Theatre Australia 3(6) January 1979

Australia’s magazine of the performing arts

January 1979

$ 1.50

TheatreAustralia Pat Kennedy’s Brilliant Career Actors at Sea Chinese Theatre Blue Fin

Nationwide Reviews including film, ballet, opera, records, books; National Guide.

David Williamson on Broadway

Nimrod Theatre 500 Elizabeth Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 (02) 699 5003

NIMROD

From Tuesday 2 January Clark Island on Sydney Harbour Robert Louis Stevenson adapted by Ken Horler director Peter Barclay designer Larry Eastwood Cast includes Alan Becher, Paul Bertram, Justin Byrne, Bill Charlton, Terence Clarke, Ralph Cotterill, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Frank Lloyd The ultimate in live-action thrillers for any age’ — Daily Telegraph Sponsored by Festival of Sydney

T he best and most original show in town’ — The Sun

Until Sunday 14 January Nimrod Upstairs Tom Stoppard directed by Ken Horler designed by Larry Eastw ood Cast includes Jo h n G aden, Barry Lovett, W alter Pym, Geraldine Turner, G eorge W haley

From Saturday 10 February Nimrod Downstairs

H ancock's Last H a lf H our H eathcote Williams directed by G raem e Blundell designed by Peter Corrigan Bruce Myles in a H oopla Production from M elbourne

From Saturday 27 January Nimrod Upstairs

Alex Buzo directed by Ken Horler designed by W endy Dickson Cast includes Jeanie Drynan, Julie H udspeth, Bill H unter Nimrod Street Theatre Company Limited. Artistic Directors: John Bell, Ken Horler, Richard Wherrett. General Manager: Paul lies

ne national magazine of the performing arts

Theatre Australia Volume 3 No. 6

/anuary 1979

Departments

David Williamson on Broadway.

P. 14

41 50

Comment Quotes and Queries Noises Off Whispers, Rumours and Facts Letters IT1 Guide — Theatre, Opera, Dance

>potlight

9 10 11 12 13

Patricia Kennedy's brilliant career — Ray Stanley Actors at Sea — Barry Eaton Liv ¡liman travelling alone — Miriam Fleischman In Townsville the Council Gets Into The A ct Save the Regent — Richard Fotheringham

Features

14 17 37

David Williamson — My Life and Times in the Big Apple Hoopla — John Larkin Strike A t The Port — Nick Enright

2 3

6 7

8

International 39 Dance 42 44 Opera 22 Theatre Reviews

John Larkin assesses Hoopla so far.

P.17.

China — Carillo Gantner Ballet '78 — William Shoubridge T V and 3d operas — David Gyger NSW

John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert — Adrian Wintle Cabaret — Rex Cramphorn Gone With Hardy — Robert Page

26

ACT

27

VIC

Godspell: The Seventh Seal — Roger Pulvers

Photo essay on a theatre in sculpture event.

P.20

January Theatre in Victoria — Malcolm Robertson Once A Catholic — Jack Hibberd The Ship's Whistle — Raymond Stanley 31

WA

New Moves in Perth — Collin O’Brien No, No, Nanette — Collin O’Brien Tosca — Derek Moore Morgan 34

SA

Adelaide's Highpoints — Peter Farrell 35

QLD

Queensland Overview — Veronica Kelly The Prisoner o f Second Avenue — Veronica Kelly Catch Me I f You Can — Richard Fotheringham

Film Records Books

47

Blue Fin lacks the magic o f Storm Boy — Elizabeth Riddell

48

A rt o f the recorder and Boccanegra — Roger Covell

49

Australian Theatre and Drama — John McCallum

52

Thespia’s Crossword No. 7

I

\o

^O lc On GiK^

Ray Stanley on Pat Kennedy’s career.

P.9

Film Review: Blue Fin.

P.47

Australian Theatre Books reviewed.

P.49

Theatre Australia Editor: Robert Page Executive Editor: Lucy Wagner Manager: Brad Keeling Art*t: Henry Cho Advisory Board:

The State Debate Now that NSW Premier Neville Wran has announced his government’s decision to “support” a new state theatre company in New South Wales, to “fund it so far as possible, encourage it and maintain it”, the debate is on.

What sort of company should it be? How funded? Statutory or limited by guarantee? Who should lead it? Ad hoc employment of actors or a permanent company? What venue should be used? Everything aside from the fact that such a company will exist in the forseeable future, is in the melting pot.

Wran, from his opening address to a public seminar held in November, appears to realise that such a huge venture cannot simply be conjured out of the air by the magic wand of legislative fiat, as equally as he desires quick results. His modus operandi is to tap the experience and expertise of professionals already working in the state; the appearance of Robyn Nevin, John Bell and Harry Kippax on the same platform, not to mention the almost exclusively theatre practitioner audience of over two hundred, suggests the approach will work.

An interim board, consisting of Justice James McLelland, stockbroker Gilles Kryger and actor Tony Llewellyn Jones, has been established, but, significantly, were not to hold their first meeting until after the public forum. The size and composition of this board is intended to give it the effectiveness of a tight team coupled with built-in competence on the legal, business and theatrical fronts. It has already pledged itself to actively canvassing opinion at every stage.

Its first duty, though, even before deciding what sort of legal basis the company should have, is the appointment of an artistic director.

Though Justice McLelland presented a nicely phrased bob-each-way (“We must avoid the cultural cringe which would dictate that such a person is not to be found in Australia — but we must equally avoid the parochial view that only an Australian is equal to the task”) on the question of the nationality of a prospective appointee, the feeling of the meeting was clearly in favour of an Australian. Harry Kippax argued in favour of a local on the grounds that the theatre “is the most social of the arts”, Carmen Duncan that only such a man “could create a love affair between actors and audience” and Elizabeth Kirkby that only such an appointment could “ensure a company with a national flavour”. So strong was the groundswell that a motion proposing as much was actually put, but revoked on the point of order that only discussion not proposal had been the announced purpose of the meeting.

As we’re editorialising — which allows the 2

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

right to proffer opinion as well as reflect it — it should be said that this magazine, as it always has, supports the case for an Australian. The arguments for merely appointing “the best available” are no contradiction; there is no such thing as “the best available” in vaccuo, the person in question must be the best available to run the NSW State Theatre Company, and a sine qua non of that superlative is Australian nationality. The case for someone who understands national character and local taste is overwhelming. No less a man than Colin Ballantyne has previously argued in these pages (October ’78) that “the highest talent knows no boundary lines”. This is fine for such a predominantly imported repertoire as the opera obviously has, but not for drama — unless, as is increasingly happening in our cities, theatre is to assume a characterless internationality.

A state company is a kind of shrine. And Ballantyne’s prognostications for what it should provide are spot on. To review them: 1. A classical programme of international quality, 2. An Australian play programme taking equal ranking, 3. A balance...of some of the best work of moderns outside Australia.

It is interesting to note that in the case of SA State Theatre Company, of which he was the Chairman, he admits to a failing as regards the second of these.

The shrine though, should be a living monument not a dead one. Everyone was fearful of the dampening hand of bureaucracy, of it being at loggerheads with creativity. John Bell earned applause and cheers for the remark that bureaucrats “take great satisfaction in telling artists what they can't have”. His position, with the experience and success of Nimrod to back him up, is that it should be apparent that any new set up is “a theatre run by theatre people”.

It was put by Ken Horler that the Artistic Director might even be given a free hand to choose his own board — a suggestion not so outrageous as it sounds. Already the Government is aware of the need to give full artistic control into the hands of a single director at the head, making it clear from the start that there will not be a repeat of the Old Tote organised division, and realises, in Wran’s words, that “the character, style and impetus of the company will depend on the quality of its director”. So it should be. No more camels.

The division in the Tote was not only one of artistic control, but also geographical. As Stephen Haag remarked, any companies working in the Opera House are “at best guests (Continued on page 52)

John Bell, Graeme Blundell, Ellen Braye, Katharine Brisbane, Vivian Chalwyn, Gordon Chater, John Clark, Michael Crosby, W.A. Enright, Jack Hibberd, Ken Horler, Garrie Hutchinson, Robert Jordan, Philip Mason, Stan Marks, Jake Newby, Phil Noyce, Raymond Omodei, Philip Parsons, Diana Sharpe, Ken Southgate, Raymond Stanley, Elizabeth Sweeting, Marlis Thiersch, John Timlin, Tony Trench, Guthrie Worby, Richard Wherrett.

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Theatre Australia gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Australia Council, the Literature Board of the Australia Council, the New South Wales Cultural Grants Board, the Arts Grants Advisory Committee of South Australia, the Queensland Cultural Activities Department, the Victorian Ministry of the Arts, The Western Australian Arts Council and the Assistance of the University of Newcastle.

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explanations. However the results are clear: Trukan will accept one of his many offers from Europe leaving a deep loss for the students who have completed half of their full time course. In desperation ten students resigned from the college as a final sacrifice for a decision change.

Mr Trukan admitted his methods were considered unorthodox by some only because the methods were “too professional” for normal standards. “For this college I have aimed too high” He said, “but if you do not aim for the top you will only reach the bottom.” By bringing people such as Stanislavsky’s Vladek Sheybal and Growtowski’s Zygmunt Molik (Lady Redgrave had agreed to come next year) into the course Mr Trukan hoped to plant a spiritual degree of theatre involvement that would

Geraldine Turner of Jumpers meets the pirates of Treasure Island for the Sydney Festival.

Photo: Peter Holderness.

QUEENSLAND QUERY G EO FF SPENCER

“What will the Theatre students of Brisbane’s Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education do if their lecturer Bohdan Trukan leaves in February? They answered with shrugs and silence. The protest marches within the college grounds (not in the street, remember it is Queensland), the political lobbying and plenty of media coverage were all part of a campaign to reverse a decision not to renew the contract of their lecturer. However the pressure group tactics seemed to be in vain as the college administration remained as steadfast in the decision as it did silent about it pending action by the state ombudsman. The reasons for the nonrenewal of the contract are shrouded by mystery.

All sides had contradicting

remain with the students.

“By bringing these people to my students 1 have done the impossible,” he said, “that is the main reason for not renewing my contract.”

The students felt that Trukan’s “impossible course” was not the only reason for their predicament, although the college director (Dr P D Botsman) had told them that Trukan had not adhered to the course guidelines. They suspected staff friction was the basic issue. Whatever the reasons, the students are the victims only because they have remained dedicated to a course to become professional actors. Their creative process is being destroyed. “Perhaps this year has just bfeen a waste of time,” one student said as she picked up her banner and rejoined the demonstration.

It is rumoured that Bohdan Trukan’s students were in fact taking part in a non-degree two year course of which theatre studies were only a part; they were not supposed to be training as professional actors. And that the work Trukan was doing with them bore little relation to the course outline he had earlier submitted to the College. The classes were apparently conducted behind closed doors and windows, and only one “performance” to a select audience of 20 people

was given in a year as an indication of what work students were doing. It is also said that they were not encouraged to mix with other students by Trukan, in their Grotowskian pursuit of excellence, as Trukan did not with other staff, and this did not fit in with the College’s general approach. Bohdan Trukan’s contract expired at the end of 1978, and Kelvin Grove CAE, as was within their rights, decided not to renew mainly on the grounds that what he was teaching the students did not conform with the course outline.

However none of this can be confirmed as Dr Botsman is unavailable for comment to the press.

THEATRE/FILM LINK UP J U L IA O V E R T O N , F ilm an d T V S c h o o l.

“The Australian Film and TV School, through its Open Programme, is organising a film training course for established directors for the stage. This will provide practical training in film technique and lead to the production of several short films. Gil Brealey, Executive Producer of the course, has spoken to many people in the theatre and the course has been widely advertised in the national press. Selection of the nine participants takes place on Friday 15th December. The selection panel is drawn from those experienced in the world of theatre and film.”

POCKET SIZED HOLE C O L IN M c C O L L , A r tis tic D ir e c to r , H o le in th e W a ll, P e rth .

“People keep telling me, rather apologetically, “it’s a very small space, you know”. However, I am quite used to working in pocket sized theatres, so no doubt I'll feel quite at home. The actor-audience rapport possible in an intimate theatre like the Hole is enviable and the staging limitations force you into being all that more inventive.

I'm in full accord with the Hole’s original policy that the theatre should be young, vigorous and more than a little radical, and I’d like to see it developed even further than it has been as a theatre experience alternative to that offered by the other Perth companies. Also, I hope programming won’t become too rigid; I think the Hole can afford to be fairly flexible in its programming, something that is not always possible for theatres committed to subscription seasons.

In the past I have been involved in work­ shopping and directing new plays. It’s an area of the work I find particularly rewarding and would like to continue it in some way at the Hole in the Wall.”

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

3

Q&Q TRUCKING ON

There has been a good response from groups so far.”

D A M IE N J A M E S O N , D ir e c to r , R iv e rin a T ru c k in g C o m p a n y .

“I hope to continue the company’s present policy of presenting a variety of interesting work; rock shows, new plays, and a companydevised work. We hope to tour more, both within the region and to capital cities — in the region with main productions and a TIE team. 1 am keen to set up a youth performing group and to have a playwright in residence with the company. I’m very excited to have been chosen for the job and will be doing my best to maintain the company’s present high standard.”

DRAMA LEAGUE PROGRAMME M O N T E M ILL A R

“The Victorian Drama League opened up a fresh channel for the amateur theatre in Melbourne during October with a new programme on 3 CR. Known as Applause Applause the thirty minute magazine type programme broadcasts news of forthcoming productions and auditions, reviews of pro­ ductions, interviews with actors and directors, show music, requests for props and so on, as well as VDL news. Producer and presenter is Diana G Burleigh, who trained in London, and worked in British Repertory before coming here a few years ago. Broadcast now on Wednesday evening at 9 p.m., the programme will be moved to a new time spot in 1979. Possibly Applause Applause will be heard at 12.30 on Sundays.

WILL PINAFORE SEDUCE TOURISTS? June Bronhill and Denis Olsen are going to do

HM S Pinafore for a New Year holiday season in the Canberra Theatre, opening 12 January. The second production entirely mounted by the Canberra Theatre Trust (the first was Flextime), Pinafore has two aims — to fill the usual January dead spot and to provide some popular theatre for the estimated flow of 300,000 visitors to Canberra at this time of the year. Brian Crossley is the director, and local conductor Don Whitbread the musical director; the rest of the cast will be from Canberra and the set comes from the State Opera of South Australia.

Terry Vaughan, Director of the Theatre Centre, who was M D for June and Denis’s last

Pinafore at the Princess in Melbourne, says the Trust is keeping its fingers (and legs) crossed, as the production is turning out to be mighty expensive. And the big question is will the tourists come? Or will they slump down exhausted in front of their motel TV after their all-day delights at the War Memorial, the Mint and the National Library?

BODIES B R U C E M Y L E S , D ir e c to r of “ B o d ie s ” fo r th e M T C .

“James Saunders is a writer of fierce integrity.

YOU should belong to

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY I979

Never content merely to supply West End fodder, he as doggedly pursued his own course, experimenting with form, and tackling a wide range of subjects. He has his own severe standards and will not compromise or cheapen a play in either theme or characterisation for the sake of selling it.”

WORLD PLAY SEASON J U D Y C L IF F O R D , G o v t N S W .

"We are selling the 1979 season of plays in the Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House as the World Play Season as we have plays from Australia, France, England, Germany, America and Italy. The Paris Theatre Company starts off with the Australian play, Patrick White’s A Cheery Soul in which Jim Sharman will direct Robyn Nevin. They continue with the French play, Kate Fitzpatrick playing the Lady of the Camelias in an adaptation of the play by Louis Nowra. Rex Cramphorn is directing.

Q Theatre is taking on GB Shaw for the English play. The Devil's Disciple directed by Doreen Warburton and John Clark and Aubrey Mellor are directing Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle for the German offering.

An American director called Robert Lewis is coming from the US to direct a production of O’Neill’s A Long D ay’s Journey Into Night and the final production will be Nimrod with John Bell directing another Goldoni, the Twin Venetians.

The Season starts with A Cheery Soul on 17th January and ends on 1st December.”

' AN EXPLOSIVE LOVE STORY! ' A th o l F u g a rd 's

'STATEMENTS' After an arrest under the Immorality Act

Starring

M ic h a e l B a rn a co a t Directed by GILLIAN OWEN At the SEYMOUR

CENTRE (Downstairs)

From 17th Jan. till 17th Feb. 1979.

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6 PLAY SEASON Commencing with 'A CHEERY SOUL' by Patrick White. Directed by Jim Sharman.

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

5

A NEW CLASS OF ACTING Tom Richards and Gary Keane, both actors, are now venturing into the world of teaching.

They started acting classes late last year with

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

A FESTIVE THEATRE Late November last year after the winding up of the Old Tote, the driving forces behind the concept of a NSW State Theatre company were deciding who would be involved and what they would call the new company. At the time of writing no name had been released, but a decision had just about been made. An interim company. The NSW Drama Company, is to be formed and the first production will be directed

by Jim Sharman. One of the many names they were throwing around was The Festival of Sydney Theatre Company. In my opinion this idea is the best, especially if the Festival organisers, the Sydney Committee were to head the company. Stephen Hall, executive director of the committee has one of the most theatrically commercial heads on his shoulders 1 have seen.

Let’s hope that a company headed and funded by the Sydney Committee will eventuate — my guess is that it will.

FROM EAST TO WEST The Festival of Sydney winds up on January 29th and is followed on February 9th with the Perth Festival which is shaping up to be equally as sensational. Perth is a beautiful city well worth visiting, especially with the line up of attractions for February, and Ansett is already booking holidays. Unfortunately Perth is the city of the Black Duck Lager, my most unfavourite beer, but don’t let this deter you, I am assured that there will be copius quantities of other refreshments for the more civilised palate.

If somebody will send me a ticket I’ll see you there.

NEW APPOINTMENT Mr Kevin Palmer a committee member of the Australian Association of Theatre Technicians and founder member of the AATT in Adelaide returns to the land of the Sturt Desert Pea this month to take up an appointment with the State Theatre Company of South Australia.

Mr Palmer will hold the title of Associate Director and will be assisting Mr Colin George the Artistic Director with their first full length production of Hamlet.

FORGED TICKETS Last year’s David Bowie concerts were plagued with sharks selling forged tickets. The answer to this problem is simple — don’t buy tickets from anywhere other than the accredited agencies. Computicket for instance produce tickets that to the naked eye seem quite normal but under a black (uv) light the Computicket logos prove their authenticity. Let’s hope things don’t get to a stage where all tickets will be checked at the gate.

five pupils consisting mainly of people wanting to gain a little self confidence. Gary Keane is experienced in teaching as his sister runs the Lynda Keane Junior Talent School in Sydney and Gary has been helping her with the running of the school. He has also just finished a video pilot for a television show he hopes to sell to one of the networks. It is Time Machine but the difference is that all the cast are under 11 years of age.

John Waters A BLOODY RIOT That’s just what it was like during the last week of Dracula at Her Majestys in Sydney last year — a bloody riot. Hundreds of screaming, giggling teenage girls in the theatre during the show (I’m sure they didn’t see anything on the stage except John Waters) and then milling around outside the stage door after the show hoping to get Mr Waters’ autograph. However, Dracula opens this month in Adelaide and it should do very well during its five week run before going to Melbourne. And it’s worth putting up with Drac’s fans, because the show is great.

TELEVISION DROUGHT Well the 1979 television ratings start again next month and with the ratings come decent television series and movies that are worth watching. Unfortunately, every year we are subjected to poor quality productions from November to February that can only be described with one word — but if I print it I’ll be sacked! As for Christmas viewing, if I have so sit through The Little Drummer Boy again this year I’ll throw a brick through the screen.

Ray Stanley’s

WHISPERS RUMOURS

There’s nothing like wandering around a film set for picking up pieces of news, as I discovered recently when visiting Queanbeyan, not far from Canberra, where M y Brilliant Career was being shot...Firstly Wendy Hughes, who reminded me that she hadn’t been on stage since her days with the MTC. And, yes, she most certainly would like to get back to it, preferably in the classics.

We talked about what Shakespearean role might suit her, an obvious one like Beatrice has been done around the country in recent years. Wendy favours Lady Macbeth, but there is still plenty of time for that. But what about Rosalind — except for the recent Sydney production, I can't recall it being played in Australia, not for the last 20 years at least, yet it is frequently seen in England. So what about it MTC, SATC or QTC? And what about her partner, Chris Haywood, as Touchstone?

Then I met the new screen heart-throb, Sam Neill. A New Zealander (he was in the NZ picture Sleeping Dogs), the role of Harry in Career is his first Australian work but, judging from the talk around the set, we’re going to hear a lot about Sam Neill in the future on screen,.

TV and stage. So remember the name.

There’s also young Judy Davis, playing the part of Sybylla — she also was impressing everyone on the set. She told me she’d joined the South Australian Theatre Company straight from NIDA, played in Nowra’s Visions in Sydney, and then landed the lead in Career. And a fellow NIDA student who was engaged along with her by the SATC was Mel Gibson, who has the title role in Michael Pate’s film Tim...Seems as if Colin George might have a knack of picking them because Robert Grub, who plays Frank in Career, had come straight from NIDA, and then was going to join the SATC. I missed Patricia Kennedy on the set. She plays Aunt Gussie, and already had played most of her scenes at Camden, outside Sydney. But I did meet Aileen Britton, who’s Grandma Bossier in the picture. She told me it was a direct result of her performance as Mistress Quickly in the recent Nimrod Henry I V that she was cast in the role. Somewhat gleefully she pointed out this was only her second film role, and the other was in Ken G Hall’s Tall Timbers, 41 years ago!

The Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, which obviously is going to make a huge profit out of its share of Annie, seems to be moving more and

more into the entrepreneural field. It will be mounting its production of PS Your Cat Is Dead mid-1979 and hopes to sell it to other managements interstate for an approximate 20 week tour. A top Australian director is likely to direct and an American guest star cast in one of the two main roles.

The AFCT also has David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, which will be staged in Adelaide’s Space later in 1979, with a major imported star and New York director Gerald Gutierrez likely to re-stage the play here. The other leading actor will probably be a top Australian TV name...Coincidentally the SATC will be staging another Mamet play in the coming season, American Buffalo, directed by Nick Enright...Didn’t know Simon Burke had played at Nimrod before (and after) appearing in The Devil’s Playground. He told me he intends making a career out of acting and wants to concentrate on stage work to gain more experience.

Understand from Wilton Morley that after the New York run of The Elocution o f Benjamin Franklin, he’ll be presenting a return season of the play around Australia — with Gordon Chater of course. Wilton Morley has quite a few projects lined up (including a oneman show by Alec McCowen, co-presented with Robert Sturgess), and is hoping his father Robert will be making another tour...Hear whispers that Lorraine Bayly is coming out of The Sullivans in March, that she is going overseas for a year, and when she gets back will probably be returning to stage work.

Good that Australian talent is being recognised again overseas with Pamela Gibbons taking over her old part of Sheila in A Chorus Line in the London production...If somebody doesn’t hurry and sign up Michael Aitkens and his wife Veronica Lang to a long contract soon, both are likely to desert the Australian scene for London. From what he told me, I gain the impression Aitkens would rather stay in Australia...Think it excellent that the Australian Film and Television School is approaching eminent and established stage producers/directors and offering them training

at an advanced level in the skills and techniques of feature film direction.

Calling Australian playwrights: Elizabeth King, Literary Manager to the Actors Theatre of Louisville (316-320 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky, 40202) is interested in receiving good Australian plays. Says her theatre is the American parallel to the Melbourne Theatre Company. Recent world premieres staged there include D L Coburn’s The Gin Game and Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, both afterwards seen on Broadway.

It’s not often an actress bemoans the fact she looks too young for a role, but such is the case of Elspeth Ballantyne who plays Liddy Clark and Greg Rowe’s mother in the film of Blue Fin. “I am the right age to play their mother” admits Elspeth, who seems really annoyed she only looks like an older sister...And speaking of young Greg Rowe, he told me he would very much like to get some stage experience. So, over to you Colin George — why not fit him into something at the SATC this year?...Surely John West’s wonderful coffee table book Theatre in Australia is the definitive we’ve yet had on the subject. Highly recommended.

One is constantly amazed at some of the extravagant claims made by managements.

Latest is The Last Laugh’s programme for its excellent L O Sloan's Three Black and Three White Refined Jubilee Minstrels which, announcing its next attraction refers to Ross Skiffington as “Australia’s finest young magician”. What do all the other fine magicians around have to say to that I wonder? And anyway, Skiffington is a New Zealander!..The Adelaide Festival Centre Trust is negotiating with a London music publishing firm to create an Australian production of a very successful one-woman cabaret show from Vienna, entitled Tonight: Lola Blau, for Robyn Archer.

And finally, am very impressed with the Universal Workshop complex in Fitzroy, on the edge of the city of Melbourne. The whole conception is really wonderful: restaurants, shops, venues for entertainers, cinema — and a 350-seater live theatre. And not a cent of subsidy in the set-up! So, it can be done.

For all your ticket n eed s in Sydney

Brings the box office to you.

EnquiriesJelephone 3 5 8 6 7 8 8 More details on page 12.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

7

Dear Sir, Apropos of your article in the November issue of Theatre Australia re: the 269 Playhouse, I wish to clarify a few points which might give rise to misconceptions.

Firstly, I am not the Manager of the 269 Playhouse (formerly the Independent Theatre). I have been official ‘caretaker’ while Mr John Howitt has been away overseas.

Mr Howitt, as we know, has been the sole guiding light of the very successful Killara 680 Coffee Theatre which ran for eleven years before closing down at the beginning of 1978.

He leased the Independent Theatre, re­ naming it the 269 Playhouse, and also established the 680 Drama School.

His main policy for the 269 Playhouse will be to use it as an experience-gaining ground for your professionals who have been properly trained, as no system — such as provincial rep in England or Summer Stock in America — exists in Australia. Mr Howitt feels that this policy will give young professionals a chance to practise their craft — before facing the test with the large established subsidised theatres.

