EMILY BURTON HELEN CASSIDY NICHOLAS GELL AMY INGRAM JASON KLARWEIN BARBARA LOWING BRIAN LUCAS CHRISTEN O’LEARY HUGH PARKER LUCAS STIBBARD Queensland Theatre Company in association with Brisbane Festival present
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29 August – 26 September Bille Brown Studio The GreenHouse, QTC Tickets 1800 355 528 queenslandtheatre.com.au
Queensland Theatre Company presents
Cast 18 July – 15 August Bille Brown Studio, The GreenHouse Happy Days will run for approximately 95 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
Carol Burns
Winnie
Steven Tandy
Willie
Wesley Enoch
Director
Penny Challen
Designer
Ben Hughes
Lighting Designer
Alan Lawrence
Composer
Kathryn O’Halloran
Stage Manager
Warning: Contains replica firearm.
Recycle this program Support Greening QTC and recycle this program after the performance in the recycling bins provided in the foyer. Read the program before the show at queenslandtheatre.com.au
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L-R: Carol Burns, Steven Tandy
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Welcome Sue Donnelly, Executive Director
Dear Patron, Supporter and Friend This is a great occasion! One of our best actors, the unstoppable Carol Burns, in one of Samuel Beckett’s great plays, Happy Days. I can’t think of a more fitting pairing. This role is like climbing Everest for an actor - the copious lines you need to learn, the fact that you have to deliver them ‘buried’ up to your waist and then up to your neck, and all done in an engaging, cheery and heartfelt way. I am in awe of Carol; her skill level and energy are unparalleled. She really is one of the great dames of Queensland theatre. As you know Happy Days is not only one of our mainstage plays for the year but also part of our DIVA series which showcases wonderful female artists. Carol is our senior artist in this group of five fabulous women and hopefully you also saw the ‘baby’, Chenoa Deemal in The
7 Stages of Grieving, which was on in March. Another of the series currently playing is HOME by the indefatigable Margi Brown Ash. You can see this show on the same night as Happy Days if you wish, just check the times on our website or ask one of the staff about it. We’re also about to open Grounded with the gorgeous Libby Munro, whom many of you will remember from the much acclaimed Venus in Fur in 2013. Lastly we have one of the current hot contestants on TV’s The Voice – Naomi Price, with her cabaret homage to singer Adele, in Rumour Has It. Not surprisingly, work at QTC has been extremely busy. Apart from the DIVAs we just had a very successful season of the senior Youth Ensemble’s production The Landmine is Me which played to packed houses. Our TRACTION youth ensemble is featuring in Queensland Music Festival’s free musical spectacular Under this Sky on 1 & 2 August in Logan. The Country Song cast and crew are touring interstate (as well as Blackwater and Stradbroke Island) immediately following the Brisbane season finale on 8 August. Also Wesley is bedding down next year’s program, in between rehearsing for this show, and our launch will be on 14 September. Although sadly 3
he won’t be here to oversee the 2016 program it will have the high standards and great variety that you expect from QTC and I’m sure will delight, entertain and at times, challenge you. I’d like to thank all of you who donated to our end of financial year appeal to establish the QTC Regional Engagement Fund. QTC is determined to share the benefits of theatre with people all over this vast state and we’ll use these funds to increase our Regional Program – touring productions, offering masterclasses for regional artists and teachers and providing access to our outstanding education programs. If you didn’t donate but are interested please don’t hesitate to contact me to find out more about the program. It is an important part of what we do and it’s worth noting that many of our great actors, including Carol, have cut their teeth on doing regional tours and projects. Please enjoy Happy Days and also try to catch one of the other DIVA shows. Cheers,
Sue
L-R: Carol Burns, Wesley Enoch
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Director's Note Wesley Enoch
When you see Happy Days you would be well within your rights to ask what does a director do in a show where the actors rarely move, the set doesn’t change and the playwright has given you a set of strict instructions to work with. In my defence there is a lot more to threading the elements of a production together than these simple things but in truth Happy Days is a show that relies on the singular talents of an extraordinary performer and the imagination of an audience to listen and connect. Carol Burns is an actor at the height of her powers. She selected this play as part of the DIVA series, which invited key women artists to put themselves centre stage. Happy Days was chosen to challenge and excite Carol and to showcase her intellectual capacity and artistic strengths. When you’re in the presence of such an extraordinary artist your role as a director is more to be the external eyes and ears of a production and to help reflect back to the artists what is working
and what requires more thought. Carol has been a self-reliant instigator of many of the interrogations of this classic text and I have been intimidated by the wondrous enthusiasm and discipline around her research and questions. One of my observations of this play is the power of rhythm and action to drive meaning. If you stay true to the text that dictates pauses, long pauses and specific actions you illuminate meaning. This could be said of all playwriting, but it is extreme in this case because of how articulate the writer is in detailing his intention and ‘fool-proofing’ any production. Beckett does not tell you what a character is to feel or an emotional state to inhabit but points you in the direction through his staging notes of what is happening and when to pause etc. It is clockwork precision and Carol is the master watchmaker, recalibrating timings and performances.
