[...]ood invasion by Karl Levett Though East is East and West is West, the twain seems definitely to be meeting these days on the stages of Broadway and off- Broadway. Film makers, movie stars and household names from Televisionland have all suddenly decided to come East and go “legitimate”. Broadway has become the latest Hollywood discovery. Already come and gone: Film director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist ) and his version of the London hit, Tom Kempinski’s Duet For One with Anne Bancroft and Max von Sydow; Suzanne Pleshette and Richard Mulligan in Bernard Slade’s comedy[...]Cher and Sandy Dennis in Come Back. . . Photo: Jean Pagliu[...]Special Occasions — it opened and closed the same evening; Fay Dunaway in a virtuos[...]r by playwright William Alfred. Both Ms Pleshette and Ms Dunaway received favourable comment and were encouraged to return in more substantial pag[...]th Cher, Karen Black THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 and Sandy Dennis. Off-Broadway film I behind it. The[...]stage debut. Two other John Guare plays Gardenia and Women and Water (a double-bill that with Lydie Breeze is pa[...]nother movie man making his theatrical entrance. And as if this were not enough, Paramount Pictures is[...]’s drama Agnes of God starring Elizabeth Ashley and Geraldine Page. Robert Altman, hailed as one of[...]by South. On Broadway, with Come Back to the Five and Dime, jimmy Dean, jimmy Dean, handling a cast of[...]rior play, he has allowed it to be badly designed and to let each actor go her own direction — not hi[...]s in 1955 when James Dean was making Giant nearby and the reunion twenty years on. Although there’s s[...]eye. Each fan member has come back with A Secret and the evening is a series of melodramatic revelations self—delusion, paternity, sterility, mastectomy and transexual trans- formation. This dime sto[...] |
 | Joseph Sommer and Ben Cross in LydieBreeze.Photo.-GerrjvGoodstein.[...]rt. Sandy Dennis has the pivotal role in the play and her non- performance robs the soap opera of any j[...]is’ mannerisms have by now rendered her vocally and physically inept — she really has to be seen and heard, not to be believed.Off-Broadway, Louis M[...]when there is a coming together of director, cast and play — but it is the play that is the star. Joh[...]g a new age. The plot is hopelessly melodramatic, and if I gave you details it would totally misinform[...]is. It includes murder, revenge, a double suicide and hereditary syphillis. But the play is puritanical[...]that consistently contradicts itself. It is spare and plain spoken, but brimming with themes, symbols and metaphors; it is small, but ambitious; it is abou[...]incing optimistic ending. It is also a ghost play and along with the characters the shades of Ibsen and O’Neill are lurking everywhere. Guare is reach[...]all evening. All the performances are effective and some more than that. Joseph Sommer is splendid as[...]father (he walks a tightrope of comedy, cynicism and pathos); Ben Cross, as avenging angel of an actor[...]seems sensitive to John Guare’s hundred nuances and just as in the film Atlantic City it’s clear th[...]k of the poster write: country, town, proper name and surname of the artist, year of birth, title and author of production, as well as date of printing[...]n, 6 Shipka Street 1040 Sofia, Bulgaria. A MUSIC AND DANCE THEATRE SEMINAR will be held in Dresden and Leipzig in the German Democratic Republic from Ju[...]tenary of the world premiere of Parszfal. Tristan and Isolde, The Mastersirzgers of Nuremberg and The FlyingDutchman will also be on this year’s[...]ina will visit Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane on a 5 week Australian tour between February and April 1983. 25 |
 | 26 Theatre Reviews A.C. II Words and images EINSTEIN ORIGINAL SIN by Marguerite Well[...]having fought all the necessary battles in youth and middle-age. And those battles will have been fought against my ow[...]ho, with any luck, will be free of the infection, and will raise a quizzical eyebrow at history and wonder what all the fuss was about. Either of th[...]atomic energy be developed for warlike purposes, and his divorce from his first wife, a physicist, to[...]ties. Two of the characters, the younger Einstein and the middle-aged one, never communicate directly with each other, but only through the old Einstein, a large and demanding role. None of the three was what you would call a man of action and the action of the play is indoors, behind desks and the most exciting things that you saw happen were the young Einstein rocking a cradle and the middle-aged one emptying a suitcase of nice g[...]tion never flagged. It was carefully moved and carefully lit, with good accent work and fine make up, and perhaps the greatest triumph, a unity of style th[...]ion together. It was warming to watch a brilliant and sensitive man settling accounts with himself in p[...]life were in fact pretty much out of his control, and that he need feel no guilt. Images from the Back[...]es looking at the cultural myths that define men and women. Standard Operating Procedure treated viole[...]examined attitudes per- petuated by tairy stories and the morality of Christianity. The play is what i[...]words that remain), but firstly the visual images and secondly the sounds. Within the prison of the fes[...]carousel of socialised sex, the dreams of romance and prettiness, of the warmth and fulfilment of womanhood; the night club, the dan[...]serve the search for sexual partners; the brothel and the pomshop. Outside the carousel, and often encroaching but always encircling it are the forces of religion; the church itseif; the frustrated and neurotic celibacy of the priest and the nun; the flagellant mortifying the flesh; the projection onto woman of the guilt of the fall of man, and the poison it brings into relationships between men and women. Words are not the strength of the play, no[...]ower of the physical. It puts a highly individual and contestible view of the relationship between religion and social psychology, treating a problem that we all hope is in its dying agony. But it puts it brilliantly and beautifully, weaving images of light and shadow, tinkling prettiness and raucous ugliness, crystallis- ing an aspect of our society that has certainly existed and does exist, although it may not be as pervasive a[...]Clerk, Peter Murphy. {Professional} john Derum and George Whaley in Theatre ACT’s Einstein.[...] |
 | Social and sexual miusticeTHE SUICIDE PEOPLE ARE LIVING T[...]companies seem fascin- ated by stories of suicide and self- destruction. Three of the plays reviewed th[...]s who are, respect- ively, Russian, South African and Scottish/Australian. There is some common ground,[...]ssian work that was banned in rehearsal by Stalin and has still never been performed in the USSR. This[...]e more widely seen. Aubrey Mellor’s translation and arrange- ment ofthe text and his sensitive pacing and direction add much to enchant and absorb the audience. There is an initial resista[...]iends I have found a strong distrust of the title and a reluctance to risk being depressed by an unknow[...]The Suicide is not depressing: it goes a comical and roundabout way to affirm the value of life. It re—discovers a reason and a potential to go on living and it strikes a common, contemporary chord. Tragedy[...]ragic element in drama is a very fundamental one, and it has a curious way of welling up in plays, whet[...]omising in its attack on dehumanising bureaucracy and hypo- crisy, but idealistic in the hope it holds[...]imself. At least, he goes as Robert Alexander and Peter Carroll in Nimrod’s The Suicide. far as announcing his intention to do so — and is immediately besieged by represent- atives of various factions, interests and cliques, all wanting him to gain publicity to the[...]’s new Resident Designer, provided an ingenious and highly adaptable set, rather reminiscent ofa draw[...], in which the doors of opportunity opened on air and the corridors of possibility were endless and led nowhere. Like The Sizicide, Athol Fugard’s People The flattery and kind treatment to which he is subjected re-kindle in Seinyon Semyonovich his sense of self-love, and therefore his love of life, andand wit: one can see Stalin’s point. It chronicles[...]Bolshevik Revolution to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Russian proletariat. But apart[...]interest, Erdman’s play is deeply humanitarian and involving on an emotional as well as an intellect[...]rdman gave up writing for the theatre after this, and succeeded in living to a ripe old age. His contribution is nevertheless a lasting one, and Aubrey Mellor deserves our gratitude for this spe[...]ealthily, gradually taking us into his confidence and showing us the predicament from his point of view. By the final act, he has become in a sense Everyman, and he has the audience totally on his side. The compan_v worked with great fluency and precision to achieve some dazzling visual effects and brilliantly executed scene Are Li7'ing There, pr[...]. It is Milly the landlady’s fiftieth birthday, and her lover (whom we never see) has just left her,[...]woman. Her birthday party. with crisps, slab cake and lemonade, is a ghastly parody of attempted gaiety[...]her social ambitions run little higher than beer and sausages on a Saturday night, but even in this sh[...]an; Sissy (Daina Austin) married Shorty to escape and now wants to marry someone else to escape from Shorty; Don (Robert Dallas; is unemployed and pro- bably unemployable, a cynic who sees[...] |
 | [...]oup title for three bizarre one-act plays written and directed by Mil Perrin for the Griffin Theatre Co[...]a View of their characters that is at once black and whimsical: they explore the territory between reality and fantasy. In particular, they poke fun at the way[...]er starts by hearing her own obituary on the news and is gradually persuaded that she should not correc[...]es through the drama, applying it to her own life and interleaving her own memories and ex- periene with the fiction until they are inseparable. The third play is an absurd portrait of a husband and wife who clearly hate each other, but are scrupul[...]iosyncratic scripts were a source of both delight and irritation. There were undeniably brilliant flas[...]e benefitted from a more disciplined construction and all three endings were more or less unsatis- fact[...]. Anthony In- gersent showed considerable courage and concentration, as the hapless husband, and Janet Foye gave a couple of well-observed portraits of the TV suicide and the predatory wife. The most polished per- forman[...]heatre work this year shows increasing confidence and control. She has evidently a highly original tale[...]tely, The Prot'ol2’d Wife is very funny indeed, and a highly experienced cast, under the skilful guid[...]theme of Vanbrugh’s play is marital infidelity, and to judge by the audience’s enthusiastic recepti[...]andard: he likes to take his pleasures in taverns and whore-houses, but he does not like his wife, Lady[...]ally from himself. He would like to have his cake and28 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 eat it; she would like a slice of the action. Kate Fitzpatrick and Malcolm Robertson were splendid Brutes, she all wayward looks and wicked eyes, and he crusty and cranky but not unlovable. They were essentially Beauty and the Beast. In the foppish, affected Lady Fancyful[...]ts. On the opening night she was quite restrained and well-behaved, but I suspect by the end of the run she may be stealing the show. Barbara Stephens and George Spartels also brought a special warmth and humanity to Bellinda and Heartfree, two fairly stock romantic characters.[...]sense of some very difficult, stylised speeches, and the cut and thrust of debate was fascinating to follow. Melody Cooper’s set was admirably un- cluttered and helped to focus close attention on the dialogue.[...]re, Sydney, NSW. Opened March 26, 1982. Director and Designer, Mil Perrin; Lighting Designer, G[...] |
 | [...]Performance of a lifetime A_1\4ADEUs NIGHT AND DAY by Michael Le Moignan Sydney’s theatre tr[...]they deserve. It is impossible to see everything, and this month three productions of which I had heard[...]ion, The Anniversary at the Philip Street Theatre and Leftovers by Cacophony at the Stables (late night[...]Theatre Company’s A madeus at the Theatre Royal and Night and Day by Tom Stoppard at the Marian Street Theatre,[...]y operatic style, to suit both the subject matter and the play’s prevailing mood of gothic fantasy.[...]e. a character pitched somewhere between Faustus and l_____M_M ' Iago, who ruthlessly lays bare his own heart - and soul and finds them black. On stage and 5 in the spotlight for most of the play, j Gaden’s control of the audience and sheer ; craftsmanship are hypnotic. It is the la[...]wizened old man, wrapped in | warm dressing-gown and a wooly hat against the cold. He wishes to confe[...]replaced by an eighteenth century _powdered wig and he is instantly the sprightly young court compose[...]eighteenth century. His gifts were con- siderable and his success enormous (he became the best known mu[...]urope) but his work is now considered second rate and is rarely performed. His tragedy was that in the[...]is time fully to appreciate Mozart’s greatness, and he did everything possible to thwart the composer’s hopes and drive him to penury, drink and despair. In short, Shafer’s Salieri is as blac[...]selfishness of his youth. This is masterly acting and the result is a subtle, complex and penetrating portrayal that will live long in the imagination. Like Richard Wherrett’s earlier Cyrano and Chicago for the STC, Amadeus is a production whic[...]ments. Nigel Levings’ lighting was quite superb and Contributed signific- antly to the enjoyment of t[...]. Drew Forsythe as the juvenile, whinnying Mozart and Linda Cropper as his wife both gave excellent per[...]shows a bust of Mozart knocked from its pedestal, and from what one can judge, this is an accurate appr[...]is a curiously cruel play, for all its qualities, and I think the venom mars it. Shaffer offers us no p[...]lay, but a very good one. Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day, directed by Terence Clarke, is the best prod[...]to delight — good performances from Tom Oliver and John Frawley and from two relative newcomers, Paul Williams and Monroe Reimers, a generous helping of Stoppard’s witty and elegant verbal gymnastics, an intriguing and adaptable revolving set by David Spode and one clever stage illusion, which completely trick[...]interesting device, but in practice a bit tricksy and intrusive: Stoppard over-uses it without having p[...]risation, as the cynical, hard-bitten journalist, and not allowing himself enough room andand peopled with almost any characters. He employs plot, comedy and characterisation as diversionary tactics, to soft[...]on the floor with its paws. up asking for more, and then he tells it to sit up and think about something. It is a Zen belief[...] |
 | [...]is his theatrical forefather: their shock tactics and under- lying intellectualism are identical.The subjects under debate in Night and Day are two of Stoppard’s old favourites, the morality of journalism and the freedom of the press. Each of the characters[...]hotographer who does a necessary job with courage and common sense, a mine-owning capitalist who is, ec[...]unded by the gutter press through a divorce case, and a President educated at the London School of Econ[...]e debate is strictly controlled by the playwright and we hear only what is pertinent to the play of ide[...]of circumstances in which our pre-conceived ideas and de- fmitions are no longer adequate. The Presiden[...]thout fear or favour. Guess who gets shot. Night and Day is rich in ideas, which are presented with insight and humour in Terence Clarke’s production. Amad[...]James Porter, David Price. (Profemorzal). Night And Day by Tom Stoppard, Marian Street Theatre, Killa[...]ney into Night. It is gone midnight: James Tyrone and his two sons sit in varying stages of drunken stu[...]ponsible for their mother’s morphine addiction, and the dawning realisation that that addiction still[...]Mary makes her final appearance, ethereal, frail and high on morphine, a somnambulist in another world, to recall her “sad dream” of lost innocence and brief happiness with James. If this is O’Neill[...]his pretensions to classical grandeur of purpose and poetic respectab- ility are here subsumed by the[...]remarked, “We go expecting to hear a playwright and we meet a man.” The QTC’s rigorous productio[...]ass’s superb handling of Jamie’s con- fession and an aggressive physicalisation of the last spasms[...]at leaves him prone at the feet of his ' brother and father. All four performances meet the titanic ch[...]gh the noble brogue to the broken spirit beneath, and Elaine Cusick captures the right quality of almos[...]blematic role of Edmund (partly O’Neill himself and therefore without motivating guilt) with assuranc[...]this and a production as incisive, the play was cut back t[...]ne. (Profesriortal). Refreshing commitment HELL AND HAY _ WE CAN’T PAY? WE WON’T PAY! by Veronica Kelly A group of victims and outcasts, for political reasons rejected by the B[...]. For some the shock of displacement is too great and they return at the first opportunity to Europe, o[...]even as they endeavour to make their mark on it, and find eventually that they too have become Australians; migrants and exiles being in fact no exception but the basic r[...]it Of 3 displaced person, convict or exile. Hell and Hay is a tough—minded and thoughtful new play about archetypal patterns of[...]is the “Dunera” internees. These were German and Austrian political and racial refugees from the Nazi regime who were at[...]ar rounded up by the British as potential enemies and brutally dis- patched in l940 to Australia and there interned again, this time at Hay on the Mur[...]major paradoxical theme in the clash of the high and popular cultures; the bourgeois and the |
 | [...]Australians, it seems, move to a different music, and which sounds suspiciously like Chad Morgan’s. F[...]o be used as the ultimate focus of self—respect and self-definition. It never occurs to the wearil[...]inent civilising factor standing between a people and political and metaphysical terror — Dad and Dave will do for them. And indeed, Beethoven certainly didn’t civilise the[...]as befits the land where some nightmares end — and celebratory of the courage of those who survived[...]ice for presenting the paradoxes of tlie material and of suggesting resolutions not overtly spelt out in the text. The apparent cultural opposition of high and vernacular are resolved when the full cast swing[...]u meet the nicest people in your dreams.” Past and present merge in the ironic ‘ consciousness of[...]ho projects the interwoven patterns of experience and fantasy; of the past and of what the mind makes of it to call its ‘history”. Art and history make mutual comment in the song numbers, comedy routines andand of tortured memories. From its beginnings two ye[...]asically one-act play scripted for students, Hell and Hay has grown into an ambitious piece of consider[...]match the fascination of its documentary material and the complexity of its themes. La Boite‘s produc[...]l while leaving others yet un- explored. The song and dance style, which the theatre has made a house s[...]dealing in the dramatic language of mythic types and ideas. The reverse assumption, of naturalistic ve[...]o good use in the ambitious programe of repertory and community touring it has —r planned for this[...]cops, institut- ionalisation of reformist parties and unions — how could it not? And what splendid female roles. Individual passages o[...]vels; the giving “birth” to nicked groceries, and the earnest cod-explanations of multiple baby transplants and pope-infested dreams. As the man of many parts,[...]ry, it should bring to new audiences a vernacular and sharply politicised piece of theatre with performance values in abundance and a refreshing commitment to challenging stock responses to the last days of capitalism. Hell and Hay by Richard Fotheringham. La Boite Theatre, Brisbane Qld. Opened March 18, 1982. Director, Robert Kingham.[...]We Won’t Pay! by Dario Fo. TN Company, Brisbane Qld. Opened March, 1982. Director, Rod Wissler; Stage[...]al). Jewish internees boundfor Australia in Hell and Hay at La Bone. Photo: Laura McKew. THEAT[...] |
 | [...]eatre critics: Michael Billington of The Guardian and Michael Coveney of the Financial Times. These are[...]mething that reflected both his own predilections and recurrent human dilemmas. If I had to characteris[...]ination with sexual angst, solitude, rootlessness and a raucous celebr- ation of popular performing ski[...]ling) in Circus 02.For me this mixture of angst and joy was seen at its best in the work of Pina Baus[...]s about the torment of male- female relationships and had the skull- battering impact of eight Strindberg plays in one evening. And 1980, the most stunning of the three, was a Prous[...]what made 1980 the quintessential Festival show (and the one that I can imagine Jim Sharman theatre te[...]use it showed the antithesis of ironic detachment and political commitment achieving a kind of emotiona[...]onal conflict between a Wildean gift for language and a political Utopianism. Hare increas- ingly remin[...]internal dilemmas in drama rather than criticism; and what made his Festival play so moving was that yo[...]e impressive than what it must have cost Adelaide and Sydney to stage it. Not all the theatrical event[...]ignal Driver, though very well acted by John Wood and Melissa Jaffer as a warring married couple clingi[...]Australian moral decay over a 60-year time-span. And Melbourne Playbox Theatre’s productions of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Clasx, though again well acted by Gary Files and Michelle Stayner, were somewhat handi- capped by[...]Faust given by 'the Australian Youth Orchestra) and that also reached out to embrace the Adelaide pu[...]ith a remorseless fascination with the copulation and death. MICHAEL COVENEY Like all first time visi[...]wn at me with pitying, watery—eyed indifference and fixed his gaze on nothing in paticular just above[...]eclares she wants to rub the red dust on her face and find out what she’s been living for in this cou[...]was a theme of Jim Sharman’s exciting festival and, as he admitted in the final Forum of a series I[...]erfully elsewhere in the Edward Hopper exhibition and the Sam Shepard plays presented by the Playbox Th[...]which another man said he had seen the same play and decided to leave his wife. I leave with a myriad memories of this exceptionally stimulating and brilliantly run festival. The blank, insouciant g[...]f Elisabeth Soderstrom in The M akropaulos Affair and 32 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 El[...] |
 | [...]ritish theatre he is unsorry to have left behind; and a frantic, hilarious day with jazz singer George Melly as we zoomed round the Hopper, and Brian Thomson’s Tee-Vee Show where old televisi[...]in a double historical context of interior decor and a photographic slide-show of world events.At th[...]Wingfield Dump only to visit the Festival Centre and find it painted up and sitting in the middle of an open air exhibition.[...]en each event, ready with five minutes for anyone and skidding effectively around the periphery of parties, discussions and official functions. He has brought one of the wor[...]a challenging yet generally accessible programme; and perhaps most importantly of all, he now begins hi[...]little even when the circus has left town. Being and becoming SIGNAL DRIVER by Gus Worby Signal Dri[...]heo, the doubter, his mother’s offering to God; and Ivy, the believer, fashioned to hold hard, burnin[...]only to drop a beat, lose time, miss a connexion, and squat without shelter for the rest of our lives,[...]vy commitment to story, or laboured cause, effect and consequence. It involves the playing out, for a k[...]escape. The issues are at once acutely personal and of vast import. White accommodates both in this piece for four players and a public. First he creates two “super deros” and gives them the status of “Beings”. They are t[...]know THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 everything, in and out of time — especially what will be. They ar[...]ermitted to tell. They hint. They have compassion and wisdom, and, in their knowledge of certain and perpetual judge- ment they are whole. Then come Theo and Ivy. They are “characters” — less real than the Beings, though drawn from life as we see it. Theo and Ivy are in the process of becoming. Theo is a carpenter, and a thwarted artist. One who slowly settles for a d[...]ep out the cold. Ivy, in early life, is practical and businesslike. Fooled by religion, lapsed, manacle[...]ugh the dangerous menopause to an old age of fire and anger, straining to move beyond a life which will[...]hey walk to their on-stage shelter from among us, and reach for us, the penultimate stage of development. Through them we are exposed to chance and humanity. But we are different from Ivy and Theo in that we can see and hear the Beings. We are in the theatre not of it,[...]n a road to nowhere severs us from shelter, Being and Becoming. The production makes~this statement. A[...]the Aurora Australis, the set animates. Amid fog and light the great swathe of gauze with which Stephen Curtis has formed the surrounding and encroaching landscape, lifts and is drawn up and over the audience. It covers, engulfs, swallows,[...]solution. In this first production Neil Armfield and cast have genuinely tested the weight and substance of the work. At its first matinee it ro[...]s a consequence there was a sacrifice of surprise and the sharpness of those flaws and fragments of quicksilver vision was somehow dulle[...]There were magnificent moments between John Wood and Melissa Jaffer, in the first and particularly in the third act. Their conce[...] |