This is what I meant by my statement concerning ‘the establishment of a rep policy’ as, at this stage, Mr Howitt cannot compete financially or technically with the large subsidised theatre companies.

O liv e B o d lll W o lls to n e c ra ft, N S W

JACK HIBBERD wishes to inform theatre companies that he is now handling the licensing o f his plays in Australia.

All enquiries for professional or am ateur performing rights to Dimboola etc. should be directed to: JACK HIBBERD 87 TURNER STREET, ABBOTSFORD, VIC. 3067 Phone: (03)419-4884

Dear Sir, I was very interested to read the review by Mr Tony Baker of my play, A Manual O f Trench Warfare, and would like to make a few comments.

Your typesetters have rendered some sentences in the review unintelligible, but the gist comes through alright, and, by and large, it is not an unfair review. I am grateful at least that Mr Baker took the trouble to actually review the play, instead of merely abusing it as did Peter Ward in The Australian.

May I start by clearing a misconception? It is not an anti war play. I am neither for nor against war; it simply happens, that’s all. Life itself is struggle, and war is a fair metaphor for that. I agree with Thomas Hardy in The Mayor o f Casterbridge that happiness is only an occasional episode in a general drama of pain. If my play has any statement to make, it is that.

Moon and Barra seek what joy, what genuine communication, unsullied by lies, compromises and propaganda, they can in the midst of the reality of universal, or as it was called, World War. To find this they must seek within themselves, break down barriers, and find love where it lies, as the song says. The play has nothing to say about the nobility of man, as Mr Baker claims, because I do not believe in any such construct. We survive, that’s all, and love, wherever we find it, is merely a tool for survival.

In the Adelaide production some passages, describing some of the gorier actions of the real Gallipoli campaign, were cut. In my opinion this weakened the statement of the play by diluting the picture of war.

It is true that the play is sentimental. I am sentimental. I value sentiment. I distrust intellect. I regret the almost universal prejudice, to which Mr Baker evidently subscribes, which equates ‘sentiment’ with ‘mawkish’. Though perhaps I should not be surprised, knowing my own country fairly well, that an Australian reviewer ‘fidgets’ when men embrace.

Men do embrace, Mr Baker, mark my words, in war as in life. Have you not noticed? And when everybody else is throwing lumps of lead at each other, well they might.

Incidentally, a point of fact. Barra is not summarily flogged, nor flogged at all, when taken offstage by Corporal Byron.

Finally, may I say how pleased and relieved I am that Mr Baker assured us, very earnestly, that the ancient conjunction, if I may use that word, of homosexuality and warfare did not shock him, definitely not. I would not like to have been responsible for introducing Mr Baker to something new.

Yours faithfully, C le m Q o rm a n , L on do n UK

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

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Patricia Kennedy’s brilliant career looked at by Ray Stanley 1978 could be said to have been actress Patricia Kennedy’s year. During it — apart from many radio engagements — she played Amanda in The Glass Menagerie and Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV for the South Australian Theatre Company, Judith Bliss in Hay Fever for the Old Tote, was nominated best supporting actress in the AFI film awards for her role of Miss Chapman in the picture The Getting o f Wisdom, played Aunt Gussie in the recently completed film of Miles Franklin’s M y Brilliant Career, and finished the year portraying Martha in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Arsenic

and Old Lace.

In my mind there is no doubt whatsoever that Patricia Kennedy is the finest actress we have in Australia. She is cast very much in the mould of Peggy Ashcroft and the late Edith Evans.

Several of her performances I rate amongst the finest I have seen anywhere in the world — Mrs Alving in Ghosts for instance, The Countess in A ll’s Well That Ends Well, and Agnes in A Delicate Balance. In fact she probably is the only actress in the world to have played that role in the Albee play for four different companies: the MTC, SATC, Glasgow Citizens and Bristol Old Vic. Patricia is an actress who has fought against type-casting. Her answer to people who say they do not see her in a particular part is quite simply: “I’m an actress”. Just the same, she tends mainly to be offered regal ladylike roles.

When in charge of the SATC in its early days John Tasker, more discerning than some other directors, followed up her Agnes in the Albee play with a charwoman in Hopgood's The Golden Legion o f Cleaning Women. The SATC’s present director, Colin George, also did it with Doll Tearsheet. Then a few years back, in the MTC anthology Some o f M y Best Friends Are Women, she was able to display all sides of her versatility, surprising quite a few people. I myself relish seeing her as the sophisticated ‘madame’ of a high class brothel in the Albee version of Giles Cooper's Everything in the

Garden.

Patricia, whose career spans more than forty years, is perhaps best known for her outstanding work on radio, a medium in which she has played many varied parts, including a considerable number in the classics. On stage her credits include Portia, Lady Macbeth, Candida, Lady Britomart in Shaw’s Major Barbara, both Lady Sneerwell and Mrs Candour, Mary Tyrone in O’Neill’s Long D ay’s Journey Into Night, the wives in both Arthur Miller’s A ll M y Sons and Death o f a Salesman and Mrs Hardcastle.

A highly intelligent, articulate, honest and dedicated artist, who always strives for perfection, Patricia has been known to be too outspoken for some over-sensitive directors who have failed to measure up to the high standards she sets herself. She is in fact very critical of her own work and, where possible, will go to great lengths in the realms of research before undertaking a role.

Patricia Kennedy is probably one of the most unselfish artists upon the Australian stage, and extremely helpful to young players. Frequently I have seen her nobly assist an inexperienced performer — often angling a particular scene his or her way — only to find unobservant critics give the other player the highest words of praise and pass Patricia over in silence, almost completely failing to perceive how she has guided that performer.

Few actresses I have seen in this country have been able to get so completely into the skins of their characters as Patricia does. Her major asset — as one would expect from the First Lady of Radio — is her voice. Anyone who heard her reading the morning serialisation on radio of The Getting o f Wisdom, must have marvelled as I did at the different girlish tones she achieved, as well as the headmistress and various teachers.

It seemed like a veritable band of different accomplished actresses. She is also expert in dialects.

Like Dame Edith Evans, whenever the occasion presents itself Patricia will still lake coaching to keep up her vocal standard.

she had equal billing to Sir Lewis Casson and herself. Dame Sybil at the time told her she should play Peggy Ashcroft type roles. Patricia received an Erik award for her performance in that play, which was seen all around Australia

Had this actress been resident in England for the last quarter of a century, she would probably have made recordings of poetry and been involved in other speech LPs, plus much television and film work. Like Edith Evans, the film world seems to have discovered her late in life; now that it has, let us hope she will be given the opportunity of leaving much of her art to

and New Zealand in the late 1950s.

posterity.

People talk in awe about her Miss Madrigal in

The Chalk Garden when Sybil Thorndike, so impressed with Patricia’s performance, insisted

Patricia Kennedy as Aunt Gussie in

M y Brilliant Career.

There is one thing we still have to see Patricia Kennedy perform on stage: a one-woman show of her own. It could well be her crowning glory.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

9

sometimes you get an older bunch. For instance, the Japanese cruise they’ve just gone

Actors at Sea Barry Eaton One of the great advantages theatre enjoys over its rivals in the entertainment field is its flexibility. Companies can go out after their audiences and not just sit and wait for people to come to them. Over the years in Australia we have seen plays presented in theatres, school halls, open fields, tents and anywhere else people can be pursuaded to gather. In the last couple of years the unsuspecting tourists aboard the S S Fairstar have provided the theatre with a brand new audience. Here they come aboard merely anticipating two or three weeks of eating, drinking, a few deck sports, drinking, a bit of night life, the inevitable fancy dress ball and of course a bit more serious drinking. Then they

find a bonus. A whole lot of those funny theatricals are on board and they’re doing some plays in the picture theatre. Funny, they didn't do that on board any of the other cruises.

Sitmar Lines came up with the idea of a floating theatre a couple of years ago and approached the Royce Forster Organisation for ideas. Three plays were selected for their entertainment value, a cast selected for a three month stint at sea, and the Sitmar floating theatre was born. Two years and several casts later, it is all a roaring success.

The producer, Ron Folkard, says “I'm just amazed, because some of the customers are pretty ocker. Not all of them. The cruises vary,

on now, we call that the geriatric cruise. Well after all, they can afford the time and the money. The kids have got the money, but they haven’t got the time. So you get all shapes and sizes on board. But even on some of the ocker cruises, it’s just amazing how they take to it.”

The cast perform three different plays on a cruise — Norman is that You?, Butterflies are Free and The Mind with a Dirty Man. Usually each play is given two performances, but there is often an extra performance due to popular demand. The old cargo hold was converted into a theatre with a dress circle and stalls and a capacity of about 360. It is used as a cinema at other times. The audience is charged a token sum of 20c, with the proceeds going to the Actors’ Benevolent Fund.

What kind of reaction do they get on board?

“Oh the place is jammed”, says Ron Folkard, “We very rarely have an empty seat. People don’t seem to worry too much about the films being shown, but we nearly always play to capacity”.

The director James Fishburn never has any trouble getting a good cast together. “They’re all excited by the challenge of getting away and playing three entirely different roles in rather odd circumstances. Particularly with an audience that’s not used to seeing theatre.

Probably over 90% of the passengers have never been inside a live theatre.”

With only something like 2% repeat business, there has been no need to change the repertoire in the first two years. Next year, though, changes are being planned. Ron Folkard is looking at replacing Butterflies are Free with There s a Girl in m y Soup. The other two plays could also be dropped next September and replacements are being considered at the moment.

Life on board for the cast is pretty relaxed with only an average of six performances per trip. Graham Rickeby has done several cruises and says the only danger is the feeling of unreality that can overtake the cast. The long separation from the rest of the world can often make things difficult on the return to harsh realities of life ashore. Life on board ship can also have its moments, especially in rough water.

During one performance it got so rough that an actress opening the refrigerator nearly fell in.

Unfortunately it was in a serious scene as well!

As director, Jim Fishburn seems to have the scene pretty well sown up. As each new cast goes out at the beginning of their three month season, Jim goes along to keep things ship-shape.

With the prospect of four cruises a year in the line of duty, no wonder Mr Fishburn looks pleased with life. The future for Sitmar’s floating theatre is very bright. With the resounding success of the theatre on board the Fairstar, it seems only a matter of time before the other ships of the line are similarly equipped.

10

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

Liv Ullman travelling alone

by Miriam Fleischman Rapunzel, masquerading as actress Liv Ullmann, arrived fifteen minutes late for her Sydney press conference. She does look the part, a golden-haired princess shining from health and scrubbing, regular hours and good food. Her manner is anything but royal; her first words being “I’m sorry I’m late, it was the train,” and as she answered questions it was soon clear that this princess knows that princes don’t climb to the tops of towers these days, so she has learned to amuse herself with her own real and varied talents.

In Sydney for a 17-day run at the Theatre Royal she was appearing with Michael Pate in a Chekhov farce The Bear and solo in Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice. These dual offerings were directed by New York theatre director Jose Quintero, who is, in Ullmann’s words, “A marvellous director to work with. A heart on legs. I’m sure we will work together

own way. My generation still have guilt feelings.

That's one of the reasons I wrote my book (Changing) to explain myself to my daughter, as a person not just as a mother. In a sense we are stuck with our upbringing, to be good girls. In these matters Norway is ten years behind even Australia. Perhaps my book has helped other women in similar circumstances. The greatest personal challenge was when I found myself turned into another person, doing everything I never thought I would do. I divorced and I had Bergman's child. Now it is not as unusual.

Maybe I made it easier for other women. The frame is not important, it’s what you put into it."

Did she enjoy working with Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata? “It was fantastic. She is 62 now and a woman of great courage. Very proud.

No looking back. She came to work every day, even when not well. She never complained. I

think she gives the best performance I have ever seen.”

After Sydney Miss Ullmann returns to New York to begin work on a musical being made from / Remember Mama. “Richard Rogers is doing the music. 1 had planned to speak the words, like Rex Harrison and Katherine Hepburn. He asked me to sing so he could hear my range. He is 80 now and not well. When 1 finished singing Happy Birthday he was almost 100.” She smiles, “It will be all right. I play Mama, a wonderful woman, earthbound with five children, a husband who loves her.”

We are all smiling.

“I think I’ve been very fortunate with my career. I wanted to share with others, like a family, and I’ve had the chance to do that. Am 1 afraid of failure? I'm ashamed of failure, if people at home see it. But I accept it because you can’t succeed all the time. Yes, l plan to write another book. I love to act, to write, to read, to watch movies. Your late movies on TV are great.”

Rapunzel, we are enchanted. Even when you let your hair down, you're a real princess.

often in the future.”

Ullmann’s distinguished career began with

The Diary o f Anne Frank on stage in Norway, where she went on to play the great female roles: Juliet, Ophelia and St Joan. She also appeared in Norwegian films, but it was her work with Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman —

Persona. Face to Face, Scenes from a Marriage, Shame, Cries and Whispers — which brought her awards and international acclaim. Bergman is also the father of her only child, twelve-yearold daughter, Lyn. Ullmann’s roots are in theatre, her territory a stage; she does not consider herself a film star.

“The golden moments spring from contact with an audience, when many people laugh or cry together, experience the same thing together.

Making a film is quite different, you can think and the camera catches it for you. One of the reasons Norwegian films are not distributed internationally, aside from the language, is that the directors there are limited and it is the director who must pull it all together.” She feels her collaboration with Bergman worked so well because together they had a telepathic understanding by which she knew what to do without his having to direct her.

Asked if there are two Liv Ullmanns, she said she does not look at herself as a star. “I under­ stand the celebrity thing. After all I am sitting here at a press conference; which is easier for me since I am shy and it is hard for me to talk privately. Lyn and I have our home in Norway.

Our dog and cat are there. The neighbours take care of them when we travel. She comes with me, this is the first time I am travelling alone.”

About being a woman, Liv replied, “It is still difficult for women to know who they are. what they want to be and do. Women get in their THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

In Townsville the Council Gets Into The Act Eyebrows were raised back in March last year when national advertising for the then forthcoming US production For Colored Girls. . . was placed. The tour listed the playdates as Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and . . . . Townsville?

For Colored G irls. . . was one of the first ventures at the new Townsville Civic Theatre, financed from the City Council’s entrepreneurial fund. The production played a six performance season at the Civic Theatre (plus two performances in Cairns) and with 80% capacities on a 1,066 seat house returned a surplus to the fund.

Since then the Council has backed over twenty different productions, including the “Summerstock” program, which is mounting productions using local talent.

The administrative director, John Lamb, who is responsible for programming the theatre says that the entrepreneurial fund has been an essential feature of the theatre’s success. “We use it to keep the theatre open when it would otherwise be dark and to provide attractions which would otherwise not be seen in Townsville. We also aim to show an operating surplus for entrepreneurial activity over each twelve month period.”

So far all three objectives are being met.

January and February, two months during

which northern theatres are normally dark, will see a two week season of The Sound o f Music being produced under the “Summerstock” program, a one week season of the PUK puppet theatre from Japan, and a two week season of a rock musical. All of these ventures are being sponsored by the Council Entrepreneurial Fund.

In the “wouldn’t otherwise be seen” category programs have included the Bonfa/Burrows Brazil Concert, the Long Island Youth Orchestra, the Nimrod production of the Christian Brothers, concert pianist Hans Richter-Haaser and for the 1979 season Count Basie and another concert pianist, Russian Irina Plotkinova. Financial results have varied but overall surplus balances have exceeded deficits.

To give the necessary flexibility the Council John Lamb, director Townsville Civic Theatre.

Photo: Studio X.

has delegated full authority to negotiate to director Lamb. Decisions to commit funds are taken jointly by Lamb and Cultural Committee Chairperson Alderman Sheila Keeffe. Advice of decisions are then reported to the Committee at the regular fortnightly meetings. The Council has further decided to appoint an advisory Committee to monitor the entrepreneurial activities thus “removing artistic policy decisions one step away from the political arena” to quote Lamb.

The top priority at the local level according to Lamb is to move from the amateur “Summerstock” program to a regional professional company. “This of course, will require funding from State and Federal levels and to that extent we are dependent on decisions of the Australia Council and the State Cultural Activities Department. At the moment “We are working on a formula that we think will attract the necessary funding and I would expect a professional company to be operating in North Queensland by late 1979 or early 1980”, says Lamb.

From what has been seen so far, Townsville City Council would appear to have made some positive steps in an area that Local Authorities are notoriously reluctant to move in at all. “No question of that” says Lamb, “Many council’s regard the provision of a theatre facility as the ultimate goal — what happens inside is up to somebody else. We are very fortunate in Townsville. As equal emphasis has been placed on programming as on the facility itself.”

For your ticket needs in Sydney and M elbourne lHarry M Miller’s

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

Telephone 63 2218

Save the Regent Richard Fotheringham Strap hanging home on a rush hour bus, crawling up Roma Street, you depend on the railway billboards to occupy the idle mind.

JUMBO TO LONDON said one (‘Elephant appointed Queensland Agent-General. .. ’) and then, swiping across two huge billboards: SAVE THE REGENT. Not graffiti, but twilight twinkling metal lettering in royal red and white. (‘Save Charles I? Sir John Kerr?) The bus swung us to a halt, and we had two minutes to contemplate the fact that facing us was not the stuff of which free associations are made, but instead the latest brilliant publicity stunt in a concerted, well organised thunderclap of a protest at the threatened destruction of Brisbane’s grandest old palace of the arts. A protest that will probably win the war, having already won several battles; but a campaign also that deserves to be preserved in history as a definitive textbook for community action and practical conservation.

Brisbane’s Regent Theatre opened in 1929, a vast 2,600 seat Spanish perpendicular-gothic and rococo extravaganza, boasting its own 20-piece orchestra, stage band, ballet, and mighty Wurlitzer organ which rose like Excalibur from the orchestra pit, thundering that the great age of Australian live entertainment had begun.

Wilbur Kentwell at the keys, and George Wallace behind curtain waiting for his cue.

Audiences from then till now have goggled at the outrageously ostentatious filigree plaster ornamentation which traced its way in a million curves from foyer to proscenium; the mighty marble staircase; the vast elliptical dome and chandeliers. Actors as recent as Warren Mitchell have acclaimed its acoustics, the National Trust classified it as worthy of preservation at all costs, and the National Heritage Commission put it on the National Register. And up until June this year it appeared certain that Hoyts Theatres were going to rip it down to put in a four cinema complex. The Regent had been used as a film theatre since the Second World War, and it wasn’t paying.

The National Trust had tried for two years to halt the demolition, wishing to preserve the building as an architectural monument, but had been unable to put money where its taste was.

Then suddenly three young Brisbane men — two architects and a filmmaker — decided last June to put all their spare time and energy behind a desperate last minute effort to Save the Regent. It was to be a carefully dignified protest — ‘there is nothing radical about this campaign’ advised one press release, and you were as likely to find a story on their efforts in the Young Liberal and the Queensland Country Life as in more predictably conservation minded journals.

But it was also a brilliantly orchestrated public relations campaign, drawing messages of

support from Sir Robert Helpmann, Diane Cilento, and 30,000 Queenslanders who signed a petition to save the theatre.

There were of course placard protests outside the theatre, but even these had a difference, not the least of which was a jazz band. When Queensland police cars pull in to the kerb and the burly trio get out, come over, and sign your petition, then you know where popular sentiment lies. Even policemen kissed their first girl once upon a time, and if you grew up in Brisbane between the thirties and the sixties then it was probably in the sixpenny stalls at the swishest picture palace in town.

It would have been easy to dismiss the Save the Regent Campaign as being no more than this; a romantically futile piece of nostalgic fun.

I realised it wasn’t while on that same crowded bus, for my afternoon Telegraph informed me that at the eleventh hour the Campaign had persuaded the Building Workers Union to place a green ban on the demolition of the theatre.

Kent Chadwick, Jack Kershaw, and Gavin Patterson are no fools, and behind the public showmanship and publicity stunts a careful analysis of where power lay had been made and acted upon. “The petition proved we had public support,” commented Kent Chadwick, “but there was no use presenting it to parliament. We had to find out who we were fighting and then decide how to fight”. / The land and building ownership of the Regent is complicated; simply speaking it is owned and administered by both Hoyts Theatres and the trustees of the estate of the late Dr James O’Neil Mayne. The beneficiary of the Mayne estate is the University of Queensland, and the terms of the will require the trustees to consult the University Senate to ensure the most profitable return to the University. There was part of the theatre which Hoyts could demolish without consulting anyone, so the Campaign directed its serious lobbying efforts at both the University and the Union movement, and in the week before demolition was due to start it drew a favourable response from both.

Central to the Campaign’s efforts were two excellently produced booklets which were delivered to each Senate member before Senate meetings. They prompted the Senate to set up its own sub committee inquiry into the financial

viability of Hoyts’ four cinema proposal. The result was astonishing. Not only did the University not get any returns whatsoever till 1990, but it also stood to lose $1 million dollars in rent from other Mayne estate properties which was to be diverted into funding construction of the new cinemas. As the sub­ committee report drily noted, it was an unsatisfactory proposition.

Simultaneously the Campaign set out to show that the Regent was still viable in its present form. Not as an architectural monument (the mistake the National Trust made) nor as a cinema, but restored for a comparatively modest %V* million investment to its original function — live theatre. The success of the Sydney Regent and of similar theatres in Canada and the USA were documented; Michael Edgley and Kenn Brodziak wrote supporting the Campaign by announcing their intention to book shows there if it was made available; and a list of shows Brisbane was missing out on (Dracula, Annie, Chorus Line, Shirley MacLaine . . . ) was drawn up. Brisbane will never have another live theatre venue seating 2,600, for even the new Cultural Centre when opened will seat only 2,000 in its largest auditorium. (A fact already commented on with dislike by commercial entrepreneurs).

The Campaign was able to interest several organisations who have now submitted firm proposals to lease the Regent as a live theatre venue; the Senate and the trustees are studying these. If one is accepted, the Campaign will have won.

The final factor which has made the Save the Regent Campaign such a force to be reckoned with is that it is a protest by professionals: architects, lawyers, musicians, actors, plasterers — experts of every relevant kind. Experts who know the facts and who can refute the lies of those who had hoped to line their pockets at the expense of the community, and lies and dirty tricks there have been by the dozen, carefully demolished by each succeeding booklet and press release. The prospects look bright as I write (mid-November) for Saving the Regent. Win or lose, this Campaign needs to be studied and recorded in detail for the benefit of everyone who might sometime in the future find themselves organising to stop the wreck of history.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

13

David W illiam son

f

T his is an accou nt of how I journeyed am ongst the m ost savage critics in the world, arm ed only w ith an A ustralian play, and survived. I left M elbourne w ith my wife and fam ily in January and returned in Septem ber. T his nine m onths absence is the lon gest tim e I have spent away from the land of my birth, and should, according to com m only accepted m yths, have given m e new perspectives on life, on dram a and on A ustralia. I cam e back with the conviction that D enm ark is colder than A ustralia, that G reece is sunnier, and that nothing m uch had changed here while I’d been away. I opened my Theatre A ustralia to find that the theatrically inform ed were still clam orin g for the death of naturalism , that four hundred year old noxious theatrical stinkw eed that dares depict hum anity as it alm ost is and refuses to go away, and that the O ld Tote had died but was to rise again under a different nam e.

My tim e overseas was not entirely w asted.

My experien ces am ongst the m ost avowedly vicious critics in the world led me to form ulate a law about their critical activities w hich I am sure will live after me, long after my sordid little slabs of theatrical realism have been forgotten. I’ll get to it later.

M anhattan is a giant rat hole filled with apolitical bourgeois individualist creators writing, p ain tin g, sculpting, com posing, crafting, and generally having a great old wank. H om osexuality isn ’t yet m andatory, but a b isexu al m arried couple we m et adm itted that they were being ostracised by the m ore com m itted of their gay friends for having it each way. W hen it becam e reasonably clear that we were straight they ducked into the back room and brought out a baby, w hich apparently was theirs.

B abies are alm ost extinct on M anhattan and they held it proudly like intrepid e x ­ plorers back from the A m azon w ith an exotic beast.

In the m idst of such trendiness, I thought, how could a sim ple play about backroom politics in an A ustralian R ules football club survive?

From the very start the om ens were all bad. T he play had to be renam ed for its W ash in gton season because there was another play called The Club already in existen ce. I su bm itted a long list of alternative nam es w hich were all rejected by som e clerk or com puter in the K ennedy Centre, and eventually, by som e u n defin ed process akin to osm osis the nam e Players em erged. I c o u ld n ’t com e up with a better one, so I was stuck with it as ‘printing d ead lin es’ had to be met.

T he second cause for m isgiving was the axiom , expressed by all the W ash in g­ tonians I m et, that “what W ash in gton likes, New York lo a th es” . It’s apparently a m atter of principle, and as the play had perform ed tolerably well in W ash in gton we were beh in d the eight ball already. O f course if the play had n ’t perform ed tolerably well in W ashington it would never have gone into New York, so you lose either way. “ W e’re going in ” , said R oger Stevens the producer. “ It’s a ten to one shot because y ou ’re unknow n, we haven’t got a star and w e’re going right into the m iddle of a new spaper strike, but w hat the hell?

It’s a cheap show, w e’ve got the cast assem bled and A n n ie is m aking a for­ tu n e.” (The K ennedy Centre was a large investor in A n n ie .) “ W hy is it,” I asked nervously, “ that things that work here are not lik ed in New Y ork?” “ B ecause there are a lot of sm art-arse critics in New York who like to think they’re the tough est in the world — and they are” .

The third portent occurred while I was at a qu aint and rather beautiful old guesthouse outsid e of New York, w hich I’d fled to w ith the fam ily during the re­ rehearsal w eek to escape the aw fulness of M anhattan . O n the day we arrived we looked at the notice board and foun d that the even in g’s activity was a lecture by a well know n Broadway dram a critic Alvin K lein. M y tem p les raced and my wrists pounded. My first encounter with the species. It turned out to be disap pointing.

