Deviations by Allen O'Leary. Directed by Iain Sinclair. Elbow Theatre Company at Currong Theatre November 23 - 25, 8pm. Transferring to La Mama, Melbourne, November 29 - December 17.
Four characters, Richard, Susan, Matt and Karen begin in pairs which become crossed and double-crossed; in Act 2 they appear in a foursome, which breaks again into pairs, and ends with Karen alone. In this nicely structured black comedy of Melbourne manners, Michael Butcher, Lenore McGregor, Pip Branson and Lucie O'Brien form an equally balanced ensemble performing highly unbalanced characters. From laughter of recognition, through laughter in sympathy, to silence of horror, opening night of this preview season proved both the play and the performance a very worthwhile night of theatre.
If you've missed it here, then you may pick it up in its 3 week season in Melbourne, where La Mama is fully sponsoring the run. However, since artsACT funded the final development of the script, we can only hope that local funding may also be found to present a longer return season here in the future.
Playwright Allen O'Leary, originally from New Zealand, has picked up the tone of North Fitzroy and Collingwood, producing an almost olde worlde inner city charm in a drama of mixed sexuality, in which independent company-owning architect Susan hopes that her new relationship with Brunswick Street waitress Karen may develop from desire to lust, to sex, and to love - in that order. But we find that loving someone is not the same as liking them, let alone desiring, lusting or having sex with them. The problem, as Karen says, is that it's not easy to stop loving someone. When, in the final tragic twist, she no longer has Matt, Karen moves to the busy city of sharp sunlight, Sydney, to be herself, alone; while Susan has no choice but to support Richard in his new bout of insanity, just as she has had to in the past.
Challenging theatre is Elbow's metier, and early next year expect more new work from local writers as well as imports; while later, founding members Kenneth Spiteri and Iain Sinclair will turn to Europe for further training, at the Atelier Ecole du Mime Corporel in Paris and the Theatre Institute in Amsterdam respectively.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday, 24 November 2000
Thursday, 23 November 2000
2000: Australian National Playwrights' Conference. Feature article.
The Australian National Playwrights' Conference will live once again in its natural home at ANU's Burgmann College in 2001, despite occasional dalliances elsewhere such as at the Adelaide Festival. The all important diary dates are April 17 to 28, and there will be opportunities this time around for many more people to be involved in addition to the focus group of playwrights.
Traditionally the ANPC concentrated on a small group whose plays were professionally workshopped over 2 weeks, with top class actors and directors coming together at peak energy levels with a sense of dedication to the growth of new Australian theatre. Over the last 20 years, and especially since top flight dramaturg May-Brit Akerholt became director, ANPC has become far more inclusive.
Nowadays indigenous writers are represented every year, no longer with any sense of a need for affirmative action but as a natural part of the mainstream. The New Dramatists Exchange with New York continues with an Australian writer there and an American writer here. The Young Playwrights' Studio runs around the nation separately from the main Conference, with successful young ACT writers Tom Hodgson (Hannibal and Co.), Sarah Kaur (Girl) and Christopher Curwood (Brain Drain) among others being awarded a year's membership of ANPC and observer status at the Conference. And, as always, any interested person can buy a ticket for a day or for the whole 2 weeks as an observer, including taking part in the often highly energetic discussions in the daily forums and seminars.
For some years now there has also been The Studio running throughout the fortnight in parallel with the main Conference. This is for anyone who has "a script, a scene or even just a great idea". It's a course for budding writers with daily classes taught by professional writing tutors and specialist theatrecraft people, and often sets the seeds of a script which in a later year appears in the main Conference. One writer, Jen Nield, described The Studio as "like being given a brand new box of tools", the image emphasising that writing for theatre is a practical craft.
And now comes a new initiative which I suspect will grow bigger than Ben Hur: the Drama Teachers' Studio. For the first time, ladies and gentlemen, drama teachers across the nation can spend their Easter holidays (and up to $950 for registration, accommodation and meals from April 18 to 21) on an annual professional development binge.