 | S.A. gontitzue . ness of tone, the blend of innocence and experience are exceptional. There is, however, in[...]atment of the Beings there is some loss of energy and potential. They are scored to come in under the Vokes, to stay aside and play apart. One craves more of the satirical snap[...]of media sociology in Act One. Both Peter Cummins and Kerry Walker, armed with the quirks and moods of Carl Vine’s music, have power to spare. Their Mo and po-faced creations deserve the licence to rip into the underbelly of seriousness and challenge the Vokes and the audience to reach for greater heights of awar[...]fort. We are long past the point of “waiting” and there never was much joy in Lucky’s dance. Sig[...]bjects, wrong plays A MAP OF THE WORLD PERCY AND ROSE by Michael Morley Although David Hare’s[...]rd world poverty, the appropriateness of personal and political convictions, the roles of the intellectual and the artist in society — it is essentially a due[...]ses his own particular brand of languid tolerance and disillusionment in the cultured and some- what patronising tones of one who has seen it all and expects not so much to make the best of a bad jo[...]crity. Of course, there is the stuff of dialogue and debate here, and David Hare’s sharp, balanced writing often rise[...]his women characters: the women in Licking Hitler and Dreams of Leaving seem initially to be dramatic v[...]n closer examination, to be much more complicated and ambiguous. The women in Map of the World seem to[...]vail. Well before the end they have lost both our and the author’s interest By now it must be fairly[...]not 34 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 Robert Grubb and Roshan Seth in STC’s Adelaide Festival producti[...]rive from Hare’s own views of himself as writer and social commentator, actually allows the characters identity, room to breathe in, and, yes, reality. But the play looks like nothing so[...]attempt to update the old expressionist mono — and station — drama, where the figures are simply[...]nce’s readiness to take the questions seriously and not fob them off with a tired piece of the[...] |
 | [...]to be a real hotel to reveal suddenly the camera and lights of a film studio, is lame, and too obvious a correlative for the play’s talk of relative values and modified attitudes. Irony and ambivalence are one thing: but “you think I say what I mean and then find I am only artistically suggesting I mea[...]mitment, the role of ideology, scepticism, action and reflection, political art or detached writing th[...]central performances which are honest, thoughtful and intelligent. Robert Grubb, rather more low-keyed[...]ther notable performances 1over the last years. And Roshan Seth’s controlled yet open characterisat[...]resses. Nor would I wish to deny the play’s wit and intelligence or to query Hare’s seriousness of purpose. And no critic should expect a writer to go on pursuin[...]longer finds interesting. That there is a serious and important play to be written about the concerns o[...]e persuaded. My response to Rob George’s Percy and Rose is much the same. Mercifully the play’s title at least avoids the trite and cheap double-entendres of Therese Radic’s A Whi[...]ising Grainger for the important composer he was, and shifts him out of the comfortable “Country Gardens” and “Shepherd’s Hey” drawers, someone with a sl[...]ands to be written on the subject. Not that Percy and Rose seems to be quite as bad as some have made i[...]riter, of course the dialogue is banal in places, and the last twenty minutes are a complete miscalcula[...]blish Grainger’s imaginative world where sadism and fantasy hold hands, some of Grainger’s monologues and the scenes between him and his fiancee, Margot. For continued on page 64 7 Terrific performances and clear ideas - CURSE OF THE- STARVING CLASS BURI[...]him is received, his publicity, he’s annoying. And it gets in the way of his work. Consider his lege[...]person, Patti Smith, hung around with Bob Dylan, and won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child.[...]uthern California. He’s forgotten some of them, and so has everyone else, though they do leave some s[...]e more overtly political stance of John Romeril. (And the best of both are in a similarly ambiguous relationship with their culture, critical and celebratory.) Shepard’s neither one of the boy[...]bits of action, extraordinarily extravagant props and settings, arcane dialects and languages, hermetic imagery, and a private mythology of rock, science fiction, the[...]plays, Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child and True West, he has confused the matter, seemingly[...]n stage, a fascination with toasters, artichokes, and the artefacts of American Life? Maybe they would nowadays. Certainly these new plays have created interest and controversy. What we want to know is, are they an[...]machine, texts that have fooled American critics and publicists, because they have wanted, need[...] |
 | [...]ashioned about the subject matter of Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class. The idea of there be[...]an, him an American, his obsession now with roots and rootless- ness, obligations and walking out, place and homelessness, in a paradise of plenty. That is, t[...]but the plays are set in poverty, both of spirit and food.Whatever the form Shepard chooses to work[...]his characters talk in their frequent monologues. And there's also the extravagant imagery present, exc[...]heep on stage in Starving Class, dead at the end, and the field of plenty out back of the house in Bur[...]here Tilden obtains an abundance of corn, carrots and where the dead child is buried, is a Field of Ple[...]at is this field, which only Tilden can “see” and “work”? What does it represent? The fecund la[...]of concerns, a knowledge of Electra of the Greeks and O’Neill, a probe from on the surface of the sto[...]rchie Bunker, marginal Americans between New York and Cali- fornia — again not a thoroughly worked ou[...]ays operate on the edge between complete banality and something really resonant, enriching. Where you[...]are a Gothic Americana, owing as much to rhythms and concerns of American cultural discoveries like jazz and rock, TV and movies, plenty and poverty as God or psychopathology. Roger Pulvers’ productions are marked by terrific performances and a clear idea of how to present the texts. Pulvers[...]e mono- logues, plays the comedy where it exists, and doesn’t shrink from making the most of the extr[...]accent troubles, each character has a single face and stays with it for the whole production. I especially admired the work of Gary Files, Maggie Millar and Peter Hosking. A word on the design. These plays offer the designer a choice between Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper. You can fill the stage with a prop[...]am of appropriate tat, or you can allow the words and actors to operate as real, yet emble- matic, evoc[...]ges Shepard has put in there, like the sheep live and dead, corn, shaven heads and the like. Corrigan and Pulvers have rightly put these big ideas in a thr[...]ne in the featureless America between the Rockies and the Mississipi. Curse of the Starving Class and Buried Child by Sam Shepard. Playbox Theatre, Adelaide Festival and Melbourne, Vic. Opened March, 1982. Director, Ro[...]n, Howard Stanley. (Professional). After Bausch and Berkoff AS WE ARE AS YOU LIKE IT RAMONA DEATH IN THE FAMILY TRAM SHOW by Suzanne Spunner Audiences and some theatre companies in Melbourne still seem to be reeling from the combined assault of Steven Berkoff and Pina Bausch. First the frenetic Londoner arrived and told us all that he was terribly put out to find[...]rnt anything since his last visit five years ago, and then in The Fall of the House Of Usher showed us[...]unlike other English playwrights he could mention and did. . . Then Pina Bausch hit us, and she had the gall to call it 1980 and we thought it was 1982, and maybe Berkoff was right and in Australia it’s still 1977, and anyway, wasn’t she obsessive and boring? And in between the papers were fullof the Adelaide Festival and how David Hare would show us what political theatre was all about, and even if it wasn’t very theatrical it was socially “engaged” and it had cost a fortune so we’d better take it seriously. . . and Pinder was telling us that the Comic Strip had revoutionised comedy, so we’d better laugh. . . and Patrick White had written a new play and nobody seemed sure whether it was significant or[...]hile we all forgot what we knew, that it was 1982 and that the Mill Theatre Company, the Dance Exchange[...]Oz, Stephen Sewell, John Romeril et al had been, and were still, e around even if we cant quite claim their work yet, afterall they’re only local and god forbid might be parochial, never mind Soho and Wuppertal. Back on the farm things are looking a[...]lyonly three companies operating — MTC, Playbox and Anthill and a plethora of one- offs, the competition is hardl[...]ith a re—run of Beverley Dunne’s affectionate and un- pretentious one-woman show drawn from documents from Australian history and literature, pleasant and solid, full of heart but lacking theatrical imagination let alone invention; and Bruce Myles’ production of As You Like It is gu[...]pening at the Athenaeum. Never have so many minds and hands worked so hard to realise so few ideas — the sheer ugliness of the set and the vulgarity of the music make the Simon Gallagher Show look artistic and sensitive. Amidst such twittery tiredness Anne Scott-Pendlebury’s Celia and Edwin Hodgeman’s Jaques shone with intelligence and life, but the fact that they seemed to know what[...]e fact that those characters expressly comment on and debunk the main text of the play, which was sorel[...]dly in the way L you stand in regard to America, and things 36 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 |
 | [...]on an exploration of Wagnerian Euro- communism, and the words or the acting aren’t really the issue[...]atives could be expected to understand — colour and movement; the way is all too clear for the Playbo[...]ntact on a combined ticket of new Australian work and intelligent readings of overseas work. La Mama i[...]nt that invariably there is a sense of discovery and exploration on some front. Lisa Dombroski’s production of Ramona and the White Slaves by Canadian writer, George F Walker showcased a young director and a writer unknown in Australia. The production was characterised by a clear ‘ and sharply realised directorial vision, and , excellent performances from that increas- ingl[...]atres. It was exciting to see actors as inventive and polished as Jillian Murray and Ian Scott being challenged by a play that demanded the complete fusion of visual and performance style, and which Dombroski achieved. By contrast Edwin Batt[...]ly — a naturalistic, modern melodrama of mother and daughter murderesses — failed to shade and inflect the acerbic wit of Ryan’s writing despite good performances by Jillian Murray and Simon Hughes. Batt’s direction lacked style and asense of particular purpose and relied on easily achieved moments of tension and humour. The tackiness of the design looked even worse compared to Dombroski’s meticulous aesthetic and gave the lie to the excuse of poor, low budget th[...]e No 42 tram running from Mont Albert to the city and back. Both shows not only take theatre out to peo[...]t of the everyday environment. Writer Paul Davies and director Mark Shirrefs have created a complete ev[...]ated, like real-life, has a multiplicity of focus and the script is only a part of it; what really is at issue and of interest is the subversion of the boundaries between theatre and life. Was that a “real" / commuter who got on a[...]thes policeman really trying to stop the show — and do I really have to show my ticket to that maniac who says he’s the inspector? The Bus and Tram shows have done more for the public transport lobby f than Travelcard ever could, and en route created original, genuinely popular the[...]unn in MTC’s As We Are- Edwin odgeman (Iaques) and Gary As You Like It by Shakespeare. Melbourne[...]Cressey, Genevieve Picot. (Professional) Ramona and the White moves by GeorgeF Walker. La Mama Theatr[...]s, each with a visiting celebrity from tellyland. And there the similarity ended. Francis Durbridge’s[...]or kidnapping or both. There is much telephoning, and off-stage there is always a cottage in the country where something vital and mysterious is happening. People invariably masque[...]t, at least one character is bumped off on stage, and there are lots of totally unmotivated surprises.[...]hese privileged victims has to be ultra—glossy, and here Gene Banducci’s set of bland colours and restrained status symbols hits the nail right on the head. The women wear elegant and expensive-looking clothes. With the kind of one-[...]enuine warmth into the scenes of maternal concern and grief, whilst both Polly Low and Sher Guhl valiantly struggle with the task of bei[...]ings, albeit very decorative ones. Raymond Duparc and Harry Davidson do a nice doub1e—act as an 37 |
 | f 38 Inspector and his over-educated Sergeant, who turn into a couple of altogether different characters, and Margaret Ford is a visiting cousin, joyfully bumb[...]arguments that this sort of thing is done better and more forcefully on television — and yet, the large audience was clearly enjoying thin[...]“what — again?” How often has one seen it? And of course there was that film. . . So, more than[...]er bitchiness glitters, her vulgarities are funny and pardonable, and her maudlin alcoholic scenes suggest vulnerabilit[...]l plays muted cello to her violin. It is a subtle and restrained underplaying of the part, full of ener[...]rface. His caustic irony is all the more cutting, and in his great scenes — the anecdote of the boy w[...]marital war-games between the two have the vigour and precision of Wim- bledon tennis. It’s a master[...]ing younger man with a future, to drunken giggles and truculence with all the stages in between. As the[...]unacceptable. The play remains surprisingly fresh and vigorous, even though it has now moved from the o[...]offered by the Hole-in-the- Wall with the Gilbert and Sullivan Special, devised by John Milson and directed by Barry Screaigh. Loosely strung togeth[...]delivered by the singers, it tells the story ofG and S partnership with an emphasis on the songs rather than on the personalities. The production has verve and charm. There is no attempt to present the songs i[...]Savoy Operas have a repertoire of Victorian songs and madrigals. Leading lady of the show is Terry Johnson, whose range encompasses opera and musicals, but who has achieved a special place in the G and S scene. She sings with passion (“A Simple Sailor”) and with flirtatious charm in the love duets with Ja[...]is most moving in “I have a song to sing O”, and In the twenty years since the play first appeared we hve become familiar with “the games people play”, and it is now almost Terryjohnson and Voyces in the G & S Special at the Hole. very funny in the patter songs from Trial by jury and Pirates of Penzance. The idea of backing two leading singers with a versatile and tuneful group who are equally at ease in well-choreographed clowning seems quite inspired, and the total effect is that of a much “larger” s[...]erson, Peter Caminack. (Prafessimial. A Gilbert and Sullivan Special, Hole-in-the-Wall Theatre. Opened March 11, 1982. Terry Johnson and James Malcolm, accompanied by “Voyces”[...] |
 | [...]e Whaley. Annual workshop of new Australian plays and only national Theatre Forum. May 2-16.FOOLS GAL[...]Background. To May 1. Original show by Jo Fleming and Tony Cox. May 5- 15. JIGSAW THEATRE COMPANY (470[...]ordon; designer, Yoshi Tosa; with Diana Greentree and Don Reid. To May 15. GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY (33[...]eare; director, Aarne Neeme; with Ralph Cotterill and Natalie Bate. To May 8. Forget-Me-Not Lane by Pet[...]EATRE (921415) The Buccaneer Show by Ken Matthews and Steve Johnson; music by Adrian Morgan; producer,[...]; with Zoe Bertram, Allan Chapple, Margie McCrae and Tony Martin. Throughout May. HER MAJESTY'S THEAT[...]mon; director, Phil Cusack; with ‘ Jacki Weaver and John Waters. Throughout May. MARIAN STREET THEATRE (4983166) Night and Day by Tom Stoppard; director, Terence Clarke; wi[...]OFT THEATRE (9776585) Loftomania devised, written and ; directed by Peggy Mortimer; with A Enzo Toppano and Peggy Mortimer. Throughout May. NIDA (6633815)[...]erts; with Peter Carroll, Angela Punch—McGregor and Carole Skinner. To May 9. The Struggle of the Nag[...]tor, Anna Volska, with Harold Hopkins. Rob Steele and John Stone. To May 16. New Sky devised and performed by Judith Anderson with original music by Carl Vine. Starts May 21. York Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim; director, John Bell; designer, Roger Kirk; with Philip Quast, Jon Ewing and Deidre Rubenstein. Throughout May. NSW THEATRE OF THE DEAF (3571200) Theodora and The Communication Show for primary schools and Signposts In History for secondary schools; direc[...]lson, Zoe Bertram, John Hamblin, Malcolm Thompson and Belinda Giblin. lnto May. God's Favourite by Neil[...]E (047/265253) Safety in Numbers by Philip Scott and Luke Hardy; director and designer, . / 1‘ A - .~ « “(FHEATREAUSTRALIAMAY1982 . , . . / V) . l . 4 9 4 amino Downes and Barry Otto. Starts May 19. Theatre, Se[...] |
 | [...]E (2647988) Barnum by Cy Coleman, Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble; director and choreographer, Baayork Lee, musical director. Noe[...]e playbuilding, mime, dance, puppetry,Showcase: Romeo and Juliet adapted by Errol Bray; director, Kingston Anderson. May 1 , 7, and 8. STUDIO SYDNEY (7713333) People Are Living Th[...]Albee; director, Graham Correy; with Leila Blake and Ann Roy. Starts May 27. SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY ([...]; director, David Hare; designers, Eamon D’Arcy and Hayden Griffin; with Roshan Seth, Robert Grubb, Sheila Scott-Wilkinson, Pennie Downie, Peter Whitford and Tim Robertson. To May 8. Theatre Royal: Amadeus[...]ector, Richard Wherrett; designers, John Stoddart and Anne Fraser; with John Gaden, Drew Forsythe, Lind[...]Hughes, Terry Bader, Ric Hutton, Rhys McConnichie and Ron Hackett. to May 29. THEATRE SOUTH (042/28292[...]ntries contact Carole Long on 909 3010/35? 1200. QLD ARTS THEATRE (362344) The Tower by Hal Porter;[...]Durbridge; director, Val May; with Patrick McNee and Rosemary Barr. To May 22. LA BOITE THEATRE (361622) The Venetian Twins by Nick Enright and Terry Clarke; director, Malcolm Blaylock. To May 15. design, radio and video. Youth Theatre: D ( . I» THE AND ONLY VEt_lETlAN Wit Running Late For Nothing by David Pyle and Tony Longland; director, Des James. To May 27. *[...]ings; composer, Sarah de Jong; with Geoffrey Rush and Gillian Jones. A magical celebration of the power[...]Jones, Don Barker, David Hursthouse, John Heywood and Rob George. A bodgie gang of the 50's gets togeth[...]Old Unley Town Hall: Death Orange by Ron Hoening and Jon Firman; director, Richard Collins. The Vietna[...]ed by Richard Davey, Jude McHenry, Mary McMenamin and Fiona Stewart; director, Richard Davey. Woodsong devised and directed by Les Winspear. Forests by David Allen;[...]nglish. April 29, — May1. Schadenfreud written and directed by Paul Adkin. An apocalyptic musical. May 12-June 12. Ahead of Time-Eternity. An hour's animated and juxtaposed fantasy devised and directed by Nigel Triffit. Handspan’s children's show Jandy Malone and the 9 O'clock Tiger. May 8-21. 7-12 year olds. |
 | Wilson; directed Murray Copland; with Carrillo Gantner and Katherine Ferrand. April 22-May 30.For entries[...]gner, Jake Newby; with Sally Sander, Maurie Ogden and Pippa Williamson. Starts April 28. OCTAGON THEATRE (3802440) Mason Miller present As You Like It and King Lear by William Shakespeare; designed and directed by Ray Omodei; lighting, Jake Newby;[...]ondary schools. Blackwater devised by the company and directed by Andy Lemon. Suitable for Year 3. Wolfboy devised and directed by Peter Charlton, touring schools all o[...]d night on the town with Robyn Giles, Mike Bishop and Rob Meadows. All through May. BANANA LOUNGE (upst[...]COMEDY THEATRE (6623233) , One Mo’ Time written and directed by l Vernel Bagneris. Great New Orleans[...]AMA I i Blundell de5'9ne‘_j by Peter ROG Hall and Glen HltChCOCk. TO may Includes works by Samuel B[...]r'Ck Parslow 15- T935 1-Yi°5tY5v Stem‘ Tarram and Athenaeum 2: Narrow Feint by David PLAYHOUSE (3753500) Maude Clarke ! Knight directed by William Gluth and N"““°”a' T“e"’”'° C°"‘pa”V "'e[...],\/‘|‘af,2' Mill Club, Sats. 9.30-11am. Drama and 25_JU|y 21 - craft for children 8-15 run by Pam[...]rming Arts Centre during school holidays. 10.30am and PRINCESS MAY THEATRE, Fremantle (3355125) Winte[...]Ross Coli. To May 12. REGAL (3811557) Interstar and Paul Elliott present Py/ama Tops by Mawby Green and Ed Feibert; director, Bill Robertson; with John lnman and Reg Gillam. To May 22. NATIONAL THEATRE COMPANY[...]8) secondary schools in metropolitan. Kalgoorlie and Esperance districts. Throughout May. For[...] |
 | [...]ahd harbour. Live combo plays nightly for dinner and dancing. Free night parking in Basement. Pre-thea[...]erved in an informally elegant atmosphere. By day and sun pours through the tinted domed roof; at night the stars and city lights are above. You can dine here before t[...]Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. Lunch Mon—Fri, dinner and supper Mon—Sat. Licensed. Average $17. Credit c[...]undings. Ideally located for pre- theatre dinners and for late suppers. Dancing. From $5. Free Nigh[...]urets, pates etc. BEPPI'S (3574558) Cnr Stanley and Yurong Sts, East Sydney. Lunch Mon—Fri, dinner and supper Mon—Sat. Licensed. Credit cards accepted[...](432991) 418 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest. Dinner and supper Tues-Sat 8pm — 1am. Unlicensed. Credit cards accepted. Average $12. Dutch chef, Ron, serves seafood and international cuisine. Suppers are their speciality and a large choice of light dishes are avaiIabletill1[...]tures 2 bars, dance floor, disco music, courtyard and open fires in winter. 7.30 to 3am Mon-Sat; 7.30-1[...]Stylish surroundings, elegant food well executed and served and stuning theatre in a one-stop entertainment all under one roof. That's the menu at Ken and Lilian Horler‘s brand new Upstage Theatre Resta[...]nner drinks in the sumptuous piano bar (open 6pm) and dinner from 7-8.30pm; delicious frequently changing menu of seafood and international cuisine from chefs Dany Chouet and Ken Michael. Dinner is followed by superb cabaret entertainment starring Geraldine Turner and John O’May with delectable deserts, coffee and liqueurs in the interval. Piano bar open afterthe[...]TAURANT (4193311) Hilton Hotel, cnrwellington Pde and ’ Clarendon St, East Melbourne. ‘ Licensed. O[...]t from the house specialities they offer both hot and cold suppers for those seeking an after—show venue and even have a weight—watchers section on the menu[...]gs. Let them know if you're on your way to a show and the service will be quick and efficient. FANNY’S 96633017) 243 Lonsdale St,[...]y high quality French food. If you love good food and mixing with Melbourne's social set this re[...] |