M r K lein was all sw eetness and light and charm ingly m odest to boot.

“Critics have no real authority,” he said, “because after all they only offer an opinion and w h o’s to say that their opin ion is any better than anyone elses.”

T hat was ju st his opener. For the rest of the evening M r K lein was such a m odel of tact and sensitivity that you would have sworn that the slightest w hiff of hum an perfidy at five thou san d paces w ould have caused him d eepest agony and a sleepless night. T he m a n ’s self-effacem ent was awesom e.

However next day, having gone through his paces and earned his free w eekend, he reverted to type, dispatching his fam ily im periously in the direction of Lake M innew aska w hile he held court to ten or so adm iring stage struck w om en, show er­ ing them with definitive opinions and tolerating no dissent. “ How did you get your jo b ? ” said one of the m inions. “ I kept reading the obituary co lu m n s,” he answered. I realised w hat I was in for.

After the play had opened and the hundred and five first night critics from TV, R adio, the w eeklies and the Press had been and gone and done their worst, Clive Barnes, their doyen, was hon est enough to tell me w hat I’d always known was true. “ Critics, in clu d in g m yself,” he said, “ are dam nable people. Y ou have to be an egom aniac to believe that the world and his dog w ant to read your opinions, but it gives one a sense of power, prestige, visibility and statu s and I like all of those, and New York, with its plethora of obsessive creators and their endless crea­ tions is the perfect feeding ground for the craft.”

Still, w ho cou ld pretend that it w asn’t a little flattering for a lad from far A ustralia to sit there w atching those hundred and five scribble on their little pads. “ W e try and sp lit them u p ,” said the dapper PR m an. “ If you sit them together in a block they have a deadening effect of the h o u se .”

He p oin ted across at one of them .

“T here’s John S im on ” , he w hispered in awe. John Sim on is New Y ork’s num ber one h atchet m an. A New York artiste was recently reported to have taken out an insurance policy of a m illion dollars against the possibility of m eeting Sim on on THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

15

the street, because he felt that if he did there was no way he could prevent him self from killing him . T he week I arrived Sim on nam ed three actors who he hoped he w ould never see again on a New York stage. H e hop ed that he w ould never even see them playing Father C hristm as in a departm ent store.

I ju st received the last of the hundred and thirty odd crits back in the post the other day. W hat did all this m assive effort in tim e, m oney and new sprint add up to?

ON THE PLAY’S UNIVERSALITY “ Players never transcends the football field w ith its half dozen cardboard characters.”

H A E rstein. The C olum bia Flyer.

(Mr E rstein h eaded his crit ‘F oul Play from dow n u n der’) “ . . . the plays strength — the U niversality of its well kept ju n g le ” Clive Barnes The M etro. (A Strike Paper) “ Players has hum our, character insights and adm irable team playing by the actors.

U n fortu nately all of this rem ains too m uch in the confines of the clu b h ou se.”

E dw in W ilson The W all Street Journal.

“The pow er struggle of his characters is em b lem atic of all people, in every tim e, place and la n g u a g e.”

D eborah Carr A rlington News.

“T he dram a is never so com pelling as to overcom e the overall irrelevancy of rugby to an A m erican au d ien ce.”

Jeffrey Lyons W P IX TV “ W hile the action takes place in A ustralia it could easily have hap pened anywhere in the w orld.”

V irginia W oodruff Ch 10 TV

ON THE PLAY’S CONSTRUCTION “ C ontrived” M el G ussow Ch 13 T V “T his is a subtle play whose tangled and conflicting em otion s are deftly and sym ­ path etically resolved” John Q uinn W O R T V “ N oth in g more than a creaky obvious m elod ram a” D en n is C unningham W C BS T V “ A crackling fine true and hum ourous dram a from A ustralia. Tightly written and splendidly played .”

R ichard L Coe The W ashington Post. “ R ather too pat and contrived” John B eaufort The Christian Science

M onitor. “ H is com ic dram a has truth, intelligen ce and sk illful p lo ttin g .”

Stuart K lein W N E W TV

ON THE PLAY’S DEPTH “ If you do not ask for more than light en tertainm ent from the theater, you could do worse than th is” John Sim on N ew York.

“T hese grown m en quarrelling so fiercely and so unscru pu lou sly am ongst them selves are like savage ch ild re n . . . Mr W illiam son shares w ith old H enrik (Ibsen) a dark view of h u m a n k in d .”

B rendan G ill The N ew Yorker.

(W hose review was headed ‘Ibsen in the A n tip o d es’) “ It is w ritten in a popular vein ” H arold Clurm an The N ation.

16

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

“There is never any question that W illia m ­ son is after serious stuff. Players is a prototypic liberal d ram a.”

Terry Curtis Fox Village Voice. “ S ligh t” M el G ussow Ch 13 TV “ Players is no m ore a com edy than Deep Throat is a film ab ou t nursing . . . Above all it’s abou t the com prom ise of personal and in stitu tion al integrity for personal greed and g a in .”

Richard Carter The Prince Georges Post. “ A rather in n ocu ou s w ork.”

Jeffrey Lyons W P IX TV “ A nd w hat ind eed is that ever glorious essence in W illia m so n ’s ingenious m ind?

It is the very heart and soul of hu m an life as it courageou sly struggles with that age old battle of the flesh (H um an lu st and power) and the spirit (H um an virtue and honour)” N orm an C harles N ew Y ork Graphic.

(Even I, partisan thou gh I am, was a little em barrassed at that one.)

ON THE PLAY’S HUMOUR “The hu m our is forced, lead en , the wit clu m sy.”

Jaques Le Sourd R eporter

D ispatch “ replete w ith dialogue that often sparkles like firew orks” D idier D elaunoy

The B lack A m erican “ Innocent b a ttin e ss”

M anfried T rogitt

Cue “ there is genuin e hum our here. It is a vulgar hum our, thou gh not w ithout sop histicated u n d erton es.”

John Sim on N ew York.

“The dialog is colorful, funny and at tim es dram atic” .

Paul Variety.

All these critical contradictions and many m any m ore led m e inexorably to the law of criticism I m entioned earlier: “ A s the num ber of critics approaches infinity, the probability of reaching any m eaningful consensus, provided that the work rises above a certain level of com petence, com plexity and originality, approaches zero .”

W illiam son 1978 or in its alternative form ulation “ If a play rises above a certain level of com plexity, com p eten ce and originality, the reviewer will always reveal m ore about his own theatrical and personal attitudes and beliefs than he will reveal about the play.”

W illiam son 1978 The total effect of this critical barrage was liberating. I cam e hom e to face that redoubtable giant killer Greg Curran w ith equanim ity. The R em ovalists, he th u n d er­ ed in these pages, is not a well m ade naturalistic play. T he Sergeant is full of in consistencies and is therefore not a credible character. H e tells the recruit there is no graft at his station and later on we find there is. H e says that he never m akes arrests and the first thing he does is m ake one.

I could have told Mr Curran that The R em ovalists w asn ’t a well m ade natu ral­ istic play eigh t years ago, and that the Sergeant, becau se of his inconsistencies, wins p lau d its for every actor w ho plays him , bu t w hat the hell. Better that h e ’s tapping away happily on his typewriter than m aking a nu isance of him self out on the streets.

John Larkin

Hoopla!

A Theatre in Search of an Audience H oopla has a lot of nerve. ^ To begin w ith, it began as the third ssional theatre in a city w hich did not ow it n eeded one.

M elbourne had been resting rather m fortably on its perm anent reserved t its at the M TC. A nd w hile not so ! able on the austere b enches of the i actory for the A P G produ ctions up <uiton, the loyal m ob there was fairly nau tical, also, to the poin t of becom in g establishm ent within itself, i H oopla, what is m ore, is strongly in vor of supporting A ustralian plays. It ’so believes in bringing to M elbourne ne of the best productions from erstate.

As a kind of dress rehearsal for what ould be its approach when it started oroperly” at the Playbox, it borrowed late 1976 the G rant Street Theatre and put two A ustralian originals, being Chidley A lm a de G oen, and The Golden Oldies, >y D orothy H ew ett who had never before 1 played professionally in M elbourne.

Then, for its laun ch at the P layb ox. it ired do R ock-O la by Tim G ooding /hich, desp ite raves by alm ost everyone at the P layw rights’ C onference in Canberra he previous M ay, was a dazzling flop, an nt w hich left them with enough m oney only one m ore show.

They w ould never again have su ch an enorm ous error of ju d gem en t, even though a few people, this writer inclu ded, believed R ock-O la to be outstand in g and con grat­ ulated them for having the guts to have a go, in sp ite of m utterin gs-off about the need to be “ practical” . They tried.

Y et the situation of being ju st one play ahead of the cleaners w ould continue. 'r hese days, thou gh, the position is udered norm al, even hop efu l, for they ive com e to accept life on the edge.

A nd positive they have been.

They did another bold thing, after the R ock-O la reviews shredded it. They called HI the critics in for lun ch and asked them lere they thou ght H oopla had gone ong in ch oosin g such a show.

Everybody was, understandably, a bit nervous, inclu d in g the critics, m ost of whom had given it an alm ighty serve. O ne How even brought his daughter along to ._>ack him up and show his jud gem en t was accurate. In a roundabout way he was show ing he was not square.

W hat em erged through the cask wine and the take-aw ay quiche and the so m e­ what stiff-legged circling around each other was the fact that apart from needing

L to R Carrillo G antner, Garrie H utchinson, G raem e B lun dell. P hoto R ennie Ellis

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

17

Hoopla! revision R ock-O la had w ithered for want of an aud ien ce.

Since then H oopla has continued to search for that elusive entity w hich refuses to be identified* w hich com es and goes as quicksilver, som etim es in hundreds, then only by the handful. G od help us for those wet W ednesd ay nights when the rest of M elbourne is hom e, except for a few in the stalls there seem ed to be more people up there on stage — han ging on, h an gin g out.

H oopla is both professional and cheeky.

It is also necessary in a city w hich takes itself too seriously at the wrong tim es and not seriously enough at others.

The com pany, with all the appeal of being an outsider in a city where being inside is help fu l, is outrageous in its own quiet way. Its talen ts and its wit have m eant survival, against fairly fearsom e odds.

The idea really started about the end of 1975, the p ost-W h itlam begin n in g which som e saw also as the end of the world.

A group of individuals, though, thou ght it sh ould not all stop sim ply because the euphoria had gone. They inclu ded Carillo G antner, G raem e B lundell, Bruce M yles, D avid W illiam son , Peter O ysten, John W ood, D ave K endall and G azza H u tch in ­ son.

All had different theatre experien ces, thought they sh ould share w hat was h ap pening in A ustralia — and w hat was not.

From under that um brella em erged a few grand sch em es for som e sort of theatre com plex. T hey spent m any m onths p u ttin g them to various groups. They encountered som e interest, m any knockbacks and quite a bit of scepticism . O ne lead in g theate personality w hen asked about their chances, reportedly replied: “ At this stage H oopla is purely a m atter for con jectu re.”

But the big M elbourne jelly w obbled a bit m ore and they got a $6,000 grant from the V ictorian M inistry for the Arts and the M TC let them run out its lease on the G rant Street Theatre and they staged Chidley and The Golden Oldies.

John W ood — Bullsh.

Photo W illiam Cluth

There was a fairly bright response, but they lost m oney on it, inclu ding about three grand of their own. But still they w anted to continue, believing there were m any good local plays to be done. B esides they had learned a lot from that e x ­ perience.

T he three o f them , Carillo, G raem e and G arrie, w ent ahead and form ed the H oopla F ou n d ation , set up as a non-profit organisation. H ow literal that w ould be rem ained to be seen.

T he board was set up with G antner, H utchinson and B lundell as the foun ding directors.

T heir b ackgroun ds were: G A N T N E R — professional ' actor and adm inistrator. T rained in U S A (M aster of Fine A rts, Stanford, and D ip lom a of H arvard In stitute of Arts A dm inistration).

W orked as a professional actor in the U S Form erly assistant A dm inistrator A d e­ laide F estival of Arts, D ram a O fficer A ustralia C ouncil and G eneral M anager of the M elbou rn e T heatre C om pany (197375).

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

B L U N D E L L — actor and enthu siast, leading figure in the dram a renaissance which took place at La M am a and Pram Factory 1969 - 1975. H as featured in m any leading A ustralian TV series and film s.

H U T C H IN SO N — poet, producer, critic, writer, advertising in daylight hours.

P rom inent in La M am a and Pram Factory’s m ost creative period.

O ther m em bers of the board included Lloyd O ’N eil, its chairm an, b ook publisher and ardent A ustralian theatre supporter; Fred Schepisi and D avid W illiam son.

The prelim inary season behin d them , H oopla k ept looking for a hom e. They proposed a m ulti-m ed ia theatre centre be established in G ordon H ouse, a fine old structure in the m iddle of the city which had been used to accom od ate h om eless m en before it was shut down. Back in the 1880’s it had been a hom e for ageing actors.

But it was not to be for any actors now, on the grounds it w ould be too costly.

Instead, the V ictorian G overnm ent offered H oopla the Playbox, a sm all theatre ju st around the E xhib ition Street corner from the C hicago end of C ollins Street — (it used to be called the Paris end until the wreckers m oved in).

T he G overnm ent said H oopla could have the p lace rent-free for three years, starting June 1977. They took the offer which was worth $40,000 a year.

T he P laybox, w hich has had a m ixed past, was em pty at the tim e and ideal for them . It was well situated, in the centre of the city (even if m ost of it did close down at five o ’clock), and was well sh aped. Big enough for G odspell if not quite high enough for M o m m a ’s L ittle H orror Show.

And sm all enough for a lot of other shows.

It has an upstairs gallery, as well as a room on the secon d floor where sm all plays are perform ed.

T he old b u ild in g has m ore ghosts than space, w ith the H oopla office being three sm all room s, one of w hich is used for m aking the tea and coffee, storing costum es and giving interview s. T o the u n initiated it had . . . charm .

But it needed m ore, and the State G overnm ent gave them another $20,000 for refitting the place.

They soon learned the reality behin d the rom anticism of running your own lem o n ­ ade stall.

Sim ply to keep the doors open cost $1,000 a w eek, for staff, teleph ones, cleaning etc.

Carillo and G raem e take $180 a week each salary and Garrie a bit less. They did not take anything until Septem ber 1977.

A ctors are paid the sam e during perform ­ ance and $160 a week in rehearsal.

Everyone gets betw een $150 and $180, inclu ding office staff, who consist of A ngela D aw es, who assists with the adm inistration as well as m anaging the theatre, a secretary, a part-tim e PR, a box office person and an electrician.

A sked about the success of their aim s, G raem e said: “ W e m ight not have set the world on fire, but we have had som e of the best actin g this year.” Their response to questions abou t the com pany is alw svs en th u siastic, at tim es incredulous, som e­ tim es am usin g, often original, and

Hoopla! occasionally intense. I rem em ber one night Carillo fixed m e with a blow of his eye in the foyer after a show and insisted that if I w asn’t going to have a drink with him then at least I sh ould go and write a good review!

So they had a theatre and equipm ent but no m oney.

They used it for The Elocution o f B enjam in F ranklin on 10 per cent and with 90 per cent full houses in the 22-week run cleared $12,000 when the sm oke and praise had cleared.

T hen cam e a k id s’ m onth over X m as in which they lost m oney, but gave people a good tim e w ith the brilliant Richard Bradshaw and his puppets.

D ow nstairs they kept going with a couple of outstand in g shows, The Chris­ tian Brothers by Ron Blair and L et M e In

by Ted N eilsen , both of w hich received good notices. H oopla was fulfilling itself.

U pstairs, as an extra bonus, the sm all room was used as a second theatre, staging such early su ccesses as H ancock s Last H a lf Hour, by H eathcote W illiam s and D utchm an by LeRoi Jones. The room was ideal for sm all shows of such intensity.

O utsid e, H oopla was also busy, putting on R oger P ulvers’ Yam ashita w hich was also acclaim ed at the Playw rights’ C on­ ference, and being associated with a brilliant staging of The Cherry O rchard at M onash U n iversity’s A lexander Theatre.

T he T heatre Board of the A ustralia C ouncil gave them $29,000 for the first financial year. They had asked for $83,000.

R ock-O la cost them $40,000 loss, inclu ding overheads.

W hy did it fail, and so badly? The m anagem en t says they tried to sell it on the line of it being a star-studded fla sh /fla sh num ber, while the audience went along

f

f

thinking it w ould be a big m usical such as Godspell. In fact it was a requiem to rock, the death of the dream s of the sixties, and nobody m uch w anted to know. P eople are still arguing about how it was lost in a gap betw een generations. Still, it is som ething of a cult piece, according to G raem e Blundell who describes it as being sem inal.

By the tim e they staged L et M e In, after the success of The Christian Brothers, they had about $25,000. They lost $7,000 on the show, plus overheads.

Three tim es now they have w ondered whether they sh o u ld /c o u ld /w o u ld go on.

But they are m ore or less doing w hat they want, are having a gradual spiral of success and are surviving.

N obody could call them fat or even com fortable as they continue on with enough always for one more show. In fact it b ecom es pretty prickly when you do not know w hether to cast a show or not, as in the case of B ullsh! the collection of A u st­ ralian yarns which they took exactly one week to cast. (Still, says G raem e, they are glad they did it. “ It was nice to deal with the past in a friendly w ay.” ) They call their way of coping with our past encounter politics, w hich they say is just as valid and effective as the more violent stuff. They are happy to keep away from natu ralistic slice of life dram as. They want to develop a poetic theatre and out of the three in M elbourne they are well ahead in this field. They definitely have a place.

Perhaps the problem is that it has not been quite understood, being part of the way of the future, the m ore im aginative it’s-up-tothe-aud ience stu ff in which the psyche is confronted rather than political co m m it­ m ent.

A nother area in which they have experim en ted has been the Sunday night m onthly readings of new A ustralian plays,

co-spon sored by The A ge new spaper and Penguin book s. O ut of these have com e half a dozen plays which have been subsequently staged by H oopla. Included have been L et M e In, The N ext G reatest Pleasure by D on Scott, The Propitious K idna p p in g o f the C ultured D aughter by John J F Lee and B ullsh! by Bill Reed and Ron Edw ards.

But it’s hard dollar. B ullsh! for instance was considered a hit, and its six-w eek season m ade $30,000 at the box office. But that was also about w hat it cost to stage.

They are still chasing to define their audience. Initially they sought to attract the left of the M TC and the right of the APG . They have succeed ed , they think, with the second but not with the M TC. No doubt this has been hard with such blood and guts brute stuff G ordon G rah am ’s Freaks, another A ustralian play about the use of force, or with the evocative if slightly fey The E m igrants to help celebrate Italian W eek but seem ed un acceptable to both new and old A ustralians. A gain a weird gap in appeal.

The A ustralia C ouncil h elped them with $12,000 for The E m igrants and the V ictorian G overnm ent gave them another $40,000 to see them through from June to C hristm as.

The directors say they are still trying to find their audience. T he process is satisfying both politically and prof­ essionally, and if talking about som ething being “ com m ercial” sounds too m uch like opportunism , th ey’ll quickly tell you they are not interested in self-destruction, either on the kam ikaze system of a theatre being given just enough m oney to kill itself in one gluttonou s gulp, or in slowly starving away as yet another dead dream in the sm ouldering fire and dry ice of m aking it in M elbourne.

*

•

V r

Carrillo G antner, G a m e H utchinson and G raem e B lundell. P hoto R ennie Ellis THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

19

Mike Mullins, artistic director of Theatre in Sculpture This is a concept of theatre within a concept of living sculpture. The concept was initially explored in a year of workshops at Theatre Workshop at Sydney University. They were called Theatre in Class.

•tfter the workshops, the simple sculpture was taken to the public. The first showings were at the Eternity Balls at Paddington Town Hall. We then took them to Armidale where we performed them to students at the University and also at the local coffee lounge to a totally unprepared audience.

We did the same in Wagga Wagga where we were participating in the student festival — F.A.S.T. In Wagga we also took them to the streets. These ^/ere the most interesting moments of the experiment.

“Montage” was the first major showing of the work. This was an exhibition of 13 individually mounted sculptures.

“Shadowline II” is the first attempt at a major sculpture, as it is an exposition of the style of the work. It is a series of tableaux or impressions on one basic structure. It explores man and woman against a background of Catholic expressionism.

One needs religion and having rejected “the belief” one still reaches out for “something” to make sense of it all. This is explored in the first part.

In the second part, the religion of self is explored.

A philosophy one might call “romantic existentialism” is expressed.

Theatre in Sculpture will present “Shadowline II” again in March 7 9 and will be presenting a new work for the Sydney Biennale in May. We shall be based at Theatre Workshop at Sydney University.

Peter Holdernes^ took the photographs.

Performers: Don Ferguson Rhys Martin Maureen McGrath

T heatre/N S W

John P aul George Ringo . . . . a n d B ert

A small masterpiece JOHN PAUL GEORGE RINGO AND BERT________ ADRIAN WINTLE John, Paul. George. Ringo...and Ben by Willy Russell. Riverina Trucking Company Theatre, Wagga, NSW. Opened November 2, 1978. Director, T * r r y O ’C o n n e ll; Wardrobe, E le a n o r M c D o n a ld ; Set construction. B o b B a i n e s .

John Lennon, T o b y P r e n t ic e ; Paul McCartney, K e n M o f fa t; George Harrison, M y le s O ’ M e a r a ; Ringo Starr, W a r w ic k P e t e r s ; Bert McGhee, M ic k Q e n n e r ; Brian Epstein. D a v id Q llb e y ; Alice Flynn, L y n n e E r s k ln e .

(Professional)

W ell, where were you w hen th e B e a tle s sta r ted up? For th e m o m en t, I’m not referring to th e A u stralian prem iere season of W illy R u ssell’s John, Paul, George, Ringo . . . and Bert p resen ted during N ovem ber by th e Riverina T ru ck ­ ing C om pany, bu t to th e group’s b e g in ­ nings in sm oky Liverpool som e f ifte e n years ago.

As a p e r ip a tetic m usic teach er in a large S o u th London com prehensive school in 1963, I experienced at first han d th e incredible explosion of pop u larity th at g reeted th e B eatles in th eir rise from M erseyside anonym ity. S tockw ell M anor School, in com m on no dou bt w ith every oth er L ondon school, was aswarm w ith sw ooning teen a g e girls; “ W e th ree kings of O rient are, John and Paul and R ingo Starr” was a favorite C h ristm as carol th a t year; B e a tle s Fan C lubs p r o life r ­ ated ; and I quickly fo u n d th a t a b reath less response to classical m usic 22

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

P h o to by ‘P h o to so u n d W a g g a ’

could be gu aran teed by slo ttin g B ea tle songs in to th e fin a l five m in u tes of each m usic period.

Y ou will app reciate from my inclusion of th is m inor rem iniscence th a t th e Trucking C om pany’s la te st p rod u ction was c o n siste n tly vital, directed w ith im agin ative au th o rity and resurrected t he n ostalgia of th a t whole era in c a p tiv a tin g style. W illy R u ssell’s play proved to be a sm all m asterp iece of carp en try and joinery in which a narrator, a M erseyside com panion to th e B ea tles, fo llo w s th e changin g fo r tu n e s of th e group, th e narration serving as coat hanger for th e portrayal of major even ts in th e lives of th e Liverpool lads, th e Fab Four who changed th e fa c e of pop ular m usic in th e W est.

In his fin a l RTC p rod u ction b efore leaving th e Riverina, d irector Terry O ’C onnell was proudly served by his B eatles, w ho in te ra c ted flu e n tly as a quartet bu t also had individual in teg rity and d istin ctiv en ess. T hus K en M o ffa t (as M cC artney th e peacem ak er and an oin ter of bruised sen sib ilities), T oby P ren tice (a cynical, fa ta lis tic Lennon), W arwick P eters (a R ingo of quirkish, d artin g hum our) and M yles O ’M eara (long of lim b, glassy eyed on th e ban ks of th e G hanges) recreated vividly th e rep orted person alities of th e B e a tle s, and gave us vibrant th e a tr e as well.

O f course, th ere m ust have been a great deal m ore to it th a n playwright R ussell has put in to his play: on th e w hole we glim pse rath er th a n explore th e th in k in g

th a t a c tiv a te d th e B ea tles, and th eir fam ily rela tio n sh ip s are scarcely m en ­ tio n ed . A n d a lth o u g h canned and live m usic were used generously in th is p rod u ction to e sta b lish th e group’s m usical cred en tials, th e play fa ils to give so m uch as a single nod in th e direction of th e B e a tle s’ com posing and im provising ability. I’ve o fte n w ondered, ever since th o se heady S o u th London days, w h eth er th e B ea tles stu m b led on m odal progres­ sions a ccid en tally, th e result perhaps of aim less f r e t - t o - f r e t stru m m in g in some h o tel bedroom . P osterity has long since conferred on th e B eatles th e com m ercial glam our th a t eluded P alestrin a fo r use of dorians, phrygians and th e rest.

Y ou c a n ’t have everything, and what W illy R u ssell’s play loses on th e sw ings of com p lexity it gains on th e rou n d ab ou ts of th e a tric a l balan ce. Sharp e d itin g pre­ serves th e m ain even ts in th e B e a tle s’ rise to fa m e, c o n tr a stin g ep isod es are in te r ­ p o la te d p a tc h w o rk -fa sh io n , and th e result in term s of th e a tr e is z estfu lly m anaged rondo form , an ideal grid for t he inventive M r O ’C onnell to flesh out w ith his c a stin g .

