PORN.CAKE APRIL 15 - MAY 8 2011
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Malthouse Theatre presents
PORN.CAKE .....
By Vanessa Bates Director Pamela Rabe Set & Costume Designer Christina Smith Lighting Designer Rachel Burke Sound Designer Darrin Verhagen Performed by Heather Bolton Luke Elliot Travis McMahon Christen O’Leary Stage Manager Eva Tandy Assistant Stage Manager Chloe Greaves Lighting Operator Michele Bauer Movement Consultant Leisa Shelton Besen Family Artist Program (Lighting Design) Rose Connors Dance Set & props contructed by Malthouse Theatre Workshop Costumes created by Malthouse Theatre Wardrobe Porn.Cake was originally developed by Playwriting Australia’s National Script Workshop, and opened in the Beckett Theatre, The CUB Malthouse on 20 April, 2011
BECKETT THEATRE, APRIL 15 – MAY 8 2011
AND THEN THERE WERE THE CAKES.
..... Remember a few years back when everyone was working out their Porn Star name? You had to use the name of your childhood pet as your first name and then your mother’s maiden name* as your second. This meant whatever you ended up with seemed to evoke childhood: bottled milk perhaps, fairy bread and fluffybunnykitteny cuteness combined with the memory of a woman who cuddled you and sometimes sent you to the naughty chair. Weird. And sort of disturbing really. Yet, often, so apt. This play began as an exploration of the relationship between four characters - two male and two female. I soon discovered that Man A had an accident with his tongue and Woman A was very angry, that Woman B had seen a fairy or maybe was just being wishful and that Man B had a distinct and quite fond recollection of chalk-white dog turds. I had gone to a couple of reunions and met up with people I hadn’t seen for over twenty years, and that made me think about relationships, and aging and nostalgia and also the way we write and rewrite history for ourselves, not big things necessarily – often they were just small and seemingly banal moments. And then there were the cakes.
I don’t know when cake suddenly gained such currency but it did and it has. Around the time when people began feeling less safe, and more nostalgic and more alone than ever, it seemed there was a correlation with cakes and cake-making and surely the rise of Nigella and Jamie is connected to all this greedy/scary angst. Make it at home because it’s yummier and much better for you and you won’t catch anything and you won’t have to go out and mingle with people who might be…well…unpleasant. And ditto for porn. One moment, one dinner party, one cake - things you felt or thought or said in that moment, and how they resonated back over and over in a multitude of variations and for years or perhaps in just one night of dreaming. When exactly was the happiest moment of your life and were you even awake when you had it? Is it even a memory or just a creeping realization? It has been an amazing experience watching this play blossom and unfurl in the creative arms of the Malthouse Theatre cast and crew. I feel incredibly lucky. Thank you.
VANESSA BATES (aka Pickles Danguilan)
*A quick poll of Malthouse Theatre staff members and Facebook friends reveals that quite a lot of people believe the second name should come from the first street you lived in. But I think they’re wrong.