 | [...]t some of our senior composers might do the same) and actually goes to concerts of new music.CHOREOGR[...]new production of Stravinsky’s Renard, produced and directed by Barry Moreland, and a new work, The Serpent Rainbow, choreographed by Barry More- land with Kelvin Coe, and other key Contributing Editor: James Murdoch[...]me Murphy is prepar- ing a new work to two recent and major scores: Barry Conyngham’s Mirage and Graeme K0ehne’: The Rainbow Forest, his award w[...]. The work, as yet untitled, is based on the life and works of Daisy Bates. For this work, Moreland has[...]h collaborations could herald a new era of energy and achievement in Australian theatre. FILM MUSIC WORKSHOPS Storry Walton’s Film and Television School is planning to introduce the first of a rolling series of seminars and workshops on Film Music later this year. He feels that with the growth in the numbers and stature of Australian composers, and the develop- ing film and television industry, a realistic workshop continu[...]onference (which lapsed into the inevitable gripe and bitch session) occured in the late ‘sixties. Co[...]collaboration of top choreo- grapher Jiri Kylian and three major composers Arne Nordheim, Toru Takemit- su and Luciano Berio has been postponed. It is of some[...]ept Berio (who was here in 1975 for Music Rostrum and collared my second best didjeridu) had quietly sl[...]as usual, over- ~INFO committed himself and has not finished his section, although he says no[...]AUSTRALIAN FOR GREEK FILM Gail Holst (ex-Nation Review music writer) is in Greece to make the film of h[...]ad To Rembetika, now published in English, German andand political implications of his popular music. The[...]offers of European engagements later in the year, and its fame is spreading rapidly. Its 1980 Adelaide[...]y is presenting a major survey of performance art and sound, devised by William Furlong. Spread over mu[...]includes Anti- Music a cassette sampler of music and performance groups who work and live in I Australia.[...] |
 | [...]hat Information is the new currency. It is bought and sold. It is coveted and feared.In the ’seventies, Australia exper- ie[...]ng about displaced jobs. Computerisation was chic and neat. The arts were hardly touched by Computeris[...]accounting purposes. Then along came Computicket and Bass and everyone became familiar with the new computer type-face. Research and documentation were sporadic and un- co-ordinated activities, and a data base of basic information always seemed very low on the list of priorities. Lots of organisations and persons have wads ofinformation. For instance, th[...]lso our history), but little of it is accessible. And that is a very important and crucial word, accessible. If it is not accessible, it is of no use to you and to me. In many instances it is of no use to the h[...]s in a form retrievable, it is jealously guarded and not available. Tr askin I demand for information[...]g 9 - the ABC for information. Even its poor grew and goes on to detail various archive department has[...]has. It is time to take stock of our activities, and of our needs, in order to sustain and develop them. As the Music Board itself says: “[...]tivities of a nation grow, accurate documentation and recording become essential.” The newly release[...]g on its own Council Programs to Arts Information and Research. Co- incidentally, the Council has relea[...]6,000 recipients) related to Council grants alone and with special supplements. * OZAR TS a guide to ar[...]umn * Photographic Archive * Films about the arts and artists It also notes two useful research reports[...]bstantiate the Council’s expenditure on opera), andand dissemination of arts information throughout Aust[...]an international centre for studies on the arts, and of an international arts THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 |
 | [...]ne who is vitally concerned with arts information and its transfer (as World President ofthe Music Info[...]hem omnipotent.Without the access of the artist and his audience to a diverse information resource, the whole scene becomes stultified, incestuous andand artistic life of other countries, are suspicious of, and resist, “the new”, and the arts become duller and duller. Let’s take a look at some of the arts[...]c is better provided with accessible information and indeed Australia leads the world in some aspects[...]Directory of Music Research was a trai1—b1azer and is now computerised in New York. The famous three[...]conograpliie Musicale RILM is the best organised and is available through its publications or more directly and up—to-date, through MIDAS, the service provided[...]tralia in 1979, in time to astonish the delegates and the President of the International Music Council[...]e of the distinguished scholars was nominated and instantly details of his life’s work rlnstitute (ITI) branch in Australia and appeared on the screen. He was visibly shaken. H[...]a Music Centre (now going again after a year off) and include what one would expect: Catalogues of Aust[...]ganisations, bibliography of Australian materials and recordings. In addition the Centre has files on[...]sic Direc- tory appeared. Edited by Peter Beilby and Michael Roberts, it is hoped to be an annual publication, and so will expand and fill in some gaps. It has brought together a mass of useful information and is clearly aimed at the industry and commercial music. The Music Board of the Austral[...]national music magazine for some fourteen years, and it is patently time to offer a central organ and platform for the dispersal of informa- tion which reaches none of the media, and for the serious discussion of major issues, not d[...]ABC, Musica Viva, the AETT, the Australian Opera and the state opera companies, the Australian Ballet, and the members of the 3500 organisa- tions listed in[...]heatre period- icals, a collection of Australian (and non-Australian) plays without being comprehensive[...]ity of Queensland plans to precis all publ- ished and unpublished Australian plays and to computerise the result. Let’s hope the plays aren’t thrown away afterwards, and that a Readers Digest mentality prevails once again. And finally, Theatre Australia itself, since August 1976, is a most accessible and well-documented source of per- forming arts information, and more detailed than the Performing Arts Year Book of Australia (b 1976) which has steadily grown in stature and now includes 25 categories of documen- tation.[...]sed its documentation greatly over the last year, and much of it may still be generally unknown. There are five basic areas: 1. The two books by Edward Pask on Ballet in Australia, which are mostly a recital of events interspersed with hagiography and fatuousness, but include most useful Chronology, Bibliography, Index of Stage Works and General Index. To this add Frank Salter’s super[...]as a different index. ]ohn Cargher’s book Opera and Ballet in Australia also has a THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 |
 | [...]y- where. The AMC established dance files in 1975 and these include comprehensive press cuttings. The Dennis Wolanski Library and Archives of the Performing Arts has substantial documentation, and probably today is the major documentation centre[...]ary at the Sydney Opera House has a ten year lead and munificent patronage. The Performing Arts Collect[...]ives of the Dance, which belong to the Australian Ballet, and which were created by Edward Pask.LITERATURE T[...]Australian literature currently (1979) available, and was intended mainly for overseas use. It also has[...]Fellowship of Australian Authors, with 3—4,000, and the most exclusive and professional Australian Writers’ Guild, with so[...]as been accom— = panied by supportive resource and documentation centres. The Film Library at the A[...]ustralia. Film Australia has a catalogue as well, and the Australia \ Sydney Philharmonia Society[...]rom Sydney Opera House Box Oflice (phone 2 0588) and agencies, or from Sydney Philharmonia Society, cnr. York and Jamison Sts., City (phone 29 4470). ‘ court[...](run by Peter Campbell) keeps track of arts films and operates an archival program. Each of the states has a resource centre (and a catalogue) which usually includes a State Film[...]all these are to be brought together in Victoria and will be called Film Victoria — surely all the o[...]rce centre. Other basic publications are the Film and TV Year Book, Cinema Papers, AFI’s Film News, and the AMC’s Catalogue of Australian Film Music.[...]nal Library, State Film Libraries, AFC, AFI, Film and TV School should have the game sown up for inform[...]ies that 576 collections were surveyed, 133 major and 343 general collections. Finally, the report was[...]ch is not available, or not available for sharing and the next crucial step is for the Australia Counci[...]ne considers the arts in terms of practi- tioners and consumers, and in terms of money invested in the arts industry,[...]proceed with so little research, docu- mentation and information. Where is the initiative to come fro[...]ETT * CAPPA * A consortium of existing national and international organisations. If those working in[...], then they must demand it, collect it, share it, and budget for it. |
 | [...]Y Not everything went terribly well for the cast and crew of The Year of Living Dangerously in the Philippines and their stay was curtailed. James McElroy is the pr[...]the director, Russell Boyd the cinemaphotographer and Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Michael Murphy the stars of Christopher Koch’s story, which is fully financed, and will be marketed worldwide, by MGM. The Philippin[...]ir James Cruthers, whose interests are newspapers and television in Western Australia, is a new part-ti[...]r Ray Beattie whose interests are in tech- nology and marketing. AFC CREATIVITY The Australian Film C[...]velopment Branch by stating that it loved the CDB andand it has asked for Contributing Editor: Elizabeth[...]The Chant ofjimmy Blacksmith, ThePzcture Show Man and Caddie (two nights each) Mouth to Mouth and Mad Max in a double bill because, says the Institute’s Director, these are “cu1t movies”, and The Winter of Our Dreams which is expected to be[...]DEVELOPMENT DOLLARS Anne Brooksbank‘s Archer and William Nagle’s Leonski got $6000 and 810,000 respectively for third draft funding from the AFC, and Adams Packer Pty Ltd the sum of $123,000 to devel[...]Field plays a singularly inept, though attractive and ambitious, reporter who fits a man into her story to suit her theories, and damages him. No Australian editor would let her s[...]garding this, the film is well- made, interesting and has Paul Newman as the victim. REDS does not hav[...]ting to watch Warren Beatty producing, directing, and playing Reed. Diane Keaton should go back to Wood[...]E IS IT ANYWAY? is the film of the controversial, and very moving, play about the sculptor paralysed fr[...]n he could just slip off the life support machine and go wherever it is people go. The film is not a pl[...]ctor-boss of the hospital. Packed with good lines and a remarkable small performance from Kenneth McMil[...]st five years, with a brilliant script, direction and acting not only from Robert de Niro and Robert Duvall but from the entire cast. A[...] |
 | [...]ID THORNTON talks to Elizabeth Riddell Every now and again a reviewer likes to publicly pick a winner, and this is just what I feel like doing in the case o[...]It is her first real break in ten years of small and middle roles in television and films in which she was hardly noticed. The Man g[...]s of the High Country, to show childish sweetness and un- certainty, flashes of sunny humour and brooding fear of rejection, all of which she gave[...]met Sigrid she was wearing a bright blue jumpsuit andand we were living in London —— my father and mother are university lecturers — I joined the[...]ice, Homicide, Dim'sz'0n Four, Father Dear Father and in three films where I don’t think I was noticed — The Getting of Wisdom, Ff Holden, and Snapshot, a thriller Simon Wincer made. “I spe[...]wford when I had time from school. I matriculated and was going to do arts. I think it’s important fo[...]besides acting. In the end I did a year of German and of drama at Queensland University until I THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 decided to go for broke, and just act. I’ve just finished playing Frances, o[...]ies. It was a great experience, lots of rehearsal and great care and enthusiasm from everyone at the ABC.” Frances[...]rincipal characters. The others are Walter, Billy and Diana played respectively by Scott McGregor, Scott Burgess and Jackie Woodbourne. “Making a film is hard, but also tremendous fun,” Sigrid says, “and the atmosphere is very good and friendly. I hope it stays that way, with cast and crew getting on together. And wasn’t I lucky to get Tom Burlinson to work with? And Kirk Douglas? He was generous with his time and knowledge and experience. He didn’t give advice. It wasn’t an authoritarian atmosphere at all, just very free and friendly.” |
 | [...]apt title for this exuberant, fast, fresh, funny and unselfconscious film using a formidable aggregati[...]g came together — idea, producers David Elfick and Richard V Brennan, the director Gillian Armstrong[...]direction, half a ‘ dozen good songs, beautiful and lively cinematography under the direction of Russell Boyd, costume and production design by Luciana Arrighi, Terry Ryan and 5 Brian Thomson, choreography by David _ Atkins, editing by Nicholas Beauman.And two new young starstruck people — * Jo Kennedy as Jackie and Ross O’Donovan as Angus — and several mature ones, especially Margo Lee as Pea[...]Nana, Max Cullen as Reg, Dennis Miller as i Lou and Melissa Jaffer as Mrs Booth. 7 All these people[...]is leased. They are also more or less 5 related, and stand in loco parentis to a Cockatoo named Wally and several con- fident cats. The pub and the people are models of how corny elements may b[...]While the elders go about their business Jackie and Angus, cousins, one an in- efficient barmaid and the other a schoolboy, live in a fantasy world of[...]ed by logistics — where does Jackie find a band and a place to sing, how does Angus break through the[...]two city buildings, wearing a nude body-stocking and massive artificial breasts and falls into a safety met while Angus, using severa[...]or so different voices, alerts the media; a water ballet of beach lifesavers (actually water polo players[...]on their noses swims in a hotel pool with Jackie and a troop of plastic sharks; Jackie, wearing the tu[...]acefully, to the plaudits of the crowd. Interior and exterior crowd scenes are wonderfully manipulated, and David Atkins’ choreography using non-dancers in[...]rit of S tarstruck is that it has no dull patches and no over- burdened scenes, though it does have some quiet ones, and some quiet songs for Jo Kennedy as well as the firecracker numbers like “Temper, Temper”, “Tough” and “Monkey In Me”. Starstruck is a triumph for all concerned in it, and should do as well overseas, with the right kind o[...]a. As well as presenting the newcomers Jo Kennedy and Ross O’Donovan, Gillian Armstrong has brilliant[...]ften con- demned to be stereotypes — Pat Evison and Margo Lee. Pat Evison has died tragically too oft[...]his time, as Nana, she gambols about the pub, fat and feckless, a believable gran. Margo Lee gives an e[...]e, financed from the Australian Film Com- mission and private sources. _]o Kennedy flackie) and the Harbour View Hotel in Starstruck. THE[...] |
 | [...]River is the third western, after Mad Dog Morgan and The Irishman, in the local industry’s born-agai[...]ert Evans who later became a Paramount executive) and the guilt western, such as The Wild Bunch, have moved into science fiction blockbusters, and this in fact may be the right time for Michael Ed[...]er does not have the advantage of the giant press and television complex which Rupert Murdoch, a partne[...]advertising canvasser, to be dismissed lightly.And you can see where the money has been spent. And, conversely, where it has been saved, or misspent[...]is marvellous action, marvellously photographed. And I daresay Kirk Douglas cost a bundle, especially[...]oles; the cantankerous old stony-hearted Harrison and the cantankerous old golden- hearted Spur, estranged brothers, cattle- man and gold fossicker. The rest of the cast and most of the crew are Australian and come cheaper, although salaries and wages at all levels in Australian film making are rising, and some would say not before time. As everybody who[...]he pedigree colt that broke from the home paddock and went off with the wild horses led by the photogenic stallion and was recovered by a mountain man when everybody el[...]ve been fitted up with a story by Fred Cul Cullen and John Dixon which is predictable and stuffed with cliches in scenes and dialogue; and the direction of George Miller (not the Miller of Mad Max 1 and II, and it would lessen confusion if one of them would ch[...]n which nothing happens beyond meaningful glances and there are lapses of judgement — scenes early on[...]r Tom Burlinson — The Man. Grows into his role and has real style. 50 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 early scene when Jim the hero and his father cut down a tree while gazing sentiment[...]e perched on a rock while a storm rages over her; andand is not seen effectively again until he turns up a[...]k Douglas, who obviously had troubles with makeup and costume in both his roles, is of course the star, but if anything except the horses and the glorious landscape is going for the film it is the romantic twosome of Tom Burlinson as Jim and Sigrid Thornton as Harrison’s daughter Jessica,[...]hot first, because Burlinson grows into his role, and he has real style. Sigrid Thornton is an unorthodox beauty, and when she learns to use stillness to go with gamin[...]f the cast has to slip in a phrase from the poem, and hesitates, and you wonder if they are going to make it. I was accompanied to the cinema by two boys aged 11 and eight, and their mother. The younger was preoccupied with worry |
 | [...]has since taken to cracking a pretend stockwhip, and the elder said it was the best film he had seen this year. His mother and I both felt a bit saddle sore.Breakfast in Pari[...]rated television soapie Peyton Place 20 years ago and may also be remembered for her film role in The V[...]tures pinned on his walls are of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur. The film is so inept and silly it is impossible to place the blame for its[...], partly due to the establishment of Channel 0/28 and partly to the enterprise of a small, loosely conn[...]influential ofthe cinemas showing foreign films (and some films from Britain and the US which would not be screened by the big com[...]up-market MLC complex at Martin Place. Last year and in the first months of 1982 the Dendy has screened films from East and West Germany, Poland, Spain, Japan, El Sal- vador and Switzerland. The latest is Mephzsto, from Hungary, about events and people in Germany in the thirties during and after the rise of Adolf Hitler. It is a film of almost hypnotic interest, made by Istvan Szabos and starring the astonishing, exciting Klaus K[...]o pursued his own ambition by becoming the spirit and symbol of the new German (Aryan) drama under the patronage of the Prime Minister, who is also a general andand later married the poet W H Auden to gain British citizenship) and Paula Wedekind, daughter of the playwright. The[...]gues until discovered, later lapsing into despair and becoming no more than a servant of the Prime Mini[...]as well as the physical atmosphere of the period and is continuously exciting as the actor goes about[...]lbourne the Brighton Bay Twin Cinema has Mephisto and it is also going to Perth and Brisbane. It opened in London and New York simultaneously with the Australian showings. It won the International Critics Prize for Best Film and Best Screenplay at Cannes in 1981 and is nominated for Best Foreign Film in the Academy Awards. International Critics Award Best Film and Best Screenplay Directed by ISTVIIN SZABO[...] |
 | flfiawf OPERA CONFERENCE DISSOLVES After five-and-a-bit years of, sometimes turbulent, operation the Opera Conference of Australia and New Zealand decided at its meeting in Adelaide on[...]would be more appropriate for them to join CAPPA and join forces with other performing arts bodies than remain an exclusive opera club. The Conference and CAPPA had from the very beginning of the latter’s life main- tained close and friendly relations and their “amalgamation” was, in fact, only a ma[...]f the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala and other major opera houses will make his Australian[...]on ofthe Australian Opera. Acclaimed by audiences and critics for both his musical and dramatic achievements, Sherrill Milnes is joined[...]r in the challenging roles of the Thane of Cawdor and his ambitious wife. The genius of Verdi is combi[...]STRALIA MAY 1982 ~INFO genius of Shakespeare and the result is a gripping theatrical explosion of witchcraft, madness and death. The production to be conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario will also star Donald Shanks as Banquo and Reginald Byers as Macduff. VSO NEW FACES The Ch[...]ck Kennedy OBE is appointed as Honorary Treasurer and Mr Wilfred Thornton is appointed as Chairman of t[...]ra. Mr Kennedy is a partner of Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. He was the President of the Victorian Society for Crippled Children from 1964 to 1973, and President of Yooralla Society in 1978. He is also[...]ton has been Managing Director of Associated Pulp and Paper Mills Limited since 1974. For the past thre[...]“I am delighted to have men of such experience and stature working on behalf of the VSO. Both Mr Kennedy and Mr Thornton have a keen interest in Opera and in its development here in Victoria.” A SMALL TESTIMONIAL General Managers and other members of the upper echelons of companies frequently receive accolades for good work done and when they move on elsewhere their passing is note[...], people like production managers whose hard work and determination are at least as crucial in getting[...]been created by an extremely small band of staff and supporters, one of whom has recently moved on. El[...]This column wishes her well in her new endeavours and feels sure the Festival will soon show the[...] |
 | [...]Ian Campbell (left) working with Thomas Edmonds and Marilyn Richardson in La Boheme rehearsal. Ian[...]with the ‘h° Sydney C°“- H6 Yang “‘€= and I intention of Completing a Law degree started 1n[...]he Festival. From one of these he emerged, prompt and cheerful, for the following interview. KH[...] |
 | [...]Sir George Solti. She was responsible for casting and reper- toire there, and had decided to retire when Solti went off to reju[...]Rolf Liebermann. They persuaded her to join them, and they put Paris back on the operatic map. Just as[...]n, James Levine became Music Director at the Met, and lured her to New York. She came for a season or two, and so far has stayed for five years. I’ve since le[...]ught that I had the right blend of administrative and artistic experience. A lot of people they’d tal[...]er of renewal. I gave the matter lots of thought, and realised while I was in San Diego giving some lec[...]n. They included Tito Capobianco, Patrick Veitch, and Michael Bronson, the Met’s technical man.KH:[...]of his Boheme, I told him I thought it was bad, andand there are 210 performances in 30 weeks, which is[...]institution.‘ IC: The singers travel by plane and the sets by truck. There are seven performances p[...]holidays for the past five years going to America and England. At the Opera America Conference in ’78[...]Conference, saw our production of Die Fledermaus, and spent a week working on our marketing. The friend- ship developed from there. KH: And the Australian Opera? IC: They took an immediate interest in him, andand I’ve been involved professionally in opera sinc[...]ountry. Just living in New York will be exciting, and I have yet to prove a great deal about myself pro[...]er delegates all artistic matters to Joan Ingpen and James Levine. But that is not to say that[...] |