M ick G en n er w as ap p ealin g as th e a ll-tim e loser B ert, stu ck in th e back blocks of th e M erseyside city , vicariously enjoying m em ories of his brief early asso cia tio n w ith th e B e a tle s and generally relishing a wry fa ta lism . D avid G ilbey played E p stein in a sim ple, low -key fa sh io n so th a t th e m a n ’s m anagerial com m on sen se and quiet a u th o rity were p red om in an t, leaving one fe e lin g th a t th e

real E p stein m ight have been a more fo rcefu l character; Bob B aines was responsible for no few er th a n eight vigorously e x ec u te d cam eo roles, of which his H itler had fin e sw agger and spleen, th ou gh th e A m bassador tried to o hard for plum m y e ffe c t; and Lynne Erskine was sharp and fu n n y as th e Liverpool floozy A lice Flynn.

The tw o rich-voiced singers (K ris Ralph and H eath er W all) were part of an

e ffe c tiv e m usical group inclu d in g Peter M ercer (percussion), John R osengren (key­ boards), R ober van D e lft (gu itar and flu te ) and S ta n W right (bass). Y esterd a y , peform ed live, becam e a m oving aubade in th e B eatles' fun eral procession m ourning E pstein; strob e lig h tin g produced a pulsing ex citem en t n otab ly in th e scene where E p stein celeb rates w ith th e group th e signin g of their first recording c on tract; and Terry O ’C onnell used

placards and sta g e groupings sk ilfu lly to bu ild up th e se n sation of crowd activity.

O th er n o ta b le elem en ts were Julie H u lm e’s o n sta g e quick color sk etch es of typical B eatle scenery, and Eleanor M cD o n a ld ’s superb array of costu m es, especially th e sk in -tig h t b lack ju m p su its for girls, th e a u th e n tic looking grey B eátle su its and the strik in gly colorful Sgt Pepper gear worn in th e show s stu n n in g fin a le.

Little to distract one

text; and the production has no pretentions to the sort of seedy spectacle that Bob Fosse was able to command. In fact there is nothing to do while watching but ponder the strange transformation of the material — everything has been wrenched out of shape to contrive the repulsive neatness of an easily marketable consumer product — the understated background of the lsherwood books (the social climate of Hitler’s Berlin) is lugged into the foreground by adding clanging significance to everything that happens in the cabaret/microcosm or the boardinghouse/microcosm. A relatively minor character like the boarding-house keeper (Fraulein Schneider) is blown up to mammoth proportions and given a tedious romance with a Jewish fruitshop keeper (Herr Schultz) — an area of the books that made absolutely no impact on me but seems to have preoccupied the creators of Cabaret to the extent of making it more central than the Sally Bowles material. Not only that, they’ve consecrated to it five utterly forgettable, generally 'serious' (ie sentimental) songs of the kind that you wish musical writers wouldn't feel obliged to include as proof of their artistic good intentions. Not satisfied with their sexagenarian romance, the writers have also turned Sally and the lsherwood character (Cliff Bradshaw) into a conventional boy-meets-girl affair.

Such time as was left over from disliking Cabaret was taken up with being torn between a sort of anger with the audience for not expecting more from what they were seeing and a sort of embarrassed defensiveness on behalf of the actors — they were so close, so utterly exposed. I thought 1 would have difficulty believing in the truthfulness of someone walking across this space and sitting on a chair, let alone these people pretending to be English writers, German Jews and proto-Nazis in the year 1930 — and singing and dancing as well!

D avid A llen ’s G one W ith H ardy is a hugely enjoyalbe experience in the theatre, but the reservations replace enthu siasm once outsid e in the thick hu m id air.

In W aiting fo r G odot vaudevillean routines are p ieces in the m etaphorical m ozaic of help less m arking time; in Young M o, dare I suggest, they are the form in w hich the subject of how theatrical m yths are created is explored; here they are m uch more an end in them selves.

In tune w ith d ocum entary/theatricalist style of the play the use of the adm ittedly inventive and superbly executed routines is linear rather than organic They are links in a chain of events w hich follow s the ups and downs in the story of Arthur Stanley Jefferson and K ate Laurel; he, from his arrival in A m erica (actually as an un d er­ study to C haplin in A N ight in an English M usic Hall, 1910) to the brink of the big tim e w hen he team ed up with H ardy in 1926; she, the A ustralian hack, from finding him after com ing fresh from the m oun teb ank in g tent shows to losing him to the m ovies.

D uring the course of it, m any nuggets are thrown up but no vein is thoroughly worked. O verall there is the Juxtaposition of the hard-w orking, single m inded and developing talen t of Stan set up against the brash, h as-b een and stagnant approach of Kate. T he m ore she hangs on and has to be “ carried” the m ore the relationship sta g ­ nates. At First they need each other — in the words of the Brecht song, he provides the brain and she the breast, but soon even that begins to pall.

Are relation sh ip s more im portant than career? A s portrayed here the sym pathy is all with Stan — firm in working up his art but w eak in facin g up to the cloying pu sh in ess of K ate-th ou gh the report of his subseq uent five wives m akes one wonder whether w om en w eren’t just stepping stones to him . But, as with the whole m usic hall versus the m ore subtle com ic te ch ­ nique of cin em a, dichotom ies are pre­ sented rather than explored. As E M Forster said a story is a series of “ a n d s” where a plot is a m atter of causality. T his is a story.

As such director Richard W herrett has at least trim m ed away the flab that one gathers grew around the M TC production, though he has done nothing to overcom e the glaring anachronism s w hich jar with many. Now the m ain strenght of the play is as a vehicle for an im aginative director and talented cast, all of w hom this production is blessed with.

H enri Szeps m anages to cut a superb line through the character of the ou trage­ ously earthy Jock who is both Brechtian narrator, vaudevillean ham , n o-n onsen se

CABARET REXCRAMPHORN Cabaret book by Joe Masteroff based on the play by John van Druten and stories by Christopher lsherwood; music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb. Actors' Company, Ultimo Sydney NSW, Opened 15 November 1978. Director. S te v e A g n e w ; designer, S te p h e n C u r t is ; choreography, D o r o th y B r y a n t; musical direction, M a r y A n n e M u r p h y .

Sally Bowles, A n n e P h e la n ; MC, L e s A s m u s s e n ; Cliff Bradshaw. R o b e r t B e ll; Fr Schneider, H e la n e K a u b ; Flerr Schultz. B r ia n B a r r ie ; Fr Kost. L y n n e P o r te o u s ; Ernst Ludwig, D a v id M e llo r ; Lulu, L y n L o v e tt; with M ic h a e l A lle n , C h r is to p h e r B e ll, J e r e m y T h o m s o n .

tProfessional).

The last time I went to the Actors' Company 1 saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the Naked Hamlet. At the time 1 was surprised at the size and enthusiasm of the audience 1 found in the little theatre in Ultimo.

Now, at least a year later, only the play has changed. I found a similar audience — about sixty or seventy people in an indulgent and vaguely partisan mood; a similar stage arrange­ ment — reminiscent of the old Nimrod with two diagonally placed seating banks facing one another across a roughly triangular acting area with entrances at both the narrow end and the wide end of the triangle; and the same somewhat makeshift foyer and seating arrangements — like a younger version of the Ensemble.

Now, while 1 think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a great play and Hamlet not bad as well, whatever the version.

Cabaret seems to me a rather dismal piece of work. The lsherwood books (Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains) were great favourites of mine when 1 first read them as a schoolboy. And the Julie Harris film (I Am a Camera) seemed a more than adequate realisation — her performance captured the pathos of Sally Bowles’ silly, defensive sophistication, her talentless aspirations as a performer, the childish effrontery that seemed her only asset in the struggle for survival in preWorld War Two Berlin. At some point John Van Druten had converted the novels into a play and at some later point Joe Masteroff (book), Fred Ebb (lyrics) and John Kander (music) converted that into a musical {Cabaret).

Then the whole thing became a screen vehicle for Liza Minelli.

At the Actors' Company there is little to distract one from the repetitious aridity of this overworked material. Anne Phelan is not Liza Minelli (even less is she Julie Harris); the little group of eight actors, three extra men and two musicians seem barely enough to animate the

Few would not be thoroughly entertained GONE W IT H H A R D Y ROBERT PAGE Gone With Hardy by D a v id A lla n . Nimrod Downstairs Theatre, Sydney, NSW. Opened 25 November, 1978. Director, R ic h a r d W h a r r a t t ; Designer, A n th o n y B a b ic c l; Musical Director, T a r a n c a C la r k e .

Stanley Jefferson, D r a w F o r s y t h e ; Kate Laurel, K e r r y W a lk e r ; Jock McTavish, H e n r y S z a p s ; Piano, T a r a n c a C la r k e .

(Professional)

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

23

film director and finally m etam orphoses into H ard y him self. As the drole piano player (and m usical director) Terry Clarke is astonishingly apt.

K ate is flowsy, buxom and insistent in Kerry W alk ers’ portrayal.

H er own brilliance is apparent in the gags w hich she has to m ake work and look passe at one and the sam e tim e.

As Stan, D rew Forsythe again show ed

him self to be a com ic actor of a very high order.He is always rivetting to w atch and pain staking in tech nique. N on theless, without dem ean in g him , one wonders if he is ever convincin gly Stan, or was m eant to be. He lacks the defensive laughter and that fluid elasticity of m ovem ent of Laurel (and which John A llen captured e x cep t­ ionally in the part at the P layw rights’ C onference). U n lik e a G ary M acdonald

Drew Forsythe (as Stan Laurel) Gone With Hardy

24

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

perhaps his own style is too strong to be su bsum ed in im personation.

For all its strenghts, and it sh ould be said again that few would not be thoroughly entertained, the production does little to counter the nagging criticism of N im rod as “ brash ” , stylish and su p erficial” . Be that as it m ay D avid A llen is certainly a playw right to w atch out for.

&

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Theatre/ACT

C anberra R ep’s G odspell

Refreshing theatre from young actors GODSPELL TH E S EV E N TH SEAL ROGER PULVERS Im m ediately there was a different feeling in the theatre. M ichael Lanchberry has presented an exceptional Godspell, perform ed entirely by young actors, m ost of them w ithout experience. T he word to describe it is refreshing, and I want to add excellent.

The bare stage itself is a break with Rep tradition, where pain staking detail in ultra-naturalism in the set m ore often w eighed a play down than gave it flight.

Also, the actors were dressed in everyday gear, w hich chan ged from tim e to tim e in variation with the m ood of a scene, but which always kept them a part of today.

Any lavish costu m in g of the coat-of-m anycolours variety would have put the 26

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

production back in the school hall. This production w ould have no part of that.

A nother thing w hich distin guishes this production from so m any in the past is the originality of the choreography. It was definitely m iles from Broadway. In m any am ateur m usicals, steps are copied from O klahom a or wherever and the kids just c a n ’t han dle it. I felt that, throughout, these actors were m oving in ways they knew.

A ndrew K ay’s direction of the m usic was spot-on. Thg band d id n ’t overpower the singers, som e of whom co u ld n ’t m uster quite enough volum e for their parts. The work of the percussionist, especially, stood out.

It is not so m uch that this production seem s to be a break with Rep tradition (which I think it is). By using all young actors, by m aking the production effects and theatrical elem en ts relevant to them , and cu ttin g the usual staginess, the director has m anaged to m ake his m essage clear: that if the m aterial is truly relevant to the perform ers, it is a u tom at­ ically relevant to the audience.

E qually interesting was a season of The Seventh Seal at Reid H ouse, directed by Jo F lem ing. H ere the task was m ore difficult, as the heavy sym bols of the text are alien to young people in this country. But here, too, the young actors presented this adap tation of B ergm an’s story rather brilliantly. W hen the going was gettin g a bit heavy, they put in com ic overtones in parody of the gruesom e m essage.

The en d in g — m erely a long passage of the cast in gauze m asks before us — was stunning.

I cam e away from these produ ctions feelin g very good: that a theatre experien ce is truely m oving when the perform ers find personal com m itm en t in their work.

I think , too, that it is a good sign for theatre in Canberra in 1979. Peter W ilkins, from A delaide, is taking over the Y ou th T heatre. A nd Carol W oodrow , certainly one of the m ost original directors in this country, is form ing her own theatre laboratory to perfect a new m ethod.

M aybe we in Canberra are finally learning that we sh ould stop im itating little T otes and big M T C ’s and be ourselves instead.

Theatre/Victoria

JC W s A n n ie at H er M ajesty’s

JA N U A R Y TH E A TR E IN V IC T O R IA MALCOLM ROBERTSON The m onth of January is traditionally considered the m ost unpredictable m onth of the year for theatre in M elbourne. The fact that January hap pens to be both the m iddle of sum m er and the height of the holiday season, m ake theatre com panies overtly pessim istic about attracting au d ­ iences. By the num ber of theatres sch ed ­ uled to be closed during the m onth, January is living up to this reputation. The theatres closed are Playbox Theatre and La M am a. Pram Factory and Com edy Theatre are also closed for the greater part of the m onth.

As if to challenge this theory, the M elbourne T heatre Com pany is presen t­ ing the A ustralian prem iere of Bodies by James Saunders at the R ussell St Theatre on 23rd January. T his production will mark the first professional presentation of a play by Jam es Saunders in V ictoria. In fact, this playwright, who has built up an enviable international reputation, has been sadly neglected in this country. H is plays N ext Tim e I'll Sing To You, Neighbours, A Scent O f Flowers and Games, a play based on the My Lai M assacre, have all received m uch critical

acclaim in both Europe and the U n ited States.

Bodies was first presented at the H am p ­ stead T heatre Club in M arch, 1978. The play deals with the reunion of two couples, who ten years ago sw apped partners tem porarily.

O ne couple have just returned from A m erica where they have found “therapy” , while the other couple, in E ngland have stagn ated as they have surrounded them selves with m iddle class m undanity. T he play exam in es the d if­ ferences betw een existen tialism and rom anticism . T he dilem m a of the four protagonists in the play is to try to com e to term s with the problem of whether hum anity is m ore than ju st bod ies existin g in an environm ent. James Saunders has always been an uncom prom ising p lay­ wright in his search to discover the relationship of the theatre to the day. All his plays seek to explore how the theatre can best com m u nicate its m essage to an audience so that it is always an excitin g experience. Bodies is the m ost im portant contem porary play from overseas to be presented by the M elbourne T heatre Com pany since D avid R u dk in’s o u tstan d ­ ing, Ashes. T his initial production will be directed by Bruce M yles and designed by Steve N olan. The cast of four will be Jennifer H agan, Sim on Chilvers, M ichael Edgar and A nn H addy who will be m aking her first appearance with the M elbourne

Theatre C om pany.

A nother im portant event for January will be the graduation of the first group of students from the School of D ram a at the V ictorian C ollege of the Arts. F ollow ing the p h ilosophic thrust of this school, the greater num ber of the graduates are going out into the com m unity to set up com panies that will integrate them selves within that particular com m unity. The first of these com panies to be form ed is W EST which will have its base in the W estern suburbs of M elbourne. In 1977, four E ssen don housew ives and four w om en from the Arts D ram a School form ed a group called W est E ssendon. W ith a grant from the V ictorian M inistry for the Arts and the E ssen don City Council, this group collectively wrote and produced a one wom an play, R om a which deals with the life of a m iddle aged wom an living in the suburbs. T his play has just com pleted a season at the T heatre U pstairs in the Playbox Theatre for the H oopla T heatre F oundation. Since the initial production of Roma, W E ST has devised a program m e for primary schools in the E ssendon district entitled. Snake, R attle and Roll.

T his production was funded by the G oethe Institute and the E ssendon City C ouncil.

The E ssendon C ouncil have now approved the perm issive occupancy of a centrally located hall for the group; so that they can continue to develop their com m unity THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

27

theatre in the district. The driving forces behind W E ST are Jan M cD on ald, Ian Shrives, Phil Sum ner and Linda W aters.

The aim of W E ST is to create theatre specially orientated to the W estern suburbs of M elbourne and the com pany plans to play in schools, pubs, clu bs and parks in the area to accom plish this airri.

The M urray River Perform ing G roup is another com m u nity based group to em anate from the School of D ram a. Over the last three years m oves have been form ulating to set this com pany up in the A lbury-W odonga Area. The success of the Fruit Fly Fun F estival in 1977 accelerated the drive to establish the M urray River Perform ing G roup. T his festival was organised by the stu dents of the School of D ram a. T he aim s of this com pany are to write and encourage within the com m unity the writing of new A ustralian dram a based on the contem porary and historical experience of the region and to exten d the average aud ien ce atten dan ce for live perform ances in the area. T he com pany has received initial support from the

Albury-W odonga D evelop m en t C orpora­ tion. T he first three m em bers of this planned com pany of eight actors are Robert Perrier, Lloyd Suttor and M ark Sherrifs.

Closer to hom e, three stu dents from the School of D ram a have jointly bou ght the Flying Trapeze Cafe in Fitzroy. The Flying Trapeze Cafe has the reputation of being the major innovator in entertainm ent am ong theatre restaurants in M elbourne.

This m onth the Cafe is celebrating its fifth anniversary. To m ark the occasion , the new owners, Sue G reaves, Ralph Kerle and Wayne W ood are organising a Festival of the Flying T rapeze Cafe which will chart the progress of the Cafe over the last five years. In conjun ction with the Flying Trapeze C afe, R odney Bain, another grad ­ uate student from the School of D ram a, has form ed the Flying Trapeze Touring Theatre. T his com pany is touring through the holiday centres of Q ueen scliff, L om e, Apollo Bay and W arrnam bool during January. Steve Spears has written a new m usical, S h o w b iz , telling the story of the

developm ent of the rock industry for this tour.

T radition al form s of entertainm ent have not been entirely neglected in M elbourne this m onth. At the Princess T heatre, IceCraft are m oun tin g Sleeping B eauty on Ice and at the A lexander Theatre C om p­ any J M Barrie’s Peter Pan is being revived for the first tim e in eight years. John A lsop has revised the original script, Bruce G eorge has written the m usic and M arie Cum isky is directing. T he m usical A n n ie is cheerfully con tin u in g its su ccessfu l season at Her M ajesty’s Theatre while the M elbourne T heatre C om pany’s C hristm as “cracker” , A rsenic a n d O ld Lace is playing at the A th en eau m Theatre. John P inder’s first im ported show, L O Sloan's

Three B lack a n d Three White R efin ed Jubilee M instrels ‘cake w alk s’ through January at the Last Laugh T heatre R estaurant. T he return to m ore serious things in the theatre is hopefully heralded by A lison R ichard’s production of A rrabel’s G arden o f Evil at the Pram Factory at the end of January.

N O W P L A Y IN G C O M E D Y T H E A T R E , M E L B O U R N E UNTIL THE END OF JANUARY 1979. BOOK AT CENTERTAINMENT & COMPUTICKET. O P E N IN G S E Y M O U R E N T E R T A IN M E N T C E N T R E , S Y D N E Y ( Y O R K T H E A T R E ) W E D N E S D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 7 T H A T 8 .3 0 P .M .

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Googie John Frank Withers McCallum Thring

W I L L IA M D O U G L A S H O M E 'S La te st S m ash H i t We st E n d Success Directed by G E O R G E O G I L V I E

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LIMITED SEASON

Unsentimental humour and deft theatricality ONCE A C A TH O LIC JACK H1BBERD Once A Catholic by Mary O'Malley. Melbourne Theatre Company at Russell Street Theatre. Melbourne. Victoria Opened 16 November, 1978. Director. R a y L a w le r ; Designer.

T o n y T r ip p .

Mother Thomas Acquinas, J u d ith M c G r a t h ; Mother Peter, J e n n if e r W e s t; Mother Basil. M a r io n E d w a r d ; Mary Mooney. V iv ia n D a v ie s ; Mary McGinty, C h r is tin e A m o r; Mary Gallagher. K a tie W ild ; Father Mullarky. R o b e r t E s s e x ; Mr Emanuelli. B r u c e K e r r ; Derek, M a th e w K in g ; Cuthbert, D a v id L e tc h ; Mary O'Grady, E la in e M a n g a n ; Mary Flennessy. N a n o N a g a l; Mary Murphy, M e r c ia D e a n e -J o h n s ; Mary Flanagan. K im D e a c o n .

(Professional)

W hile the A P G and H oopla are struggling to half-fill their houses for som e productions, the M elbourne Theatre C om ­ p any appears to be in the throes of a bum per year — all, paradoxically enough, in the absen ce of their gubernator nonpariel, John Sum ner. The night I attended Once a Catholic, they were literally packin g them in the aisles. I’m sure before the season is conclu ded m any a Catholic and P rotestant, unable to secure a pew, will be reduced to lashin g box office staff with either the beads or sectarian im precations.

Any play that com petently couples religion with ethnicity is assured of box-office success: they are potent shaping influences on large blobs of the p op u la­

tion; they force people into distinct stances, ranging from sweet allegiance to sour d etestation — even for those occu py­ ing that drear lim bo betw een, these plays exert som e kind of allure.

Once a Catholic is certainly a com petent play and entertaining enough, though in the final cou n t it struck m e as som ew hat facile and unanalytic. Mary O ’M alley handles her m aterials nim bly in term s of theatrical technique. The brisk use of short scenes and sharp ironic contrasts shows that she has not been un touched by m odern m odels. T his m ode is a m ost apt one to apply to the social and em otion al history of a year in the adolescent lives of a class of C atholic girls. K antor’s D ead Class, where we w itness the funereal agonies of a culture, is another kettle of fish (I quote) entirely, as is B lackboard Jungle w ith its acrid protest. There is little agony or protest in Once a Catholic, though there is som e potentially alarm ing detail.

O ne refreshing aspect of O nce a Catholic, I im agin e, is its fem ale d om in at­ ion in num ber, an alm ost tactful counter­ point to the necessarily m ale-th ick A rturo Ui. M ary O ’M alley is a com ic writer w ithout a disturbing or unconventional view of the world. Furtherm ore, her kind of com edy fun ctions regardless of gender.

O bviously no sapphic separatist, she writes as well (or badly) for m ales as fem ales. It is ironic that the large cast inhibits its use by sm aller-scaled professional theatres, where it m ight have received a m ore pu ngent interpretation.

Ray Law ler’s production, while w ork­ m anlike and hum orous, tends to reinforce

the m ore com fortable, predictable and un distressing tendencies in the text; certainly one d id n ’t gain m uch idea of what the w om en in the cast thought or felt about the them e and its treatm ent.

C ontradictions, which can be strengthened for ironic purposes or som ehow resolved, are sim ply left to puzzle or annoy; for exam ple, the chasm betw een the bold personality of Mary M cG inty and her highly conventional attitudes to m arriage.

The production also choses to ignore virtually a firm strain of social com m ent, a strain that does not flatter the Church.

Mary O ’M alley contrasts the econ om ic harshness of M ary M ooney’s h om elife with the econ om ic dem ands of the school, even its social pretensions. M ary M ooney is m ocked because of her inability to afford a proper uniform . The production softens this into agreeable eccentricity or b u ffo o n ­ ery. M ary M ooney em bodies social depri­ vation, sexual crassitude and passive gullibility - she is the perfect victim and nebech.

She is natural fall-girl to the guile and aggression of her fellow pupils. She is a natural target for the exam p le-settin g zeal and perem p toriness of the nuns. The system m akes it im possible for her to create and com m an d a life of her own in the real world. Her one refuge is to retreat behind walls, the walls of the system . She is the classic invisible w om an. O nly in this case dependent not upon a m an and his house but upon a deity and his tem ples.

Her rather du bious vocation is thw arted when she is falsely accused of com m itting a blasphem y upon the groin of G od the Son in a chapel — victim once again. The com edy of all this is reasonably captured — the aw fulness in and arouna it is lacking.

T hese strictures aside, and evening at the Theatre which boasts a first half of som e 85 m inutes and doesn't have one com atose at interval m ust have a few things going for it. After all the C aptains of Film , that superior and infallibly less m esm eric art form, avow that 95 m inutes is the m agic span for the ordinary five dollar hom o sapiens. I surm ise it was the unsentim ental hum our and deft th eatric­ ality of Once a Catholic that kept me alert and non-supine till the inevitable curtainwank.

T he cast as a whole perform ed ably and evenly w ithin the prescribed lim its. H alf of the m ale cast (M athew K ing and Bruce Kerr) however were allow ed the plenary indulgence of over acting and caricature, a beatitude not bestow ed upon the ladies. Or putting it another way, the w om en were generally better. Two of them had the nerve to present portrayals uncannily like those that m inistered to my early e d u c a ­ tional needs, m ainly by tw eaking my ears to keep m e awake but also fruitfully inculcating in m e the elem en ts of literacy.

The design by Tony Tripp was spacious and fun ctional, but finally I found it hum ourless and repititive. A revolve was a good idea, though I felt it a sham e to disguise its workings. R eligion can be a kind of carousel, a never-ending vicious m andala, especially for som e w om en. It’s a pity that in this production we w eren’t perm itted to see m uch of the merry-goround in full light, the painful cyclic circlings of a certain kind of introverted existence.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

29

More justice could be done.

TH E S H IP ’S W H IS T LE RAYMOND STANLEY The Ship's Whistle by B a r r y O a k la y . Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory, Melbourne, Vic. Opened 8 November 1978. Director, P a u l H a m p to n ; Stage design, J o h n K o n in g ; Lighting design, J a f f F ld d a s ; Costume design. R o s a C h o n g .

Richard Home, M a x Q illla s ; Charles Dickens, T a r r y M c O a r m o tt; Alfred Benbow, Rev Fox, Bateson, R a g E v a n s ; Cabinmate, Old Croft, Plaintiff, Butler, Steventon, Coppin, B a r r y D lc k in s ; Kate Home, J u d y W o o d r o ffa ; Nottage, Man, Dight, Defendant, T o n y T a y lo r ; Hank. Armstrong, Aide Kemp, Francis, Frank, K im Q y n g a ll; Admirer, O'Donnell, Ogden, Hotham, Sailor, Crayford, Master of Ceremonies, R o g a r O a k la y ; Madame Vielburn, C la lr a D o b b in ; Clara Burnham. F a y M o k o to w .