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The true invitation of this play is to find the truth and humanity in, what people have claimed is, the absurdity of the characters and situations Beckett has written. There is a heightened everydayness to the relationship between Willie and Winnie, despite the setting. It is as if this same play could be performed in a domestic home with Willie sitting in a lounge room reading the paper and Winnie in the kitchen doing the dishes except for the fact that Beckett has challenged us into the allegorical and metaphorical and demanded that the script be left open to audience interpretation. Love,
Wesley
Carol Burns
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Designer's Note Penny Challen
In Happy Days, we go on a journey questioning social constructs. Their necessity is constantly juxtaposed to their meaninglessness. What truths remain once society has been changed beyond recognition? The landscape of Happy Days is desolate and stripped of civilisation. It surreally entraps Winnie. Dry to the extreme of spontaneous combustion and almost completely devoid of life. And yet she remains hopeful. Reciting ‘one’s classics’, holding on to rituals and social necessities to make it through each day. Where the writings of Beckett are the progeny of the aftermath of war-torn Europe and question what is society in a brave new world, in Australia artists were beginning to question our relationship to the ‘mother country’ and a new independent identity both in paintings of urban life and of the landscape.
Earliest Australian landscape paintings show a different narrative. The stage curtain is a painting by the ‘father’ of Australian landscape painting John Glover Launceston and the River Tamar. Albeit in a very different part of Australia to works by later artists, it reflects the landscape as it once was, through the conceit of an English identity. Selling the ‘Australian Dream’ to prospective immigrants. We open the curtain to reveal a very different landscape. The set design is influenced by paintings of artists such as Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan, William Dobel and Arthur Boyd. Expansive, dry and often bleak, it was a new Australia. As do the figures in many of these raw, indomitable landscapes, Winnie survives, and carries on.
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Carol Burns
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Composer's Note Alan Lawrence
Beckett is often cited as a writer for whom music was particularly important and whose work is significantly musical in character. The “whys” and “wherefores” of Beckett’s musicality are a topic of much discussion in their own right but, for the moment, let’s just say that the addition of music to the action of a Beckett play, other than where it is specifically invited by the author, would be at best redundant and probably disconcertingly intrusive. In Happy Days, Beckett specifies three sound effects; that of breaking glass, the recurrent bell that rouses Winnie from her slumbers and her musical box that gives us the waltz from The Merry Widow. From a composer/sound designer point of view, neither of these pose any problems nor indeed any particular challenges. But Happy Days is a play that questions our understanding of ourselves
and our motivations in life, quite literally, how we make sense of each day. We are all locked into the relationship between ourselves and our personal experiences while at the same time needing to share those experiences with others as a means of establishing or confirming our own presence. And so just as designer, Penny Challen, has chosen literally to frame the action, presenting the play as if a painting - an image of life shown back to us - so have I opted to frame the experience, not only with sound/music (in this case there is no difference) topping and tailing the action but also by taking the audience from the foyer into the theatre and back out again at interval, linking the ‘outside’ world with the world of the stage. I have thought of the process as identifying with the audience and the real world of the foyer and
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then carrying that world right onto the stage, into Winnie’s world, suggesting that as absurd and extreme as it may seem at face value, Winnie and her preoccupations touch on some fundamental resonances for most of us, and paradoxically enough perhaps, leave us feeling rather less alone.