 | E PERA Makropoulos and Elixir — strong after- images by Ken Healey I[...]ian Opera was in Brisbane with The Bartered Bride and Madam Butterfly, the so-called regional companies[...]tions farther South. State Opera, South Australia and Canberra Opera share the name “regional”, but[...]ccasion was that Canberra hired Adelaide’s sets and costumes for a new production by John Milson of The Elixir of Love, and presented it within days of State Opera's Adelaid[...]f a standard to justify their respective outlays. And there the comparisons really should stop. Elijah[...]x-appeal accumulated by means of a beautiful body and more than half a dozen lifetimes of practice. If[...]s say, Menotti, than to the man who wrote ]erzufa and Katya Kobanova. At least Menotti, a highly compet[...]confronted by a number of lovers, past, present, and would-be. Unfortunately, in the face of her own i[...]:.;:i::i::i;i::Z i Gregory Dempsey, Roger Howell and Elisabeth Soderstrom in Act I of SOSA ’s The M[...]dignity, handsomeness, a good deal of fine sound, and the mystery of Soderstrom who manages to project at once the allure of a desirable woman and the archness of a prima donna. She has been at th[...]r this opera. Yet the orchestral texture in brass and woodwind is often bold and complex. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Denis Vaughan lacked rhythmic tautness at times, and was guilty of sloppy entries far too often. But the balance between pit and stage, unsatisfactory by all accounts at earlier[...]n audible cast singing in English, Thomas Edmonds and Roger Howell, both in minor roles, deserve special praise for clarity of word and tone. Sharing the plaudits with Soderstrom and with Moshinsky’s intelligent production was Bri[...]psey, insufficiently beautiful of voice, feature, and figure to succeed as Albert Gregor, was not well[...]in the country who would be ideal both musically and physically for the role, but Thomas Edmonds may h[...]obody buying love potion from a quack named Sweet-and-Sour so that he could best his rival, Sergeant Be[...], but wisely left the names (Nemorino, Dulcamara, and Belcore) in the original Italian. Come to[...] |
 | [...]o indulge his knowledge of the beauty of his face and his voice. In most other respects the production[...]ccompanying Du1camara’s entry were slack. Stage and pit were not always at one, which led me to belie[...]m.Hugh Co1man’s Edwardian costumes were fine, and his simple set, making use of the effects of vary[...]ions from the leading state companies in Adelaide and 56 I merit represented by T}zeMakropu1osAffa[...]out a comparably high level of activity month in and month out. And l that requires government subsidy, both federal and state. ~GUIDE Digby. // Trabarro; with Etela P[...]ary achieve- at this year’s Adelaide Festival, and by Death In Venice two years earlier could not 0[...]ucer, John Copley; designers, Henry Bardon (sets) and Michael Stennett (costumes); with Rhonda Bruce or[...]i (In Italian); conductors, Carlo Felice Cillario and William Reid; producer, Andrew Sinclair; designer[...]ll, Geoffrey Harris, Merlyn Quaife, Judith Henley and the WA Arts Orchestra. To May 15. THEA[...] |
 | [...]hen asked about her son.But, have him she (lid. And coulthrt look after him. So. Barnardo"s had to l[...]lly uncontrollable at first, always running away; and seemingly bent on suicide. More than once our sta[...]the train arrived. Barry was one of 650 children and families in need that Barnardols took Care of last year, through ll different welfare programmes in N.S.W. and the A.C.T. Z This year Barnardois despera[...] |
 | l_ 58ANCE AB REVIEW Far-reaching changes to the running of the Australian Ballet have been recom- mended in the management’s consultants’ review commissioned by the company’s board of directors. Its 51 pages of recommendations and observations form a blueprint for the company’s[...]fa high level of communication between management and performers can be achieved and maintained. The main thrust of the review is the reinstatement of the artistic management a[...]s prime motivator: “We have no doubt that, in a ballet company, the position of artistic director should[...]hich the company’s artistic inspiration, vision and drive is drawn." Peter Bahen — Report recom[...]e in more than theoretical terms, a strengthening and enlarging of the artistic staff is suggested. New positions of ballet director, artistic co- ordinator and resident choreographer, and three positions of ballet master/mistress, are seen to be necessary. They w[...]ld another new appointment, personnel manager — and provide the opportunity to raise artistic standards. The review does not address itself specifically to the position of Peter Bahen, the Australian Ballet Administrator, whose sacking was called for by th[...]e not only divides the responsibility of artistic and administrative staff, but indicates separate reporting lines for the artistic director and the administra- tor, each of them going direct to[...]is the chief administrative officer of a company, andand changes are necessary.” Beyond that, the sheer[...]mmended changes speak for them- selves. Patience and commitment from dancers, management and board are asked for: “We are convinced that, unless there is an early renewal of team effort and a return to the realisation that the Australian Ballet’s standards are not achievable by one group alo[...]he need for clarification of the role ofthe board and the aims for future membership. These include the need for people who have “an interest in and commitment to the industry they are directing. . . (and) wide experience in the arts or theatre or busine[...]ding a spread of age groups, geographic locations and ethnic backgrounds. Dancer repre- sentation on th[...]er of THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 performers, and the possibility of com- mittees being set up within the board structure. At the time of writing, the review was being discussed by the AB board, manage- ment and staff. But its effects were already being noticed. Members of the press were circulated with the review on its release (more readily than members of the company, which was unfortunate), and dance reviewers were flown in by the company from[...]- duction, a controversial item for a long while, and carried pages of information about the artistic s[...]34,000 Peter Stuyvesant Scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London on the advice of his teachers, Joan and Monica Halliday, of Sydney. Meanwhile in Melbour[...]take up studies in London. . . Danilo Radojevic and Chrisa Keramidas, former Australian Ballet members, now doing outstandingly well with American Ballet Theatre, made a flying trip home in March to see their families in Melbourne and Sydney in the fortnight’s break following an AB[...]London’s Sadlers Wells Theatre between June 15 and 26, followed by performances at festivals in Cologne, Athens and Dubrovnik. . . Peter Brinson, dance writer and evan- gelist, will leave his post as Director of[...]ome principal lecturer in the sociology of dance, and head of the Department of Research and Community Development at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in South London. ~INFO |
 | [...]e is an old saying that you can’t be both whore and madame.”The allusion was to all the years that Tetley spent trying to perform and choreograph, and then, between 1974 and 1976, combining choreography with directing the Stuttgart Ballet. “It is all I can handle just to try to be a go[...]demand around the world, both to create new works and revive old ones. He was back in Australia after n[...]staging of his Rite of S pring for the Australian Ballet. It was one of the works which opened the company’s 1982 subscription season in Sydney, and will be seen later this year in Brisbane and Melbourne. Tetley has not long completed a new Firebird for the Royal Danish Ballet, which also has his Voluntaries, Greening and Rite of Spring in its repertoire. His Dances of Albion for the Royal Ballet made him the first non-British re- cipient of the[...]o- reographed in 1978, will open the Scandinavian ballet season in New York next October. When he left Australia, it was to stage Voluntaries for for the Paris Opera Ballet. His Rite of Spring, which he choreograph[...] |
 | and the work’s mingling of mystic and religious symbolism has the sophistic- ated acade[...]ve always been interested in comparative religion and archaeology, and in so many of the primitive religions — one cou[...]graphers who like to bring more thanh visual and dramatic content to their work. Having been lucky[...]dance reviewing in London as he helped chart the Ballet Rambert through its new growth phase in the late[...]possibilities of meaning behind it. Peter Brinson and Clement Crisp describe that potential perfectly in the Pan Book of Ballet and Dance: “In many Tetley works we have been awar[...]bilities.” The breadth of Tetley’s stylistic and thematic range may have something to with the fact that he was 20 and a medical student before he decided to train as a dancer. “I came in late and thought, ‘I am going to get the best of everything I can grab’ ”, he recalled in Sydney. And he certainly chose some outstanding teachers. Antony Tudor and Margaret Craske instructed him in classical technique, while Martha Graham and Hanya Holm inspired him with the possibilities of[...]also appeared as a principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre, partnering such famous dancers as Maria Tallchief, Lupe Serrano and Toni Lander. The confusion about his background[...]in- dividual selection of movement in- fluences, and for a long time, he didn’t devise any point wor[...]their bodies to feel how they are going to move, and I didn’t want to use the classical vocabulary u[...]ssical companies, I grew to feel more experienced and 60 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 confident about w[...]arted gradually. Then, when I took over Stuttgart and worked with Marcia Haydee, whose best line is on[...]Gemini, which Tetley created for the Australian Ballet in 1973, was one of the earliest works in which h[...]on point. He has a great affection for that great ballet, and feels that it still belongs to Australia and its national company, despite the per- formances[...]erseas by such outstanding companies as Stuttgart and American Ballet Theatre since then. During our conversation, I c[...]after Tetley’s wirehaired dachshunds, F ratello and Tartufo, who became almost as well-known in the d[...]y altitudes manage to achieve. Tetley has a rich and affectionate collection of stories about them and their commuting lives between his homes in New York and Italy. He and a friend would travel separately in economy and first class, each with the one dog allowed in tha[...]there was the time an air hostess approached him and asked if he knew the gentleman travelling in econ[...]- covered the best observation point on the plane and taken up the same stance as he would in a car, su[...]g, wordly—wise Brighella in one of his earliest and most memorable works, Pierrot Lunaire. Now[...] |
 | ‘ ANCE Pina Bausch, ADT and SDC by Bill Shoubridge For my money, the Wupper[...]as the highlight of the 1982 , Adelaide Festival, andand repetitiousness, especially in Kontakthof. Mind y[...]esign. For all its adventurous enquiry into dance and theatre, it is one of ‘ the most disciplined of groups, with its works scaled and bevelled into strict 2 formalistic structures. I[...]out of the scheme of a “theatre” presentation and she achieves this in two ways. Firstly by placing the performance in a setting conducive and “real” to the terms of the work. Kontakthof is initially about the rituals and mannerisms inherent in a public meeting place, in this case a dance hall, and that is why the work went on at the Thebarton Tow[...]down the K0Dt8kth0f- Photo: Ulli Weiss. “them and us” barriers inherent in a production. To start[...]o see things “big”; theatre intensifying life and all that. What she wanted to do was scale down the audience’s field and depth of vision, hence the slowness andand when that (small) change came one’s attention w[...]de field of vision Pina Bausch could continue — and she did — the gestures of love that turn to gestures of detestation, fear, near cannibalism, rejection and longing. Things were repeated sure enough; the me[...]e audience to buy a ride on the mechanical horse, and so on. The point was, as much to make the audienc[...]One could see that the “corps” section of men andAnd so it went on until, with the film excerpt of duc[...]e that in nature there are no moral distinctions, and care, love and THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 ~RE VIE W protection are instinctive, without the rules and barriers that humanity puts up. But humanity can[...]primevalism by virtue of its social com- plexity, and so the rituals go on. The dancers at the end of t[...]ess has been achieved because of those longueurs and repetitions, not in spite of them. The earlier w[...]of incomprehension between seeing life as a woman and seeing it as a man. It is not enough to be jingoistic and claim “social conditioning” as the reason, fo[...]akthof, at greater length, identifies. The drama and brutality of Bluebeard comes out of personal expectation as much as anything; that and human frustration. The line of men slowly draggin[...]oss the leaf strewn floor are as heavily weighted and pressured as the women. The tight animalistic huddles and the orgiastic runs and jumps across the stage are as much engendered by the women as the men. As the “ballet” closes and Bluebeard drags his Judith along the floor with him and out of the door he repeatedly claps his hands and the rest of the cast multifariously freeze into gestures of domination/sub- servience, rejection and acceptance. It again has come full circle and the audience feels that the full circle will always continue. It has been noted that Pina Bausch and her company in the years that it has been perform[...]meland has done more to develop the face of dance and theatre in that country than all the other German[...]ntensify the appreciation of Australian audiences and critics as the Wuppertal company has done in its short attenuated visit. It was a wonderful and exhilarating experience to see it, but all[...] |
 | [...]theatre; he creates his impacts, his dissonances and his discursions for all the theatrical effect tha[...]overt sense of drama always pervading it. It is a ballet built on that great standby of the theatre, tension and conflict.Never have I seen the ADT dancers so powerfully extended and theatrically ex- posed, but exposed by virtue of the expressiveness of their dancing and the 'contrasts of what they are given to dance.[...]ping lifts, edgy partnerings, bounding ensembles and ' soaring solos that pepper this ballet. However, while it is perfect in its place, givi[...]io’s Sinfonia, it wears itself out dramatically and musically for the same reasons that Taylor’s ch[...]t in extreme dynamics. Small, complex pas de deux and solos nervous or lyrical by turns are repeatedly swept up and away by great bounding group pieces that have the sweep and grandeur of waves from the seas. These group mome[...]t they would if it weren’t for the serene, calm and statuary finish to the ballet, with the dancers in a circle, peeling off into t[...]an ensemble company to me, more so than the SDC, and it was so good to see the occasional spotlight gi[...]ly the two boys in the male pas de deux in Part 1 and the couple in Part 2 in the lovely extended pas d[...]like to see more ofthis underlining in ADT works and a little less facelessness from the company as a[...]john Nobbs and Madonna Petersen in ADT’s While We Watched. Photo: Grant Hancock. a lovely neoclassic ballet of craftsmanlike construction and in Murphy’s Hate a vibrant, powerful piece of theatre. In Graham Watson’s I.m514, though, a ballet "about” a robot rebelling against her controllers and trying to have good time, I’m not sure what it[...]r hand, has remained in his genre country of Bach and lightly flavoured abstract dance and it is a welcome tonic after the heavy stuff of th[...]interest through a close-packed weave of ensemble and pas de deux work and he has, like Balanchine, illuminated his music by[...]horeography, it is at times too messy, repetitive and over reminiscent of Murphy stuff we’ve seen bef[...]to illuminate it in an allegoric way. Thus in a ballet about hate we have lots of frantic running about, sharp jagging angles in the duet work and a morass of flailing arms and legs, finishing with paint being thrown at the au[...]stic curtain). Trouble is it looks a little empty and arty, reminiscent at times of the bad days of the[...]lent (Picasso, Braque, Satie) to create in design and sound what was lacking in choreo- graphic inventi[...]is plenty of good stuff to salvage from this work and when one considers the masterpiece of New Additio[...]ds, Graeme Murphy has served his company, dancers and audiences extremely well this time around. The Australian Ballet '5 opening program: for 1982 at the Sydney Opera House will be reviewed in the next issue. WA Ballet at the Maj by Miranda Sadka Skill, stamina and versatility are the ingredients that made up the WA Ballet Company's first 1982 season at His Maiest_v’s T[...]ance that ranged from the complex moods of WA Ballet in Images. Photo: Sally McConnell. THEATR[...] |
 | [...]ring, Perth audiences stayed away in droves.Has ballet in Perth reached the stage where it is seen only[...]ccess of past productions of the ilk of Peter Pan and Cinderella would lead one to this unhappy conclus[...]is a work of great lyric beauty demanding control and precision dancing from the performers. Choreograp[...]tage of the dancers’ powerful blend of vitality and grace. A touch of oriental mysticism came with Walter Bourke’s Paradise sensuous ballet set to Ravi Shankar’s sitar music. Joanne Munda[...]ome of her pirouettes needed greater definition), and Stephen Rowe supported her strongly as the earthbound hunter. Garden, a v The third ballet, Ray Powell’s One In Fl‘Z'€ ‘ is a whims[...]attention of their coquettish female col- league and beguile the audience with their antics. Although the mood is light-hearted and allows the dancers to indulge in a certain amount of drollery, the ballet is technically demanding and the footwork of the male dancers was at times not[...]fourth curtain opened to a hypnotic contemporary ballet by the company’s Artistic Director, Garth Welch[...]ng piece of choreography which explores the moods and rhythums of the Rachmaninov music as its strange[...]melt into sinuous movement. Some outstanding solo and pas de deux work came from Michele Ryan who combi[...]que with an almost boneless fluidity of the torso and upper limbs. Tony Tamburri was an excellent foil with the clean lines of his dancing and fine port de bras. The evening’s finale came w[...]Raynzorzda. In its original three-act format, the ballet is an unashamedly illogical fairytale in the tru[...]the usual padding of processions, dream sequences and the like, to give a well- integrated series of solo and ensemble sequences that move smoothly to the[...]s stage looks bare without the bands of courtiers and visiting potentates that normally swell the ranks of such a ballet. Such defects can only be overcome by a big company with a strong corps of dancers on which to call and the WA company managed to give a refreshing perfo[...]t at its command. Maggie Lorraine was a delicate and sure- footed Raymonda, the brittle fragility of h[...]sting with the studied movements of the courtiers and the leashed passion of the Saracen entourage. She[...]iesty’s during the season, it was a challenging and satisfying evening ofdance, but the disastrous attendance figures do not auger well for the future of ballet in this state. Unless Perth audiences realise that dance is more than tutus and toe-shoes and a fairy- tale plot, we will be reduced to amateur[...]3 ' RETURN AUSTRALIAN SEASONS Adelaide—August and November; Melbourne—Seplember and November; Geelong and Canberra—September; THEATRE AUSTRALIA M[...] |
 | [...]ith Dennis Olsen managing to combine manic energy and sombre reflectiveness in his character- isation[...]think, playing a character constantly on the move and full of untiring exuberance, can often be more en[...]e too resisted the temptation to play up the part and, espeically in her later scenes, convincingly cau[...]of her life — for all her lapses into hysteria and mania. Debbie Little and Patrick Frost were the other members of a strong quarter: the former confident and in particular present- ing Grainger’s first fia[...]ue attention to her attractiveness, sensitiv- ity and ultimate confusion over what Grainger expected of[...]however, seemed over—naturalistic: a few props and changes in lighting would have been both more effective and less com- fortably domestic.A Map of the World[...]2. Director, David Hare; Designer, Eamon D’Arcy and Hayden Griffin; I_.ighting, Rory Dempster; Music[...]Bloch, Nicholas Lidstone. (Professional). Percy and Rose by Rob George. Stage Company, Adelaide Festi[...]onstructing high life (3.7) 7. Cunningly I lodge and marry Emma, a lady of letters (447) 14. Eruptions brought on by temperature and right combustion remains (4,6) 17. Idle t[...] |
TXT |
 | [...]5 f r a PLAYW RITIN G'8 2 THE ELLIS COLUMN AUS BALLET SHAKE-UF[...] |
 | [...]Australian National Playrights' Con actors and directors). Many directors Opera:[...]fledgling talent and provide each year a new successful in the theatr[...]insidious seeping away -- and the Con QTC Director Alan Edwards represents Mic[...]1981 fortnight was flakked for this and the best of national and international Jaki Gothard, National Advertising[...]Craige Cronin, Bob Herbert and Len between 20 and 30% in the major houseSTATE REPRESENTATIVES:[...]c, will not escape similar criticism. seasons and 100% in the alternative wing -- ACT: Janet He[...]audiences grow and more good Australian VIC: Suzanne Spunner (03)[...]get a plays become available this is likely to QLD: Jeremy Ridgman (07) 377 2519 hearing elsewhere. And it pays off. Alma de increase, but I don't adhere[...]1178 Groen's (and she's no greenhorn talent) a fixed percentage jus[...]es the taken up by the MTC and is to be made into to local drama --when somethin[...]or the Arts, the Western Australian Arts Council and the below the level of 1[...]ons of the time tend to MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts and editorial correspondence[...]1200. Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts and and increasingly the local segment of the script must[...]erial supplied for this magazine, the publishers and their agents accept no liability for[...]damage which may occur. Unsolicited manuscripts and visual material will not be History proves that funding and in talent in the country -- a responsibility that[...]within Australia. Cheques should be made payable and of Government subsidy, in[...]new wave of iconoclastic writers and Australian Writers' Guild. institutional and overseas subscription rates see back page.[...]the Arts in 1968 and had its heyday in the the best from overseas shou[...]it's a question of proportion and of[...]prosper and works of true value emerge." national theare. In[...]Stage Crisis Day and accolades to the new directors. If they evade it, and the decline[...]enge Grant Scheme heritage, our cultural identity and our Floor, 153 Dowling Street, Potts Point NSW 2011. Distributed by subscription and through theatre foyers etc by Theatre Publication[...]companies are sent as mendicants to future. Ltd, and to newsagents throughout Australia by Alla[...] |
 | [...](see article page 11), and indeed where most Artistic Director of the Hol[...]the cation along with those of top actor and fine quite striking that positive, optimi[...]the head of WA's state that makes public and business alike feel Harvey's Buena Vista, Go[...]e onto a good thing, backing a winner Seadrift and writer-in-residence Barry and all that. New Moon Theatre in North Dickin[...]UR. . . crowds in Townsville, Rockhampton and Handke, David Mammet and Jilly Fraser. Cairns by selling themselves as the hottest And in St Martins is a small classics season Ru[...]Broadway. -- Brittanicus and Long Day's Journey. . . popular success of t[...]KY WOMEN AND ARTS now directo[...]erson's New Sky -- promises to The Women and Arts Festival to take departure, General[...]ems to be keeping things running the mime and mask show after training at in planning. A[...]including Sue smoothly with guest directors, and negotia the le Coq School and first presented it in Hill, ex-Nimrod Theatre[...]s 1981 Tangent season. In a highly mances and other theatre, mural painting, RAIN STOPS PLAY personal and unusual show she looks at the pageants, day-l[...]actions of migrants coming to a new land Park and at the Opera House, lunch hour It appears[...]performances, songs and dance, exhibi surrounding the opening o[...]E ADMIRABLE on and on. And not everything will be Drama Studio, Sydney, and a new full-time CRAMPHORN[...]Commission and has been promised to the his stamp on Pla[...]1976, Theatre Board funding in 1980 and[...]Theatre ACT's On Our Selection and the[...]MacArthur and Smiles Away. A great[...]troupes for the Patriotic Show and the Wine and Food Frolic -- outdoor, day-long,[...]appearing at add times and in odd places.[...] |