(Professional)

The Ship's W histle is about R ichard Horne who, according to the auth or’s program m e note, was “ the m ost d istin ­ guished E nglish literary figure to com e to A ustralia in the 1850s’’.

HornC’s m ain claim to fam e apparently is an epic poem called “ O rion’’, w hich he wrote at 41, sold for a farthing, and spent the next forty years writing rubbish.

The play show s him as a friend of Charles D ick en s, who apparently urged him to go to A ustralia where his talents would be better appreciated. Som ew hat strangely his wife also encouraged him to m ake the journey, w hilst she rem ained in England.

D ep icted as a ham m y ranter, H orne is appointed a gold fields com m issioner and 30

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

bu m bles his way along in A ustralia, having outland ish adventures and encounters and finally lod gin g with an ex-dancer, M adam e V ielburn, who becom es his m istress.

M eanw hile, back in E ngland a drunken D ickens m akes advances towards Kate Horne, is rep ulsed, then gets her em ploy­ m ent as a p h otograp her’s assistant. O nce D ickens has m ade a conqu est of the lady he rejects her, m uch to her chagrin.

Horne returns to E ngland, leaving a distressed M adam e V ielburn behin d, seeks out his wife through D ickens (who by now is enam oured with a young actress) and when he discovers her — now the ph otograp her’s m odel — finds she no longer w ants him . Broke, he finally ‘sells’ Kate to the ph otograp her for fifty pounds.

As written the play has a great m any scenes and characters, which the A PG does its best to overcom e with endless doubling up and — with the audience lengthw ise on two sides — trundles along ingenious w ooden sets representing ships, room s, stages etc. It is a good idea, but the end result probably is the play is not seen at its best and w ould have more coherency behin d a proscenium .

D ivided into two halves, the discrepancy in construction and writing betw een the two is incredible. W hilst the first half is confusing and seem s to be going nowhere in particular, the second becom es quite gripping, m oves forward nicely and has som e finely written scenes to it.

A nother m ore professional com pany could probably do better justice to O akley’s play, and one hopes one such as

the N im rod will take it up. As directed by Paul H am pton it is burlesque one m om ent, satire the next, kn ock abou t com edy, and som etim es a few quieter m om en ts — all accom p lish ed w ithout any style or sem ­ blance of p olish . W ith a noticeable lack of any real direction, a lot of it seem s very u n professional with som e self-in dulgent perform ances, bad over-acting and vocal inad eq uacies.

M ax G illies as H orne in particular seem s in need of som e good direction.

Everything is m ostly done in too broad strokes, relying upon staring eyes effects, and seldom sh ow ing the inward ‘real’ Horne. In the first half especially he takes the easy way out and rants outrageously (more than the role calls for), but as the play proceeds he does tone it down and b ecom es m ore subtle and consequ en tly not only m ore m oving but actually funnier.

Frankly he was m uch better playing D ead -E ye-D ick , a som ew hat sim ilar character, in the E skim o Nell film .

Terry M cD erm ott, not ideally cast as D ick en s, also im proves and the rejection scene betw een he and Kate is very good indeed. Judy W oodruffe, after a rather tentative start, is really fine as H orn e’s wife.

Best overall perform ances from the m u lti-d ou b lin gs, in my opinion, com e from R oger O akley (no relation to the author apparently!), authoritative in every­ thing he does and possessin g a fine voice obviously su ited to classic roles. The other m em bers of the cast, although h ard ­ working, ju st do not ‘m easure u p ’ and ill-serve their author.

Theatre/W A

W NEW MOVES IN PERTH COLLIN O BRIEN Now seem s a good tim e to ponder the direction the su bsid ised theatres are taking in Perth. I leave to the future an analysis of their perform ances based on the statistics for the year.

W e have had Stephen Barry as Director of the Playhouse for the best part of a year now, and of at least equal im portance a change in philosophy on the part of the Board of M anagem ent, including the decision not to put actors under contract but pick them up show by show. A lso John M ilson has just resigned from the director­ ship of the H ole in the W all, and M ike M orris from control of Y outh and C om m unity A ctivities at the Playhouse.

In Septem ber, while John M ilson was off being a guest director in Q ueensland, the H ole com m ittee realised that it was in som e financial straits (who isn't). They decided not to proceed with the proposed plays — P inter’s No M an's L a n d and A rm s and the M an — but to su bstitu te the mystery thriller W ho Saw Him Die? and Neil S im on ’s California Suite. You can see their thinking: Pinter is a risk, even with Alex Hay, and the replacem ents should be more popular. John M ilson has been considering m oving on for a while now, thinking that four and a half years running a theatre such as the H ole is enough, that both he and the theatre would benefit from a change. The change of program m e was the occasion but not in itself the reason for his resignation: the H ole was not, with these plays, his scene and he was leaving at the end of the year anyway. He and the H ole Board parted am icably, indeed he is on the com m ittee for as long as he is in Perth. I surm ise that M ike M orris also is in search of greener pastures, perhaps feeling that with the G reenroom closed during the intolerable heat of sum m er and the th eatre’s resources aim ed toward No. No, N anette and the Festival of Perth there m ight be insu fficien t scope for the more experim ental and way-out theatre which is his m ain interest.

The worry that all this throws up has to do with w hat happens on the boards of m anagem ent of theatres when astringent financial tim es are abroad, such as every theatre in A ustralia m ust be experiencing right now. It seem s to me — and John M ilson ech oed this when I spoke with him — that the tendency is to go com m ercial, to both look at ‘the b u sin ess’ as one would any other, and to put on the board and depend on the ju d gem ent of people who are not so m uch interested in theatre as art, but are proven gun business wizards.

You then proceed to worry more about PR (and therefore put the m oney there) than providing the more thought-provoking

kind of theatre.

I’m not sure this is a good idea on a num ber of counts. In the first place a m ainly ‘art h ou se’ such as the H ole builds up its aud ien ce on the m ore provocative fare, and since the theatre audience is only 3% of the adult pop ulation anyway (before you hide your head in sham e, just rem em ber that in Britain its a mere 2%) you stand a good chance of alienating them if you suddenly go popular, at the sam e tim e as not, in the short run, necessarily bringing in the great unw ashed in droves. 1 know that this has been M ilson’s experience tim e and again. I rem em ber him putting on P ulitzer p rize­ w inning Broadway success T hat C h a m ­ pio n sh ip Season for the G P. then Tom K en neally’s A n A w fu l Rose because it was worth doing although he d id n ’t expect a good response. He was wrong. C h a m p io n ­ ship bom b ed , both critically and with the public, and the K enneally play was a huge success. I also think we will find when the figures are in that M ike M orris’ produ c­ tion of the all-fem ale W aiting fo r Godot did better bu siness than W ho Saw Him Die? In short the ‘popular th eatre’ myth is a m yth. Business m inds running the theatre end up with Broadway, with theatre everyone knows is pap but dare not do anything about. I’m not su ggestin g that either the H ole of the P layhouse is about to go all com m ercial, but there are dangerous signs of a change of balance I for one would not welcom e.

Take this idea of not having actors on contract. W e know the argum ents: over exposure, the need to select plays to fit a restricted range of actors, som etim es blatant m iscasting because the actor is there. But the pool of unem ployed approach is even more dangerous as it tends to negate the great strength of a com pany: ensem ble. In E ngland in ’77 I saw Judi D ench in three major roles in as many w eeks, but did I care? Further, give me the R SC ’s W arehouse production of M acbeth, w hich cost less to m ount than any Shakespeare I’ve seen in A ustralia, but had the said D en ch , Ian M cK ellen and John W oodvine to see (if you could get in: I waited five hours in the cold for the first return booking), and cost the princely sum of three dollars to get into. T h a t’s what subsidised theatre is about. W hat tends to happen if you d o n ’t watch out is that you get big bureaucracies where perm anent jobs are on hand for everyone from the ushers down, except the artists. True, there is no point having four actors on contract: if I had my way I’d have fifteen, and work them to death, as the RSC does.

The trouble with the present tendency is that you get an inbuilt lack of cohesion from catch -as-catch -can casting (it still shows in the W est End, for my m oney). I think this definitely show ed in the P layhouse this year. F inancial instability,

the pseu do-rom antic bohem ian starvingin-a-garret myth, just does not hold. You can m ake the challenges artistic ones rather than a question of where the next m eal is com in g from.

A final word on the new director of the Hole, Colin M cColl. There was som e flutter here, questions as to why one of the locals was not chosen etc. I check ed with Hole founder and com m ittee m an John Gill. I was afraid he m ight take the cultural cringe line (we need som eone from outside) as an answer to the parochial chauvinist one, but he lifted my spirits no end. The com m ittee m ade its choice — an extrem ely difficult one — on the grounds of picking the individual who they thought looked the best to fit the bill in all areas.

W hat more could you ask?

It was a wow NO NO N A N E TTE COLLIN O'BRIEN No No Nanette by Youmans. Caesar and Harbach. National Theatre. Playhouse. Perth WA. Opened 21 November 1978.

Director, E d g a r M e tc a lf e ; Musical Director. D e r e k B o n d ; Stage Manager, G e o r g e T s o u s is ; Lighting. D u n c a n O rd ; Choreographer. B a r r y S c c e a ig h .

Nanette. L y n n e C r o z ie r ; Billy, J o h n O ’ M a y ; Pauline.

S a lly S a n d e r ; Lucille. L e o n e M a r tin -S m ith ; Jimmy.

J a m e s B e a t tie ; Tom. A la n F le t c h e r ; Flora. J o a n S y d n e y ; Betty, R o s e m a r y B a r r ; Winnie. B a r b a r a G u lly .

IProfessional)

A lthough I have good reason to believe that Nyet, Nyet, N aniechka was not on the bill o ’fare of Stanislavski's M oscow Art Theatre, I’m not sure that som e of the headw agging that is going on about the Playhouse doing it with our m oney is all that justified. True we have a com m ercial theatre in the R egal, but if you look into the setup there you will see that they are heavily into im ported stars (usually TV personalities) and sm a ll-ca st/o n e-set plays or The Joe B loggs Show with supports, not full-scale m usicals. Therefore, since it is in the P layh ouse’s charter to cater for all tastes, a once-a-year Hello Dolly! or whathaveyou is defensible. E specially now, in the runup to the A ntipodean Y ule, that tim e of the ub iquitous thong, the stam ping-in and hiss of kegs and that frigh ten­ ing sym bol of our ultim ate h edon istic decadence, the tw o-kids-a-w eek who will drown in sw im m ing pools.

So let us see how this show went on its own term s . . . and we m ust say it was a wow. F irstnight nerves and the terrible exposition problem s of such works — it starts with the m aid on the telephone, w ouldn't you know — did m ake for a sluggish beginn in g, but the cast quickly found its collective feet — literally.

Everyone is saying ‘Hey, what about Jimmie Beattie tap d an cin g?’. A nd well they m ight, as L’il Ole T w inkletoes elbow s THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

31

WM*

__ Barbara G ulley, Rosem ary Barr, Joan Sydney, Leone M artin-Sm ith, John O ’M ay, James Beattie in the N ational, P erth ’s N o N o N anette Astaire into oblivion. T he chorus work and dancing in general m atches anything I’ve seen here, or anywhere else for that m atter.

It m ust all be put down to the excellen t coaching, encouragem ent and infused expertise of choreographer Barry Screigh, a m an justly revered by the profession but one who, like m any such toilers in the vineyard, does not always rate the credit he deserves. T here is no question in my m ind that it is the sound tech nique and assurance he gave the entire cast afoot which allow ed that build in overall perform ance w hich lifted things to the point where ‘they up there’ were clearly

A musically brave show TO SC A DEREK MOORE MORGAN Tosca by Puccini. Western Australian Opera Company at Perth's Concert Hall.

Tosca by P uccini W estern A ustralian O pera C om pany at P erth’s Concert H all.

P u ccin i’s Tosca uses a three-sided base for its hu m an story, enfolding this within the scenic triangle of church, torturecham ber ante-room , and castle b a ttle ­ m ents for its three acts.

P erth’s N ovem ber production of the gutsy opera by the W estern A ustralian 32

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

enjoying them selves, as m uch as we in the stalls.

The director of the show, Edgar M etcalfe, w ould undoubtedly be the first to acknow ledge his debt to Mr Screigh, but it w ould be unfair not to credit E dgar’s work as well. H e went in for a m ixture of plangent nostalgia and subtle updating: I’m sure that no actor in 1925 w ould have danced in dress coat, shirt, bow -tie, sock-susp en ders and pink underpants, and with three ladies of questionable reputation to boot Mr M etcalfe also assem bled the best cast im agin able. W e haven’t seen John O ’M ay live here before

(I think), but he proved excellent in all departm ents. A lso A lan F letcher, who I did n’t know could even hold a tune, m ust have at the least been a choirboy, aston ish in g us by bringing on a finely p itched and well controlled tenor.

Settng and costum es were appropriately gay, and D u n can O rd lit the show to good effect. I d o n ’t think m uch m ore need be said. N ot even your m ost rabid searcherout of hid den m eanings is going to find m uch K ierkergaard in this num ber, it is sheer escap ism . It will draw the large audience it is aim ed at and deserves, and they will not go away disap pointed.

O pera C om pany was largely successful in overcom ing the frightening theatrical lim itations of P erth ’s Concert H all (or any other concert hall, for that m atter) with a basic set cleverly contrived to adapt to the three entirely different scene require­ m ents.

H eight w as well used to prom ote a sense of m ovem ent by the chorus, and it certainly increased the dram atic effect of the execution scene by enabling the sem i-circular sq uad of soldiers to fire from above the captive. T o sca ’s death dive gained enorm ously in im pact and realism from this sam e vertical dim ension, and the colossal and solid -seem in g statue d om in at­ ing the b attlem en ts dwarfed the hum an figures to give a proper feeling of their physical insign ifican ce.

G raham M a clea n ’s work as set and costum e designer contributed greatly to

the period atm osp here, and producer G iuseppe B ertin azzo’s long association with M ila n ’s La Scala further accentu ated the illusion of p ast glories and infam ies.

(Incidentally, the exhibition of over 200 rare posters, pain tin gs, drawing and m odel sets on display at the Concert H all to celebrate La S ca la ’s bi-centenery m ade a satisfying foil to the perform ance itself, recalling the great days of grand opera).

C atherine D uval as T osca deployed her richly-hued voice to great effect, especially at the extrem es of her considerable range.

Her com m an d of gesture was som ew hat lim ited, and word clarity was often at a prem ium .

Tenor G erald Stern as C avaradossi gave a vocally ligh t-w eigh t but sincere in terp ­ retation w hich carried a lot of conviction.

H is diction was excellen t and gestures and facial exp ression s had a natural quality

Carvaradossi and the G uards in W A O pera C o’s Tosca. Photo: Bill Angrove. about them .

In spite of his sinister costum e, which m anipu lated black som ew hat in the m anner of H itler’s secret police, Paul N eal as Scarpia su cceed ed only in conveying restrained dignity — beneficence rather than the requisite aura of sadistic cruelty.

The arias in T osca all rem ain som ew hat under-developed, and Puccini prefers to rely on a ch an gin g wash of orchestral colour, occasion ally p u nctuating this with recurring th em es such as that of Scarpia, with its m enacin g brass chording. A lan A b bott’s direction of the fifty-strong W estern A ustralian Arts O rchestra was in tune with the op era’s needs, and h ig h ­ lighted the score with a generally taut yet flexible ensem ble which kept the whole thing a-boiling.

Barry P reece’s sacristan added a touch of not always audible com edy, while other lesser roles were generally convincing.

The im portance of the dim ension of evil in Tosca can be m easured by the fact that Sardou’s five-act m elodram a was cut by P uccini to three acts, and the num ber of characters from 23 to nine in the interests of concision, but m ost im portant, perhaps, he added com edy in the shape of the sacristan, no doubt to throw into greater relief the foul deeds of Scarpia and his torturing henchm en.

T his production, though short on the projection of m alevolence, had a great deal to recom m end it on other counts. T h eat­ rically and m usically it was a brave show.

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

33

Theatre/S A

A D ELA ID E’S H IG H P O IN TS PETER FARREEL South A ustralia had a year of c o n sid ­ erable riches — m ost of them con tain ed in the program m es for the year’s two major festivals.

The F estival of Arts in particular, contained a rich dram atic lode w hich local aud ien ces diligently m ined with capacity houses. T adeusz K antor brought his Cricot 2 com pany from Poland and gave the F estival its high point in its first week Their production of The D ead Class exceed ed all the pre-publicity superlatives; This was dram atic theatre stripped to its core — visually intense, w renching, com pelling.

A m ong other Festival highlights: Steven B erkoff’s East, w hich drew pack ed houses largely, one suspects, becau se of the m oral-outrage-controversy w hich preceded it, but w hich fully justified its SR O status; the K abuki com pany from Japan; the perform ances of Peter K en na’s Cassidy trilogy.

The State T heatre (at that stage still the 34

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

SATC, before it changed its nam e to avoid confusion with the local trotting club) flew the local flag trium phantly with its produ ctions of O edipus the K ing and O edipus at Colonnus. T his m em orable Sophocles double bill thrived on Tanya M oisew itsch ’s splendid costum es, Colin G eorge’s h au n tin g direction, and D enn is O lsen ’s proud perform ance as O edipus.

W ith a couple of exceptions, the State Theatre kept up this standard all year. The two p rodu ctions which stick m ost in the m em ory were Colin G eorge’s m ajestic realisation of Peer Gynt, and a buoyant rendition of G old on i’s The Servant o f Two M asters for the Italian F estival under guest director E dm o F enoglio.

At the other end of the rainbow, the State T heatre foun d two pots of lead — Roger P ulvers’ C edonna and Clem G orm an’s A M a n u a l o f Trench Warfare, both of w hich seem ed like ideas in search of com pletion.

The Italian F estival provided another highlight — the University of A delaide Theatre G uild E n sem b le’s production of G old on i’s M irandolina [La Locandiera] which was a sprightly, enjoyable evening.

A d elaid e’s two self-proclaim ed “ altern­

ative” com p an ies, Troupe and T he Stage C om pany, both had quiet years. Troupe, in particular, seem ed bent on co n so lid ­ ating after last year’s dazzling em ergence.

They took an interesting, if not wholly su ccessfu l gam ble with K eith G a lla sch ’s G ents, and produced a play by a prom ising new local writer D oreen Clarke. T he Stage C om pany is having its share of difficu lties, but its m em b ersh ip is a ten aciou s one.

The State Theatre bore three brilliant young actors into the lim eligh t during the year. M ichael Siberry is surely the m ost pow erful new com er to the A ustralian stage for m any years, ju d gin g on his perform ­ ances through out 1978.

Linden W ilk in son m ade a dazzling debut in The Glass M enagerie. A nd Tony Strachan, alm ost an archetype of the alternative theatre personality, m oved into the p rofessional world with an athletic debut in The S e n ’ant o f Two M asters, w hich m ost people agree was the perform ance of the year.

But if one has to choose a theatre personality of 1978 for SA, it has to be Colin G eorge. U n der his direction, the State T heatre delivered m ost of w hat it prom ised.

T heatre/ Queensland

QUEENSLAND OVERVIEW VERONICA KELLY 1979 looks fair to be a tim e of significant innovations for Brisbane theatre, en com ­ passing a creative appraisal of the trends and events of this year, and an exam in a­ tion of their im plications for the future.

New faces, new policies, new com panies, new venues are entering the picture to form an expand ed theatrical m atrix with intriguing potential for theatre both am ateur and professional, subsidised and com m ercial. At the tim e of writing, the exact details of the future rem ain n eces­ sarily unclear; bu t new year is traditionally the tim e of sum m aries, predictions and resolutions, and B risban e’s theatre world is applying itself vigorously in all these areas.

The state of theatre in Brisbane is to be assessed in conjunction with the houses in which it operates. Breakthroughs in this area include two innovations and one holding operation. T he good news story of the year m ust be the rapid em ergence, persistence and as yet partial success of the Save the R egent C am paigners. By w inning the support of the Senate of the University of Q ueen sland , W arren M itchell, the unions and the com m unity at large, the C am paign has so far m anaged to stop the proposed destruction of the theatre and convince the T rustees of the M ayne E state that the R egent as a venue for profitable com m ercial live theatre is at least a proposition worth considering. The hope for the future is that the brilliant old theatre will rock again to the sounds of the live shows for w hich it was built. If so, Brisbane can look forward to a resurgence of large-cast show s, m usic theatre, dance and concerts in a m id-tow n venue, and, more interestingly, the national pattern of touring for su bsid ised and com m ercial entrepeneurs m ay alter with the avail­ ability of a large capacity house. Brisbane need no longer either m iss out com pletely on “ n ation al” dates, or attend them in m ediaevally inappropriately venues.

On a sm aller bu t no less excitin g scale, the U niversity of Q ueen sland U n ion is at last ready to go ahead with substantial m odifications to the flexible area C em ent Box theatre, a hitherto unusable space beneath the stage of the highly enviable but too pricey Schonell Theatre. M IM , U tah, the Senate of the University and the U nion have com b in ed to contribute $90,000 for the conversion which is optim istically hoped to have the area ready for use by the end of M arch. Not only should the reconstruction of the Cem ent Box m ake ind igenou s and visiting student theatre a going concern on the sca n ­ dalously theatre-less St Lucia cam pus, but

the incep tion of a sm all, tough, adaptable theatre sp ace should inspire theatre com panies at large to go ahead with those cherished projects of sm all-audience experim ents prohib ited by the dem ands of large hou ses. At the m om ent only La Boite, a space already pressed to capacity with its various operations, provides an in-the-round venue more inviting than Q TC ’s form idable 600-seater proscenium SG IO Theatre.

The hou se to w atch will be the Tw elfth N ight T heatre building, adm inistered since 1976 by the Tw elfth N ight T heatre Trust w hich is responsible to the State G overnm ent to m ake the bu ilding pay.

Twelfth N ight, the theatre auditorium , has 42 weeks of b ook in gs for 1979, starting in January with a local rock opera Boadicea, and en com p assin g everything from m usicals and child ren ’s shows to the operations of two com panies. T he Trust hopes that this will be the year of break-through for b u ild in g as a viable com m ercial proposition; indeed, the m a in ­ tenance problem s of the theatre are of jaw -dropping m agnitud e. T he theatre com plex (inclu ding prem ises leased to a club and restaurant) was built in 1971 by the dedication and donated m oney of supporters of the then am ateur Tw elfth N ight T heatre. T he corner-trim m ing of those days has b equ eath ed a bu ild in g with an inad eq uate stage, air-conditioning, wiring, a problem atical auditorium that cuts off half the custom ers, and a roof which leak s like a chook-shed in m oderate rain — all over the forestage. The Trust faces a form idable task in getting the theatre in a shape to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of Joan W halley and the Tw elfth N ight m em bers who slaved and gave that the Tw elfth N ight C om pany m ight find a perm anent hom e; let alone the requirem ents of hirers and financial im peratives of the State G overnm ent which, since its rescue operation June 1976 in purchasing the bu ilding and liq uidating the $360,000 ban k debt, has been the only m aster to w hom the Trust is legally answerable.

The two major com panies to tenant this bu ild in g are the T w elfth N ight T heatre C om pany and the new ly-started Brisbane A ctors’ C om pany. W hile the b u ild in g was originally created to be its hom e, su b se­ quent events have transform ed the Tw elfth N ight C om pany to the condition of a tenant in this sam e house. T he A rtistic D irectorship decision has been taken with the app ointm en t of John M ilson, ex Perth’s H ole in the W all. It is at present too early for details of the proposed 16-week 1979 season, but the prom ise is there of a resurgence into professional m aturity of a Tw elfth N ight Theatre confident of its place in the com m unity, aware of the existin g and im pendin g

repertoire areas and of its rightful and long-aw aited p lace in Q ueensland pro­ fessional theatre. All eyes in the new year will be on Tw elfth Night; the end is in sight of the protracted and difficult transition from its am ateur origins to its full status as the S tate’s second established professional com pany.

The third such follow s hard upon — at the end of N ovem ber the Brisbane A ctors’ Com pany, active since early 1977 and with a com m end able 1978 achievem ent behin d it, will form itself into a co-operative society along the dem ocratic lin es of the Pram Factory. Apart from an applied-for grant from U tah , BAC has established itself so far on the strength of its box office success, com b in in g popular casting, canny selling and thou ghtfu l choice of repertoire.

By going pu blic it hopes to involve in its workings the actors and crew, audiences and com m unity. T he first show of six for the new year is already in rehearsal — The H um an Voice with Jennifer Flowers plus a Feydeau farce, to open 31 D ecem ber in the Conservatorium Theatre. To follow are the Y oung V ic-D u n lop Scapino to play at Tw elfth N ight in M arch, then M acbeth for three w eeks in late April, also at T w elfth Night. N ote the alternation of houses; with the renaissance of professional theatre in the city the paucity of suitable venues becom es evident, and even the Tw elfth N ight C om pany itself may be forced to adopt a play-all-over-the-city policy. 1979 will clearly be the year of the peripetatic professionals.

Secure from this gypsy existen ce, QTC rem ains as the State’s senior professional troupe. W ith the end of the eight-year tenure of Joe M acC olum as A ssociate D irector, his position has been filled by the appointm ent of John K rum m el; a choice which at this point seem s to prom ise continuity and consolidation of the C om ­ pany’s existin g artistic policy. I predict that the crucial year for QTC will be 1980. when the com petition of not one bu t two rival professional com panies breathing down its neck will necessarily cause a recharging of batteries and overall re­ thinking of how the professionals relate to each other.

