Cain and Abel
Belvoir and THE RABBLE present
Cain and Abel Created by KATE DAVIS & EMMA VALENTE Director EMMA VALENTE This production of Cain and Abel opened at Belvoir St Theatre on Saturday 17 May 2014. Set & Costume Designer KATE DAVIS Lighting & Sound Designer EMMA VALENTE Stage Manager MEL DYER Devising Secondment / Scribe RACHEL ROBERTS Design Secondments NICK FRY, TYLER HAWKINS Observer JAMES JACKSON With Cain DANA MILTINS Abel MARY HELEN SASSMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY Brett Boardman DESIGN Alphabet Studio
Biographies KATE DAVIS Co-Creator / Set & Costume Designer Kate is co-Artistic Director of THE RABBLE. Most recently for THE RABBLE she co-created and designed Frankenstein (Malthouse Theatre); Room of Regret (Melbourne International Arts Festival); Story of O (Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEON); and Orlando (Malthouse Theatre/ Melbourne International Arts Festival). Kate’s other design credits include Special, The Bedroom Project, Cageling, Salome – In Cogito Volume III, Corvus (THE RABBLE); In Bob We Trust (Ghost Pictures); What’s Coming (Dancehouse); For a Better World (Griffin Theatre Company); When the Pictures Came, Helena and the Journey of the Hello (Terrapin Puppet Theatre); Dark, Not Too Dark (Performance Space); Superperfect (Shopfront Theatre and Nibroll, Japan); Zombie State (Melbourne Workers Theatre); and Manna (Sydney Theatre Company). Kate has been nominated for Green Room Awards for design for Story of O, Cageling and Zombie State. THE RABBLE won the 2009 Green Room award for Design Integration for Special, and they have also been nominated for Outstanding Contemporary Performance for Room of Regret.
EMMA VALENTE Co-Creator / Director / Lighting & Sound Designer Emma is co-founder and co-Artistic Director of THE RABBLE. Her recent directing/lighting design credits for THE RABBLE include Frankenstein (Malthouse Theatre); Room of Regret (Melbourne International Arts Festival); Story of O (Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEON); Orlando (Malthouse Theatre/Melbourne International Arts Festival); Special (THE RABBLE/ Carlton Courthouse); The Bedroom Project (Linden Gallery); Cageling (THE RABBLE/Carriageworks/45 downstairs); and Salome: In Cogito Volume III (THE RABBLE/Carriageworks.) Emma’s other directing credits include Olive Branches Out (Cube 37/The Tragedy Festival); Marcel and Albertine (The Stork Hotel); The Fall (The Stork Hotel); Lucky (La Mama); Anorak of Fire (2005 Adelaide Fringe Festival); An Oration of Filth (Next Wave Festival produced by La Mama); and The Death of Ivan Ilych (Melbourne International Arts Festival/La Mama). Later this year THE RABBLE will be theatre company-in-residence for the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Emma has won a Green Room Award for Design Integration and has been nominated for Most Outstanding Contemporary Theatre, Sound Design, Design Integration, Lighting Design and Production Design.
MEL DYER Stage Manager Mel is a 2007 graduate of NIDA’s production course. For Belvoir Mel stage managed Angels in America (Parts One and Two) and Every Breath, and was assistant stage manager on Peter Pan (New York tour), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, As You Like It, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, The Diary of a Madman, Measure for Measure, The Promise, the 2009 Australian tour of Page 8 and the 2008 tour of Keating!. Mel also appeared on stage for Belvoir in As You Like It, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull and Keating!. Her other credits include stage manager for Lawn, Edgar, Remember Me, Legless (Splintergroup/Festpeilhaus, Austria); Roadkill (Splintergroup/ Performing Lines); Underground (Dance North/Performing Lines) and Night Café (Dance North), and assistant stage manager for Assembly (Chunky Move). Mel has also worked with Sydney Festival and The Australian Ballet. DANA MILTINS Cain Dana graduated from The Centre for the Performing Arts in Adelaide and then furthered her training at The Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. She is an associate artist of THE RABBLE and has performed in almost every production throughout the company’s
history including Salome, Corvus (Carriageworks); Cageling (45 downstairs/ Carriageworks); The Bedroom Project (Linden Gallery); Story of O (Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEON); and most recently Frankenstein (Malthouse Theatre). In 2012 she played Orlando in THE RABBLE’s production of the same name for Malthouse Theatre and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Dana’s other recent credits include The Golden Dragon for Melbourne Theatre Company and the award-winning short film Strange Tourist. MARY HELEN SASSMAN Abel Mary Helen has worked with THE RABBLE since 2008 when she co-created and performed in the company’s Salome at Carriageworks. With the company she then went on to perform in Cageling, The Bedroom Project, Special, Orlando, The Story of O and Room of Regret. Most recently she performed the role of Dr Frankenstein for THE RABBLE’s Frankenstein at Malthouse Theatre. She has performed in installation and performance works by Jude Walton, Sarah Pell and Lloyd Jones and numerous productions at La Mama Theatre. Mary Helen has written songs for the a cappella group Inanna, and for a number of years has sung at festivals and various venues along the east coast.