 | [...]Wradio and television -[...]ite 511, 5th Floor, desperate situation and the closure of the powers that be at MTC wer[...]rse. Elcom's explanation with Judith's work and her potential, the Telephne: 264-8[...]URNS FOR THEATRE, collecting more water and no rent.[...]HT Mike Mullins and his committee of the[...]Handmade in our own workshop Lilian and Ken Horler shone on the dance down for fun[...]to go it alone. A fund-raising Brisbane and Dibbs Mather managed a drive is under[...]ING IN JULY making (see his column p 8) and even Geraldine Turner and John O'May had S y d n e y C ity T h[...]Courses in Acting and Dance. Amidst the candlelight, flowers, cham Casual classes and workshops. pagne and balloons, people were too intent Rehearsal s[...]3 Year full time training for and Aubrey Mellor, to name but two. Those 3 year Directors Course Classical Ballet. that did attend will be delighted to k[...]For information and Prospectus on all activities of the S.C.T.C. cont[...]th Cobb, who turned 21 only in February and has[...] |
 | [...]theatre profession with cheap good food and thing is that everyone wants to be loved.'No[...]plays and his fascination with how St Martins i[...]important love is to us all and the fear of there are no formal classes, but t[...]anyone between 12 and 25 can take the[...]can be and of how desperate they can be for Helmut Bakaitis and Slive of the Service by[...] |
 | [...]sible claimant for a challenge grant. Williams and Penny had to do some[...]through social activities by and for its including Frank Hahn's Opus[...]humiliating and shameful. The Q Theatre, wh[...]ford H ocking plans M a ry 's K id in 1977 and P a ra d ise[...]bold American actress E stelle P arsons and N u m b ers, by P h illip Scott and Luke face about the halving of its A ustralia[...]r's Perth Festival, M iss $134,000 (February TA) and affecting M a rg a rid a 's Way.[...]be offered who was also in E v ita and recently in[...]onstrained to spread that visit to New York and London, Artistic $80,000 thinly around. In effect, doing Director Peter W illiam s and Execut more or less exactly what the Council's ive Producer G arry Penny secured T heatre and M usic B oards them the author's own[...]B a llet's tour of Can berra, Albury, Melbourne and unaware at the time that the Gen[...]giving the opening date as July 31 andOz and the revue, S q u irts; the M arionette T heatr[...]ney on the visits by Piccolo T eatro di M ilan and P ina B ausch's W uppertal Dance Theatre, a[...]the S adler's W ells Royal B allet, B arn u m and S esa m e S tre et Live. It is stri[...] |
 | [...]and finally didn't give for reasons of cowardice and acoustics and the scarletface of[...]onference. I am brought before you gormless and So. . , meat pie westerns, slouch hat Bu[...]an my own, in my Cassidys, vegemite Samurai, and Kirk transitory. Something to do with[...]all Douglas' joggling dimple twice over and the Murdoch's father made his journalistic criminal waste) and tastefully clashing seven mutant bikies[...]have made eccentric in the company of the rich, and in Dolby sound. Robert and Rupert, Adams last year, had he been, like most of England Amosan on my shrivelled gums, and and Packer, Gyngell and Stratton, Gulf and and Australia, in the employ of his son. The Grecian 2000 on my pubic hairs and hope in Western, Engulf and Devour. . . nose jobs wind bloweth where it listeth however, and my heart, in this last gasp of my fortieth year and nork jobs and hand jobs and blow jobs my wet finger as always is up, and I am to heaven or. . . limbo, that some young and talk jobs and tax jobs. . . beyond all writing a Gallipoli-style road movie myself, person, lithe of limb and sweet of glance, human imagining, cocktails[...]e when he suddenly enlists to go to since 1949: "And you must play the Maori over till the nex[...]etnam, motoring north with a marihuana princess" and still believe I yet have[...]smoking draft-dodger via Byron Bay and influence in a cocaine-fuelled and Listen mate, why have six Americ[...]aying the six American roles in in Vietnam and find to their amazement passed me by.[...]the precedent of Kirk Douglas, those six and Mozart. It should make a lot of money. All ar[...]So too, I fear alas, in the wake of his Romans, and coming down off the Rock accounting -- and the still unending world- triumph with The Man from Snowy River, alive, ashamed and rich, saying Rome is the straddling miracle of Murdoch and Stig- should Cul Cullen's forthcoming scr[...]resist, its values wood hype: see Gallipoli and die; you'll be play to be directed again by Mad Miller II, must be our values and its gods our gods, so glad you did.[...]iams has come to know him, there is no Israel... and the temple is down. and to co-star once more the great Jack Robert and Rupert broke up, I hear. Thompson[...] |
 | [...]st movie-going generation but one, Burstall, and Sir Les Patterson as Michael Overdraft, and based on the life of Michael is himself rewrit[...]tense delight, Thornhill, called Willie Wanker and the Edgely, in which five hundred battle-[...]os Angeles same story, called Carry On D H, and is It is different I know in theatre, more and the mogul hero's silhouetted profile hoping[...]e serene, more rational, less prone looking out, and in Burt Lancaster's moving role of the bawdy, farting, pratfalling to ruling cliques and only a trifle more voice-over, the valedictory w[...]The death of Plays and Players has been a like to change with Clanc[...]nd he productions instead of Peter Hall's and going down contributed the A flat -- and on receiving their standards are consequently slipping And the tickertape a-chatter of the the award called out to the vast television and desperate measures are called for, like[...]world audience "Hello Australia" and even revisiting London, and therefore their bums on seats that matter[...]years of search, the wholesale importation and installing in[...]-- the one at which an Australian champagne and caviar of starving left-wing Another Auss[...]t at Village Roadshow. British playwrights, and hurling buxom And Nancy Reagan has shyly confessed that actr[...]Bryan One small joking reference to Barry and Phil Noyce, I am pleased to say, has B[...]nintelligent actor in the world. He has colour and creed flown in first class from though rumours a[...]the profession a bad name. every latitude, and the smiling Australian rumours in the film busin[...]murmur like a litany. As we stand, tonight, and agent with telltale flaws in her Sussex goodwi[...]ar to the grave of our national identity, accent and far too much to lose. The fatal been part of official US policy to make a and the cenotaph designed by those great words in the controversial review, "the best first strike against our NATO allies," he Australians Skrizinsky and Riomfalvy, Australian film since Picnic at Hangi[...]in a Toadthrush-style statement of Bloch and Murdoch, of all that we were and Rock, " have alerted the usually moribund[...]d the issue further by saying that confusion and the tower will be down. saucer, float upwards, e[...]se may be." There is some greed, as a Reagan and Thatcher and Fraser month of the preliminary shoot of The Yea[...]with. One thing dictatorship as John Sumner and Leonie on his own original novel, has this week[...]tain. The war process must go on. Kramer and Peter Weir may never know, fired his third conse[...]hing like the Playwrights' Conference domination and yesterday blockaded him as Australian content, so self-destructively where, in poverty, and promiscuity, and self on an island besieged by the troops of[...]s he to the moneyed powers comradeship, and undernourishment, and President Marcos, who in his emergency around and beneath him, when he didn't lust, and kindred help, the sum of man's broadcast said th[...]thought, and scope, and compassion is stand one dictator at a time, and has busted have to be.[...]Travolta. This, the first Australian film to and the country's one true living auteur, am o[...]eginning at that sum, get total American backing and a total John Lamond, who made Pacific Banana, in and from those that will not go this year or Americ[...]ast an art film, has keep worse hours than you and do get task force working day and night, as anyone with his title hit the nail, I think, on the lonely, and to you I also commend their who can within half an hour, and without head. It's a soft porn allegory of[...]and kinky, black-silken and lute-strumming blind and dying world. on a map of the world.[...]ere Tim Burstall, quickly adapting Peter Weir, and Mike Preston as Tim[...] |
 | [...]is busy with the centenary," he said, Sydney and back again winding up of the man, and not just an en "she wants us to play[...]vents." Accord worked with Kate Fitzpatrick and for him. ing[...]p with this city -- its playwrights, performers, and its pace. Things don't change overnight, bu[...]ser's centenary. Since rehearsals began Rex and his cast of five have been cashing in on the excitement and activity centred around the Percy Grainge[...] |
 | [...]ry by the Austra contain both the actors and the being unravelled. It is as if a searchlight[...]the 39 perform ances, hardly any, camp and Les's concentration-mind all has been bathed in[...]eet as a five dimensional character, Rex's and had memorable performances from by the Melbou[...]g a pianist to Blossom nightmare to Japan and his Melbourne's theatrical life. play Graingers' music live. "It would own head, and from Peter Cummins as be almost impossible to ge[...]d. "It has the unique advantage of being younger and fresher and more energetic than the larger organisations in[...]eak I've gone back. But this time I want to stay and really get to know this place."[...] |
 | [...], by APG/Hoopla/Playbox person Graeme Blundell, and designed for the proscenium this time, by Peter[...]ow as Les, Marion Edward as Irene, Syd Conabere and Brian James, distinguished performers all, and in a nice expression of the new deal, former APG great Evelyn Krape, rocker and theatre musician Red Symons and magician Doug Tremlett from the burgeoning thea[...]was in The One Day of the Year. Romeril and Blundell view the play as a "clash between Japanese culture at its highest and Australian culture at its lowest", for possession of Les. Romeril like Shepard, Hare and other living writers, says that tragedy is poss[...]hing, objectively, to a contempor ary audience, and that it does not require the slavish acceptance[...]the performances of actors who can sing, dance and do magic as well as act. It's t[...] |
 | ...continued from page 7 G root and her Musical Director, repeating his N[...]version with Pamela starring looks a Theatre and more recently in straight G arey C am pbell,[...]entrepreneurial gamble. roles in The D r e sse r and C hinchilla a one-hour pot-pourrie of the words One thing it might do is eradicate the and, making his musical debut, Sim on and music of N oel Coward and Cole bad taste left in the mouth by las[...]Carte Opera. Incidentally, that com and three movies, including The As I wri[...]BOOKSHOP P r iv a te s on P a ra d e, and musical decessor as Artistic Director, P eter d[...]rn est, which Milson was to have H o rro r Show and a long list of directed. Opening June 11,[...]90-592 George Street. musical shows at Marian St and P atricia Kennedy as Lady Bracknell[...]Sydney and B arbara Wyndon as Miss Prism. elsewhere.[...]n that somewhere. tastes as possible. The board and Theatre Manager, Broadway's smash-hit revival oiT[...]te night show from May 7 at 11 pm on G eorge Cole and Annie Ross inFridays and Saturdays with M yra de leading roles and W ilford Leach[...]ooking to provide a broader range of performances and[...]activities in all areas of the arts, theatre and music.[...]BY 30 MAY 1982 and should be directed to:-[...] |
 | [...]f of them are pursuing strange, distant and they turn to their playwrights, if at said last[...]ced in 1979 has exciting for enthusiasts and cognos the office. (At least, that is mor[...]feeling of social and community and obscure in-group experimen established writers,[...]e lost, audiences are tation? White and Ray Lawler, returning with fracturing into in-groups and claques new plays; and we have a wide group of of supporters -- but w[...]difference between English and attempt to suggest where an enduring[...]s' reactions to plays repertoire may be begun. And we look comed the establishment of a national was that the English are poor and at some recent writing in an attempt to dramatic culture which was "sudden, unhappy and they turn to their discover the value in it.brilliant and permanent" and we listed over 30 good playwrights to pro[...] |
 | [...]t to put on to be seen as an alien enemy force, and (1912) by Steele Rudd my back, I worked hard and honestly, for 30 years people wrote plays set in and Bert Bailey living o[...]art for one single moment, Me cattle floods and bushfires. The Drovers, in drama, it manages to combine in one would perish and die before me very eyes spite of some awkwardness in the play the conventionality of melo and me roofgofrom over me head with the dialogue, is the best of the genre -- dramatic plot and characters, the rough wind. But my spirit wa[...]of sentimentality of the Australian bush and do you think you can break it now, by the huts and set its scene in the middle legend, and the homely, small-family the Lord no. (ri[...]of the dry open plains. Briglow Bill is wisdom and comic gentleness of the things, take mefew head of cattle and get injured in a stampede, and must be left original Steele Rudd stories. Partl[...]: You talk about spirit, the Bailey, part author and creator of the drought has got your crops, I 've got your move on. role of Dad, it played on and off for 17 stock, now what can you do? years[...]don't matter. It had to of movies, radio serials and TV series. country, with health, strength, and come sooner or later. I've lived my life[...]rmination are always doing. I can careless and free, looking after my work George Whaley.[...]when I was at it, and splashing my cheque[...]ood one when I struck DAD: For years I 've faced and fought THE DROVERS (1920) civilisation. I've lived hard, droving and the fires, the floods and the droughts of by Louis Esson horse-breaking, station work, and over this country, I came here and cut a hole in[...]ntury the land came there 's nothing better, and death's come[...] |
 | [...]l miss me a bit. . . the tracks I 've travelled, and a star or two, and the old mulga. BO SS: And I 'll miss you. I 've never travelled with a bet[...]Warren, June Jago, Madge Ryan and Ethel Gabriel. by Ray Lawler[...]no more flyin ' down out of the sun -- no and townspeople more insistent and the have ever heard of.. It took a bob each[...]the bush legend: exploiting its beside her and striking the floor with his sentimental power to the full and then hand) This is the dust we're in and we're THE LEGEND OF sadly, but affectionately[...]KING O'MALLEY hollowness. The cane-cutters, Roo and for the rest of our lives![...]by Michael Boddy and the off-season, and discover that, by A CHEERY SOUL[...]ple who had never seen The awful goodness and terrifying popular play to take the crude a play swam flooded rivers and drove cheerfulness of Miss Docker in thi[...]play make her one of the most imposing and apply it to a serious contemporary emotional hol[...]ly naturalistically, bashing, American loudmouth and, by about. It is our classic drama of the[...]n colleagues. It draws ROO: (grabbing her wrists and holding increasingly expressionist, the[...]ap of it -- gone! (He throws her away from him, and she falls to thefloor, grief-stricken, al[...] |
 | [...]ie D ryn an an d Sean S cu lly in N im r o d 's and the poetic. The play is not so much Makassar Ree[...]p, romantic, shadowed the failure of spirit and nerve plays about death, and the defiant melodramatic, comic trick in the boo[...]ee irreverence so essential to the basic and wins through, like the traditional years later[...]me Les and of the theatrical craftsmanship Darcy and I scaled Mount Kosciusko. Les KING: Good-bye, Billy Hughes. needed to get it down and get it right. was in training at the time fo[...]eat bloody days weren't they. Then trunks and slouch hats. . . our bare feet[...]that ringing in or anything else for that matter and why Monk, he said, one day Australia, that o[...]the Real did I have to cook allyour meals and wash great nation out there of soldiers and Australia continued. Don's Party was all your clothes? Eh? Because your little sports and athletes, cereals and wool, will an alarmingly prophetic play. Hilari[...]boy wonder pre equal hand. The Indon and Kanaka we power, it also emotionally fore[...] |
 | will civilize. Out there, O'Neill, lies a compromise and disappointment, one, might include The[...]rm of the future. With rather than cancer and death. It is the Brumby Innes, Ned Kelly, Rusty Bugles, water and work it will breed andgrow and most stylish Australian play, drawing Re[...]rilous, Norm spread into an empire of fair play and on the grand romantic conventions of and Ahmed, Traitors, or others. Also health and wealth and power, and wealth Casablanca et al. It then uses these, the list above stops at 1979. Instinct and literature. with a[...]y other, to zero in on Welcome the Bright World, and He had tears in his eyes. t[...]But it was our attempt to be those dooks, and we 'll go a round or two give up.[...]This and Makassar Reef reveal the new The only really goo[...]. hanky play. Rich, warm, comic, big- and subtlety of effect which the "old hearted, Irish[...]of the 70s have found. In the of human closeness and about loss. The play the older generation flees north to portrait of Dan and Aggie Cassidy has the sun, sexual passion, old age and more love in it than there is in any other death; the younger stays south with the Australian play, and that is what makes cold, bitterness, fecundity and a new the loss so moving, when Aggie learns[...]ly of Dan's cancer. and movingly the ties that bind them and the forces that drive them apart. THE FLOATING[...]old guard" have perhaps lost, authentic material and mixing it with but which first endeared[...]the alien region which wheatbelt of WA, and it manages to surrounds his country, but which he bring in both the nostalgic detail of the and most Australians have only known day to day lives of the characters and in war. The experience thoroughly the grand issues of life and love and war breaks down his typicality, as he relives and death which rule over them. It uses his time as a POW on the Burma- songs, verses, poetry and comic turns in Thailand railway, with 18 differe[...]leton. Six stone seven. I can't ZEEK: Sun, moon and stars, all sweet tell you how good it felt. I wa[...]are. We walk the earth and gaze into MAKASSAR REEF[...] |
 | [...]question the small-1 liberal credentials AND DICKINS[...]Australian writing of the about chardonnay and home renova analyses the '70s was droll, caricature and satire. It tions and meaningful relationships --to newest wave[...]ished interviews with operative in our society (and the work, and work for compartmentalised four important Austra[...]n the causes, without considering the total and an editorial entitled "A National process of transforming it". social and political context of your Drama?" . If, as the i[...]nal claims, dramatists have lost touch with And yet the response to Welcome the and moral catastrophe such an attitude their audienc[...]most serious work so time when their articulacy and far, was controversy, not so much abou[...]the issues it raised as about whether it And yet the play is set in Germany greater. Instead[...]modern political German films. Per Louis Nowra and Barry Dickins. to care, yet the credibi[...]the world of the play and that of the to pursue your own interests in[...]impossible to get the society to listen to And perhaps that is why Nimrod[...]bit more complicated, and longer, than[...]theatrical sense and ability to excite,[...]intriguing ambiguity, and in Inside the[...]location and social breakdown which in[...]specific, and yet his plays are full of[...]quite deliberate, and a product of his[...]concern with the ambiguities and[...] |
 | [...]k. Hard work can be very their articulacy and reveal the sad, on to. Without a framework for[...]local drama. about their past and present -- like Ivan's tongueless victims in experiences and try to make sense of it. Inner Voices or the sol[...]s the manic horror of the characters' statements and actions are be precisely the huge difference[...]all confusingly relative to each between him and writers like Sewell by the suffering of the[...]akes other, but we are led gradually along a and Nowra. Where they are intellectual cyanide, and suddenly all the blacked- clear path to consider' the relation and distant he is aggressively personal out electrical appliances in her sad little between power and compassion. The and emotional. Where they are room spring[...]is easy to feel theatrically disciplined and craftsman provides a social context more specif[...]for helpless victims but like, he is wild and a larrikin. Where than do Sewell or Nowra, but[...]ual. victims. The horror of the events of the and events, he writes about the grubby play makes compassion inevitable and a streets and bush huts around him. Whether this is a[...]or one or two actors. theatrical malaise Nowra and Sewell[...]in a politically privileged position, Sewell and Nowra have been ac what some alienated[...]s concerned with one issue: the role dramatists, and yet in each there[...]Dickins' plays seem at first creasingly chaotic and difficult political society for which they write. Neither to be drunken ramblings for his and social world. Perhaps, as David has written much[...]characters. The structure is precise: Hare, and Donald Horne before him, Australia (a fact in wh[...]stralia is still too materially take some pride) and so what specific talkative, articulate characters, and contented to be concerned with the personal o[...]INSIDETHE ISLAND INSIDE THE ISLAND and[...]Sarah de Jong and notes by AUSTRALIAN OPERA AUSTRALIAN OPERA[...]directors Neil Armfield and rrp $35.95[...]s set in a rural entertaining and scholarly[...]before World War I, the and its personalities during[...]China and both dramatically Australia's[...]THE OVERCOAT THE OVERCOAT and SIN[...]ool1,lahra NSW 2025 and introductions by Paul Distributed by Camb[...]ess McGillick and Paul Sydney and Melbourne[...]Gogol's famous story and[...] |
 | [...]Playscripts and The list itself is also very impressive. It[...]Fewster's Black Chrysanthemums and Harry[...]Peggy Sue and John Romeril's Bastardy. In[...]who got tired of seldom being able to find F and Goodbye Ted; Barry Dickins' Lonely Australian sc[...]et through even their current Midnight VC and Phil Motherwell's become a large publisher, stil[...]further on the plays themselves next month and a more varied list. There are now many[...]but for now let us welcome and wish well a[...]sell for $2.00 (or central part of our drama (and particularly It is exciting, then, to welcome[...], with p&p) which many of the Carlton plays) and get them out specialist publisher of playscripts[...]the amateur and schools market for several[...]closed community drama of violence and[...]violence and distorted love" -- which[...]Nowra's Inside the Island and The Precious[...]Woman in one volume (rrp S9.95) and Jack[...]Hibberd's The Overcoat and Sin in another[...]elsewhere in this issue. The Overcoat and[...]Composer and Librettist in the play meant[...] |
 | [...]Boohshops stage, screen and TV writers should ANPC, 12 William Lane, b[...](between Pitt & Castlereagh) Associate Members, and receive many The Australia Council. The[...]127 York Street, Conference. Helps new and established North Sydney, 2060.[...]ph 29 7799 writers, mainly by workshopping and ONLY AUSTRALIAN BOOKS and Books on the Pacific. YACKANDAH PLAYSCRIPTS AND MANY HOPE TO COME! inc. First re Iease Au[...] |