M eanw hile La Boite is undergoing a thorough self-assessm en t of w hat it is, where it is, where it’s been and where it’s going. T he run of the writ of Rick B illinghurst, its first professional A rtistic D irector, appears to finish in M arch, and the theatre is appraising the results of its three-year experim en t with professional directorship. A rtistic policy and ad m in i­ stration are under discussion, plus financial status, the latter with a view to elim inating deficit and the patterns w hich cause it. T he theatre is overhauling its structure and grants policy, and assessing its space needs for m any projects in search THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

35

of a hom e. G ratifyingly, La B oite is well out of bed in considerin g the probable outcom e of the im m in en t pattern of local production ou tlin ed above and w eighing up the co n seq u en ces of the efflorescence of professional work. O ne of Brisbane theatre’s bizarreries is that Q T C — the state su b sid ised com pany — has always im plicitly had its artistic pace set by La Boite w hich, p u ttin g aside for the m om en t the latter’s vital professional w ing in the

Early C h ild hood D evelop m en t Project, m ust be a rarity in A ustralian theatre in that it is an am ateur theatre w hich m ost nearly ch allen ges the state com pany.

W hatever the future holds, confidence is placed in La B oite for sensitivity to what it has done, can do and m ust do. My prayer for La B oite is that it never ced es its perch in cultivating and displaying A ustralian talent; the adventurous Q ueen sland P lay­ w rights’ Season of 1977, Steve Sew ell’s The

Father W e L oved on a Beach by the Sea

Generous, genuine and funny

dem anding repertoire w hich this theatre has traditionally m ade its own, and packed houses attest that its audiences will give their devoted support to those com panies they consider are doing the right thing by them in su pp lying light entertainm ent and rewardingly com p eten t productions.

M el has ju st been sacked from his executive advertising job — no joke for a m an aged 47 — and his sweetly devoted wife E dn a supports them by going out to work. He slides into a prolonged crisis of identity, expressed through his graphic bellyaching on the inexhau stible them e of the trib ulation s of high-rise life in M an ­ hattan. As the hero b ecom es “ the prisoner of Second A ven u e” his fam ily decide that som ething m ust be done, and who else . . .? In the p lay’s m ost gently funny scenes (there’s noth in g underw ritten about M el’s n aggin g, his brother and three doting sisters com e to the rescue, c h eq u e­ books m ore or less at the ready. E dna is com m an ded not to worry, it’s been all discussed: M el will be tided over with the best m edical atten tion m oney can buy. The sisters m eanw h ile gush over their “ b ab y” brother and w all-eye poor Edna: “ I never liked the w om an ” , “ It’s just jealou sy!”

The p lay’s b est them e is the intense dynam ics of sib lin g relationships, wittily exp ou n d ed as practical big brother Harry bursts out: “ N o-on e kissed m e after I was seven” , and adm its to M el that even now h e ’d give all his su ccess ju st to be the fam ily’s favourite, even for one hour.

W e leave the hero on the way, not, please G od, to “ san ity” , but to a level of assim ilation with the lunacies outsid e the apartm ent, and E d n a ’s solidity has frayed to a degree w here she is right there with him . F reud is vindicated; the favoured son will always conquer. Shrieking w ith laughter the pair of them roll about together as the curtain closes; no longer need either be the sole m ainstay, they will now prop up each other. A lthough the reality of the pressurised looney-bin of New York existen ce com es across m erely as surreal farce here in the green and leisurely tropics (and why do New Yorkers assum e that living in their unique city is self-evidently the w orld’s m ost absorbing subject?) the com p licated bonds, pain s, loves and strangleholds of fam ily relation s connect warm ly. T he cast is excellent, their playing generou s, genuin e and funny. Arts patrons are being well done by.

the end: the hu sb and him self done it, and inspector, im poster, and clergym an are all in cahoots trying to frighten and trick the husband into a confession.

Two prim ary tests of a good w hodunnit are one, how long it keeps you guessin g, and two, (when you think back over the plot) how often you say to yourself “ O f course! Now I see why . . . How clever.”

Catch M e I f You Can, when I thou ght back, left m e in am azem ent at its utter im possibility. T he only reason one is left guessing is that the three goodies go to absurd len gth s to keep the audience thinking they’re bad dies. The author cheats all the way, and presum ably having had his script rejected as too im probable by som e A m erican equivalent of W h o ­ dunnit, has decid ed to inflict it on the live stage, where there aren’t even com m ercial breaks to raise the intellectu al and artistic level of the evening. For this aud ien ces sw itch off the T V , risk death on the roads, pay good m oney, pay taxes to support, and go hom e happy? For The M altese Falcon, sure. For A rsenic and O ld Lace I can believe. But for this?

The only reason I can conceive of for Tw elfth N ig h t’s m oderate popularity during this season is that it caters to the social club m arket — eat, drink, and see som ething com ic, not too stim ulating, and not too long. If this were an un su bsid ised theatre restaurant, I’d wish it well. To get major pu blic subsidy for such program ­ m ing is to ch an ge the whole nature of

public support for the Arts in A ustralia; a change w hich I for one strenuously opp ose.

A nd yet one c a n ’t help feelin g sorry for T w elfth N ig h t’s efficien t and energetic m anager, M ark Johnston. O ne req uire­ m ent for con tin u ed support from F ederal and State G overnm ents was aud ien ce growth; in this area he has had m oderate success. T he next step will be to exam in e the program m e the next artistic director John M ilson su b m its for 1979, a season of plays w hich the grapevine says will be m uch m ore su b stan tial in nature. A lready the T w elfth N ight C om pany is having to seek b ook in gs in other theatres because it c a n ’t get into the T w elfth N ight bu ild in g for m uch of 1979; it could also be that aud ien ces will react against any change in the kind of plays they’ve com e to expect.

D o I hear M ark Johnston quietly sob bing as he slips dow n the snake to Square O ne again?

TH E PR ISO NER OF SEC O N D A V EN U E VERONICA KELLY The Prisoner o f Second Avenue by Neil Simon. Brisbane Arts Theatre, Old. Opened 19 October 1978. Director, G e o r g « R o b e r ts ; Lighting Design, J a s o n W h it in g ; Stage Manager, L o r r a in e C r ig h to n .

Mel, H u g h T a y lo r ; Edna, Q w e n e th S m it h ; Harry, B o b Pearl, Ir m a V a n d e n b e r g ; Jessie, T h e r e s a L in d e n ; Pauline, B e th P r e s c o tt.

(Amateur) Lee;

All year round the city seethes w ith a continuou s ferm ent of am ateur activity in suburban and church groups, plus new com panies like M entor who have e sta b ­ lished them selves and successfully gone into su stain ed operation.

C om edies, thrillers, ch ild ren ’s shows and m usicals form the m ainstay of the output; som e days it seem s that every church hall in town harbours either a D esert Song or a Pirates o f Penzance. Brisbane Arts T heatre’s The Prisoner o f Second A ven u e nicely exem p lifies the pleasant and un-

Amazement at its utter impossibility C A TC H ME IF YOU CAN RICHARD FOTHERINGHAM Catch Me I f You Can by Robert Thomas. Twelfth Night Theatre, Brisbane, Qld. Opened 17 November 1978. Director, B a b e tte S te p h e n s ; Designer, J a m e s R id e w o o d .

Corban. K it T a y lo r ; Inspector, D a v id C le n d in n in g ; Mrs Corban. K a y e S te v e n s o n ; Father, R e g C a m e r o n ; Sidney, A la n E n d ic o t t.

(Professional)

It’s difficu lt at present to separate the plays in T w elfth N igh t’s current season from the Sn akes and Ladders G am e being played over w hether the com pany survives or not. At least Catch M e I f You Can is providing som e excellent local talen t with weekly pay packets; a m ove forward from the Sydney-based productions w hich pre­ ceded it. But the public subsidy ladder or snake still lies ahead, and the dice h a sn ’t stopped spinning.

But first, the play. I shall reveal who done it in the hope that this will lessen the chances of other com panies pu ttin g it on.

It’s a com ed y thriller about a h u sb and who tells the police his wife is m issing, and whose sad solitud e is disturbed by a seem ingly callous police inspector, a wom an p osin g as the m issing wife, and a clergym an w ho backs up her story. The motive: an a u n t’s will, leaving a large fortune to the m issing wife. T he twist at 36

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

and the prem iere of Spears’ K ing R ichard this year, shine like searchlights in a naughty world. W ithout La Boite, the heart sink s to o n e ’s thongs.

P eople, policies, subsidies, theatres — the sp ectru m , in alph abetical order, for Brisbane in 1979. Introspection, ferm ent, decision, adventure. T he potentially m ost excitin g and creative period in years lies im m ed iately ahead.

A gift subscription to Theatre Australia is a present that keeps on coming!

S T R IK E A T T H E P O R T Nick Enright on how a theatre in education show hit the headlines.

T heatre news is rarely news. A threat­ ened closure may m ake the front pages, or a stu nn in g b allet costum e; bu t ordinary news of the profession at work? Never!

A nd theatre-in-education? Even the term still needs to be explain ed to m any people.

Y et last July a good chun k of an A d elaide A dvertiser front page was given to TIE . T he “ hot new s” was Strike A t The Port, a docum entary devised by M agpie, the T IE team of the SA State Theatre C om pany; and all because we had advertised a free public perform ance down at Port A d elaide, in the very hall that fifty years ago was the scene of the events we dram atised.

In the winter of 1928, w harfies th rough­ out A ustralia struck in repudiation of the conditions of the new Beeby Award.

Now here was the conflict longer or more bitter than in Port A delaide. Federal Parliam ent broke the strike by a “ dogcollar act” w hich licensed w harfies at the state’s pleasure, effectively nullifying the W W F ’s power. Before the end of the strike here in A d elaide four hundred police and a su bstantial civilian m ilitia had gone into the Port to protect scab labour brought in by shipow ners.

R oger C hapm an and his M agpie team had been plan n in g to m ake a piece on the G reat D epression as a m eans of provoking thou ght and discussion am ong stu dents about their own prospects. M agp ie’s researcher, John Lonie, su ggested the 1928 strike as a focus for the T IE program m e on the relationship betw een capital and labour.

John articulated the bones of the play, the events of A u gust and Septem ber 1928.

W e fleshed them out by talking w ith the people w ho lived through the strike and the decade of D epression w hich follow ed it.

O ne couple, A n gelo and Nora C ongear,

both now in their nineties and still living half-a-m ile from the port, keep a clear m em ory of those tim es. A ngelo lent us his w harfie’s log-book, w hich starts at 1908.

Its list of cargoes handled, hours worked and pay received is deeply sham ing.

A gainst the first three w eeks of Septem ber 1928 he had written, laconically, Strike; a thick line drawn through the incom e colu m n for those w eeks told the rest of the story.

T he program m e had its first perform ­ ance at Port A d elaide H igh School on July 10. It was always intended as a piece for schools, b u t our debt to the people who helped us led us to play it in the W M A H all at the Port. T hat is .where the A dvertiser cam e in.

D id they scent trouble? A m atter of public interest? T heir reporter, M r Brian G ill, cam e to see us. He would not read the script, or see the show in a school, bu t he cam e to write his story. W e exp ected a squib in the inside pages. But on the front page, two days before the show at the Port, his story ran across four colu m ns, sur­ m ounted by a large news photo from 1928.

T hen the show hit the fan.

Mr A llison, the Lib O pp osition sp o k es­ m an on education: “ For a group fun ded by the pu blic to be inciting (sic) young people to com pare the present u n em p loy­ m ent situation w ith that of the great 1930 D epression is crim in al.” H is D eputy Leader M r G oldsw orthy was less circu m ­ spect: “ A pernicious bit of socialist prop agan d a” .

This D ay Tonight film ed scenes from the play and interview ed Roger C hapm an and M r G oldsw orthy together. T he D epu ty Leader of the O pp osition had foun d an odd ally in the State Schools A ssociation P resident who said quaintly (according to the N ews of July 25), that dram a was an effective way of learning SA history, but

that a play like ours m ust be treated as history and not as a guide to w hat m ight happen in the future. W hat price salvation now?

T he T D T story was W ednesday.

Thursday July 27 was cold and wet, bu t the W M A hall at the Port was cram m ed, m ainly w ith w harfies and their fam ilies, but also by those from the town w hose appetite had been w hetted by the news coverage. N either Mr A llison nor Mr G oldsw orthy cam e. Nor did Mr G ill of the Advertiser, thou gh their dram a critic A lan Roberts was there.

The nigh t was extraordinary. W e were touching history w hich was m ore recent and better rem em bered than we knew , yet som e of the veterans told us later that we had “ got it righ t” . O ne dem ur from older wharfies: we could never show the harshness of the underlying class struggle, and the bitterness of a defeat w hich stilled the U n ion till after W W 2.

By A u gust we were old news. S trike A t The Port is back in the schools, where the program m e now leads to a w orkshop on the issues raised by the play. Som e stu dents are pro-union, som e anti-union; all are aware of the uncertainty of their own econ om ic futures.

Our brief flirtation with the headlines was no m ore than that. Its m ost gratifying result was the support from teachers and students: the staff of C hristie’s B each H igh School rang the ABC after the T D T story to affirm the value of this kind of stim ulus inside form al education.

Involved in S trike A t The Port were: Lisa H opm an, D es James, Val Levkowicz, John Lonie, Chris M aas, D en is M oore, Jacqy P hillips, Colin R obinson. S trike A t The Port w as devised and written by the M agpie T IE team , and directed by N ick Enright.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

37

THE AUSTRALIAN OPERA 1979 SUMMER SEASON SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE JANUARY 10-MARCH 3

by William Shakespeare

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ALBERT HERRING B r i t t e n — In

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Ellery Crescent, Acton. 47-4222

English

January 10,12, 13,16,17, 20 (Mat), 27 (Mat), 30; February 3.

Opera Theatre.

“ Let me recommend this show” THE TIMES (LONDON) “Dynamite” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICUE “A joyous celebration... a tonic of a show...

The audience loved every minute of it” DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON)

FIDELIO B e e t h o v e n — In

German

January 13, 15, 18, 20, 23, 27, 29, 31, Concert Hall. (Fully staged production.)

Production generously sponsored by Dunlop Australia Ltd.

THE MERRY WIDOW L e h a r —In

^ L.O. Sloan’s THREE BLACK AND * THREE WHITE REFINED JUBILEE

English

MINSTRELS

February 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 22, 24 (Mat), 28; March 2. Concert Hall (Fully staged production.)

Production generously sponsored by the Commonwealth Banking Corporation.

THE MASTERSINGERS OF NUREMBERG W a g n e r — In

English

February 13, 15, 20, 23, 26; March 1, 3. Opera Theatre.

Production on loan from Scottish Opera.

Sponsored by Standard Lite Assurance Ltd.

DON GIOVANNI M o z a r t — In

Italian

February 17 (Mat), 21, 24, 27.

Opera Theatre.

Stars of the Bolshoi Opera January 22, 24, 26, 30.

Stars of the famous Bolshoi Opera present scenes from great Soviet Operas in semi-staged production in the Concert Hall.

38

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

Joan Sutherland as The Merry Widow

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International

Carillo Gantner

China — where arts are truly at the heart of the matter.

I

Carillo Gantner with members of the Wuhan Municipal Peking Opera Troupe after a performance of Three Attacks at the Chu Family Village.

In September October 1978 Carillo Gantner, Executive Director of The Hoopla Theatre Foundation led the first group of Australian theatre professionals — actors, directors, administrators and academics — to visit China under the auspices of the Hoopla Theatre Foundation and The Committee for AustraliaChina Relations. In twenty days the group saw twenty-four live performances of traditional Peking Operas, regional operas, modern ‘dialogue’ plays, children’s theatre, variety programmes, orchestral concerts, in major venues and a variety of performances in factories, schools, “Youth Palaces” and rural communes. The group visited professional theatre schools, companies and film studios, and had meetings with actors, directors, writers and administrators at the national and provincial level in Peking, Nanking, Shanghai, Hangchow, Wuhan and Kwangchow (Canton).

Wang Yu-Chen is a senior artist with the Hupeh Province Song and Dance Ensemble in Wuhan and a member of the National People’s Congress. She had starred in a well-loved, melodic folk opera of the region, The Red Guards o f Hung Ho Lake which had been created by the Ensemble in 1959. The opera had subsequently been filmed and made popular throughout China.

The disruption of traditional and folk arts, the mass oppression of individual artists and the tight censorship (the Chinese call it “cultural autocracy” which for years allowed more than eight hundred million people to see only eight ‘model’ operas) during the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent period in which Mao’s wife, Chiang Ching and “The Gang of Four” dominated Chinese culture (1966-1976) are all symbolized in Wang Yu-Chen’s account of her personal experiences during the period.

“I was born in a poor family in Wuhan. I .was twelve or thirteen at Liberation (1949) and I stood in the crowd clapping the People’s Liberation Army entering the city. I loved singing from my early youth so I joined a contingent of art workers. In answer to Mao’s behest that art should serve the people we went to the country to learn from the workers, peasants and soldiers and perform for them. I was a member of “The Young Pioneers” at that time. We grew up with the new China.”

threatened. I was crowned with a tall hat and a sign was placed on my chest saying “bourgeois authority”. I was locked in a black room. I could only read newspapers and watch the leaves falling and spring come out. Anyone could come and parade me through the streets.

“When I got married they sent me a big card with ‘Happiness’ in black characters. Slogans were painted in the streets saying they wanted me to be hanged. At this time I hid in the homes of peasants in the countryside. At night peasants guarded the door as I slept. Sometimes when the people invited me to sing secretly they shut all the windows and doors. If the Gang of Four had heard, these people would have ended up in a slave army. The local fishermen could only sing

“I am just an ordinary actress. But I played a leading role in The Red Guards o f Hung Ho

great loss. I was about thirty at the peak of my ability and my time was wasted. It takes a long time to restore your skills and our work is still imperfect.”

“After the smashing of the Gang of Four one of the first things done by the Central Party Committee was the revival of our opera. We

Lake so the Gang of J o u r cursed me as a ‘black singer following a sinister line’. During the Cultural Revolution they tried a thousand and one ways to suppress me. I was forbidden to perform or even practice and my life was

the songs when boating on the lakes otherwise their neighbours would report them.”

“They said I was the leader of an organization called ‘An Army A Million Strong’. Many actors like me were persecuted in mind and body. If an actor doesn’t practice for even one day it is a

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

39

International called back artists from the countryside and after only one month’s rehearsal we did it again with tears in our eyes. The audience had tears too.”

At Nanking University we learnt that followers of the Gang of Four were now receiving somewhat similar treatment, though with much greater cause as many teachers had had their libraries destroyed and some people were killed in the sacking of the University at the peak of the Cultural Revolution. In the pleasant, slightly scruffy campus “struggle meetings” are now held at which activists from the Cultural Revolution are paraded under guard and in handcuffs. Their actions are criticized in front of the crowd who shout slogans in response.

Elsewhere we were told that “sworn followers” of the Gang would be forgiven by the people if they mend their ways. Many had been “promoted by helicopter” (ie very fast and not on the basis of ability). As they were not qualified to do their jobs they were being relegated to the lower positions they deserve. The top echelon of the national Ministry of Culture, which was effectively controlled by Chiang Ching has reportedly been purged but, even now over two years since the Gang’s fall, the weeding and eradication process still appears to be going on at all levels of government.

There can be no doubting the enthusiastic support of Chinese theatre workers (and the mass of the population) for the overthrow of the Gang of Four and the restoration of political stability. In the theatre it has meant a rapid reawakening of traditional and regional artistic

diversity. The vast repertoire of traditional operas is again being tapped and works famous before the Cultural Revolution, eg The Women Generals o f the Yang Family and Three Attacks at the Chu Family Village, are now back on stage. The model operas are now excerped for variety performances but are not staged in their entirety (though I suspect they will return). New operas (Peking Operas and others in the multitude of regional styles) are also proliferating.

While Peking Opera is probably the best known form of Chinese theatre outside of China, the most popular form of live theatre in China now, or at least the form that provokes the most immediate audience recognition and response is the dialogue play (hua chu), the equivalent of our drama. It is acted in a style considered naturalistic in China (at least compared to the highly stylized and formal Peking Opera), with fairly natural makeup appropriate for the character rather than the symbolic opera style, without musical accmpaniment, and in three dimensional, realistic settings reminiscent of our own contemporary theatre. The themes of these plays are often taken from modern life but they often still contain a substantial and overt ‘propaganda’ element that differentiates them strongly from the current Australian drama.

We saw the Shanghai Children's Modern Play Troupe in The Children's Hearts, an adult and didactic piece highly critical of the Gang of Four’s education policies. It was extraordinary to see the juxtaposition of styles — the infinite attention given to small naturalistic effects such

as falling autumn leaves contrasted with an actor miming a song and the simple eating of an apple.

Other popular ‘hua chu’ of the moment include The Newspaper Boy about Chou En-lai’s youthful resistance to the KMT forces; The Appointment, a comic piece involving the unscheduled mis matching of lovers on a park bench (we saw scenes in a student rehearsal); The Story o f The Red Heart, a highly regarded drama about doctors who resist the Gang of Four; and When The Maple Leaves Turn Red, a broad satire involving a group of scientific workers in opposition to the Gang.

In Kwanchow’s Cultural Park we attended a modern dialogue play in Cantonese dialect, Another Spring. The plot, the stage antics and the totally “bourgeois” escapism of this broad comedy were perhaps further from the pure revolutionary line of the Cultural Revolution than anything elso we had seen but there was no denying its massive audience popularity. The plot revolved around a chemist who gives a woman laxatives instead of sleeping pills for her over worked husband. While the dialogue had plenty of references to “model workers”, “the Four Modernizations” and “the Gang of Four”, the convoluted consequences of this error (involving chases through the audience, double takes, physical comedy and muggingj) had all the logic and significance of the worst Australian television ‘soap’.

The Cultural Park itself is a monument to the mass appeal of the performing arts in a non­ elitist setting. In downtown Kwangchow, the Park has several indoor theatres, two large outdoor stages (on one of which a regional opera was playing, on the other one of Kwangchow’s stunning acrobatic troupes (I glimpsed 14 up on a bicycle), a basket ball stadium, a roller skating rink (complete with show-offs in stove pipe pants) a restaurant, acquarium, ferris wheel and a “television theatre” in the form of three black and white sets in a wall facing seating for about 200, each set showing the same dubbed Eastern European movie.

To widen distribution, current release feature films are now shown immediately on TV, but the Chinese do not express concern about the potential impact of television on their traditional culture. This must be due in part to the as yet limited private ownership of sets and the seemingly insatiable Chinese appetite for most forms of traditional and modern theatre.

For a theatre worker the real “culture shock” is not experienced in China but on return to Australia where live theatre is a relatively impotent, elitist and minority activity divorced from the lives of most people.

The very concept of a “cultural” revolution is inconceivable here amid the great Australian lassitude. I deplore the destructive excesses of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China and rejoice in the refound freedom of artist such as Wang Yu Chen, but I can only be in awe of a society in which the arts truly are at the heart of the matter.

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Australian Centre International Theatre Institute 153 Dowling Street, Potts Point, N.S.W. 2011, Australia. Phone: 357-1200 President: Prof. Robert Quentin. Hon. Sec.: Dr Marlis Thiersch.

Editor: Candy Baker SWITZERLAND The International School of Geneva will host a festival of original plays in May 1979. There is no requirement as to length and language, but the script must have social or political relevance and no prior professional production. Selected playwrights will be invited to attend the festival at the expense of the International School.

Scripts must be submitted by December 1, 1978 to Rod Price, International School of Geneva, 62 Route de Chene, 1208, Geneva, Switzerland.

BUBBLES The Bubble Theatre Company was founded in 1972 to bring live professional entertainment, particularly musical theatre, to new theatre audiences. Since 1973, the company has been performing in an orange plastic tensi-dome which seats 200 people and can be seen in parks and open spaces in London. Because of the response a larger dome has been commissioned.

The company performs a wide selection of popular classics, Shakespeare, cabaret, rock music and children’s shows from March through September. After September the Bubble Theatre

1

is available for bookings abroad. For further information please contact: Fiona Dick, Administrator, The Bubble Theatre Co., 9 Kingsford Street, London S.W.5. England.

Phone: (01) 485-3420.

US ITI Newsletter Oct 1978 SCRIPT EXCHANGE Since the establishing of a clearing house for new plays at the Hungarian ITI Centre in 1975, 37 plays have been received at the Australian ITI Centre. These come from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the USSR. These plays are produced in manuscript form, complete with information on publishing and producing rights and three copies of each play are then sent to the national Centres. Copies are available for distribution to Australian theatres interested in considering foreign plays for production. Contact the ITI office for details.

INDIA 7 9 An “International Seminar-cum-Workshop on

Mime, Movements and Gestures in Indian Theatre” to be held in January, 1979, in New Delhi. Dr Awasthi, the Asian expert of the ITI Executive Committee will be in charge. The address for more detailed information is: Shri Ram Centre for Art and Culture (Mr Rajinder Nath), 4 College Road, New Delhi 110001, India.

COMEDY CONFERENCE With the help of the Polish ITI Centre, the Musical Theatre Committee will be holding a seminar on the training of musical comedy performers. A small international gathering of interested training experts will take part in this seminar, which takes place in March or April 1979, at Gdynia, on the Baltic sea. Please contact the ITI office for further details.

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR FOR NIMROD The Peter Summerton Foundation — a foundation particularly for directors has sent out invitations to the following European directors to come to Australia to direct a play: Franco Zeffirelli (Italy) (Milan) Giorgio Strehler (West Germany) Peter Stein (West Germany) Peter Zadek (Paris) Roger Planchón It is hoped that one of these directors will direct a play at Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre, with the condition that directors resident in Australia can attend in an observer capacity. The play will be chosen by the director and the Nimrod Theatre Co.

INTERNATIONAL

THEATRE QUARTERLY 1979 ISSUES INCLUDE:

EDW ARD BOND a major interview following the premiere of the epic play, "The W o m a n " — his first major w o r k for Britain's n e w National Theatre.