VANESSA BATES WRITER Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake. Other theatre: Vitalstatistix/Belvoir B Sharp/ Deckchair Theatre/ Theatre@Risk: Checklist for an Armed Robber. ATYP: (Tell It Like It Isn’t) First Light. Griffin Theatre: Hunger. New Theatre: Homemade. Tales From the 428: Confetti. Tantrum Theatre: Match. Shopfront Theatre: Live By The Die. STC/Black Swan Theatre: Darling Oscar. Television: Rush, East West101. Documentaries: Good Neighbours (900 Neighbours). Radio Dramas: ABC Radio National: The Elephant’s Ark, Mincemeat, To Fly In The Night Air, A Little Bit Each Night. Film: Pop’s Dream, The Honeyeaters. Books: Legs Up & Laughing. Award Nominations/Shortlists: 2011 Griffin Award (Porn.Cake). 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. 2005 Griffin Award. 2005 ANPC/New Dramatists Award (Checklist for an Armed Robber). 2007 AWGIE (Good Neighbours (900 Neighbours)). STC/Patrick White Playwrights Award (a little bit each night). Awards: AWGIE Radio Adaptation (Checklist For An Armed Robber). 2009 Inscription Chairman’s Award (Every Second). 2007 CONDA Award (Match). 2006 Inscription Award (Lakes of Death and Dreamers). Recipient of Varuna playwrights residency. Recipient of Australia Council Keesing Studio residency in Paris. Training: NIDA Playwrights Studio graduate. Other: Member of 7-ON Playwrights’ Company. HEATHER BOLTON BELLA Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake. Playbox Theatre: Ruby Moon, Salt, Blak Inside, Good Works, Miracles. Other theatre: MTC: Into The Woods, Assassins, A Chorus of Disapproval. MIAF/Storeroom: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Ranters Theatre: The Wall, Affection, Roulette, St Kilda Tales. Ariette Taylor: The Lower Depths. Downstage Theatre: Boston Marriage. Norpa: The Flood. The Production Company: Little Me. SATC: King Golgrutha, Jonah, Cabaret, Shadow and Splendour. As Director: MTC: The Dream Life of Butterflies. Television: Rush III, Monash, Stingers, MDA. Film: Mr Wrong, Evil Angels, Angel Baby, Saved, The Tragedy of
Hamlet Prince of Denmark. RACHEL BURKE LIGHTING DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Black Medea (with Belvoir), Cargo, Woman Bomb, Parramatta Girls (with Belvoir) Moth (with Arena Theatre Company). Playbox Theatre: Wolf, Glass Mermaid, Good Works, The Incorruptible, Night Fall, Rapture. Other theatre includes: The Australian Ballet: Dark Lullaby, Southern Lights Triple Bill, Molto Vivace, Ballet Imperial and Scuola di Ballo. MTC: True West, Coup D’Etat, The Man from Mukinupin. Angus Cerini: Saving Henry V5, Chapters from the Pandemic, Save for Crying. Short Black Productions: Pecan Summer. Luminous: Night Season, Hellbent, A Man For All Seasons. Award Nominations: 2005 Helpmann Award and Sydney Theatre Award (Black Medea). Awards: Green Room Awards for Lighting Design 1994, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2007 & 2010, Architectural IES National and State Award of Excellence 2005, Hamer Hall 2010, AAMI Park Stadium (with Electrolight). LUKE ELLIOT BILL Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake. Playbox Theatre: This Way Up, Remember Ronald Ryan, St Kilda Tales (with Ranters Theatre). Other theatre: MTC: All My Sons, Man The Ballon, Death of a Salesman, Macbeth. Arena Theatre Company: Game Girl. Hothouse Theatre: The Trade. Chamber Made Opera: Crossing Live, The Two Executioners. fortyfive downstairs: Traitors, Lower Depths. MWT: Front. La Mama: Ian, Brittanicus, In the Belly of the Whale, Party In Fitzroy. Ranters Theatre/La Mama: The Large Breast of the Upside Down Bell. Red Stitch: The American Pilot. Salamanca Theatre: The Tank. Theatreworks: Lonesome West. Adelaide Fringe Festival: Slamdunk. Television: Rush, Satisfation, Stiff, Crashburn, MDA, Blue Heelers, Stingers, Eugene Sandler PI, Halifax, State Coroner, Correlli, Law of the Land, Phoenix II, House Rules, Mercury. Film: Wreckyard, The Love Song of Iskra Prufrock, Noise, Dugong, Do You Love Me - Little Deaths, Roy