 | [...]resents them as if they are merely going casting and[...]uperannuated spies continue to emerge desires and hatreds of a miscellaneous[...]acks, leaving the way homosexuality is no joke; and when he searchingly lit up this long-running sca[...]of March 5). Mr techniques of secrecy and betrayal. Result: a Another Country (Queen's) ex[...]Everett (Bennett) and Kenneth Branagh life. Apart from a visiting uncl[...]instant stardom; and the show as a whole consists entirely of boys, exuding serious and unashamed homosexual, and marks a triumph in juvenile casting.[...]rxist, maddened sophisticated inexperience and by the incessant interruptions that prev[...]ules toR u p ert E v e re tt as G uy B ennett and Kenneth Branagh as T om m y J u d d in Ano[...] |
 | [...]Guare plays Gardenia and Women and set in three joke provincial towns and[...]ieutenant's Woman), yet another movie alcoholism and sexual intrigue who are[...]And as if this were not enough,[...]conversation Though East is East and West is West, the times of tight money an ang[...]ic outlets. One of while the master is in Spain, and is showing days on the stages of Broadway and off- the company's first ventures will be J[...]ix doors Broadway. Film makers, movie stars and Pielmeir's drama Agnes of God starring sh[...]es from Televisionland have Elizabeth Ashley and Geraldine Page. sardines. Throughout the evening, those all suddenly decided to come East and go[...]he first tried his hand at stage direction off- and other props that become increasingly Already come and gone: Broadway l[...]William Friedkin (The French Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, appearance. Connection, The Exorcist) and his version of Jimmy Dean, handling a cast of 11[...]is sadly Meanwhile, it is one in the morning and One with Anne Bancroft and Max von obvious. Apart from choosing a[...]and to let each actor go her own direction -- combined dress and technical rehearsal; and Sydow; Suzanne Pleshette and Richard not his. It's all very sl[...]making Giant nearby and the reunion[...]ch fan member man can never complete a sentence; and the has come back with A Secret and the[...]sterility, mastectomy and transexual trans than leaking secrets about her[...]ps have muchdeteriorated since the rehearsal, and there is some question of whether the pensione[...]ing barricaded herself into her dressing room, and the leading man having sworn vengeance on his C her and S an dy D en nis in Come rival to her affections. Amidst this crisis and Back. . . P hoto: J ea n P ag liu so the secre[...]on), to pacify the Special Occasions -- it opened and closed ingenue unbeknown to the pregnant ASM,[...]eded by the mute Alfred. Both Ms Pleshette and Ms visible drama round the back. It is a Dunaway received favourable comment calamitous ballet of entrances through wrong doors, mixed-up props, attempted and were encouraged to return in more[...]can Buffalo. Movie shoe-laces knotted together), and director Robert Altman (M *A*S*H[...]e most deliriously with Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy funny exercise in organised chaos I[...]een for many a day. and Sandy Dennis. Off-Broadway film 24 THEA[...] |
 | [...]ors -- an oddly truncated view shades of Ibsen and O'Neill are lurking pretensions but the[...]All the performances are effective and town's curiosity, "The truly momentous[...]tightrope of comedy, cynicism and pathos); surroundings, but certainly she is a sp[...]ohn Guare's hundred the pivotal role in the play and her non in Sofia, 20 June -- 6 July. The ITI General nuances and just as in the film Atlantic City performance ro[...]ers for an outdoor exhibition during the vocally and physically inept -- she really festival. O[...]nal mention of another West Coast has to be seen and heard, not to be believed. country, town, proper name and surname of visitor, television's Donny Osm[...]the artist, year of birth, title and author of ever-smiling Mr Osmond will star as a[...]eorge M will a coming together of director, cast and play[...]it is the play that is the star. John A MUSIC AND DANCE Broadway we[...]t American comedies will be held in Dresden and Leipzig in the Potts Point, NSW, 2011. of[...]fer" was RICHARD WAGNER melodramatic, and if I gave you details it opened on Septemb[...]festival in 1982 Wolfgang Wagner, double suicide and hereditary syphillis. But[...]rk the centenary contradicts itself. It is spare and plain[...]and Isolde, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg symbols and metaphors; it is small, but and The Flying Dutchman will also be on this ambitio[...]THE ghost play and along with the characters the[...]and Brisbane on a 5 week Australian tour[...]between February and April 1983.[...] |
 | [...]carefully moved and carefully lit, with good institutions that se[...]accent work and fine make up, and perhaps partners; the brothel and the pomshop. Words and the greatest triumph, a unity of style that Outside the carousel, and often encroaching[...]amateur. The dialogue is so full if ideas that and neurotic celibacy of the priest and the EINSTEIN[...]ed back to the play by a chuckle fall of man, and the poison it brings into[...]Whaley gave a relationships between men and women. by M arguerite Wells[...]ble women as equals, not watch a brilliant and sensitive man settling to diminish the power[...]preparation for a puts a highly individual and comestible redress centuries of wrongs, but simp[...]perhaps some people who ask more of and social psychology, treating a problem any other[...]problems of his life were puts it brilliantly and beautifully, weaving lifetime, but probably not.[...]e, I in fact pretty much out of his control, and images of light and shadow, tinkling shall certainly be too old to c[...]ed feel no guilt. prettiness and raucous ugliness, crystallis fought all the necessary battles in youth and ing an aspect of our society that has middle-age. And those battles will have Images from the Background is a series of certainly existed and does exist, although it been fought against my o[...]nst the happier gener myths that define men and women. ation of our grandchildren, who, with any[...](Fortune), luck, will be free of the infection, and will violence against women; It Bleeds, It Slee[...]arch, 1982. raise a quizzical eyebrow at history and (reviewed in TA under its original title,[...]would tell them. petuated by lairy stories and the morality of Cluskey; Dramaturg, Michael Bo[...]ised by the company. Third play in the purposes, and his divorce from his first story. What rem[...]for the rest of her life. His first wife images and secondly the sounds. Within the Director, C[...]igent woman to marry a brilliant man. romance and prettiness, of the warmth and Doyle; The Whore, Josephine Lolicato; The[...]ies. Two of the characters, the younger Einstein and the middle-aged one, never communicate directly[...]ther, but only through the old Einstein, a large and demanding role. None of the three was what you would call a man of action and the action of the play is indoors, behind desks and the most exciting things that you s,,w happen were the young Einstein rocking a cradle and the middle-aged one emptying a suitcase o[...] |
 | s.w. Social and sexual injustice THE SUICIDE ~[...]r o d 's The Suicide. ated by stories of suicide and self- destruction. Three of the plays reviewed[...]this month deal with such themes, through and is immediately besieged by represent Resid[...]ect atives of various factions, interests and and highly adaptable set, rather reminiscent ively, Russian, South African and cliques, all wanting him to gain p[...]ommitting suicide of opportunity opened on air and the common ground, in that in each case the[...]se, corridors of possibility were endless and led fatal choice appears to lie with the[...]The flattery and kind treatment to which The outstanding play[...]that Semyonovich his sense of self-love, and Sydney at the Wayside Theatre, is a was banned in rehearsal by Stalin and has therefore his love of life, and he becomes "something is rotten in the state[...]sweeten the pill. Aubrey Mellor's translation and arrange with great force and wit: one can see Stalin's The setting is a rundown Johannesburg ment of the text and his sensitive pacing and point. It chronicles the particular failure of direction add much to enchant and absorb the Bolshevik Revolution to meet t[...]legitimate needs and aspirations of the fiftieth birthday, and her lover (whom we the audience.[...]hum anitarian and involving on an birthday party, with crisps, slab cake and overcome: in recommending the play to[...]gaiety. Leila Blake's Milly is a heart title and a reluctance to risk being depressed Stalin's p[...]laywright. the theatre after this, and succeeded in little higher than beer and sausages on a Nobody wants to go any closer to t[...]ressing: it goes a nevertheless a lasting one, and Aubrey doomed to frustration. There is a deep comical and roundabout way to affirm the Mellor deserv[...]hat of a value of life. It re-discovers a reason and a potential to go on living and it strikes a spectacular revival.[...]illiterate in drama is a very fundamental one, and it gains our sympathy almost stealthily,[...]ys, gradually taking us into his confidence and Shorty to escape and now wants to marry whether or not the writers a[...]e has become in a (Robert Dallas) is unemployed and pro tragi-comedy, uncompromising in its attack sense Everyman, and he has the audience bably unemployable, a cynic who sees too on dehumanising bureaucracy and hypo[...]Briefly, an unemployed man, Semyon and precision to achieve some dazzling Th[...]visual effects and brilliantly executed scene Semyonovich ([...] |
 | [...]ess {Hard Knocks) Kate Fitzpatrick and Malcolm Robertson continued[...]confidence and control. She has evidently a were splendi[...]ghly original talent which would perhaps and wicked eyes, and he crusty and cranky colour of their skin conveys tangible[...]uch as the Nimrod or the STC. Beauty and the Beast. In the foppish, scrap heap. The atmos[...]y, The she was quite restrained and well-behaved, of the play's emotional content, t[...]be stealing the show. Barbara Stephens and social problem. It is not a pleasant[...]istance, very funny. Fortunately, warmth and humanity to Bellmda and[...]drama. and a highly experienced cast, under the c[...]ligent production: bizarre one-act plays written and directed[...]y is a very difficult, stylised speeches, and the cut and Company at the Stables Theatre. They take[...]Melody Cooper's set was admirably un black and whimsical: they explore the cluttered and helped to focus close attention territory between reality and fantasy. In L eila B la k e in S tu d io S[...]e Sydney, NSW. Opened March 24, 1982. news and is gradually persuaded that she because it[...]Angela Punch drama, applying it to her own life and[...]Skinner; Alexander interleaving her own memories and ex- The theme of Vanbrugh's play is[...]th the fiction until they are infidelity, and to judge by the audience's Annie Byron;[...]opatra Maximovna, H eather portrait of a husband and wife who clearly ment of it struck many a sy[...]ivid emasculation scene, pleasures in taverns and whore-houses, but People A re Living The[...]himself. He would like to have his cake and Director, Graham Corry; Designer, Billy N[...]rs; Stage Manager, were a source of both delight and irritation.[...]fessional). from a more disciplined construction and all three endings were more or less unsatis[...]Director and Designer, Mil Perrin; Lighting Designer, Perrin,[...]man, Marilyn gersent showed considerable courage and[...]ngersent. concentration, as the hapless husband, and[...]ple of well-observed portraits of the TV suicide and the[...] |
 | [...]and Chicago for the STC, Amadeus is a[...]was quite superb and contributed signific[...]Mozart and Linda Cropper as his wife both[...]knocked from its pedestal, and from what[...]curiously cruel play, for all its qualities, and[...]Tom Stoppard's Night and Day, directed[...]performances from Tom Oliver and John Performance o f a ' Iago, who ruthlessly[...]art Frawley and from two relative newcomers, I and soul and finds them black. On stage and Paul Williams and Monroe Reimers, a[...]generous helping of Stoppard's witty and lifetime ! in[...]; Gaden's control of the audience and sheer and adaptable revolving set by David Spode[...]and one clever stage illusion, which[...]One reservation about the production NIGHT AND DAY \ warm dressing-gown and a wooly hat concerns the c[...]tricksy and intrusive: Stoppard over-uses it Sydney's theatr[...]nt of riches at the moment, with the powdered wig and he is instantly the seemed[...]composer of forty journalist, and not allowing himself enough[...]room and time to make the most of such not getting the au[...]newspaper styles. impossible to see everything, and this court, his intrigues are distnctly[...]They could be set anywhere and peopled -- American Dreams at the Bondi Pavilion[...]plot, comedy and characterisation as The Anniversary at the Phili[...]diversionary tactics, to soften up his Theatre and Leftovers by Cacophony at the siderable and his success enormous (he a[...]its paws, Australia goes to press -- the Sydney and is rarely performed. His tragedy was up asking for more, and then he tells it to sit Theatre Company's A ma[...]ng Mozart, Fate delivered up and think about something.[...]is a Zen belief that laughter can trip the Royal and Night and Day by Tom Stoppard into his hands the genius he[...]madeus is a rather grand play by Peter greatness, and he did everything possible to Shaffer, based on the death-bed claim by a thwart the composer's hopes and drive him rival composer, Salieri, that he was to penury, drink and despair. instrumental in Mozart's premature de[...]such a style, to suit both the subject matter and the pitiable humanity in the old man, such a p[...], he gives us perhaps the This is masterly acting and the result is a performance of a lifetime, a character subtle, complex and penetrating portrayal pitched somewhere between Faustus and that will live long in the imagination.[...] |
 | mind into enlightenment by opening one of QLD.> this and a production as incisive, the play the doors of[...]th. A spell was forefather: their shock tactics and under[...]O'Neill. The subjects under debate in Night and NIGHT[...]March 16, 1982. the morality of journalism and the freedom by Jeremy Ridgman[...]a cynical It is gone midnight: James Tyrone and his Mark Lee, Karen Crone. (staff) journ[...]es of drunken does a necessary job with courage and stupor, numbed by the accusations[...]itment the gutter press through a divorce case, and pressed hatred towards his brother, whos[...]rth he sees as responsible for their HELL AND HAY of Economics. mother's morphine addiction, and the[...]but the debate is strictly controlled by and high on morphine, a somnambulist in the playwright and we hear only what is another world, to recall her "sad dream" of A group of victims and outcasts, for political pertinent to the play of ideas. lost innocence and brief happiness with reasons rejected by[...]d vastness, where which our pre-conceived ideas and de grandeur of purpose and poetic respectab the cultural baggage brou[...]l the shock of displacement is too great and journalists, not millionaires. The idealist[...]ot. "We go expecting to hear a playwright and country. Others remain, are acted upon by[...]environment even as they endeavour to Night and Day is rich in ideas, which are[...]make their mark on it, and find eventually presented with insight and humour in The QTC's rigorous p[...]fully towards a committed playing migrants and exiles being in fact no[...]he Theatre Royal, Sydney, NSW. fession and an aggressive physicalisation of sadly include[...]stumes, Anne Fraser; Lighting, Nigel brother and father. All four performances Hell and Hay is a tough-minded and Levings; Assistant Director, Ralph Kerle; Musica[...]Emperor Joseph the broken spirit beneath, and Elaine play uses as its taking-off poin[...]musical nervous intensity, only occasionally and Austrian political and racial refugees Baron von Swieten, Ron Hackett;[...]Edmund (partly O'Neill as potential enemies and brutally dis Sharp; Salieri's Cook, Ray Hadfield; Teresa Salieri, himself and therefore without motivating patched in 1940 to Australia and there Lyn Collingwood; Katherina Cavalieri, Satu[...]and popular cultures; the bourgeois and the Director, Terence Clarke; Designer, D[...] |
 | vernacular, the imported and the native. The the Grimm-like Wicked Queen[...]gee energy is Dario Fo's We Can t Pay? We music, and which sounds suspiciously like Dwarfs, a[...]ish-localised the ultimate focus of self-respect and self-[...]ligal -- Dachau ionalisation of reformist parties and unions regarded as the pre-eminent civili[...] |
 | [...]1980 the quintessential Festival show (and with the Eliotesque trinity of birth,,[...]that I can imagine Jim Sharman copulation and death. ADELAIDE[...]al encounter in the hotel lobby: G u a r d i a n and Michael of all the performing[...]antithesis of ironic detachment and political mumbed that I had just read White's b[...]e, the play had also become an indifference and fixed his gaze on nothing in[...]MICHAEL and a political Utopianism. Hare increas In[...]deal of low-key poor-mouthing of the event: and what made his Festival play so moving in Dub[...]ement than what it must have cost Adelaide and A line in Signal Driver haunts me. As th[...]ached this exalted level. Patrick White's face and find out what she's been living for predilections and recurrent human Signal Driver, thoug[...]s. If I had to characterise the 1982 John Wood and Melissa Jaffer as a warring landscape was a t[...]clinging perilously together exciting festival and, as he admitted in the between a fascination wit[...]series I chaired in Elder solitude, rootlessness and a raucous celebr structure to support its inte[...]from the cry of the cornered human time-span. And Melbourne Playbox It emerged most p[...]Sam Shepard's the Edward Hopper exhibition and the Sam exultation of the liberated human body (one Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class, Shepard plays pres[...]on the though again well acted by Gary Files and Theatre Company of Melbourne ceiling) in Ci[...]Map of the World For me this mixture of angst and joy was architectural design: in both plays[...]shortly afterwards in which female relationships and had the skull Berlioz's The Damnation of[...]indberg plays the Australian Youth Orchestra) and that and decided to leave his wife. in one evening. And 1980, the most also reached out to em[...]le sausage on the exceptionally stimulating and brilliantly[...] |
 | [...]you not already everything, in and out of time -- especially[...]ge we hunger for a sign, an compassion and wisdom, and, in their monolithically scaled high-tech design[...]knowledge of certain and perpetual judge[...]Then come Theo and Ivy. They are with a rousing chorus of "Don't Cr[...]marriage, in faith, in death we hunger for a and Ivy are in the process of becoming. into the "Bi[...]means more than the Theo is a carpenter, and a thwarted artist. recital programs with the rig[...]er of BB), turning green at offering to God; and Ivy, the believer, love into a partnershi[...]old hard, burning in a cold practical and businesslike. Fooled by[...]menopause to an old age of fire and anger, either Peter Stein or Pina Bausch to work[...]ector of the a beat, lose time, miss a connexion, and audience, whose awareness of re[...]the rest of our shelter from among us, and reach for us, the[...]and humanity. But we are different from have left behind; and a frantic, hilarious day noticed. Believing that things ought to Ivy and Theo in that we can see and hear the with jazz singer George Melly as we zoo[...]in the theatre not of it, not round the Hopper, and Brian Thomson's demned. Together.[...]d to nowhere severs us context of interior decor and a photographic from shelter, Being and Becoming.slide-show of world events.[...]Australis, the set animates. Amid fog and[...]and encroaching landscape, lifts and is visit the Festival Centre and find it painted drawn up and over the audience. It covers,[...]engulfs, swallows, buries, inculpates, up and sitting in the middle of an open air[...]and cast have genuinely tested the weight Although i[...]and substance of the work. At its first[...]was a sacrifice of surprise and the sharpness[...]of those flaws and fragments of quicksilver affair. The style was s[...]re the heart of the with five minutes for anyone and skidding[...]between John Wood and Melissa Jaffer, in discussions and official functions. He has the first and particularly in the third act.[...]hallenging yet generally accessible programme; and perhaps most importantly of all, he now begins[...]ump a little even when the circus has left effect and consequence. It involves the town.[...]ages" in a typical married relationship. Being and The action o[...]iver? Som eth in control, something which sees and of vast import. White accommodates or ignores[...]ravellers- both in this piece for four players and a those who are to be transported.[...]" and gives them the status of "Beings" . They[...] |
 | S.A. ness of tone, the blend "f innocence and experience are exceptional. There is, however,[...]tment of the Beings there is some loss of energy and potential. They are scored to come in under the Vokes, to stay aside and play apart. One craves more of the satirical sna[...]f media sociology in Act One. Both Peter Cummins and Kerry Walker, armed with the quirks and moods of Carl Vine's music, have power to spare. Their Mo and po-faced creations deserve the licence to rip into the underbelly of seriousness and challenge the Vokes and the audience to reach for greater heights of awa[...]effort. We are long past the point of "waiting" and there never was much joy in Lucky's dance. Si[...]ialogue Hare's own views of himself as writer and and debate here, and David Hare's sharp, social commentator, actually allows the PERCY AND ROSE balanc[...]characters identity, room to breathe in, and,[...]ersion of a night old expressionist mono -- and station -- Although David Hare's Map of the Worl[...]lves, rather than us appropriateness of personal and political dumped limply on stage durin[...]f the convictions, the roles of the intellectual and of the debate trying to work out where to[...]e, if slightly women in Licking Hitler and Dreams of stands as an embarrassing in[...]you-don't- particular brand of languid tolerance and out, on closer examination, to be much[...]No-one expects a disillusionment in the cultured and some more complicated and ambiguous. The writer to provide nea[...]swers to questions he raises in his work. it all and expects not so much to make the struggl[...]l. readiness to take the questions seriously and[...]and the author's interest[...] |
 | [...]yhounds real hotel to reveal suddenly the camera and[...]in England. lights of a film studio, is lame, and too[...]Point/knocked back by Antonioni, relative values and modified attitudes.[...]Smith, hung around with Bob Dylan, and TerrificIrony and ambivalence are one thing: but[...]r his play Buried"you think I say what I mean and then find[...]play that would win the Pulitzer Prize, I and clear ideaswhat I say" is not a game I am particu[...]about a family." ideology, scepticism, action and reflection, CURSE OF THE[...]forgotten some of them, and so has everyone apt when set against this vaguel[...](And the best of both are in a similarly honest, thoughtful and intelligent. Robert Writers like Sam Shepa[...]up a lot of people's noses. Maybe it's critical and celebratory.) stil provides us in his portrayal[...]iter -- he's a maverick who over the last years. And Roshan Seth's j And it gets in the way of his work, uses[...]Starving Nor would I wish to deny the play's wit and "Extraordinary handsomeness. . . what Class written 1976, and Angel City produced[...]and settings, arcane dialects and languages, of purpose. And no critic should expect a hermetic imagery, and a private mythology[...]Class, Buried Child and True West, he has there is a serious and important play to be[...]a fascination with toasters, artichokes, and[...]fe? Maybe they My response to Rob George's Percy and[...]ays have created title at least avoids the trite and cheap interest and controversy. What we want to[...]critics and publicists, because they have[...]ng Grainger for the important composer he was, and shifts him out of the comfortable "Country Gardens" and " Shepherd's Hey" drawers, someone with a slig[...]__________________ the subject. Not that Percy and Rose seems the camera overlooks in favour of[...]ral flaws that give his face a rugged in places, and the last twenty minutes are a quality. From on[...]skew. His profile on the other hand where sadism and fantasy hold hands, some is distinctly patrician." (Esquire 2/80) of Grainger's monologues and the scenes between him and his fiancee, Margot. For Is this[...] |