JOE PAPP a major study of the benevolent hug of the em pire builder of the Am erican theatre.

FRANCE background on the continuing debate on decentralization and w h e th e r to w o r k w ith in the system or to seek alternative strategies.

BERLINER EN SEM B LE full description and analysis of the renaissance of this inter­ nationally renow ned company.

D A V ID EDG AR young English author of th e a w a r d w in n in g an ti-fascist play "D e stin y" in interview.

GREEK T R A G E D Y n e w approaches based on a production-orientated analysis of the w o r k of the great tragedians by the innovatory director Hovhanness I Pilikian, plus an o verview of modern approaches to Euripides.

"It's hard, adult, and uncompromisingly serious. To be frank, it's the first time I've found it absolutely necessary (and stimulating) to read a theatre magazine" Peter Hall, Director, National Theatre Great Britain Available through Currency Press Pty Ltd, 87 Jersey Road, Woollahra, N S W 2025, Australia Send for full details, rates and catalogue of other titles in stock

William Shoubridge

Dance

Ballet 78 All in all, 1978 was an exciting and rich year for Australian Dance. Not merely for the fact that all the companies concerned continued to exist and actually expand their audiences, but that they were extending their ideas and concepts of dance.

The single newsworthy event of the year as far as new choreography goes would have to be the world premiere of the Dance Company’s Poppy, not only the first newly conceived fulllength modern ballet in Australia, but arguably one of the most appealing and interesting ones to boot. Personally 1 still find many things in it to quibble about and the basic flaws of the structure were hardly ironed out the second time around in Sydney, but the Company has had nothing but good reports about it and great enthusiasm from audiences. Perhaps the Company’s visits to the USA and Europe over the next two years will make even more people sit up and realise that there is something potent and fresh going on here.

The Dance Company's second season in the Opera House Drama Theatre wasn’t so successful. Two works, both portentous, lacking in fibre and dramatic point were disheartening to anyone expecting (as they have in the past) good things from Graham Watson and Don Asker. But it at least showed that here were two totally individual minds at work on different concepts of dance, neither of them in the least overshadowed by Artistic Director Graeme Murphy.

The Australian Dance Theatre goes from strength to strength in Adelaide and Melbourne, at last settled into its situation and working steadily on nurturing choreographic talent from within its own ranks. Artistic Director Jonathon Taylor (a pragmatist if I ever met one) is cementing the foundations of a strong repertoire on which to build, choosing some of the best works of Christopher Bruce as a point of departure. From there he’s adding works by himself, Joe Scoglio, Julia Blakie and Pamela Buckman amongst others, some of them deep, some frivolous, some light-hearted (yet serious in intent) and others satiric.

The programme for the Adelaide Festival, while poor and disparate in some ways, gave audiences a hint of things in the wind of American Dance and with Cliff Reuters Field they have a work that will build and build. The ADT has to fight the fact that the Australian Ballet with its overblown spectacles as the Palais has effectively killed off nearly all interest in “avant guard” new work in Melbourne audiences. But, as Taylor himself admits, it takes up to ten years for a company to gain the trust of audiences, find its feet, take root and work out 42

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

an almost foolproof repertoire. By keeping its options open and casting its net wide (oh these mixed metaphors!) the ADT is feeling its way carefully but with good sense.

Extremely laudable is the company’s ongoing series of choreographers workshop performances in the Balcony Theatre in Adelaide (a spot coming to occupy the same opening and ambience there, as The Place used to in London). The Balcony is the sort of rough, uncluttered and undressy place where people come only for one thing, to watch the dance and talk about it. The Dance Company used to have the same sort of setup in its Woolloomooloo studios but after one season there that seemed to have gone by the board, more’s the pity.

A place like the Balcony is necessary for any company to give fledgling talent a tryout before the public eye. Closed workshops are good as far as they go (which isn't very far) but nothing gets the juices flowing like the “threat” of a public performance. Attempts at choreography cease to be a game and become a serious business. There will always be a few stinkers of course, but a situation like this gives a tentative choreographer the room and the right to fail, pick up the pieces and try again.

At Ballet 78 (of which more later) visiting critic John Percival noted that the works the ADT came up with in a Balcony season that he witnessed were streets ahead of a certain inter nationally renowned modern dance company in Britain. It is all a very praise worthy system and one would think that the AB could take time out from its box office desperation to set up something similar for its own dancers in Melbourne. But according to the programme note pontifications of Administrator Peter Bahen, the AB would be very happy to shut up shop completely on such schemes and get on with the serious business of the next lavish costume drama.

Talking of the Australian Ballet, things are, regrettably, much the same there as last year.

Standards are as low as ever, subtlety has gone out the window, triple bill works are passed off with a non-committal shrug (exception here being Afternoon o f a Faun earlier this year but then that was because the corps de ballet was not involved). The one token work from an Australian choreographer commissioned by the AB, Graeme Murphy’s Tekton, while being fuzzy and muddled in its own right, was shockingly served by a corps that couldn’t give a damn.

Although it is laziness on their part, not all the blame can be laid at their door. For a start there are too few dancers called upon to do too many performances. A heavy performing schedule is

not always a bad thing (The N YCB thrives on it) but look at some of the things the AB corps are asked to do! On some nights they are asked to dash from the classic poses of Symphony in D or The Dream and automatically switch gears into the loosely strung rubby-ducky contortions of Falco’s Caravan. Or witness last year’s season in Sydney, here the corps was lumbered with 23 consecutive performances of Ashton's Le Fille Mai Gardee (as near to death standing up as I know). Who wouldn’t get demoralised with that sort of regimen. It is inconsiderate, public service planning of the very worst sort.

At the time of writing the AB has not-released its plans for the 1979 Sydney season nor has any announcement about the new Artistic Director been made. The public appeal for funds for the new premises in Melbourne goes on apace. One hopes they reach their target soon so tht this desperation for box office returns dies down a little and what money is made will be ploughed back into the company so they can finance some good works from overseas choreographers or at least get the permission to perform some of the classic works that overseas audiences can take as a matter of course but which audiences here have never even heard of. By this I do not necessarily mean “these avant guard works with their cacophanous music and contortions and writhings”. Just who is really making the “artistic” decisions in the Australian Ballet these days anyway? ************ Ballet 78 came and went without revealing anything exciting or even interesting in my opinion. Almost everyone came along with “the safest and nicest piece from our current reportoire” and I’m afraid all of them struck me as uniformly dull.

The ADT's Flibbertgibbet, choreographed by Jonathon Taylor, although thankfully enlarged and developed from when I last saw it, still seems arid and fey. Nevertheless, the ADT dancers (some of the best looking ones around) shone brilliantly in it and it was quite funny albeit in a rather gormless way.

The West Australian Ballet, presented Jacqui Carrolls Night Songs a very mellifluous, gentleon-the-eye piece of balletic recherche du temps perdu. It had some extremely elegant partnering and patterning mainly of the drooping, twining and catching sort, but overall it was too pallidj; rather like a faded Edwardian watercolour.

Nevertheless, it being the first chance for me to see the Company, I was glad to see it used a stretched classical technique as its base and only made me wish that I could have seen the Company in some of the Bournonville pieces

Vic Taylor (Sphinx) and Menlee Macourt (Guinevere) in Poppy Act II. Photo: Robert Harman. that Hans Brena has set for them. This last also begs the question, why has the Australian Ballet neglected this great classical choreographer?

The Queensland Ballet came up with Garth Welch’s The Visitor and as much as I enjoyed Mr Welch’s performances as a dancer, I have yet to see much strength in his choreography (with the exception of his Images created for the late and lamented Ballet Victoria). The Visitor using a Tchaikovsky string quartet as its musical background, portrayed a tense tangle of love and intrigue between a mother and daughter and a stranger. It is a theme pregnant with opportunities for a great ballet (Ashton used it in his Month in the Country for the Royal Ballet) as well as “legit” theatre, witness its undercurrent throughout Pinter, but Welch and his dancers seemed to shy away from it all. The dramatic structure fell apart alarmingly half way through and the choreography lacked sufficient impetus and invention to carry it through on a strictly visual level.

Graeme Murphy’s Rumours for the Dance Company I have reservations about mentioning.

It is meant to be a part of a trilogy based on Sydney life which will be seen in full in that town later this year, and I would prefer to talk about it in full then. Suffice it to say that I agreed with Clive Barnes in that it was a “one joke ballet” and far too specific in its references to be interesting for a lot of people, although the Eastern Suburbs trendies will no doubt love it. It is set on Sydney’s Lady Jane Beach (the nude

one) and catalogues all the vanities, foibles and (in the ballet at least) affected violence of the place. 1 somehow think that here Mr Murphy is being just as fast and trendy as those he is castigating. The thing at the moment is an “in joke” and alarmingly blinkered. It took me some time to realise, with all those people clambering down those two step ladders, that it was set on Lady Jane and I practically haunt the place! I also have yet to see anybody being gang-banged there, as Mr Murphy portrays. Nevertheless it had some superb theatrical bits in it and I will await the full trilogy with bated breath.

Of Gerard Sibbritt’s Sea Interludes, using the pieces of that name from Britten’s Peter Grimes as music, I cannot really say anything without being unfair; it was so appallingly danced by the corps of the AB. From what was barely perceivable of the choreography in the midst of the on stage horse race I would say that Mr Sibbritt had tried his best, had not been too outlandish in his choreographic demands, was solid, secure and workmanlike (all euphemisms for boring I know but at least I’m trying). There was nothing to hold the imagination; Sea

Interludes was swamped by its powerfully descriptive music, so much so that the ballet was extraneous, anecdotal and vague.

Was Sibbritt roped in as a last desperate measure by the Australian Ballet because there was nobody else to create something for them? If so, I can only congratulate Mr Sibbritt on making the best of a poor deal, but I’m afraid

that Sea Interludes vanished totally from sight with the fall of the curtain.

Alongside this the Aboriginal Dancers from Arnemland were positively joyous in their discipline and concentration, their theatricality and acutely observed mimicry and, yes, their hard-won innovations.

If Ballet ’78 really was the thermometer of Australian Dance this year, then I would be profoundly depressed; but it wasn’t. Everyone was too careful or too timid or too non­ committal. John Percival and Clive Barnes each in their own way were enthusiastic about some aspect of the Festival. I didn’t share their enthusiasm. But then I know the repertoires of these companies. I hope I recognise the great things they can do on their home ground when they are not part of an official cultural fashion parade, and therefore knew that Ballet '78 was not a representative forum.

I concur with Mr Percival who hoped that there would be a Ballet '79 and '80 and so on, and that the enterprise should grow and expand, that there should be more companies involved including the “amateur” companies. I also agree that thought should be given to inviting a similar overseas company in the near future, thereby turning the whole endeavour into the exciting melting pot like the Cologne Tanz Forum. It will take time and money, but more to the point it will take a hell of a lot more application than there is at the moment (from everybody, especially the administrators) if it is to be given a fighting chance.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

43

David Gyger

Opera

TV and 3d operas My opera diet leapt dow nward a few notches on the professional scale with the end of the 1978 seasons of the State com panies early in Novem ber, and A u st­ ralian O pera conclu ding its year and brief forays to A d elaide, M elbourne and B ris­ bane follow ing the end of its major winter season in Sydney.

The only live perform ances I saw during the period under review this m onth were in Canberra and on the outlying ram parts of Sydney, thou gh ABC television cam e up with a rather intriguing series of four consecutive Sunday night offerings that together provided the m ost m eaty operatic fare of the m onth.

T elevision opera, of course, is no serious artistic alternative to the real — that is, live — thing; nevertheless, it m ust be accepted that opera, inevitably the m ost inherently extravagant of all the perform ­ ing arts for the sim ple reason that it involves so m any more perform ers and back-up staff than the others, m ust rely increasingly on the electro-m echan ical m edia if it is to reach the m ass aud ien ce which is no doubt essential for its survival.

The ABC series was a perfect crosssection of the TV opera spectrum : half

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

recorded live in perform ance, half studio work; half serious, half com ic; threequarters in E nglish; three-quarters A u stralian-m ade. The success rating bore only the m ost approxim ate of relationships to any of the other factors involved in this fascinating series.

The only un eq uivocal success of the four was the A O ’s Fra Diavolo. Second was an A ustralian stu dio production of R avel’s one-acter, L H eure Espagnole. Third in order of m erit was the A O ’s Lucrezia Borgia, starring Joan Sutherland; while the field was trailed by an unbelievably bad British production of G ilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury.

TV is inherently incapab le, of course, of putting across either the full visual im pact of large-scale opera or its full aural im pact: the m ini-screen obviously cannot cope with crowds w ithout m aking them look like ants, and the quality of sound that em an ates from your average hom e TV receiver is far below radio FM stereo — a strong plea for synchronised T V -F M stereo b roadcasts which m ust com e in ­ creasingly into vogue in the future.

Everything I am about to say, then, m ust be deem ed to take into accou nt such

sw eeping gen eralisation s about the prob­ lem s in general of televised opera.

Fra Diavolo, the better of the two produ ctions recorded live in the theatre, was even m ore su ccessfu l on TV , w hereas Lucrezia Borgia was even less successful; but that is partly due to the differences in the works them selves. Diavolo dem and s no stage sp ectacle anyhow, and even in the flesh the AO Lucrezia ignored the opp ortu nities bu ilt into the piece.

It gave m e great pleasure, w hen the AO Diavolo first saw the light of day at the Sydney O pera H ouse, to be ob liged to withdraw my advance qualm s as to its inclu sion in the repertory of a national opera com pany like the A ustralian O pera.

It was no surprise, but none the less pleasurable for that, when the T V version proved to be even more satisfying.

H ighly intelligen t cam era work gave every T V viewer the opportunity to experien ce the sort of detail only a very sm all proportion of a live aud ien ce, those in the very front section of the stalls, could experien ce. N u ances of facial expression were captured in close-u p, practically all the visual sight gags in the original were underscored. T he few alterations of detail

introduced during the transfer in no way did disservice to the original coherence of this intentionally cardboard cut-out prod­ uction.

Robert G ard’s D iavolo was even more effective dram atically than on stage, though even the inad eq uacies of TV sound could not disgu ise the difficu lties he had in reaching som e of the stratospheric notes in the score. N eil W arren-Sm ith and G raem e Ewer were as lovable as pair of m ock-thugs as ever, even if deprived unnecessarily of m uch of the visual hum or of one of their better scenes (the one where they hide behind phoney w ashing hung out to dry and interject w ith the aid of trap-door long jobms etc). D en n is O lsen and H eather Begg cam e over m agnificently, as the cari­ catures of E nglish nobility they are, Isobel B u ch an an ’s Zerlina was as sweet and sw eet-voiced as ever, D on ald S h ank s’ M atteo suitably towering of stature and voice even w ithin the inevitable m in i­ context of T he Box. L H eure E spagnole is a w him sical, slight story set to m usic of higher stature, as com pared to the more equal artistic w edding of w him sical plot to slight m usic which is consu m m ated in Diavolo. In a way, L 'H eure is a good piece for its un deniable m usical merit, but it is w ell-nigh im possib le to stage effectively in the flesh in the absence of a com petent baritone who is also an expatriate strong m an from the local circus since he who tackles the role of Ram iro the m uleteer m ust be able to cart a grandfather clock

stuffed w ith hum an cargo up and down stairs.

Let it be said that the ABC scored a couple of real coups in casting this L Heure Espagnole, one of w hich was engaging John Pringle for this role: not only can he sing the role very well indeed but he has a sufficiently robust physique, I should think , to be well able to m ake at least a good stab at the clock-carrying bit.

The other coup was in engaging G erald E nglish for the role of T orquem ada the clockm aker; for E nglish is a superb character tenor who is at his very best in playing ju st this sort of skin-craw ling eccecntric sort of role (witness his m em ­ orable captain in W ozzeck at the 1976 A delaide F estival and also, subsequently, on A BC -TV).

The rest of the cast for this effort were acceptab le rather than m em orable: John M ain was O K as Lover A, C onzalve the poet, as was G rant D ickson as Lover B, D on Inigo G om ez, the aging banker.

Beverley Bergen was quite good as C oncepcion, the bone of am orous c o n te n ­ tion, the fem ale vam p on whom the success or failure of the opera m ust rest.

Third on the merit list of this lot of TV operas — and a long way behin d the first two — was Lucrezia Borgia. Its video shortcom ings reflected accurately the shortcom ings of the original AO live production of w hich it was an all-tooaccurate record.

Joan Sutherland was of course superb in the title role, as was M argreta E lkins in the

pants role of M affio O rsini. Ron Stevens was equally as successful dram atically as he had been in the flesh, and no more pleasing vocally; Bob A llm an belted out D on A lfo n so ’s notes and produced overall the fine standard of involvem ent which characterises all roles I have ever seen him play. Everyone else in the large cast of sem i-principal m ales was just grand.

The whole thing fell down badly, as had its stage precursor, on the production front — G eorge O gilvie’s direction and K ristian F redrikson’s designs cam e over no better on TV than they had in the theatre. W ell perhaps m arginally better, for TV is able to excise m any of the visual ennu is of a production like this by discreet use of the zoom lens and the close-up.

I had looked forward im m ensely to the Trial By Jury im ported from Britain to conclude this series partly because I have a special personal affinity for the piece (I m ade my G & S debut and sw ansong in it m any years ago, as one of the jurym en in an A m erican high school production) and partly because of the m outh-w atering prospect of seeing the piece done by a top-line British cast all of whom have sung with the E nglish N ational O pera (N orm a Burrowes, John Brecknock, Eric Shilling, D enis D ow ling, H arold B lackburn) under the baton of A ustralian expatriate c o n ­ ductor Charles M ackerras.

In the event, it was awful. T he designs for this G ranada Television production belonged to the tizzy m ock TV quiz show genre. T he perform ers, by and large,

N orm a Burrowes and Eric Shilling in ABC T V ’s Trial By Jury

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

45

Opera seem ed hell-b en t on proving the old adage that G & S is a closed book to opera singers. There were m om en ts when I su sp ected it was all deliberate; that they and their director, Peter Potter, had actually set out to create som e kind of subtle spoof. But it was all so unbelievably wrong and gauche that I could only conclude, finally, that this was not the case.

Like the rankest am ateurs, all the players beat tim e all but visually w ith their entire bodies; produced a perform ance that was ju st about im peccable m usically but reduced the text to an utterly m onstrous sea of congealing clag. I could go on for som e tim e citing sp ecific grand faux pas; but there is no need — and anyhow I h aven ’t the heart.

On the live front, a flurry of year-end activity in Sydney produced m ore than its fair share of interest but not a great deal of m em orability. A Conservatorium O pera School produ ction of O tto N ico la i’s The M erry Wives o f W indsor, directed by Roñal Jackson and condu cted by G erald Krug, provided just about conclusive ju stification for the present-day n eglect of the piece.

G eoffrey Crook m ade a good fist of F alstaff in this Con production, and G lenn W inslade was a very im pressive F enton while D avid W atson turned in a rather nice caricature of Dr Caius in the acting departm ent. T he rest of the rather large cast of p rincip als was quite even, but nothing was very m em orable about them or the orchestra — or, ind eed, the production as a whole.

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THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

By and large, of course, the fascination of m inor league opera is the perennial hope that one may encounter som e previously un fam iliar talent on the brink of bigger and better things; it is virtually inevitable, if one clings to the highest standards of critical evaluation, that one will be d isap pointed at the Con, or Canberra, or suburban R ockdale. The Merry Wives I have just been talking about was basically a student exercise, and as such it was ju st about what one m ight have exp ected in advance.

P iqued by a rather rapturous review in the daily press, I ventured even further off my usual beaten track a few days later to see another stu dent production, this one presented by the third year graduating com pany at the N ational Institute of D ram atic Art. T he work being staged was .the B rech t/W eill classic The Threepenny Opera; the production and perform ance so far above the standards one has a right to expect under such circu m stan ces as to provide one of my p leasantest operatic surprises in years.

Even from the very front row, where inevitably som e of the stage illusion was lost — noth in g, perhaps could have effectively disgu ised the fact that the M acheath of this production, Peter C ousens, was not quite m ature enough of voice and m anner to be a convincing highw aym an — this was a rem arkably effective realisation of one of the great all-tim e pieces of m usical theatre; one which perversely defies pigeon -h olin g as to category, firm ly plan ts one foot in the serious opera cam p while at the sam e tim e

never for a m om en t losing the com m on , even gutter, touch.

Yet C ou sen s’ inadequately d isgu ised, and perhaps u n disgu isable, youth, was the only qualm about his portrayal of M ac the K nife . . . he clearly dem onstrated he u n ­ derstood the character for the rather sp lend id m ixture of strong-arm thuggery and h u m an tenderness-d espite-all that he is. R obert G rubb was a superbly awful P eachu m , thoroughly believable as the totally unsavory proprietor of The B eggar’s F riend Ltd. K atrina Foster, as M rs P each u m , and D ian e Sm ith as Polly his dau ghter and Penny C ook as Lucy Brown were all m arvellous caricatures of the characters they played.

N one of the singin g, of course, was really of operatic quality — but then, the piece d oesn ’t d em and it anyhow. W hat finally could not fail to win adm iration for this Threepenny O pera was above all the absolute involvem ent of the perform ers from b egin n in g to end: that, coupled with a thoroughly acceptab le standard of dram atic and m usical achievem ent through out, m ade this one of the m ost stim ulating even in gs I have spent in the theatre in a long while.

The m u sical director, R om a Conway, did a m agn ificen t job of bringing The Threepenny O pera to life with a ban d of four (she herself playing pian o and electronic organ as well as co-ord in atin g the w hole shebang); and G eorge W h aley’s direction was clean and correct.

T he m ajor live offering I saw during the period under review, a Canberra O pera production of M ozart’s M agic Flute, suffered from som e disturbing orchestral lapses — thou gh it had its com pensations, in particular in the chorus departm en t (O Isis and O siris, the night I heard it, was beautifully full-voiced and m ellow , with not a scratchy edge to be heard anywhere).

Individual actin g and singin g honors went to C olin Slater’s P apageno — quite a different character in appearance to the feathered M acon aghies and Pringles we have b ecom e accu stom ed to in the 1973.

A ustralian O pera production designed by John Stoddart, bu t thoroughly convincin g in all ways. M argaret Sim was a warm P am ina and John M ain produ ced a pleasantly su ng T am ino w ithout ever u n bend in g very m uch dram atically.

Joan R ichards coped quite well w ith the fearsom e vocal sq u iggles that fell her lot as Q ueen of the N ight, and Bryan D ow ling was an interm itten tly effective Sarastro who m ade som e very p leasin g, fullthroated sou n d s bu t seem ed to be having difficulty at tim es.

Brian B ell’s produ ction was straigh t­ forward and m ostly effective, thou gh lack in g any particular m em orable m aster­ strokes; Q uentin H ole’s stage settings worked well in conjunction w ith Peter C ook e’s costu m e designs im ported from Brisbane follow in g the A u gust production of the Q u een slan d O pera C om pany, where of course they were part of an overall Cooke design stint.

Ayis Ioan n id es was a m ostly capable condu ctor w ho did, however, have som e difficulty in m ain tain in g en sem ble at tim es — particularly at m om en ts during the difficult, and exp osed , overture.

Film

Elizabeth Riddell

Blue Fin lacks the magic of Storm Boy

Greg Rowe and H ardy Kruger in B lue Fin

I

The South A ustralian F ilm Corporation has not got another Storm Boy in B lue Fin, perhaps because the Southern Blue Fin tuna is not, thou gh a han dsom e enough fish, as quirkily interesting as a pelican. In fact p elican s do m ake a brief appearance in the film , bu t they are merely a token, while a great deal of footage is devoted to the catch in g and landing on the sh ip ’s deck of tuna, doom ed to the can.

There are certain sim ilarities in the film s. Both are derived from book s by the South A ustralian author Colin Thiele; both have scripts by Sonia Borg; both have as star, or at least as chief attraction, young Greg Rowe (now thirteen); and in both film s the them e explores a difficult relationship betw een a son and his father.

It could be added that both film s are beautifully photograp hed in beautiful wild bits of the South A ustralian coast.

The difference betw een the two is a m atter of tone, w hich may indeed be a m atter of direction. B lue Fin lack s the mystery, the su ggestion of a closed society, of Storm Boy. It is really a sim plistic rather than sim ple story, and there’s the rub. The people in it are m aking a living in a way they choose, so one cannot elect them

heroes. W hen one of their lot is in trouble, everybody rallies bu t this is no m ore than what hap p en s in, say, the cheese factory.

The m ost effective scene occurs when Snook (G reg Rowe) is tipped into the night-dark sea when another tuna boat, the D og Star, (D og Star pays for this by being burned at sea) sw ings in too close to Blue Fin. A crew m an, Sn ook’s sister’s boy friend Sam , goes in after him . For quite a while there is no sound but voices calling in the dark. T he waves are quiet, the wind has dropped. It is very eerie and the expectation is of a lurking shark, at the very least.

Som e very clever things have been done to m ake a m ost realistic near-shipw reck caused by a m ost unrealistic “ w ater­ sp out” . Snook survives this and in a series of events that are distinctly gee-w hiz — he pum ps the water out of the boat, stops am m onia leak in g from the freezer, m akes him self a dish of cold tinned peas topp ed up with m arm alade, finds the first aid box and gets a ban d aid for his his dad who needs rather m ore, having had his leg broken in the upheaval and suffered contusion s and abrasions to the face, as police reports say. Snook then gets the

engines going and, with a m akeshift tiller, heads for hom e. Snook and his dad, played by the cuddly G erm an actor Hardy K ruger {Sundays and Cybele, and lots of film s in deserts, ju n gles and the G erm an army) arrive back to find the inh abitants of Streaky Bay m assed on the wharf, cheering them in. A nd not a word about the rest of the six m an crew, lost at sea.