Another Heavenly Day Baz McAlister
In the canon of plays by a writer regarded as specialising in the bleak, Happy Days – mired in the existential horror of its stark commentary on ageing, marriage and the human condition – is often considered one of the bleakest, most puzzling, and confounding. It’s surprising, then, to learn it was born of a demand for something lighter. After Irish actor Cyril Cusack performed Beckett’s world-weary play Krapp’s Last Tape at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1960, the actor’s wife, Maureen, insisted that Beckett’s next play be a “happy play”. The playwright indulged her. Aged 55, Beckett began work on Happy Days later that year and finished it the following May. During the writing process, he was finally secretly married in England to his lover of three decades, Suzanne DechevauxDumesnil. Their on-again, off-again relationship was a strange and tumultuous one – they got together in the 1930s as Beckett
was recovering from being stabbed in the chest by a pimp, and during World War II, they spent years together in hiding from the Gestapo in a small French village. They had separate circles of friends and often lived apart. She was some years his elder – just as Willie is to Winnie in the play – and it’s possible the somewhat strained bond of this late middle-aged couple is partially drawn from Beckett’s reflections on his own lengthy relationship. When the play debuted at New York’s Cherry Lane Theatre off-Broadway in September 1961, American actress Ruth White’s portrayal of Winnie won her a Village Voice Obie Award. The second Winnie was British actress Brenda Bruce at London’s Royal Court in 1962 – stepping in last-minute to take over from Joan Plowright, who’d pulled out due to a pregnancy. The director of that production, too, had quit, frustrated by Beckett’s constant alterations to the text, and Beckett himself stepped in.
L-R: Ellen Bailey, Toby Martin, Joe Klocek
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It was the first time Beckett would physically direct a play, but the demanding playwright was well known for sending incredibly detailed memos to producers about precisely how a play should be staged, or how a line should be delivered. His stage directions peppered throughout Happy Days were already typically comprehensive and incredibly meticulous. Of the play’s first 35 words, a mere three are actual dialogue, and it continues in the same vein: WINNIE: (Gazing at zenith.) Another heavenly day. (Pause. Head back level, eyes front, pause. She clasps hands to breast, closes eyes. Lips move in inaudible prayer, say ten seconds. Lips still. Hands remain clasped. Low.) Bruce’s turn as Winnie was seen as a triumph, even if the metaphor at its centre – of a woman slowly sinking into a mound of earth – divided West End critics as to its meaning. But then, Beckett always loved presenting audiences with
It was the first time Beckett would physically direct a play, but the demanding playwright was well known for sending incredibly detailed memos to producers about precisely how a play should be staged ... the strange, the ambiguous and the absurd. Its themes preclude it from being a “happy play”, but Winnie is at least a cheery character – however downtrodden, she remains a buoyant, optimistic, relentlessly upbeat being. Over dinner during rehearsals, the playwright explained to Bruce his inspiration for her. He’d thought of “the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody” – being kept awake, sinking into the ant-infested ground slowly, under the glare of the sun, with a tiny package of possessions to see you through. “And I thought who would cope with that and go down singing? Only a woman,” he told her.
Indeed, Winnie is perhaps the strongest and most rounded female role Beckett ever penned, a credible protagonist with a wide emotional range. She has attracted a who’s who of great actresses over the years, and Dame Peggy Ashcroft described the role as “a summit part” akin to Hamlet. Billie Whitelaw, Irene Worth, Fiona Shaw, Madeleine Renaud and Felicity Kendal have all been swallowed slowly by the mound; Juliet Stevenson had an acclaimed run last year at London’s Young Vic; and Scottish comic actress Karen Dunbar just completed a short season at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre last month.