 | [...]ashioned about the subject matter ofBuried Child and Gothic Americana, owing as much to First the frenetic Londoner arrived and Curse of the Starving Class. The idea of there being such a thing as an obligation in your rhythms and concerns of American cultural told us all that he[...]to the Greeks, -- or discoveries like jazz and rock, TV and that Australian theatre hadn't learnt to O'Neill who tried to make it American, movies, plenty and poverty as God or anything since his last visit f[...]and then in The Fall of the House O f Usher Shepa[...]him an American, by terrific performances and a clear idea of he was still angry, unlike other English his obsession now with roots and rootless ness, obligations and walking out, place and how to present the texts. Pulvers lets all the playwrights he could mention and did. . . homelessness, in a paradise of plenty.[...]gives space for the mono Then Pina Bausch hit us, and she had the gall is, the "real" America is bount[...]plays the comedy where it exists, to call it 1980 and we thought it was 1982, and the plays are set in poverty, both of spirit and doesn't shrink from making the most of maybe Berkoff was right and in Australian's and food. the extravagances, the over-the-top still 1977, and anyway, wasn't she obsessive[...]moments with sheep, blood, broken bottles, and boring? Whatever the form Shepard chooses to[...]And in between the papers were full ofthe television[...]of all he has obtained from the Adelaide Festival and how David Hare Strindberg) there's still the ele[...]formances, where despite occasional accent about, and even if it wasn't very theatrical it in the way his characters talk in their frequent monologues. And there's also the troubles, each character has a single face was socially "engaged" and it had cost a extravagant imagery present, except in and stays with it for the whole production. fortune s[...]do with I especially admired the work of Gary and Pinder was telling us that the Comic the land, soil, blood, death, not with rock, Files, Maggie Millar and Peter Hosking. Strip had revoutionised comedy, so[...]n the design. These plays offer better laugh. . . and Patrick White had[...]signer a choice between Norman written a new play and nobody seemed sure For example, there's the live sheep on Rockwell and Edward Hopper. You can fill whether it was significant or merely stage in Starving Class, dead at the end, and the stage with a prop collectors dream of inte[...]Buried Child. and actors to operate as real, yet emble that it was 1982 and that the Mill Theatre This field, from where[...]s Oz, Stephen Sewell, abundance of corn, carrots and where the dead child is buried, is a Field of Plenty, a put in there, like the sheep live and dead, John Romeril et al had been, and were still, good example of the forceful but not corn, shaven heads and the like. Corrigan i around even if we can't quit[...]entirely clean imagery in these later plays. and Pulvers have rightly put these big ideas work yet, afterall they're only local and god[...]obtrude, yet set the scene in the featureless and Wuppertal. "see" and "work" ? What does it represent? America between the Rockies and the The fecund land, hope, a rosy future as[...]y this is not Curse of the S tarvin g Class and B u ried Child by Playbox and Anthill and a plethora of one- (intentionally no doubt) comp[...]Sam Shepard. Playbox Theatre, Adelaide Festival and offs, the competition is hardly vigorous. out -[...], Peter Cor Beverley Dunne's affectionate and un Greeks and O'Neill, a probe from on the rigan; Stag[...]ichele documents from Australian history and surface of the story.[...]Gary Files, Bevan literature, pleasant and solid, full ofheart but It's the same with th[...]invention; and Bruce Myles' production of These Shepardian flashes, from a child of and Berkoff[...]chie Bunker, marginal Americans between New York and Cali AS WE ARE[...]Athenaeum. Never have so many minds and The plays operate on the edge between[...]o hard to realise so few ideas complete banality and something really[...]-- the sheer ugliness of the set and theresonant, enriching.[...]Gallagher Show look artistic and sensitive. you stand in regard to America, and things[...]Scott-Pendlebury's Celia and Edwin[...]and life, but the fact that they seemed to[...]characters expressly comment on and Audiences and some theatre companies in debunk the main[...] |
 | [...]uro has a multiplicity of focus and the script is communism, and the words or the acting[...]only a part of it; what really is at issue and ofaren't really the issue because it's all ab[...]ordinary visual images", which is between theatre and life. Was that a "real" / A m aster class inaf[...]ast stop or wa^ expected to understand -- colour and it an actor? How do you tell? Is that plain ac[...]Playbox to easily romp home with artistic show -- and do I really have to show my direction intact o[...]'s the HOUSE GUEST Australian work and intelligent readings of inspector? The Bus and Tram shows have overseas work.[...]its value as a than Travelcard ever could, and en route try-out place for committed theatre a[...]hat invariably there is a sense of j discovery and exploration on some front, j[...]guests, each with a visiting celebrity from and the White Slaves by Canadian writer, |[...]tellyland. And there the similarity ended. George F Walker sh[...]s Durbridge's "smash hit thriller" as director and a writer unknown in Australia, j[...]Macnee, of the late lamented Avengers and sharply realised directorial vision, and[...]lf Garnett for some years. actors as inventive and polished as Jillian[...]House Guest is exactly like every other Murray and Ian Scott being challenged by a[...]into the lives of a modestly famous or visual and performance style, and which[...]telephoning, and off-stage there is always a naturalistic, mode[...]cottage in the country where something and daughter murderesses -- failed to shade vital and mysterious is happening. People and inflect the acerbic wit of Ryan's writing[...]at least one character is bumped off on Murray and Simon Hughes. Batt's direction stage, and there are lots of totally lacked style and a sense ofparticular purpose B e ve rle y Dunn[...]Edwin H odgem an CJaques) and G ary held together by dialogue that flickers with and relied on easily achieved moments of[...]musing lines which never quite amount to tension and humour. The tackiness of the design looked eve[...]wit. Dombroski's meticulous aesthetic and gave A s You Like It by Shakespeare. Melbourne Th[...]re. Opened March 31,1982. has to be ultra-glossy, and here Gene theatre.[...]hard Prins; Banducci's set of bland colours and[...], James on the head. The women wear elegant and theatre is going ahead, with the Murray[...]ht, is now into its second extended Ram ona and the White Staves by George F Walker. him. He[...]actress wife, managing to inject some and back. Both shows not only take theatre (Alt[...]concern and grief, whilst both Polly Low everyday environmen[...]ath in the Fam ily by Colin Ryan, La Mama. and Sher Guhl valiantly struggle with the and director Mark Shirrefs have created a Open[...]ing, Robert decorative ones. Raymond Duparc and[...] |
 | [...]with Ralph C otterill and Natalie Bate.[...]Matthews and Steve Johnson; music Carroll, Angela Punch-McGregor and Conference; Artistic Director, George[...]th e N a g a T rip e by Rendra; Australian plays and only national Chappie, Margie McCrae and Tony director, Chris Johnson; wi[...]. Throughout May. Downes and Barry Otto. Starts May 19. FOOLS GALLERY THEATRE[...]director, Phil Cusack; with Steele and John Stone. To May 16. the series I m a g e s f r o m the Jacki Weaver and John Waters. N e w S k y devised and performed by B a c k g r o u n d . To May 1. Ori[...]udith Anderson with original music by Jo Fleming and Tony Cox. May 5- MARIAN STREET TH[...]a y by Tom Stoppard; Leonard Bernstein and Stephen JIGSAW THEATRE COMPANY[...]Quast, Jon Ewing and Deidre schools. S la u g h te r by the company.[...]aw. C hildren's show. T h e o d o ra and T he C o m m u n i c a t io n PLAYHOUSE (496488)[...]a c A r t h u r In S h o w for primary schools and Blue Folk Community Arts present[...]L o f to m a n ia devised, written and T h e A n n i v e r s a r y by Bril M c[...]n Harvey. Starts May 19. Enzo Toppano and Peggy Mortimer. Salter, Alan Wilso[...]and Belinda Giblin. Into May. G o d 's[...]S a fe ty in N u m b e r s by Philip Scott and[...]Luke Hardy; director and designer, THE ALMOST MANAGING COMPANY (307211[...]on; designer, Yoshi Tosa; with Diana Greentree and Don Reid. To May 15. GRIFFIN THEATRE[...] |
 | [...]AND ^ director, John Noble; with[...]^ Don Barker, David Hursthouse, John Stewart and Mark Bramble; director and choreographer, Baayork Lee,[...] |
 | [...]Carrillo Gantner and Katherine B o o t s 'n A l l continues to ur of[...]WA and directed by Andy Lemon. Suitable[...]in P ic t u r e s by Neil W o l f b o y devised and directed by Peter[...]Sander, Maurie Ogden and Pippa[...]and K i n g L e a r by William[...]Shakespeare; designed and directed RESTAURANT (4192869)[...]Rod Hall and Glen Hitchcock. To may[...]National Theatre Company present and Rob Meadows. All through May.[...]RINCESS MAY THEATRE, O n e M o ' T im e w ritten and directed by[...]Interstar and Paul Elliott present lyric theatre of New Orleans (1926). Blundell and designed by Peter P y ja m a T o p s by Mawby Green and Ed[...]erick Parslow. John Inman and Reg Gillam. To May[...](3753500) Tess Lyiostys, Stella Tarrant and Athenaeum 2: N a r r o w F e i n t by[...]Knight, directed by William Gluth and Rosemary Crossley. Year N in[...]Kalgoorlie and Esperance districts. RESTAURANT (4196225)[...]rn show) May 4-22. making. Kelso & Curtis and Double Take May Mill Club, Sats. 9.30-11am. Drama and cra[...]during school holidays. 10.30am and[...] |
 | [...]Supper specialities include hot or cold seafood and international cuisine from[...]ith a variety of seafood, chefs Dany Chouet and Ken Michael. SUMMIT (279777)[...]dney. W orld's largest revolving Cnr Stanley and Yurong Sts, East Turner and John O'May with restaurant. Magnificent 360 degree Sydney. Lunch Mon-Fri, dinner and delectable deserts, coffee and liqueurs panoramic views of city ahd harbour.[...]cards accepted. Average $22. Long show. and dancing. Free night parking in established a[...]Hilton Hotel, cnr W ellington Pde and bottle wine per person. Suppers from NIEUW AM[...]- charge $5 per person). Credit cards Dinner and supper Tues-Sat 8pm -- 11.30pm for casual[...]d. Average $12. Dutch chef, offer both hot and cold suppers for (2331094) Ron, serves seafood and international those seeking an after-show ven[...]ney. cuisine. Suppers are their speciality and even have a weight-watchers Luxurious garden restaurant right in and a large choice of light dishes are section on[...]WALNUT TREE (3284409) atmosphere. By day and sun pours THE CAULDRON (311523)[...]n-Fri, dinner Mon-Sat. Licensed. night the stars and city lights are The restaurant features 2 bar[...]here before the floor, disco music, courtyard and open quality international menu served in sho[...]licensed restaurant offers superb and the service will be quick and MARIAN STREETTHEATRE (4983166) internat[...]CASSIM'S (2675328) executed and served and stuning French food. If you love good food and 16-22 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. theatre[...]elbourne's social set this Lunch Mon-Fri, dinner and supper under one roof. That's the menu at[...]ust. Mon-Sat. Licensed. Average $17. Ken and Lilian H orler's brand new Credit cards accepted[...]E, please ring Jaki Gothard with theatre dinners and for late suppers. 6pm) and dinner from 7-8.30pm; details o[...] |
 | [...]ney Dance Company. committed himself and has not finished his O P E R A _______________[...]es in Brisbane Gail Holst (ex-Nation Review music writer) presented to Patrick White in the[...]ing a new work to two recent and major is in Greece to make the film[...]scores: Barry Conyngham's Mirage and[...]On the same program will English, German and Greek. Since then she[...]untitled, is based on the life and works of[...]and political implications of his popular[...]a new era of energy and achievement in 1983 NATIONAL MUSIC[...]tiative, this time it will Storry Walton's Film and Television successful for the 1981[...]y music scene rolling series of seminars and workshops on Israel Philharmonic, Shalom[...]ted that there will be public might do the same) and actually goes to with the growth in the numbers and stature concerts in Sydney by the AYO. T[...]of Australian composers, and the develop orchestra is now consideri[...]ing film and television industry, a realistic European e[...]rkshop continuing over a period of 24 and its fame is spreading rapidly. Its 1980 GIVE THE[...]e Seymour Group into the inevitable gripe and bitch session) Last month's article on The[...]balanced view, the Biennale of Renard, produced and directed by Barry[...]Sydney is presenting a major survey of Moreland, and a new work, The Serpent EUROPEAN DREAMTIME performance art and sound, devised by Rainbow, choreographed by Barr[...]g. Spread over much of the land with Kelvin Coe, and other key The famous collaboration[...]grapher Jiri Kylian and three major performances will be[...]su and Luciano Berio has been postponed. Bien[...]in 1975 for Music Rostrum and collared my cassette catalogue which inc[...]slipped Music a cassette sampler of music and[...]80 to absorb performance groups who work and live in[...] |
 | [...]It has been touted for years that guarded and not available. Try asking demand for information[...]s Information is the new currency. It is bought and sold. It is coveted and the ABC for information. Even its poor grew and goes on to detail various feared.[...]g about displaced jobs. Computerisation was chic and neat. activities, and of our needs, in order to * Artforce bi-monthly n[...]The arts were hardly touched by sustain and develop them. As the (6,000 recipients) related t[...]Board itself says: "As the artistic grants alone and with special usually for accounting purposes. Then along came Computicket and Bass and activities of a nation grow, accurate sup[...]miliar with the new computer type-face. Research and documentation and recording become * O Z A R T S a guide to arts organisa documentation were sporadic and un- co-ordinated activities, and a data base essential."[...]Ethnic Arts Director Lots of organisations and persons of the Australia Council (1980-198[...]n Council Programs to Arts * Films about the arts and artists information about their history (which is also our history), but little of it is Information and Research. Co It also notes two useful research accessible. And that is a very important and crucial word, accessible. If it is not incidenta[...]f Australia's accessible, it is of no use to you and to me. In many instances it is of no use to r[...]A ustralia Council. expenditure on opera), and an analysis[...]information it possesses. Each Board collection and dissemination of arts[...]The Annual Report noted that the the arts, and of an international arts 44 THEATRE AUS[...] |
 | information service. and instantly details of his life's work Institute (ITI) branch in Australia and[...]e Trust (AETT) in Sydney. It is arts information and its transfer (as shaken. His peers were green wit[...]ccess. icals, a collection of Australian (and tion Centres of UNESCO), I think this It is now[...]if they have the informa again after a year off) and include what duced a Catalogue of plays sub[...]emble a substan Without the access of the artist and Australian materials and recordings. In tial performing arts infor[...]for possible performance stultified, incestuous and debilitating, posters etc etc.[...]epository of all the nothing of the intellectual and artistic edition of the Australian Music Direc[...]icious of, tory appeared. Edited by Peter Beilby and resist, "the new", and the arts and Michael Roberts, it is hoped to be I an annual publication, and so will become duller and duller. Let's take a look at some of the arts | expand and fill in some gaps. It has information outside th[...]| information and is clearly aimed at the Queensland plans to preci[...]! industry and commercial music. ished and unpublished Australian playsM U SIC ___________________ The Music Board of the Australia and to computerise the result. Let's Of all the ar[...]s aren't thrown away with accessible information and indeed application from Theatre Australia to afterwards, and that a Readers Digest Australia leads the world[...]does not believe there exists a market And finally, Theatre Australia itself, ralian Direct[...]August 1976, is a most accessible a trail-blazer and is now computerised existed a national music magazine for and well-documented source of per in New York. The famous three "R" 's some fourteen years, and it is patently forming arts information, and more of music are: time to offer a central organ and detailed than the Performing Arts Year[...]steadily grown in stature and now Litterature Musicale[...]of documen * RISM Repertoire International des and for the serious discussion of major tation. So[...]its documentation RILM is the best organised and is of the ABC, Musica Viva, the AETT, greatly over the last year, and much oi it the Australian Opera and the state may still be generally unknown.[...]lications or opera companies, the Australian Ballet, more directly and up-to-date, through[...]reas: M IDAS, the service provided through and the members of the 3500 organisa 1. The two[...]tions listed in the AMC's Directory, as Ballet in Australia, which are mostly a tional Data Acq[...]d Record Club, could not support hagiography and fatuousness, but to astonish the delegates and the a monthly music magazine, then we[...]and General Index. To this add Frank to a giant scre[...]theatre is the International Theatre Opera and Ballet in A ustralia also has a[...] |
 | [...]Campbell) keeps track of arts films and 2. The Dramatic Music Catalogue of The A[...]centre (and a catalogue) which usually 3. Company programmes[...]ly deposted any currently (1979) available, and was al[...]Victoria and will be called Film files in 1975 and these include also has a select list o[...]low suit). Victopia also Dennis Wolanski Library and Archives Margaret Ingham. Then there are th[...]ous author's associations: Austra documentation, and probably today is lian Society of Authors,[...]a. The Australian Authors, with 3-4,000, and basic publications are the Film and T V archival centre at the Victorian Arts the most exclusive and professional[...]e News, and the AMC's Catalogue of has achieved but the Wola[...]these organisations might be able to year lead and munificent patronage. supply detailed info[...]and TV School should have the game has ambitious pla[...]: Support for panied by supportive resource and coll[...]and 343 general collections. Finally, the Paper by t[...]not available for sharing and the next Ballet, and which were created by catalogue as well, and the Australia[...]tioners and consumers, and in terms of SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA MOTET[...]mentation and information. C o n cert H all, Syd n ey O p e ra[...]ouncil may H ouse Box Office (phone 2 0588) and agencies, or from Sydney[...]o initiate. The Philharm onia Society, cnr. York and Jam ison Sts., City (phone 29 4470).[...]and international organisations.[...]collect it, share it, and budget for it.46 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 |
 | [...]went terribly well for the came in. cast and crew of The Year of Living[...]MALICE expresses Dangerously in the Philippines and their AUS FILM MONTH[...]month in Washing inept, though attractive and ambitious, Boyd the cinemaphotographer and Mel ton from mid-March to mid-April[...]ts a man into her story Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Michael films shown at the American Film Institute to suit her theories, and damages him. Murphy the stars of Christopher Koc[...]or would let her story, which is fully financed, and will be films, Don's Party, The Odd Angry Sh[...]nes, as other productions have Show Man and Caddie (two nights each) made, interesting and has Paul found, are a bit tricky as location sites. Less Mouth to Mouth and Mad Max in a double Newman as the victim.[...]in Macao, where these are "cult movies", and The Winter of REDS does not have a lot to do[...]producing, directing, and playing government, or bureaucratic sections of[...]who prevails on her not interests are newspapers and television in[...]new part-time Anne Brooksbank's Archer and William commissioner. Another part-timer is Mr Nagle's Leonski got $6000 and $10,000 In one of the best scenes in[...]Jack Nicholson acts everybody else off nology and marketing. AFC, and Adams Packer Pty Ltd the sum of the screen.[...]s. I guess Leonski film of the controversial, and very The Australian Film Commission responded[...]o does not want to rot in that it loved the CDB and would do serviceman called Leonski[...]I who killed Melburn life support machine and go wherever cutting the funding because Governm[...]. The film is not a plea cash wasn't available, and it has asked for for pouring tomato sauce on[...]hospital. Packed with good lines and a[...]direction and acting not only from[...]Robert de Niro and Robert Duvall but[...] |
 | [...]THORNTON talks to Elizabeth Riddell Every now and again a reviewer likes to "I'm so excited. I've been working decided to go for broke, and just act. publicly pick a winner, and this is just since I was 13. In fact when I w[...]one what I feel like doing in the case of and we were living in London -- my of the Sydn[...]grid Thornton, who at the age of 23 father and mother are university Macdonald's 1915 w[...]en's group that experience, lots of rehearsal and great done her duty by the producers for the was supposed to get kids interested in care and enthusiasm from everyone at premiere, Sigrid too[...]one of the principal break in ten years of small and middle television series -- Matlock Police,[...]The others are Walter, Billy roles in television and films in which Homicide, Division Four, Father Dear and Diana played respectively by Scott she was hardly noticed. The Man gave Father and in three films where I don't McGregor, Scott Burgess and Jackie her a chance to be seen for the natural[...]in competition with the Wisdom, FJ Holden, and Snapshot, a changing moods of the High Country,[...]ilm is hard, but also to show childish sweetness and un tremendous fun," Sigrid says, "and the certainty, flashes of sunny humour and " I spent six years with the Twelfth atmosphere is very good and friendly. I brooding fear of rejection, all of w[...]risbane, hope it stays that way, with cast and she gave to the role. but[...]lso working with crew getting on together. And wasn't I[...]I met Sigrid she was I matriculated and was going to do arts. with? And Kirk Douglas? He was wearing a bright blue jumpsuit and I think it's important for an actress to generous with his time and knowledge nervously smoking too much. "It's know something besides acting. In the and experience. He didn't give advice. because I'm going away," she said. end I did a year of German and of It wasn't an authoritarian atmosphere[...]land University until I at all, just very free and friendly." 48 THEATRE AUSTRALIA MAY 1982 |
 | [...]REVIEW Starstruck -- a[...]presenting the newcomers Jo Kennedy and[...]all Interior and exterior crowd scenes are brilliantly us[...]wonderfully manipulated, and David demned to be stereotypes -- Pat Evison and[...]Nana, she gambols about the pub, fat and for this exuberant, fast, fresh, funny and scintillating. The great merit of Starstruck is[...]lm using a formidable that it has no dull patches and no over an exquisite perform[...]back to the beginning to allot the j quiet ones, and some quiet songs for Jo so that her[...]several years, j like "Temper, Temper" , "Tough" and Starstruck is a Palm Bea[...]m the Australian Film Com producers David Elfick and Richard j Starstruck is a triumph for all concerned mission and private sources. Brennan, the director Gillian Armstrong, j in it, and should do as well overseas, with Mark Moffatt's[...]city handling, as it dozen good songs, beautiful and lively j cinematography under the direction of | Russell Boyd, costume and production | design by Luciana Arrighi, Terry Ryan and | Brian Thomson, choreography by David | Atkins, editing by Nicholas Beauman. And two new young starstruck people -- i Jo Kennedy as Jackie and Ross O'Donovan as Angus -- and several mature ones, ; especially Margo Lee as[...]ana, Max Cullen as Reg, Dennis Miller as j Lou and Melissa Jaffer as Mrs Booth. All these people[...]leased. They are also more or less j related, and stand in loco parentis to a cockatoo named Wally and several con fident cats. The pub and the people are models of how corny elements ma[...]hile the elders go about their business Jackie and Angus, cousins, one an in efficient barmaid and the other a schoolboy, live in a fantasy world[...]by logistics -- where does Jackie find a band and a place to sing, how does Angus break through[...]o city buildings, wearing a nude body-stocking and massive artificial breasts and falls into a safety net while Angus, using sev[...]so different voices, alerts the media; a water ballet of beach lifesavers (actually water polo playe[...]their noses swims in a hotel pool with Jackie and a troop of plastic sharks; Jackie, wear[...] |