The Drama Teachers' Studio, directed in 2001 by the experienced playwright, dramaturg and theatre writing teacher Timothy Daly, already well known for his ANPC work in Canberra as well as interstate, will concentrate on texts being taught by the teachers especially for Year 11 and 12 and in tertiary education courses. In the Conference milieu, teachers at last will have a regular opportunity to mix with the top professionals in the industry - and relatively early in the academic year, ready to feed all their experience back to their students.
I believe that this special relationship between the ANPC and the teaching profession will help establish the status of drama teachers, who are still too often regarded as people playing games rather than as the highly trained and disciplined professionals that they need to be nowadays. Despite the cost (becoming a member of ANPC and Earlybird registration by February 23 saves $110), the Drama Teachers' Studio will be invaluable, and is already being strongly supported by the NSW Educational Drama Association and the ACT Drama Association - and ANPC's phones are running hot from teachers in other states within days of sending out their fax.
Write to ANPC, PO Box 1566, Rozelle NSW 2039, email anpc@kbdnet.net.au , phone 02 9555 9377, or fax 02 9555 9370. The 2001 Australian National Playwrights' Conference is waiting in the wings.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Traditionally the ANPC concentrated on a small group whose plays were professionally workshopped over 2 weeks, with top class actors and directors coming together at peak energy levels with a sense of dedication to the growth of new Australian theatre. Over the last 20 years, and especially since top flight dramaturg May-Brit Akerholt became director, ANPC has become far more inclusive.
Nowadays indigenous writers are represented every year, no longer with any sense of a need for affirmative action but as a natural part of the mainstream. The New Dramatists Exchange with New York continues with an Australian writer there and an American writer here. The Young Playwrights' Studio runs around the nation separately from the main Conference, with successful young ACT writers Tom Hodgson (Hannibal and Co.), Sarah Kaur (Girl) and Christopher Curwood (Brain Drain) among others being awarded a year's membership of ANPC and observer status at the Conference. And, as always, any interested person can buy a ticket for a day or for the whole 2 weeks as an observer, including taking part in the often highly energetic discussions in the daily forums and seminars.
For some years now there has also been The Studio running throughout the fortnight in parallel with the main Conference. This is for anyone who has "a script, a scene or even just a great idea". It's a course for budding writers with daily classes taught by professional writing tutors and specialist theatrecraft people, and often sets the seeds of a script which in a later year appears in the main Conference. One writer, Jen Nield, described The Studio as "like being given a brand new box of tools", the image emphasising that writing for theatre is a practical craft.
And now comes a new initiative which I suspect will grow bigger than Ben Hur: the Drama Teachers' Studio. For the first time, ladies and gentlemen, drama teachers across the nation can spend their Easter holidays (and up to $950 for registration, accommodation and meals from April 18 to 21) on an annual professional development binge.
The Drama Teachers' Studio, directed in 2001 by the experienced playwright, dramaturg and theatre writing teacher Timothy Daly, already well known for his ANPC work in Canberra as well as interstate, will concentrate on texts being taught by the teachers especially for Year 11 and 12 and in tertiary education courses. In the Conference milieu, teachers at last will have a regular opportunity to mix with the top professionals in the industry - and relatively early in the academic year, ready to feed all their experience back to their students.
I believe that this special relationship between the ANPC and the teaching profession will help establish the status of drama teachers, who are still too often regarded as people playing games rather than as the highly trained and disciplined professionals that they need to be nowadays. Despite the cost (becoming a member of ANPC and Earlybird registration by February 23 saves $110), the Drama Teachers' Studio will be invaluable, and is already being strongly supported by the NSW Educational Drama Association and the ACT Drama Association - and ANPC's phones are running hot from teachers in other states within days of sending out their fax.