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The play is almost a monologue – with Willie hardly a sparkling conversationalist as a foil to Winnie – but despite Winnie’s loquaciousness, Beckett subtly injects clues that language is slipping out of her grasp. Midway through the play she muses on what she would do if her words ever failed her, and acknowledges some of them are “empty”, just tools of varying usefulness like the objects in her bag – but with no one but the taciturn Willie to listen, she doesn’t realise her words have already failed her and have outlived their usefulness. Shorn of a social context, they may get her through the days but mean little. After all Beckett, while a master of language, sometimes advocated outlawing it in favour of the void. “Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness,” goes a famed quote attributed to the playwright.
L-R: Steven Tandy, Carol Burns
In rehearsal
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Biographies Samuel Beckett PLAYWRIGHT
Samuel Barclay Beckett, born in Foxrock, County Dublin (1906-1989). He studied at Earlsfort House in Dublin, and then at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. His attention turned to academics when at 17 he entered Trinity College, choosing French and Italian as his subjects. Beckett enjoyed the vibrant theatre scene of post-independence Dublin, preferring revivals of J.M. Synge plays. Moreover, he had the opportunity to watch American films and discover the silent comedies of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin that would crucially influence his interest in the vaudevillian tramp. After graduation, Beckett travelled to Paris where he first met the fellow Dubliner who would become a seminal influence and close friend, James Joyce. In addition to acting as one of Joyce’s favoured assistants in the construction of the Work in Progress (later to be titled Finnegans Wake), Beckett began writing himself, inspired by the vibrant Parisian literary circle. In 1930, he published his first poem, Whoroscope, winning a reward of ten pounds in a poetry competition. Shortly after, he published his brief but ground-breaking Proust, a study of the recently deceased author whom Beckett admired so much; the work at once illuminated its subject but also helped the fledgling and unsure artist shape his own aesthetic. When he returned to Dublin later that year to lecture at Trinity, Beckett was writing his first stories - which would later comprise More Pricks Than Kicks (1934). Beckett was restless in his teaching posts, and his reluctance to settle down in a respectable career worried his family, especially his mother from whom he became estranged for several years. Returning to Paris in 1932, he wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women. While reminiscent in its digressive tendencies of Fielding and Sterne, Dream was also highly autobiographical, a powerful indication that Beckett was emerging from Joyce’s shadow and developing his own voice. Out of money, he went back to Dublin and then moved temporarily to London where he worked on much of his next novel, Murphy. Still without a steady source of income (his works were not selling, and Murphy, which had been turned down by dozens of publishers, would not appear until 1938), he moved constantly for the next few years before settling permanently in Paris in 1937. Walking home late one night with some friends, Beckett was nearly killed when he was stabbed by a “pimp.” In hospital, Joyce looked after his young friend, paying his expenses and 13
bringing around numerous visitors. Recuperating, Beckett also received attention from a French acquaintance, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dusmesnil, who would soon become his life companion (and wife, though not until 1961). When Paris was invaded in 1941, Beckett and Suzanne joined the Resistance. Later they were forced to flee when their cell was betrayed, leaving their apartment only hours before the Gestapo arrived. They took refuge in Rousillion, in the south of France, where Beckett worked on a farm in exchange for room and board. There he continued work on a novel he had begun in Paris, Watt. After the Germans were defeated and the couple returned to Paris in 1945, Beckett travelled to Ireland to visit his mother. He