 | [...]REVIEW Man From Snowy River -- excitement but no[...]ver is the third western, after Mad Dog Morgan and The Irishman, in the local industry's born-aga[...]Evans who later became a Paramount executive) and the guilt western, such as The Wild Bunch, have moved into science fiction blockbusters, and this in fact may be the right time for Michael[...]early scene when Jim the hero and his father[...]a rock while a storm rages over her; and producer does not have the advantage of the[...]son's climax, when Jim goes over the giant press and television complex which with a story by Fred Cul Cullen and John mountain wall at the brumbies' heels and is Dixon which is predictable and stuffed with not seen effectively again unt[...]a partner in R&R cliches in scenes and dialogue; and the at the homestead to say " I told yo[...]tes, was able to marshal behind Mad Max I and II, and it would lessen Along with the bru[...]glances and there are lapses of judgement -- other way)[...]s confronted with Cecil B de into his role and has real style. Kirk Douglas,[...]troubles with makeup and costume in both Mille's The Ten Commandments. "[...]anything except the horses and the glorious be good, look what it cost" is not[...]and Sigrid Thornton as Harrison's an advertising c[...]scenes were shot first, because Burlinson And you can see where the money has[...]grows into his role, and he has real style.[...]id Thornton is an unorthodox beauty, been spent. And, conversely, where it has and when she learns to use stillness to go[...]ut not suspense. The only suspense photographed. And I daresay Kirk Douglas[...]phrase from the poem, and hesitates, and cost a bundle, especially seeing he plays two[...]boys aged 11 and eight, and their mother. Harrison and the cantankerous old golden-[...]hearted Spur, estranged brothers, cattle man and gold fossicker. The rest of the cast and most of the crew are Australian and come cheaper, although salaries and wages at all levels in Australian film making are rising, and some would say not before time. As everybody w[...]pedigree colt that broke from the home paddock and went off with the wild horses led by the photogenic stallion and was recovered by a mountain man when[...] |
 | [...]has since taken to cracking a pretend stockwhip, and the elder said it was the best film he had seen this year. His mother and I both felt a bit saddle sore.Breakfast in[...]television soapie Peyton Place 20 years ago \ and may also be remembered for her film j role in[...]the spirit discovered, later lapsing into despair and walls are of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre j and symbol of the new German (Aryan) becoming no more than a servant of the Coeur. The film is so inept and silly it is j drama under the patronage of the Pr[...]or its failures 1 Minister, who is also a general and bears a to have paid so highly for his collaborat[...]novel published physical atmosphere of the period and is[...]ationship between Klaus Cinema has Mephisto and it is also going to[...]nn, Gustav (called Hofgen in Mephisto) Perth and Brisbane. It opened in London films, that is, fi[...]Erika Mann (who married Grundgens but and New York simultaneously with the the English language, has occurred in recent left him to his career and later married the months, partly due to the esta[...]citizenship) Australian showings. Channel 0/28 and partly to the enterprise of and Paula Wedekind, daughter of the It w[...]Best Film and Best Screenplay at Cannes in comes from the Trav[...]The film shows Grundgens-Hofgen 1981 and is nominated for Best Foreign[...]luential of the cinemas showing foreign films (and some films from Britain and the US which would not be screened by the big[...]Last year International Critics Award Best Film and in the first months of 1982 the Dendy has screened films from East and West and Best Screenplay Germany, Poland, Spain, Japan, El Sal vador and Switzerland. D irected b[...]latest is Mephisto, from Hungary, about events and people in Germany in the meM sto thirties during and after the rise ot Adolf Hitler. It is a film of almost hypnotic interest, made by Istvan Szabos and starring the astonishing, exciting Klaus[...] |
 | [...]ion "appropriate at this genius of Shakespeare and the result is a DISSOLVES______________[...]erence had done much valuable work, madness and death. After five-and-a-bit years of, sometimes it was now of mo[...]production to be conducted by Carlo of Australia and New Zealand decided at its they had in common[...]ising any short-term differences of as Banquo and Reginald Byers as voluntarily dissolve its assoc[...]era, recently announced two new appointments and join forces with other performing arts Covent Garden, La Scala and other major to the Victoria State Opera: b[...]es will make his Australian debut The Conference and CAPPA had from the in the title role of[...]n of the Australian Opera. Honorary Treasurer and Mr Wilfred tained close and friendly relations and their Acclaimed by audiences and critics for both Thornton is appointed as Chair[...]ion" was, in fact, only a matter his musical and dramatic achievements, Victoria State Oper[...]roles of the Thane of Cawdor and his[...]Haskins and Sells. He was the President of Opera Conference,[...]from 1964 to 1973, and President of[...]Managing Director of Associated Pulp and[...]such experience and stature working on[...]behalf of the VSO. Both Mr Kennedy and[...]and in its development here in Victoria." Sherril[...]General Managers and other members of[...]receive accolades for good work done and[...]whose hard work and determination are at[...]staff and supporters, one of whom has[...]endeavours and feels sure the Festival will[...] |
 | [...]Ian Cam pbell (left) working with Thomas Edm onds and M arilyn R ich ardson in La Bohem e rehearsal.[...]when I was 13, the Sydney Con. He rang me, and I The Makropulos A ffair should and I did a BA at Sydney Uni, with the started in[...]elaide Opera, South Australia. and was amazed to be offered parts in besides be[...]er roles with IC: Last year I directed Boheme, and in descended upon Adelaide for the[...]Tales of Hoffman. I arrive in New York and cheerful, for the IC:[...] |
 | [...]strator at Covent thought it was bad, and why. He costing. As long as we hire s[...]have time to put his was responsible for casting and reper "Let's celebrate your joining the Met." stamp on the season. toire there, and had decided to retire "But Mr. Bliss, we ha[...]inherit a good They persuaded her to join them, and worry. No one ever rejects the Met."[...]ly all of the subsidy Music Director at the Met, and lured[...]now will not be possible within five or two, and so far has stayed for five IC: It's a frigh[...]year for Met is cast with multiple covers, and IC: In South Australia we have a viable so[...]the job at IC: The singers travel by plane and the leaving at such a time. the Met?[...]re going to be the right blend of administrative and There's nothing else like that in the[...]to the Opera years going to America and England. Met? America Conference, which[...]anagement structure, the way it lots of thought, and realised while I was money to bring you to Ade[...]erested in moving on. of Die Fledermaus, and spent a week way the heavily subsidised c[...]With a turnover of S60 million a Patrick Veitch, and Michael Bronson, ship developed from ther[...]the Met's technical man. KH: And the Australian Opera? KH: What are[...]Veitch played. him, and brought him back twice. To IC: I'm 36, and I've been involved IC: Patrick acted as a broker[...]ral Manager's job at the AO. exciting, and I have yet to prove a great England, he said "Ho[...]he new man will be invited to play Ingpen and James Levine. But that is I thought of hi[...] |
 | [...]REVIEW Makropoulos and Elixir -- strong after images by Ken Healey[...]Opera was in Brisbane with The Bartered Bride and Madam Butterfly, the so-called regional com[...]ns farther South. State Opera, South Australia and Canberra Opera share the name "regional" , but[...]casion was that Canberra hired Adelaide's sets and costumes for a new production by John Milson of The Elixir of Love, and presented it within days of State Opera[...] |
 | [...]Makropulos Affair of activity month in and month out. And Given such strong casting, surely the at this year's Adelaide Festival, and by that requires government subsidy,[...]nice two years earlier could not federal and state. knowledge of the beauty of his face and his voice. In most other respects the production[...]STATE OPERA Dulcamara's entry were slack. Stage and pit[...]een given insufficient Bardon (sets) and Michael Stennett Dawes. Touring[...]conductors, Carlo Felice C illario and WA OPERA COMPANY wrought sounds he[...]t i c o ; conductor, Carlo Quaife, Judith Henley and the WA Arts repetitive when Donizetti's comedies[...]Hugh Colman's Edwardian costumes were fine, and his simple set, making use of the effects[...] |
 | [...]Jill Sykes AB REVIEW company's administrator considerably from performers, and the possibility of com[...]structure. the Australian Ballet have been recom mended in the management's consu[...]ded At the time of writing, the review was review commissioned by the company's[...]responsibility of artistic and administrative ment and staff. But its effects were already[...]he press were Its 51 pages of recommendations and for the artistic director and the administra circulated with the review on its release observations form a blueprint for[...]company, which was unfortunate), and high level of communication between[...]dance reviewers were flown in by the management and performers can be responsi[...]company from around the country to achieved and maintained.[...]company's 1982 Sydney The main thrust of the review is the position of company secret[...]ontroversial item for a long no doubt that, in a ballet company, the that it was not illegal for the two positions to while, and carried pages of information position of artisti[...]t dual role, preference was given for the vision and drive is drawn." two[...]port recom m ends of a company, and reports to the board. He n a rro w in g th e a d[...]S4,000 Peter theoretical terms, a strengthening and Stuyvesant Scholarship at the Royal Ballet enlarging of the artistic staff is suggested.[...]in London on the advice of his New positions of ballet director, artistic co Criticism of the recent past is made more by teachers, Joan and Monica Halliday, of ordinator and resident choreographer, and implication than in so many words. The Sydney. three positions of ballet master/mistress, strongest statement[...]y-to-day pressure off the overdue and changes are necessary." Josephine S[...]ancing scholar appointment, personnel manager -- and recommended changes speak for t[...]Patience and commitment from dancers, mission to do this was given by the RAD The review does not address itself management and board are asked for: "We after assessin[...]s of its student scholarship have the Australian Ballet Administrator, whose renewal of team effort and a return to the had to take up studies in[...]when realisation that the Australian Ballet's they went on strike last year. But its[...]hievable by one group Danilo Radojevic and Chrisa Keramidas, recommendations include change[...]rovement is in sight." former Australian Ballet members, now would narrow the power base of the[...]Members of the board, who have been Ballet Theatre, made a flying trip home in[...]not given harsh judgement by the report. and Sydney in the fortnight's break[...]clarification of the role of the board and the Los Angeles. Let's hope we have them back[...]and commitment to the industry they are[...]directing. . . (and) wide experience in the nine works overseas[...]f age groups, geographic locations June 15 and 26, followed by performances and ethnic backgrounds. Dancer repre at festivals in Cologne, Athens and[...]Peter Brinson, dance writer and evan[...]h or more between sociology of dance, and head of the[...]artistic staff, con Department of Research and Community[...]Movement and Dance in South London. 58 THEATRE AUSTR[...] |
 | [...]M ichel, P aul de M asson, M arilyn Row e M over and Zane Wilson "Well, my dear, there is an old sayi[...]'s Rite o f Spring. that you can't be both whore andmadame." The allusion was to all the years that Tetley spent trying to perform and choreograph, and then, between 1974 and 1976, combining choreography with directing the Stuttgart Ballet. "It is all I can handle just to try to be a go[...]emand around the world, both to create new works and revive old ones. He was back in Australia after[...]staging of his Rite of Spring for the Australian Ballet. It was one of the works which opened the company's 1982 subscription season in Sydney, and will be seen later this year in Brisbane and Melbourne. Tetley has not long completed a new Firebird for the Royal Danish Ballet, which also has his Voluntaries, Greening and Rite of Spring in its repertoire. His Dances of Albion for the Royal Ballet made him the first non-British re cipient of[...]reographed in 1978, will open the Scandinavian ballet season in New York next October. When he left[...]as to stage Voluntaries for for the Paris Opera Ballet. His Rite of Spring, which he cho[...] |
 | and the work's mingling of mystic and Glen Tetley. c[...]to expect. principal dancer for American Ballet it does.[...]rgin dancing herself to death," he Serrano and Toni Lander. to use point if an[...]y have arisen because his early Stuttgart and worked with Marcia It doesn't specify a female v[...]I have always been interested in fluences, and for a long time, he didn't developing a contemporary classical comparative religion and archaeology, devise any point work for his dancers. style -- to me it's the one language." and in so many of the primitive religions -- one cou[...]ling were in a more contemporary Australian Ballet in 1973, was one of sacrifice, is male. Sometime[...]eel how they are going affection for that great ballet, and feels to move, and I didn't want to use the that it still belongs to Australia and its Another of his inspirations for this[...]ame Christ the grew to feel more experienced and and American Ballet Theatre since tiger.. . ' I thought Wow! That's[...]dachshunds, Fratello and Tartufo, who visual and dramatic content to their[...]at a canine old age which only helped chart the Ballet Rambert[...]Tetley has a rich and affectionate meaning behind it. Peter Brinson and collection of stories about them and Clement Crisp describe that potential[...]g lives between his perfectly in the Pan Book of Ballet and homes in New York and Italy. He and a Dance:[...]economy and first class, each with the "In many Tetley wo[...]air hostess approached him and asked if accept or reject as we choose, but whic[...]the pilot's The breadth of Tetley's stylistic and lap.[...]bservation point on with the fact that he was 20 and a the plane and taken up the same stance medical student before[...]urveying the train as a dancer. " I came in late and Atl[...]All of this may seem to have nothing Sydney. And he certainly chose some[...]process of recounting a few anecdotes, and Margaret Craske instructed him in[...]so much about movement from his Graham and Hanya Holm inspired him[...]earliest and most memorable works,[...] |
 | [...]-REVIEW Pina Bausch, "them and us" barriers inherent in a protection are instinc[...]production. To start with, audiences, over and barriers that humanity puts up.[...]But humanity cannot go back to this AD T and SDC entertained as[...]"big"; theatre intensifying life and all that. What she wanted to do was scale down plexity, and so the rituals go on. The the audience's field and depth of vision, dancers at the end of the work s[...]ubridge hence the slowness and the repetitions. as they did before, pinching the[...]hey do that gesture once more Adelaide Festival, and for many others too, I 'll scream" . One searched[...]udging by opinion canvassed. Be that as it change and when that (small) change came fingernails[...]e could see of those longueurs and repetitions, not in[...]the task of illuminating social length, slowness and repetitiousness, -- and she did -- the gestures of love that c[...]thing akin to a combustion cannibalism, rejection and longing. Things seeing life as a woman and seeing it as a man.[...]It is not enough to be jingoistic and claim But if one could take the time to think ou[...]sign. For all its adventurous i mechanical horse, and so on. The point was, conditioning" is impossible for the reasons enquiry into dance and theatre, it is one of as much to make the audienc[...]going on around the repetition, as works scaled and bevelled into strict to make it aware of the form[...]ects of Kontakthof are as The drama and brutality of Bluebeard formalistic structures.[...]time came when one was as anything; that and human frustration. intention to take the audienc[...]ng themselves scheme of a "theatre" presentation and she no longer seeing the company as per[...]but as part of a dance crowd, a very weighted and pressured as the women. The achieves this in two[...]tight animalistic huddles and the orgiastic Firstly by placing the performance[...]t part. One could see that the runs and jumps across the stage are as much setting conducive and "real" to the terms of "corps" section of men and women buffing engendered by the women as t[...]against each other, snapping out "head, rituals and mannerisms inherent in a public shoulder, knee, leg" was not so much a As the "ballet" closes and Bluebeard meeting place, in this case a dance hall, and stylised dance step as a domination game. dr[...]h him And so it went on until, with the film and out of the door he repeatedly claps his that is[...]hands and the rest of the cast multifariously Thebarton To[...]servience, rejection and acceptance. It again Secondly she wants to break down the no moral distinctions, and care, love and has come full circle and the audience feels[...]It has been noted that Pina Bausch and[...]to develop the face of dance and theatre in[...]appreciation of Australian audiences and[...]It was a wonderful and exhilarating[...] |
 | [...]repetitive and over reminiscent of Murphy a lovely neoclassic ballet of craftsmanlike stuff we've seen before. He[...]is certain, Taylor is a man of construction and in Murphy's Hate a into the same tra[...]s fall into when trying to create a dissonances and his discursions for all the Graham Watson's Lm514, though, a ballet strong physical emotion on stage, they[...]We Watched is a work of pure controllers and trying to have good time, illuminate it in[...]Perhaps Mr Watson has been Thus in a ballet about hate we have lots of drama always pervading it. It is a ballet built choreographing too many commercials,[...]n Barry Moreland's in the duet work and a morass of flailing and conflict. arms and legs, Finishing with paint being[...]so remained in his genre country of Bach and clear plastic curtain). Trouble is it looks a powerfully extended and theatrically ex lightly flavoured abstract dance and it is a little empty and arty, reminiscent at times posed, but exposed b[...]ets Russes when expressiveness of their dancing and the Adelaide Festival. To call it crafts[...]interest through a close-packed weave of and sound what was lacking in choreo While We Watched is in some ways an ensemble and pas de deux work and he has, graphic invention. elaboration o[...]eated stuff to salvage from this work and when score is a fine backdrop to the sweeping l[...]ece of New edgy partnerings, bounding ensembles and[...]s, Graeme Murphy soaring solos that pepper this ballet. I don't think however I could bear too has served his company, dancers and[...]The Australian Ballet's opening programs does the 3rd movement of Ber[...]House will be it wears itself out dramatically and[...]W A Ballet at the[...]Skill, stamina and versatility are the it relies too much at times[...]ingredients that made up the WA Ballet impact inherent in extreme dynamics.[...]st 1982 season at His Small, complex pas de deux and solos[...]vous or lyrical by turns are repeatedly swept up and away by great bounding[...]vening of dance group pieces that have the sweep and[...]st they would if it weren't for the serene, calm and statuary finish to the ballet, with the dancers in a circle, peeling off into[...]an ensemble company to me, more so than the SDC, and it was so good to see the occasional spotlight[...]ly the two boys in the male pas de deux in Part 1and the couple in Part 2 in the lovely extended pas[...]ike to see more of this underlining in ADT works and a little less facelessness from the compa[...] |
 | [...]died. audiences stayed away in droves. league and beguile the audience with their Despite William Dowd's extravagant Has ballet in Perth reached the stage antics. Although the m[...]rs, the where it is seen only as pre-Christmas and allows the dancers to indulge in a wi[...]tertainm ent? The certain amount of drollery, the ballet is the bands of courtiers and visiting success of past productions of the ilk of technically demanding and the footwork oi potentates that normally swell the ranks ol Peter Pan and Cinderella would lead one to the male dancers was at times not up to such a ballet. Such defects can only be this unhappy conclus[...]pnotic corps of dancers on which to call and the merit, the recent season deserved support. contemporary ballet by the company's WA company managed to[...]Maggie Lorraine was a delicate and sure Judicial casting made the most of the explores the moods and rhythums of the differing moods of each of the f[...]and's Spirals, which opened Some outstanding solo and pas de deux movements of the courtiers and the leashed the program, is a work of great ly[...]e Saracen entourage. She was demanding control and precision dancing combined a rock hard technique[...]graphed for almost boneless fluidity of the torso and the medieval knight who returns from the[...]lured to His dancers' powerful blend of vitality and excellent foil with the clean lines of his[...]was a grace. dancing and fine port de bras.[...]challenging and satisfying evening of dance, A touch of oriental[...]auger well for the future of ballet in this sensuous ballet set to Ravi Shankar's sitar classic, Raymonda. In[...]sic. Joanne Munday captured the quick format, the ballet is an unashamedly Unless Perth au[...]Mr Welch has eliminated is more than tutus and toe-shoes and a fairy greater definition), and Stephen Rowe much of the usual padding of process[...]ed her strongly as the earthbound dream sequences and the like, to give a well- productions that lac[...]integrated series of solo and ensemble the imagination to venture outside the The third ballet, Ray Powell's One in Five ! sequences that[...] |
 | [...]be draw n on M a y 31 w ill win a free and sombre reflectiveness in his character s[...]ink, playing a character constantly on the move and full of untiring exuberance, can 9. You[...]too resisted the temptation to play up the part and, espeically in her later 1 3 . T rick[...]out o f sentim ent all her lapses into hysteria and mania. Debbie Little and Patrick Frost were the 15. T ype o f b[...]mbers of a strong quartet: the former confident and in particular present hom e (7)[...]'t burn w ell! one speechless (4) ity and ultimate confusion over what Grainger expected[...]7. C unningly I lodge and m arry E m m a, a John Noble's direction was[...]E rup tion s brought on by tem p eratu re props and changes in lighting would have been both more effective and less com objection (8) and right com bustion rem ains (4,6) fortably domest[...](4) Director, David Hare; Designer, Eamon D'Arcy and Hayden Griffin; Lighting, Rory Dempster; Music,[...], Nicholas Lidstone.(Professional). P ercy and R ose by Rob George. Stage Company, Adela[...] |
MD |
Reproduced with permission of creator and editor Robert Page |