Write to ANPC, PO Box 1566, Rozelle NSW 2039, email anpc@kbdnet.net.au , phone 02 9555 9377, or fax 02 9555 9370. The 2001 Australian National Playwrights' Conference is waiting in the wings.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Monday, 13 November 2000
2000: Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia - National Student Festival. Short feature article.
Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia's annual national Student Festival will culminate this year at Theatre 3 in Canberra with 2 public performances of Bard-O! on December 16 and 17.
The students will be celebrating along with the Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, who told SGCA's Director Hugh O'Keefe "It is a great personal joy to me that students still find inspiration and pleasure in the works of Shakespeare almost four hundred years after his death." But O'Keefe and his Board, led by Diana Denley, founder and Director of the International Program which sends each year's winner to The Globe Theatre in London for 2 weeks' intensive theatre experience, are hoping that Bob Carr's sentiment can be turned into cash.
The problem is that their major sponsor since 1990, Mr Edward Gilly, who provided at least 80% of the $120,000 per year that SCGA costs to run, is no longer able to continue his support. Schools, of course, pay a fee to take part in the Festival, but this generates no more than $20,000 per year, each State basically only covering its immediate costs. So where will the money come from? Save Our Shakespeare is the real theme behind Bard-O!.
Putting a Pistol to the head of potential corporate sponsors has not yet produced results, but there is a proposal for a joint arrangement with Bell Shakespeare Company, Sydney Theatre Company and the Performing Arts Unit of the NSW Department of Education and Training. The dominance of Sydney on the national stage is unfortunate, and ACT Education and Arts Minister Bill Stefaniak and Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation can expect calls shortly. After all the Shakespeare Globe Festival brings the professional team and 38 students and their entourages to Canberra for 2 weeks' rehearsal leading to the December 16 - 17 performances, and schools across Canberra are heavily involved.
Teachers, of course, do most of the work - and one is chosen each year for an overseas professional development trip. Victorian coordinators organised a fundraiser this year, showing the movie Titus, but when this work is in addition to the already extra-curricular teaching for the Festival, teacher overload goes past the point of effective returns.
Contact Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia at sgca@mail.usyd.edu.au or phone (02) 9351 5231 - especially if you have $100,000 to offer!
© Frank McKone, Canberra
The students will be celebrating along with the Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, who told SGCA's Director Hugh O'Keefe "It is a great personal joy to me that students still find inspiration and pleasure in the works of Shakespeare almost four hundred years after his death." But O'Keefe and his Board, led by Diana Denley, founder and Director of the International Program which sends each year's winner to The Globe Theatre in London for 2 weeks' intensive theatre experience, are hoping that Bob Carr's sentiment can be turned into cash.
The problem is that their major sponsor since 1990, Mr Edward Gilly, who provided at least 80% of the $120,000 per year that SCGA costs to run, is no longer able to continue his support. Schools, of course, pay a fee to take part in the Festival, but this generates no more than $20,000 per year, each State basically only covering its immediate costs. So where will the money come from? Save Our Shakespeare is the real theme behind Bard-O!.
Putting a Pistol to the head of potential corporate sponsors has not yet produced results, but there is a proposal for a joint arrangement with Bell Shakespeare Company, Sydney Theatre Company and the Performing Arts Unit of the NSW Department of Education and Training. The dominance of Sydney on the national stage is unfortunate, and ACT Education and Arts Minister Bill Stefaniak and Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation can expect calls shortly. After all the Shakespeare Globe Festival brings the professional team and 38 students and their entourages to Canberra for 2 weeks' rehearsal leading to the December 16 - 17 performances, and schools across Canberra are heavily involved.
Teachers, of course, do most of the work - and one is chosen each year for an overseas professional development trip. Victorian coordinators organised a fundraiser this year, showing the movie Titus, but when this work is in addition to the already extra-curricular teaching for the Festival, teacher overload goes past the point of effective returns.