claimed to have had while sitting in her room an artistic revelation: “I became aware of my own folly. Only then did I begin to write the things I feel.” And only then did Beckett begin to write primarily in French, finding greater linguistic possibilities in a language that he famously said had no style. In his second language, he enjoyed a period (1947-1950) that is certainly his most prolific and that many consider his finest. His first French novel, Mercier et Camier which, with its wandering duo, minimalist style, and insistence on repetition, predicts the concerns and form of Waiting for Godot, was not published until years later. In this time, he also wrote his famous novel trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable). Also, in 1947, he wrote his first play, Eleutheria, which he would not allow to be published during his lifetime and which, after his death, became a cause of great controversy when Beckett’s American publisher, Barney Rosset, released an English translation against the wishes of the Beckett estate. In 1948-1949, he also wrote Waiting for Godot. Its production in Paris in January 1953, by the director and actor Roger Blin (with whom Beckett would develop a lifelong friendship), brought the artist his first real public success both in and outside of France. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett’s playwriting continued with a series of masterpieces, including Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, and Happy Days. He involved himself in various productions of his plays across Europe and in the United States, wrote his first radio plays, and created remarkably innovative prose fiction, including the epic How It Is (1961) and the haunting The Lost Ones (1970). Worldwide appreciation of his work growing, he received in 1969 the Nobel Prize (the third Irishman of the century to be so honored). Characteristically, he was unhappy with the increased public attention that accompanied the prize and in response to a demand for a new work chose instead to release the still unpublished Mercier and Camier. At this time, he also underwent successful operations on his eyes to correct the cataracts that had been plaguing him for years. The 1970s were a less prolific period, though he managed some new projects, including television plays for the BBC, and
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continued to interest himself in productions of his theatrical works. In 1977 he began the autobiographical Company and in the early 1980s crafted more prose pieces (including Ill Seen Ill Said and Worstward Ho) as well as more plays (including Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu). His last major work, the prose fiction Stirrings Still, was written in 1986. Written by Benjamin Strong
Carol Burns WINNIE
Queensland Theatre Company: I Want To Know What Love Is, Design for Living, Elizabeth; Almost By Chance a Woman, Pygmalion, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (co-production with Black Swan State Theatre Company), The Clean House, Rabbit Hole, The Female of the Species, The Glass Menagerie, Private Lives, Oedipus, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, The Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy, A Conversation, Bill & Mary. Other Credits: Queensland Music Festival, La Boite Theatre Company, JUTE, Melbourne Theatre Company, Nimrod Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company. Albury and Wyndams Theatres West End London, Shaw Theatre London, Croydon Warehouse Croydon, Tron Theatre Glasgow, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guilford, National Tours England Film: Hard Drive, Tracks, The Turning: Small Mercies, Bad Blood. Television: The Strange Calls, Reef Doctors, Heartbeat, Small Claims, The Day of the Roses, The Love of Lionel’s Life, Blue Heelers, The Bill, Taggart, Hannay, Casualty, Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude, Pig in a Poke, Play of the Month, Prisoner. Positions: Associate Artist, Queensland Theatre Company; Associate Artist, Queensland Arts Council/Artslink; Patron of The Independent Theatre (Eumundi); Patron of Fame Theatre School (Brisbane); Equity Member since 1973, President, Equity Queensland; member of National Performers Committee, The Actors’ and Entertainers’ Benevolent Fund Vice President.