Hollsdotter Live, Trapped, Waiting at the Royal, Bare, Red Ball, Road to Nhill, Life, The Big Steal, Holidays on the River Yarra. Awards: 1999 Green Room Award Award for Outstanding Male Performer (Party In Fitzroy). 2008 Green Room Award for Outstanding Male Performer (Crossing Live). 2008 St Kilda Film Festival Award for Best Actor (Dugong), 1994 Radio National Best Group Performance in the Melbourne Fringe Festival (The Eye of Martha Needle), 1995 Radio National Best Drama in the Melbourne Fringe Festival (In The Belly of the Whale). Training: Victorian College of the Arts – Diploma of Performing Arts (Acting). CHLOE GREAVES ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake. As Wardrobe Assistant: Baal, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Threepenny Opera, Elizabeth, Furious Mattress, One Night The Moon. As Dresser: Kafka’s Monkey. Other theatre: Four Larks Theatre: As Costume Designer/Stage Manager: Alice in Wonderland, Master and Margarita, Lady Franklin’s Lament Film: As Costume Designer: CopHard.tv. Award Nominations: 2010 Green Room Award for Independent Theatre Design for Costume (Lady Franklin’s Lament). Awards: 2008 PROWD Best Theatrical Design Award (The Sound of Wire), 2008 Orloff Family Trust Scholarship, Four Larks Theatre. Training: Victorian College of the Arts (Production). TRAVIS MCMAHON ANT Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake. Other theatre: MTC: Don’s Party, Trelawny of the Wells, Kid Stakes, Away, A Single Act. STC: A Man With Five Children. Belvoir: Cloudstreet. NIDA: No Names No Packdrill. Mollisons: Alone As It Stands. HIT Productions: Speaking in Tongues. Tamarama Rock Surfers: An Unseasonable Fall of Snow. Television: Rush, Last Man Standing, Through My Eyes, Stingers, Good Guys Bad Guys, Halifax F.P., Blue Heelers, Fatcow Motel, All Saints, Changi. Film: Birthday, I Love You Too, Swerve, Roadman, Hobby Farm, Cactus, Kokoda, Shot of Love.
Award Nominations: 2001 AFI Award for Best Actor in A Guest Role (Stingers), 2008 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play (Don’s Party). Training: NIDA. CHRISTEN O’LEARY ANNIE Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd (with Arena Theatre Company). Playbox Theatre: Ruby Moon, The Goldberg Variations, Tears From A Glass Eye. Other theatre: MTC: Ruby Moon, Don Juan in Soho, Company, The World’s Wife, Hinterland, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Man the Balloon, A Little Night Music, The Comedy of Errors, The Rover, Assasins, Cosi, Wednesday to Come, Gift of the Gorgon. STC/MTC: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Urinetown. STC: The Threepenny Opera. The Production Company: The Boy From Oz, High Society, Hello Dolly. QTC: The Woman Before, The Sunshine Club, The Threepenny Opera, The Beaux Strategem, Fuente Ovejuna, The Marriage of Figaro, Seven Little Australians, The Cherry Orchard, The Game of Love and Chance, The Crucible, A Month in the Country, Gilgamesh. 11th Hour Theatre Company: The Wilde Project. Hit Productions: Girl Talk. Keene/Taylor Theatre: Beneath Heaven Project. Television: Neighbours, Blue Heelers, MDA, Worst Best Friends, Crashburn, Seachange, State Coroner, Raw FM. Film: Pinch Me. Award Nominations: Five Green Room Award and two Helpmann Award nominations. Awards: 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Green Room Award for Best Female Artist in a Featured Role: 2000 (Company), 1997 (A Little Night Music.) Training: Diploma Of Arts (Creative), University Of Southern Queensland.