Director’s Note Emma Valente 1. Sacrifice 2. Honour 3. Domestic 4. Spectacle 5. Salvation / The Flood The story of Cain and Abel ricochets through history, well beyond its religious beginnings. It is a story that defines our contemporary understanding of violence. It is a story of firsts and a story of perpetuals: First Murder / Perpetual Murder First Murderer / Millions of Murderers First Victim / Millions of Victims First Grief / Perpetual Grief I began the process by casting two women, hoping to forge new territory inside these perpetuals: what if the first murderer was female? What if the guilt and the grief belonged to women? How would this affect our existence? It’s a ridiculous attempt at rewriting history, but also an endeavour to deconstruct the idea of victimised woman and to paint a new icon – a new Cain. If we concede that women are ambitious, like men, and possess a will to power as men do, then we need to concede that women, like men, are capable of injuring others who thwart them. We cannot insist on the strength and competence of women in all the traditional masculine arenas yet continue to exonerate ourselves from the consequences of power by arguing that, where the course of it runs more darkly, we are actually powerless. This has become an awkward paradox in feminist argument. How do we argue that we can be aggressive on every front – the Persian Gulf, the urban police beat, the empires of business, sports, hunting, politics, depute – but never in a manner that does any harm? Patricia Pearson
I thought that the ‘performance of gender’ – a belief system I subscribe to – somehow equated to the performance of violence. That is to say: perhaps women are less inclined to act violently because the construct of woman as innocent and victim is incredibly strong. An unbreakable mould. However, the more I searched for images of the female Cain, the more I locked eyes with the Murderess, I realised I could not represent the murderer without the victim. Cain is Abel and Abel is Cain. Murderer / Murdered; Abuser / Abused. A disproportionate number of women who have committed violent crimes are victims of violent crimes. The violence is inherited. The bloodline stains the earth, the scars are so thick, it’s overwhelming. Carpet Cleaner / Damn Spot etc… there is no remedy for this stain. Only faith. This production of Cain and Abel was conceived by Kate Davis and myself, it was authored by us and the cast during the rehearsal process.
Emma Valente
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ, Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte; Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
THE RABBLE is an ongoing conversation between its Artistic Directors, Kate Davis and Emma Valente, about aesthetics, space, theatre and representation. THE RABBLE is one of Australia’s leading avant-garde contemporary theatre companies, and aims to centralise marginalised voices and ideas by boldly ignoring linear and dominant systems of representation. THE RABBLE reimagines familiar texts and stories through a surreal and feminist lens. THE RABBLE has been collaborating since 2006. Past productions include: Corvus, Salome, Cageling, Special, The Bedroom Project and Orlando. In 2013 THE RABBLE produced the hugely successful, sold-out work Story of O, as part of NEON (Melbourne Theatre Company’s Festival of Independent Theatre), and also Room of Regret, a theatrical installation at Theatre Works for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. This year THE RABBLE produced an adaptation of Frankenstein while Malthouse’s company-in-residence. They have also been invited to be companyin-residence for the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. THE RABBLE has won a Green Room Award for Design Integration and been nominated for Outstanding Contemporary Performance, Sound Design, Lighting Design, Best Actor and Set & Costume Design.
Kate Davis
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What if the first act of violence was committed by a woman?
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