Contact Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia at sgca@mail.usyd.edu.au or phone (02) 9351 5231 - especially if you have $100,000 to offer!
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Sunday, 12 November 2000
2000: Australian National Playwrights' Centre - Young Playwrights' Studio. Short feature article.
"They're out there now, making up an end", Jigsaw director Greg Lissaman told me 2 minutes before the show-and-tell for the Young Playwrights' Studio 2000 last Sunday. 3 young playwrights were seeing their work presented after 2 days of workshopping, funded by the Australian National Playwrights Centre.
As you may guess, Tom Hodgson (Hannibal and Co.), Sarah Kaur (Girl) and Christopher Curwood (Brain Drain) were not in competition with each other. The ANPC employed The Jigsaw Company and Canberra Youth Theatre to choose 3 scripts for development, each young playwright receiving a year's honorary membership of ANPC. This gives them the right to participate in the 2001 Australian National Playwrights' Conference and free professional assessment of their scriptwriting efforts.
The plays on offer represented typical work in one sense: a young teenage boy's humorous take on how Hannibal really got his elephants over the Alps; a self examination of what an older teenage girl expects of herself and what she really wants; an older boy's comic vision of sex and death in a game show format. All three showed elements of theatrical structure and consistency of style which explain why they were chosen for workshopping.
Maybe none of these scripts will make it through to full production - the ANPC process is designed to weed out as much as to encourage script development - but interestingly I thought the younger Tom Hodgson had the edge on his older colleagues. His work - bringing together Hannibal, his domineering mother, the example of his dead famous General father, his baby-face business-oriented brother, and the Tibetan lamas who train the elephants in the proper Buddhist tradition - showed not only a comic originality but a quite sophisticated level of character development, as well as a clever twist in the plot where it is actually Hannibal's brother who wins the battle for which Hannibal takes the credit. And it was based on research into the real (or at least recorded) history.
Some 19 Youth Theatre actors, with Tristan Flynn on lights, gave their time and a considerable degree of expertise to the workshops, with Roland Manderson, Greg Lissaman and Noonee Dorononila, and Catherine Langman as professional directors/dramaturgs. A mini-model of the Australian National Playwrights' Conference: what better way to learn?
© Frank McKone, Canberra
As you may guess, Tom Hodgson (Hannibal and Co.), Sarah Kaur (Girl) and Christopher Curwood (Brain Drain) were not in competition with each other. The ANPC employed The Jigsaw Company and Canberra Youth Theatre to choose 3 scripts for development, each young playwright receiving a year's honorary membership of ANPC. This gives them the right to participate in the 2001 Australian National Playwrights' Conference and free professional assessment of their scriptwriting efforts.
The plays on offer represented typical work in one sense: a young teenage boy's humorous take on how Hannibal really got his elephants over the Alps; a self examination of what an older teenage girl expects of herself and what she really wants; an older boy's comic vision of sex and death in a game show format. All three showed elements of theatrical structure and consistency of style which explain why they were chosen for workshopping.
Maybe none of these scripts will make it through to full production - the ANPC process is designed to weed out as much as to encourage script development - but interestingly I thought the younger Tom Hodgson had the edge on his older colleagues. His work - bringing together Hannibal, his domineering mother, the example of his dead famous General father, his baby-face business-oriented brother, and the Tibetan lamas who train the elephants in the proper Buddhist tradition - showed not only a comic originality but a quite sophisticated level of character development, as well as a clever twist in the plot where it is actually Hannibal's brother who wins the battle for which Hannibal takes the credit. And it was based on research into the real (or at least recorded) history.
Some 19 Youth Theatre actors, with Tristan Flynn on lights, gave their time and a considerable degree of expertise to the workshops, with Roland Manderson, Greg Lissaman and Noonee Dorononila, and Catherine Langman as professional directors/dramaturgs. A mini-model of the Australian National Playwrights' Conference: what better way to learn?
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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