PAMELA RABE DIRECTOR Malthouse Theatre: As Director: Porn.Cake. As Actor: Woman Bomb. Other Theatre: As Director: STC: In The Next Room or the vibrator play, Elling, The Serpents Teeth – Citizens. As Actor: MTC: Over 30 productions including, most recently: Boston Marriage, God of Carnage. STC as founding member of the Actors Company (2006-2009): The War of the Roses, The Serpents Teeth – Soldiers, Gallipoli, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Art of War, Season at Sarsparilla, Le Bourgeois Gentleman, The Lost Echo, Mother Courage and Her Children. Other STC productions include: The Cherry Orchard, Holy Day, Salt, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Belvoir: The Little Cherry Orchard, Gertrude Stein and a Companion, A Room of One’s Own. fortyfive downstairs: Do Not Go Gentle. Megafun: Berggasse 19. SEL/GFO/Macks Entertainment: The Wizard of Oz. MTC/ Macksent: A Little Night Music. The Shaw Festival Canada: A Room of One’s Own, The Apple Cart. STCSA: The Stronger, Miss Julie, The Rover. Film: The Well, Paradise Road, Lust and Revenge, Cosi, Sirens, Vacant Possesion. Awards: Green Room Awards for Female Performer 2008 (Season at Sarsparilla), 2005 (Dinner), 1994 (Cosi), 1994 (Room of One’s Own), 1992 (Lost in Yonkers), 1991 (The Wizard of Oz), 1987 (Gertrude Stein and a Companion). Inaugural Annual Gerda Nicolson Award (1995), 1994 Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award for Best Performance by an Actress (A Room of One’s Own), 1998 Variety Club, AFI and Stockholm Film Festival Best Actress Awards (The Well). CHRISTINA SMITH SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake, Black Medea (with Belvoir). Playbox Theatre: Julia 3, Ruby Moon, Post Felicity, Inside 01. Other theatre: MTC: A Behanding in Spokane, Boston Marriage, Blackbird, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clean House, Dumb Show, Things We Do For Love, The Daylight Atheist, Honour. Black Swan State Theatre Company: The Year of Magical Thinking. QTC:
The Female of the Species. STC: Troupers. Victorian Opera: Turn of the Screw, Cosi Fan Tutte. Bell Shakespeare Company: Two Gentleman of Verona. Neonheart Theatre: The Eskimo. Red Stitch: Jesus Hopped the A-Train. As Set Designer: ACMI: Tim Burton The Exhibition. La Mama: The Barbeque. The Hoist: The Government Inspector. As Costume Designer: Victorian Opera: The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni. MTC: Realism, Humble Boy, Proof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Three Days of Rain. The Australian Ballet: Personal Best. WA Ballet: Nutcracker. Other: Member of 2006 Commonwealth Games Ceremonies design team, Circa Theatrette redesign for National Museum of Australia. Awards: 2004 Green Room Award for Best Design in Theatre (Honour, Daylight Atheist, Julia 3). Training: Diploma of Production and Design (Design), WAAPA (1995). EVA TANDY STAGE MANAGER Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake, Avast + Avast II. Other theatre: MTC: Life Without Me, Dead Man’s Cellphone, The Ugly One. 11th Hour Theatre: Song of the Bleeding Throat. The Hayloft Project: Chekhov Recut: Platonov. As Assistant Stage Manager: MTC: Madagascar, God of Carnage, The Man from Mukinupin, Realism, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Scarlett O’Hara at the Crimson Parrot, The 39 Steps, The Season at Sarsaparilla, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Enlightenment, The Ghost Writer, Don’s Party, The Give and Take, A Single Act. STC: Don’s Party. Events: As Stage Manager: Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 Cultural Festival, Wrong Skin (Next Wave Festival), Operation (Next Wave Festival). As Producer: Skin Tight, Shadow Boxing (The Groundswell Division). DARRIN VERHAGEN SOUND DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake, Sappho… in 9 fragments, Kitten, Not Like Beckett. Playbox Theatre: Meat Party, Miss Tanaka, Sweet Road, Insouciance. Other theatre: MTC: Madagascar, Godzone, Grace, The Birthday Party, Ghost Writer, The Memory of Water,