Hardy K ruger is quite effective as gruff daddy; E lspeth B allantyne plays his wife with ingenu ous charm , and John Jarratt m akes a very app ealing Sam . T he m usical score is by M ichael Carlos, photography directed by G eoffrey Burton, direction by Carl Schultz, M att Carroll is executive producer and the producer is H al M cElroy.

Greg Rowe is talen ted and app ealing and I can see the film doing well, playing to children in A ustralia and worldwide.

But it will not bring in any adults, as Storm Boy did. A n d though I suppose it is a noble deed to catch a big shiny fish while it is on a feed in g ram page and cut it into little chun ks and shove it in a can, such an operation lacks m agic, a fact that may be reflected at the b ox office.

THÉÂTRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

47

Roger Coveil

Records

Art of the recorder and Boccanegra

R ecordings entitled The Virtuoso R e ­ corder o f The A rt o f the Recorder are norm ally very akin to the kind of recital program m e that m ight be put together by a brilliant soloist on this ancient and sim ple instrum ent, revived with such outstand in g su ccess in our century. Such anthologies are certain to represent several periods of m usical history, but they generally do so in a quite unsystem atic way.

The im m ed iately striking characteristic of the tw o-disc set assem b led by the late D avid M unrow, som e of his fellow recorder players and m em bers of his Early M usic C onsort of London [HMV, reissued W orld R ecord Club R .03082-3] is that it is a genuine attem p t to represent all the principal periods and styles of recorder playing. M unrow begins with an oftenrecorded E nglish dance of the 13th century which he plays on a six-holed pipe approxim ating to one of the m edieval ancestors of the renaissance recorder. He follow s that up with a 14th century Italian saltarello. T his saltarello has been record­ ed m any tim es, som etim es quite bril­ liantly, but never as brilliantly as it is by M unrow. He adds to the surviving version of this dance tune dazzling im provised variations in w hat is known of the style of the period. N ext com es the earliest known pu blished piece of m usic actually desig­ nated for recorder. The date may seem surprisingly late: 1529; but the existen ce of m ost ren aissance instrum ents antedated by m any years any m usic specifically scored for them .

Listeners who regard the recorder merely as a toy or as a c h ild ’s instrum ent 48

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

m ust find it surprising to learn how m any d istin guished and perhaps unexp ected people have shared this affectionate regard for the recorder. Benjam in Britten was a keen supporter of the recorder club in A ldeburgh. T he Scherzo he wrote in 1955 for som e of his fellow players in this group is one of the well chosen pieces which represent 20th century com position for the recorder in this set. H indem ith wrote a trio in 1932 w hich seem s to have been the first piece written by an im portant 20th century com poser for the then recently revived instrum ent. H in dem ith took part in the first perform ance. T his trio is represented in The A rt o f the Recorder, as d em on s­ trated by M unrow and his colleagues.

An A ustralian piece also finds its way into this select com pany: Nigel Butterley’s The W hite T hroated W arbler, a bird piece using serial tech nique which he wrote for Carl D olm etsch and Joseph Saxby during their A ustralian tour in 1965. It has worn the intervening thirteen years well and seem s likely to hold its place as one of the best pieces written in m odern tim es for this instrum ent. Peter D ic k in so n ’s Recorder M usic is an interesting recent (1973) representative of a genre of recent com position in w hich pre-taped playing is com bined with its perform er’s playing in real tim e.

Betw een the earliest pieces — and M unrow usually provides convincing reasons for appropriating them for his purposes — and these 20th century com positions the set takes in its stride chansons, dance pieces and a fantasy from the renaissance, P u rcell’s sublim e and still occasionally startling Fantasia: three p a rts upon a G round (which the late T hurston Dart convincingly deduced was originally m eant for three treble recorders with continuo), concertos by Vivaldi and John Baston and a w hole range of baroque pieces in w hich the recorder (usually, but not always, a treble) is em ployed for obbligato pu rp oses. H andel, Bach and Arne are the com posers principally repre­ sented here; and its is certain that this side will be for m ost listeners am ong the m ost frequently played section s of the set.

Norm a Burrowes sings the aria from Cantata 208, usually translated as Sheep M ay Safely Graze, w hich is more often heard in one of a series of arrangm ents than in its original form for soprano, two treble recorders and continuo. Richard Lloyd, Jam es B ow m an and M artyn H ill are the able singers em ployed in several pieces in this section .

It goes w ithout saying — but I’d better m ention it all the sam e — that M unrow and his collaborators used original instrum ents or instrum ents deliberately patterned after surviving instrum ents (string as well as wind and continuo and that M unrow em ployed instrum ents which m ake a clear distin ction betw een the

characteristic qu alities of the renaissance recorder and its differently sh aped baroque su ccessor. T he baroque recorder is the one that has been m ost widely revived and is usually the form of the instrum ent available in cheaper plastic m odels. T he ren aissance recorder is less good at playing high notes and has a more restricted range but com pensates for this with a stronger tone in its lower register.

T his is a thoroughly recom m en dable set which in clu d es som e of the best recorder playing ever put on disc.

V erdi’s Sim on Boccanegra will be back in the A u stralian O pera’s repertory in its 1979 season . It will be interesting to see whether som e changes of casting endow this p rodu ction with the im pact that V erd i’s m usic deserves. The piece is notoriously dark in colour — excessively gloom y, as som e listeners com plain — bu t anyone w ho has seen a perform ance of it with first-class singers in each of the m ain roles and w ith a condu ctor of a high order to bring it all together knows that the opera can then seem not merely one of V erd i’s interesting partial su ccesses but a com plete m asterp iece. The standard H M V recording of recent years had the benefit of Tito G o b b i’s perform ance in the title role, som e m oving p assages in the singing of V ictoria de los A n geles and som e sonorous singing by Boris C hristoff as F iesco. It originally app eared in m ono and was later reprocessed electronically to give a stereo effect. T h ou gh G o b b i’s perform ance in particular will always be a m usicaldram atic pleasure for one interpretation of the title role I feel that the set as a whole has been su persed ed decisively by the recent recording con d u cted by C laudio A b bad o w ith La Scala forces (D G G 2740 169; 3 discs]. A b bad o on alm ost every page of the score estab lish es more vivid dynam ics and m ore eloq uent phrasing, than Santini did on the older set. Piero C appuccilli is far m ore involved and interesting as Sim on than he has been in som e other recent parts. M irella Freni is a lovely A m elia in s'ound and in general recorded presence, Jose Carreras is an energetic and involved G abriele and the other bass and baritone roles are in the sure han ds of N icolai G hiautov, José van D am and G iovan ni F oiani. A bbado exer­ cises his m asterfu l influence on every role and every asp ect of the orchestral and choral perform ance; and the quality of the sound is adm irable in every way. T his is the set w ith w hich to get to know the opera. P lease rem em ber, however, when you see and hear the A ustralian O p era’s 1979 perform ances that not m any theatre produ ctions of the work are as consistently well cast as this recording. La Scala is one of the few h ou ses in w hich a listener may hope to hear singin g of as uniform ly high standard as this, inform ed and governed, by thoroughly V erdian conducting.

Books

John McCallum

Australian Theatre and Drama

The cover of Leslie Rees’ Australian Drama in the I970’s (A & R. rrb $9.95) shows Tony Sheldon as Ivan in Louis Nowra’s Inner Voices.

That this exciting play, first produced at Nimrod nearly two years ago, gets barely four lines of comment inside is a sign of the presumption in publishing the book as A History o f Australian Drama Volume 2. A few lists of plays as appendices do not turn this rambling series of plot summaries and personal reactions into the “historical and critical survey”, which the title page boasts.

The neglect of Louis Nowra is not due to any lack of thoroughness on Rees’ part. It is simply that the book restricts itself to a particular view of “new wave" drama — beginning in the late 60’s and developing in the early 70’s, exploring Australian life and character in a special, selfconscious way. If this was all there was to Australian drama two years ago, it is not now, and although one doesn’t expect Rees to be able to be completely up-to-date in a book which has to go through the lengthy process of publication,

preoccupation with the ANC which leads him to minimise the huge stylistic differences, and concentrate on what the plays are ostensibly about.

A self-conscious Australianness is a large part of the “new wave”, so Rees is an emminently qualified commentator. But his survey of plays, with chapters on different playwrights, ignores links and influences and does little to justify the claim that this was in any sense a “wave” of its own. He has chapters on “How the ‘New Wave’ Began” and the “Social-Cultural Background” followed by chapters on Jack Hibberd. John Romeril and the APG, Alex Buzo, the historical plays, David Williamson, female writers, Jim McNeil, Barry Oakley, Peter Kenna (supported by various odds and ends) and a concluding section. Other critics have tried to order the material — arguing, for example, that there are two distinct lines of development: the ‘naturalistic’ plays of sex and family life and the rough, comic vaudevillian tradition. Rees attempts little such explanation of his subject.

The result is a smorgasbord of isolated points about isolated plays and playwrights.

This would not matter were it not that Rees’ is as yet the only book on recent Australian playwrighting. When other studies appear, to balance the view Rees presents, his will take its rightful and valuable place as an account of one theatre-lover’s progress through the exciting theatrical times of the early 70’s.

in Australia). Obviously it cannot hope to be completely comprehensive, nor is it intended as a critical or scholarly reference work.

Considering that, it is remarkably detached, and for the periods 1 can comment on, substantially accurate, although 1 have heard doubts expressed. West has a modest disclaimer, “This book should be read with every other book already published about theatre in this country, and with the volumes yet to follow from other, and conceivably abler, hands. If anything in the following pages strikes you as being particularly interesting, it is a fairly safe bet that somebody told it to me.”

Unlike Rees' book, this is one of many, of course, but it is by far the most comprehensive and for the general reader the best. The style is anecdotal and slightly breathless. At times the names and dates proliferate so rapidly, that you find yourself wondering where you are, and having to turn back. The book has the best collection of pictures from theatres, etc, available in Australia.

perhaps he should have waited a little longer.

Within these limitations the book is fairly thorough, as a survey of plays, if not as an historical study. It is also highly personal, even idiosyncratic. Barry Oakley and Jim McNeil are given chapters of their own, while Boddy & Ellis, Kenneth Cook, Bill Reed, Ray Lawler (for Albatross), Thomas Keneally and Ron Blair are lumped together under the rather strained principle that they all are concerned with Australian history or biography, and exploring the origins of that Snark-like entity the Australian National Character. It is Rees’

A much more satisfying book is John West’s

Theatre in Australia (Cassell, rrp $19.95). It is a pity this did not reach us in time for the Christmas edition. It is a beautifully produced book, splendidly illustrated, which takes as its subject nothing less than the entire history of Australian theatre. (It is published as a comparison to John Cargher’s Opera and Ballet THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

49

THEATRE OPERA DANCE

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE (212 3411)

Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn; Director, BUNRATTY CASTLE (51-2111) Irish Theatre Restaurant.

Wednesday to Saturday.

CANBERRA THEATRE (49-7600) Canberra Theatre Trust in Association with Canberra Opera and Canberra Philharmonic Society.

HMS Pinafore by W S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Director, Brian Crossley; Musical Director, Don Whitbread; Guest artists, June Bronhill, Denis Olsen.

12 to 26 Jan (except Sundays)

Mike Jackson — folk singer; at The Festival of

Brecht Double Bill: Cities and Sharks and Acting Exercises by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Ralph Wilson. Director, Ralph Wilson. Late Jan to early Feb. THEATRE 3 (47-4222) Canberra Repertory

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Michael

KIRRIB1LLI PUB THEATRE (92^1415) Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point.

The Over the Rainbow Show by Rick Maier and Malcolm Frawley; Director, Malcolm Frawley; with Paul Chubb, Laura Gabriel, Richmond Young, Susan Asquith, Steven Sacks.

Throughout Jan. LES CURRIE PRESENTATIONS (358 5676)

CHILDERS STREET HALL Australian Theatre Workshop

Shakespeare; Director, Opens 31 Jan.

Peter Williams; with Ruth Cracknell, Barry Creyton, Carmen Duncan, Kate Fitzpatrick, Ron Haddrick, Shane Porteous, Peter Rowley, and Jacki Weaver. Throughout Jan.

Lanchbery.

For entries contact Marguerite Wells on 49-3192.

N EW S O U TH W A LE S

Sydney.

MARIONETTE THEATRE OF AUSTRALIA (357-1200) At the Drama Theatre, Opera House: The Mysterious Potamus. 9-27 Jan. MUSIC HALL THEATRE RESTAURANT (909-8222) Crushed by Desire, written and directed by Michael Boddy. Throughout Jan.

ARTS COUNCIL OF NEW SOUTH WALES (357-6611) Summer schools throughout Jan. Call Arts Council for further details.

AUSTRALIAN OPERA (20588) Opera Theatre: Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten.

10,13,16,17,20,27 and 30 Jan. Concert Hall: Fidelio by Beethoven.

13,15,18,20,23,27,29 and 31 st Jan. Concert Hall: Stars o f the Bolshoi Opera — leading Soviet artists will feature in excerpts from famous Russian operas. 22,24,26 and 30 Jan. ENSEMBLE THEATRE (929-8877) At the Stables: Festival of Sydney Playwrights.

How Sleep the Brave by Phillip Mann; Director, Stanley Walsh. 2-7 Jan. Syndrome by Ken Hayles; Director, Tony Ingersent. 9-14 Jan.

Dancing Partners & Animal-Vegetable-Mineral

by Graeme Nixon; Director, Fred Simms.

16-21 Jan. Demand by Derek Mortimer; Director, Gary Baxter. 23-28 Jan. FRANK STRAINS BULL 'N BUSH THEATRE RESTAURANT (357-4627) Magic o f Yesterday with Noel Brophy, Keith Bowell, Julie Fullerton, Neil Bryant and Alan Norman; Director, Frank Strain; Choreography, George Carden. (Continuing).

GENESIAN THEATRE (827-3023)

The Happiest Days o f Your Life by John Dighton; Director, Nan Frew. Throughout Jan. 50

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

STATE THEATRE COMPANY INTERIM PROGRAMME (699-9322) At the Opera House: The Cheery Soul by Patrick White; Director, Jim Sharman; with Robyn Nevin. From 17 Jan. SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (20588) Exhibition Hall: Enchanted Kingdom, an exhibition of children’s historical antique books and toys. To 29 Jan. THEATRE ROYAL (231-6111) The Bed Before Yesterday a Ben Travers farce; Director, Lindsay Anderson; starring Rachel Roberts. From 17 Jan.

For entries please contact Candy Baker on 357-1200.

Q U E E N S LA N D ARTS THEATRE (36-2344)

Lovers and Other Strangers by Renee Taylor MUSIC LOFT THEATRE (977-6585)

Encore, a musical revue starring the Toppano family and Lee Young. Throughout Jan.

ACTORS COMPANY (60-2503) Cabaret by Mastroff, Kander and Ebb. With Anne Phelan; Director, Steve Agnew.

Throughout Jan.

SUMMER TIME YOUTH CENTRE (20588) 2 week course Mon - Fri, 10-5 daily at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Workshops with dance, music, mime and improvisation.

NEW THEATRE (519-3403) Reedy River, the Australian musical by Dick Diamond; Director, Frank Barnes and part of the Sydney Festival. Throughout Jan. NIMROD THEATRE (699-5003) Upstairs: Jumpers by Tom Stoppard; with John Gaden, Geraldine Turner, George Whaley, Barry Lovett, Walter Tym and Mary Hare; Director, Ken Horler. To 21 Jan. Makassar R eef by Australian playwright Alex Buzo; Director, Ken Horler. From 25 Jan. Downstairs: Gone With Hardy by David Allen; with Kerry Walker, Henry Szeps and Drew Forsyth; Director, Richard Wherrett. Throughout Jan. Q THEATRE, PENRITH (047-21-5735) Old King Cole by Ken Campbell; Director, Kevin Jackson. 3-20 Jan, Penrith. 22-27 Jan, Bankstown. Mon - Sat: 2 shows a day, 11.00 am and 2.00 pm.

ROCKS PLAYERS (398-4405) At the Orient Hotel: Strap me Vitals, adaptations of 18th century burlesque comedy. Part of Festival of Sydney.

Director, David Cisek. Wed - Sat, 8.15 pm. 3-30 Jan. At the Clown Restaurant: Impromptu fo r Leisure, restaurant theatre at Potts Point. A piece of social satire. Part of Festival of Sydney. Fri & Sat at 11.00 pm.

Throughout Jan. SEYMOUR CENTRE (692-0555) York Theatre:

The Thoughts o f Chairman A If Warren Mitchell’s one man shcfw. 9-27 Jan. Downstairs: Statements by Athol Fugard; with Olive Bodill and Anthony Wheeler; Director, Anthony Wheeler. From 15 Jan.

and Joseph Bologna; Director, Ken Kennett.

The Three Billy Goats G ru ff — a Jason Savage production. 2 Jan to 20 Jan, 10.15 am and 2.00 pm.

BRISBANE ACTORS COMPANY at the CONSERVATORIUM THEATRE (349-1879) The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau; Director, Bruce Parr; with Jennifer Flowers.

Madame’s Late Mother by George Feydeau; Director, David Clendinning; with David Clendinning and Jennifer Flowers. To 20 Jan.

For entries contact Don Batchelor on 269-3018.

SO U TH A U S T R A L IA Q THEATRE (223-5651) Billy Liar by Waterhouse and Hall; Director, Bill O’Day. Fris and Sats 29 Dec - 27 Jan.

For entries contact Chris Johns on 223-8610.

V IC T O R IA ALEXANDER THEATRE (543-2828)

Peter Pan. Children's holiday show. Director, Marie Cuminsky. 10 am and 2 pm Mon - Fri; Sat mat 2 pm. To 27 Jan. ARENA CHILDREN’S THEATRE (24-9667) Contact theatre for details of special holiday activities.

AUSTRALIAN PERFORMING GROUP (347-7133) Pram Factory. To be announced.

COMEDY THEATRE (663-4993) The Kingfisher by William Douglas Home.

Starring Googie Withers, John McCallum, Frank Hiring; Director, George Ogilvie.

CREATIVE ARTS THEATRE (870-6742) Community based theatre working in schools, libraries and community centres. Touring TIE team.

W E S TE R N A U S T R A L IA

FLYING TRAPEZE CAFE (41-3727)

X-Ray Vision. Starring Alan Pentland, Stephen Vizard, Ruth Scheenheimer. Also special 5th year celebrations. Late show, with John Hepworth and John Hindle and other surprise artists.

HOOPLA THEATRE FOUNDATION (63-7643) To be announced.

CIVIC THEATRE RESTAURANT (272-1595) Five Past 79. Director, Hal Davies. From 5 Jan. HOLE IN THE WALL (381-2403)

No Way. A revue; Director, Edgar Metcalfe.

From 3 Jan.

HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE (663 321 1) Annie. Starring Hayes Gordon, Jill Perryman; Directors, George and Ethel Martin.

LAST LAUGH THEATRE RESTAURANT (419-6226)

L O Sloan’s Three Black and Three White Refined Jubilee Minstrels.

MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY (645-4000) Russell Street: Once a Catholic by Mary O’Malley; Director, Ray Lawler; with Vivien Davies, Christine Amor, Katy Wild, Marion Edward, Jennifer West, Judith McGrath, Robert Essex, Matthew King, David Letch. To 20 Jan. Bodies by James Saunders; Director, Bruce Myles. From 23 Jan. Athenaeum: Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring; Director, Simon Chilvers. To 27 Jan. Journey's End by R C Sherriff; Director, Mick Rodger. From 30 Jan. Tributary Productions: new workshop season to be announced.

WA ARTS COUNCIL Touring Programme: Her Majesty’s Scots Guards Regimental Pipes, Drums and Military Band. South West towns 27-30 Jan. WA Ballet Company. South West towns 19-27 Jan.

For entries contact Joan Ambrose on 299-6639.

PILGRIM PUPPET THEATRE (818-6650)

JANUARY 1979

a

THEATRE AUSTRALIA WISH ALL OUR READERS A

Brown.

Peter Pan written and directed by Graeme Bent.

THE FESTIVAL OF SYDNEY

m

MIXED COMPANY (24-9667) Arena Theatre: You’re A Good Man Charlie Palais Theatre (94-0655) Grand Adventure puppet show. 10 am and 2 pm daily.

VISIT

HAPPY

At

PROSPEROUS 1979

10.15 and 2.00 Tues to Fri, 2.00 Sat. POLYGLOT PUPPETS (8181512) Multi-cultural puppet theatre with Mogg the Cat and friends. Touring school and community centres.

PRINCESS THEATRE (662-2911) Sleeping Beauty on Ice. To early Feb. STAGE DOOR THEATRE RESTAURANT TENT SHOW, Batman Avenue (663-4993) The Flintstones on Parade. To 8 Feb. TIKKI AND JOHN’S THEATRE LOUNGE (663-1745) Tikki and John Newman, Myrtle Roberts, Vic Gordon and guest artists.

A m ateur C o m p an ies: HEIDELBERG REPERTORY (49-2262) MALVERN THEATRE CO (211-0020) PUMPKIN THEATRE, Richmond (42-8237) 1812 THEATRE, Ferntree Gully (796-8624)

contact

Les

Cartwright

______ B A U S TR A LIA C O U N C IL

Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major.

For entries 781-1777.

C8

on

T A S M A N IA TASMANIAN PUPPET THEATRE (23-7996) International Puppet Festival 1-7 Jan. Company in rehearsal for the rest of Jan. THEATRE ROYAL (34-6266) International Puppet Festival 1-4 Jan. New York Dance Quintet in double bill with Bullshot Crummond. 5-14 Jan.

For entries contact the editorial office on (049)67-4470.

Theatre Board Grants, 1979: DANCE, DRAMA, PUPPETRY, MIME The Theatre Board has limited funds available for projects in 1979, and invites applications in the following categories: Development: for companies, groups or individuals for special projects.

Training: for professional companies for basic and advanced training programs within Australia.

Regional Theatre: programs submitted must have both local and State government financial support.

Limited Life: for leading professional artists, temporarily brought together, to undertake innovative theatre performances or development activity.

Maximum period two years; non-renewable.

Travel/Study: for full-time professional theatre personnel for work or study programs unavailable in Australia. Maximum $2,000 per grant.

Drama DirectorsVTheatre Designers' Development: for directors or designers of proven potential for personal development programs within Australia.

For details and application forms contact: The Secretary, Theatre Board, Australia Council, P.O. Box 302, NORTH SYDNEY, NSW 2060.

Tel.: (02) 922 2122.

Closing date: 15 February, 1979. Decision advised by 30 April, 1979.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979

51

(Continued from page 2)

C O M M EN T Australia^ magazine of the perfoimingarts

and at worst intruders”, a point which when coupled with the letter-box stage, oppressive ceiling and small number of seats in the Drama Theatre, make it far from an ideal venue. Most people grudgingly accept its use as a necessary political evil, but such crippling inadequacies cannot be so easily overlooked.

A major factor in Nimrod’s success is the intimate and immediate actor-audience relationship of both its spaces, allowing an instant coupling of the electrical “theatrical circuit”. Whatever the difficulties about the terms of the bequest, the Seymour Centre would surely make a much better set-up — and its rent

Ilie a lre A ustralia

could hardly be more than the reputed $!4 million for the Drama Theatre. Showcase pro­ ductions, as scheduled for most of 1979, with commercial shows interspered, could maintain the financial and artistic viability of Bennelong, whilst use of the Seymour Centre would allow the consolidation of a State Company under a single roof, so vital to its success.

With three very different auditoria immediately available, all possible requirements for the forseeable future would be met from the word go. An experimental studio, already seen as a necessary facility, would be on site. The alternative situation of offices and two theatres being in three different places is intolerable, wasteful and counter-productive.

A strong man is needed to fight these very battles, a man who can build cohesion from diversity, a man who inspires both loyalty and inspiration in artists, and a man who has the proven ability to make a theatre company that has excellence and flair. John Bell could be the man for the job.

THESPIA’S PRIZE CROSSWORD No.7 N a m e ..................................................................................

Address ..............................................................................

Across: I. Comparison like me in a grin (6) 4. Notes about sick Edward, he’s boneless (8) 9. To get there one leaves the Riviera in a shambles (

N ext Month Reviews: Opera, Theatre, Ballet, Film, and lots more.

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Henry Lawson’s ^ Bookshop 127 York Street, Sydney. (half a block from Town Hall)

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by Ross Thorne. $2.95.

Bank drafts in Australian currency should be forwarded to Theatre Publications Ltd., 80 Elizabeth Street, Mayfield, N.S.W. 2304, Australia.

6)

10. Like 6, but used for gravy? (8) II. Williamson’s tradesmen (3,11) 13. Phones little Albert to get weapons and gives the alert(5,5) 14. Good man, in first class form for some bubbly (4) 16. Snakes, according to postscript (4) 18. The PM is changing — go north, Jon! (4,6) 21. Learn hand joust differently for diva (4,10) 23. In such object nothing is restful (8) 24. Head of the union abandons the resurrected for lepers (6) 25. Southern deshabille in a summer frock (8) 26. Novice enters the teams and slips (6).

Down: 1. “This castle hath a pleasant...” (Macbeth) (4) 2. Third month will take place, much to Joh’s chagrin (5,2) 3. Fifty four join a crazy county and become peevish (8) 5. Disrespect the quality of not being a vicar? (6) 6. The poet has us sitting in the lounge (6) 7. Trish embraces the street willy-nilly and wants some 14 (7) 8. Assimilation of on site dig (9) 12. Shore PM atop the tepees causes disgruntle people (11) 15. Method of checking attendance sounds like th cry of a bun (4,4) 17. Military division given by philosopher above (7) 19. Dark ant mad for drink (7) 20. Is French female a Bibly lady? (6) 22. Empoys in fungus estimation (4).

The first correct entry drawn on January 25th will receive one year’s free subscription to TA.

Last month’s answers.

Last month’s winner was Hugh Taylor of The Gap, Old.

L 52

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JANUARY 1979