The Dumb Show. Daniel Schlusser: Poet #7, Life is a Dream, Medea, The Prodigal Son. STC: Holy Day, The Snow Queen. Moira Finucaine: Gotharama, Phantasmagoria, Faith. Dance: Chunky Move: Two Faced Bastard, Closer, Hydra, Singularity. ADT: Devolution, Held, Nothing, Vocabulary. Lucy Guerin Inc: Zero, Lost Air, On/Love Me. Sue Healey: The Curiosities, Tarantelle, Succulent Blue Sway. Mary Oslund: Child Star, PRRR, Anatomica, Undertone, Band of Innocents. Dance Film: Yumi Umiumare: Dis-oriental. Sue Healey: Darlo, The Door, The Chair, The Bed and The Stair, Reading the Body, Niche, Fine Line Terrain, 13+32. Installations: Patricia Piccinini: When my baby. Digital Monkey/ADT: Transcriptions. Gina Czarnecki: Spine (Newcastle AV Festival). Station IDs: Showtime Drama, Showtime Action, Showtime Comedy, Showtime Premiere, Showcase. Live: Hue Festival, Vietnam, EPA (2010), Shinjuku Thief Old Europe tour (2005), Transmediale Festival Berlin (2003), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002) Award Nominations: 6 Green Room Award nominations for Sound Design. Awards: Green Room Awards for Sound Design in Independent Theatre (2009), and Sound Design for Theatre Companies (2005). Other: Lecturer in Sound Design at the School of Art, RMIT University and undertaking PhD research in Noise, Music and Perception. Vanessa Bates thanks the following people for their support: Chris Mead and PlayWriting Australia, Lee Lewis, Noel Jordan, 7-ON, Peter Ross and Leonie Brown, Elizabeth Troyeur and Christopher Saunders. Darrin Verhagen thanks Adam Hunt for his assistance with sound. Malthouse Theatre thanks MTC for the loan of rehearsal props, and Euroluce and Arnolds Swiss Home Made Cakes for their generous in-kind support of Porn.Cake.
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gratefully acknowledges its supporters
PRINCIPAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
MALTHOUSE THEATRE IS SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, ITS ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY
MAJOR PARTNER
PRODUCTION PARTNER
MEDIA PARTNER
CORPORATE PARTNERS
CORPORATE ASSOCIATES TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS Annamila Pty Ltd
Artists in Residence Program Education & Youth Access Program
Artist Program
The Dara Foundation - Tom Kantor Fund
Indigenous Theatre Program
Slome-Topol Family Charitable Trust Company in Residence Program
The Engine Room & Women Directors Residents Program
The Malcom Robertson Foundation
At the CUB Malthouse - 113 Sturt Street Southbank VIC 3006 Box Office +61 3 9685 5111 Administration +61 3 9685 5100 Facsimile +61 3 9685 5112 Email admin@malthousetheatre.com.au Web www.malthousetheatre.com.au BOARD OF DIRECTORS Simon Westcott (Chair), Frankie Airey, John Daley, Michele Levine, Ian McRae, Neil Smart, Thea Snow, Sigrid Thornton, Leonard Vary.
Building Manager Frank Stoffels Bar Manager Cherry Rivers Front of House Managers Tristan Watson & Sean Ladhams Production Manager David Miller Technical Manager Baird McKenna Operations Manager Dexter Varley Artistic Director Marion Potts Production Coordinator Lucy Birkinshaw Executive Producer Jo Porter Head Electricians Michele Bauer & Interim Business Manager Stewart Birkinshaw Campbell Emma Calverley Head Mechanist Andy Moore Workshop Supervisor David Craig Company Managers Nina Bonacci & Head of Wardrobe Amanda Carr Julian Hobba Wardrobe Assistant Chloe Greaves Dramaturge in Residence Steel Fabricator Goffredo Mameli Maryanne Lynch Workshop Staff Dan Talbot Assistant to the Dramaturge Petra Kalive Scenic Artist Patrick Jones Artist in Residence - Design Props Master Ross Murray Anna Cordingley (lifetime recognition) Artist in Residence - Lighting Design Paul Jackson Front of House/Bar Staff Matt Adair, Milo Adler-Gillies, Mira AdlerEducation Program Manager Gillies, Rebecca Bower, Jacqui Brown, Fiona James Rowan Michael Davie, Alice Dixon, Graham Finance Manager Mario Agostinoni Downey, Tanja George, Kate Golding, Finance Assistant Liz White Chloe Greaves, Kate Gregory, Simon Philanthropy Manager Tamara Harrison Jeanes, Paula Lay, Gabrielle Lowe, Bridie Marketing & Communications McCarthy, Ruby Nolan, Felix Preval, Sara Coordinator Nicole Smith Retallick, Claire Richardson, Caleb Shea, Communications Coordinator Mimosa Schmidt, Kathryn Stuckey, Jade Jaclyn Birtchnell Thomson, Lee Threadgold, Pete Walker, Media Manager Annette Vieusseux Andy Wall, Janine Watson. Media Assistant Lucy Forge Ticketing Manager Emma Howard Box Office Staff Executive Assistant Carla Di Stefano Liz Bastian, Mark Byrne, Rachel DysonInterim Administration Coordinator McGregor, Cindy Elliott, Rachel Gelzinnis, Kate Gregory Kate Gregory, Michelle Hines, Philip Holyman, Mike McEvoy, Fiona Wiseman, Liz White. With special thanks to Stephen Armstrong, Catherine Jones & Michael Kantor. This program has been printed on 100% recycled paper using soya based inks.
MUSE DONOR PROGRAM
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the following donors: URANIA (Muse of the Stars) Anonymous (1) CLIO (Muse of History) Berry Liberman & Daniel Almagor
THALIA (Muse of Comedy) John & Lorraine Bates, Daniel & Danielle Besen, Eva Besen AO & Marc Besen AO, Debbie Dadon, Roger Donazzan & Margaret Jackson, Colin Golvan SC, John & Janet Calvert-Jones, Neilma Gantner, Richard Leonard, Philanthropy Squared, Trawalla Foundation MELPOMENE (Muse of Tragedy) Beth Brown & Tom Bruce AM, Terry Cutler, D.L & G.S Gjergja, Peter & Anne Laver, Tim & Lynne Sherwood, Neil & Barbara Smart, Anonymous (1) EUTERPE (Muse of Music) Ingrid Ashford, Carolyn Floyd, Brian Goddard, Scott Herron, Ian Hocking & Rosemary Forbes, Michael Kingston, Naomi Milgrom AO, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch A.C., D.B.E., Rae Rothfield, Elisabeth & John Schiller, Marshall Segan, The Bardas Foundation, The Pratt Foundation, Leonard Vary & Matt Collins, Simon Westcott, Phil & Heather Wilson, Anonymous (2) TERPSICHORE (Muse of Dance) Graham & Anita Anderson, Sally Browne, Diana Burleigh, Min Li Chong, Sieglind D’Arcy, Rev Fr Michael Elligate, Taleen Gaidzkar, Brad Hooper, Susan Humphries, Graeme & Joan Johnson, Ann Kemeny & Graham Johnson, K & J Lindsay, Pamela McLure, James Penlidis & Fiona McGauchie, Robert Peters, Rosemary Ricker, Robert Templar, Gina Stuart, Jenny Schwarz, Fiona Sweet, Robert Sessions & Christina Fitzgerald, Dr. Victor & Dr. Karen Wayne, Angelika & Peter Zangmeister ERATO (Muse of Love) John Carruthers, Diane Clark, Chris Clough, Patricia Coutts, Callum Dale, Doreen Dempster, Peggy Hayton, Shirley Hickey, Leonie Hollingworth, Irene Irvine, Irene Kearsey, Ruth Krawat, Anna Lozynski, Gael & Ian McRae, Dr. Kersti Nogeste, John & Margot Rogers, Karen Russell, John Thomas, Ann Tonks, Rosemary Walls, Bruce Wapshott & Daryl Moon, Jan Watson, Joanne Whyte, Dr. Roger Woock & Fiona Clyne, Barbara Yuncken, Anonymous (11) To find out more about the Malthouse Theatre Muse program, please contact Philanthropy Manager Tamara Harrison on 03 9685 5162 / tharrison@malthousetheatre.com.au. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
SEASON 2 2011 LAUNCHING MONDAY MAY 2