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Steven Tandy WILLIE/ENSEMBLE
Queensland Theatre Company: Romeo & Juliet, 25 Down, Loves Labours Lost, Who Cares?, Love For Love, The National Health, Juno and the Paycock, Expresso Bongo, The Badly Behaved Bunyip, The Man, The Spirit Fish and The Rainbow Snake. Other Credits: La Boite Theatre Company: Amigos, Last Drinks, Summer Wonderland, James and Johnno, The White Earth ; Twelfth Night: Dad’s Army, Run For Your Wife, The Rocky Horror Show, “ ‘Allo ‘Allo”; Nimrod Street: The Speakers; Marian Street Theatre: What If You Died Tomorrow?, See How They Run, When We Are Married; New England: Who Was Harry Larsen?; Riverina: The Threepenny Opera; Perth National Theatre: No Names, No Pack Drill; The Ensemble: Time and Time Again, Noises Off; Gold Coast Arts Centre: Pyjamas in Paradise; Crossbow: Anne of The Thousand Days, Shadowlands; Harvest Rain Theatre Company: Guys and Dolls, OKLAHOMA!, Jesus Christ Superstar, Aladdin and the Mysterious, Magical Lamp, The Wizard of Oz; Melbourne Theatre Company: Translations, Three Sisters, The Winter’s Tale, The Maid’s Tragedy; J.C. Williamsons: The Circle; Phillip Street Theatre: The Glass Menagerie; Australian Theatre for Young People: Old Queen Cole; Bondi Pavilion: When Did You Last See My Mother?; 4MBS Classic Players: Amadeus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ansata: The Abdication of Queen Elizabeth II, Henry Lawson Readings; As Director: Busybody, The Night of the Iguana, Don’s Party, You Can’t Take It With You, Peggy For You, Deadly Nightcap, Bouncers, Travelling North. Film: Talking Back at Thunder, Gettin’ Square, The Horseman, Girl Clock!, Jog’s Trot, Hurricane Smith, Mercy Mission, Rough Diamonds. Television: The Sullivans, Sea Patrol, Mortified, All The Rivers Run, The Fremantle Conspiracy, Misery Guts, Pacific Drive, Paradise Beach.H2O:Just Add Water, Spyforce, Earthwatch,The Don Lane Show, Mike Walsh show. Positions: Co-Founder of Victorian Green Room Awards for Excellence in Theatre. Awards: Gold Matilda Award Last Drinks. Training: NIDA, Graduate in Acting (1971) and Directing (1995).
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Wesley Enoch DIRECTOR
Queensland Theatre Company: As Director: Country Song (coproduction with Queensland Performing Arts Centre), Black Diggers (co-production with Sydney Festival), Gasp!, Design For Living, Trollop, Mother Courage and Her Children (co-production with Queensland Performing Arts Centre), Managing Carmen (coproduction with Black Swan State Theatre Company), Head Full of Love, Elizabeth, Bombshells, Fountains Beyond, The Sunshine Club, Black-ed Up, Radiance (co-production with Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts). As Writer: The Sunshine Club. As Actor: One Woman’s Song. Other Credits: As Director: Sydney Theatre Company: The 7 Stages of Grieving, Black-ed Up, The Cherry Pickers; Company B: The Man From Mukinupin (co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company), Yibiyung, Black Medea (co-production with Malthouse Theatre), The Sapphires (co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company and remounted co-production with Black Swan State Theatre Company), Paul, Parramatta Girls, Capricornia, Conversations With The Dead, The Dreamers, Stolen; Erth: Nargun & The Stars (co-direction, co-production with Sydney Festival); Gondwana (co-production with Queensland Performing Arts Centre); Queensland Performing Arts Centre: Red Earth, Blue Water (Associate Director); Nyurin Ga (Associate Director), Boat (for KITE Arts Education and Out of the Box Festival); Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts: The 7 Stages of Grieving, Bitin’ Back, The Dreamers (co-production with Brisbane Festival), Murri Love, Little White Dress (coproduction with Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Out of the Box Festival), A Life of Grace and Piety (co-production with Just Us Theatre Ensemble), Changing Time (coproduction with Salamanca Theatre Company), Up the Ladder (co-production with Melbourne Workers Theatre/Festival of the Dreaming); Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company: Waltzing The Wilarra; Performing Lines/Sydney Festival: I Am Eora; Browns Mart Theatre/Jute Theatre/Totem Theatre: Head Full of Love; Malthouse Theatre: One Night, the Moon; Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Cooperative: Rainbow’s End, Shrunken Iris; Windmill Performing Arts/Adelaide Festival/ Brisbane Festival/Sydney Festival/Perth International Festival: Riverland; Legs on the Wall: Eora Crossing; Playbox Theatre: Stolen; Bell Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; The Melbourne Workers’ Theatre; 1975. As Writer: The 7 Stages of Grieving (co-written with Deborah Mailman), Little White Dress, A Life of Grace and Piety, Black Medea, The Sunshine Club, Grace, The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table. Positions: Artistic Director, Queensland Theatre Company 2010 - present, Trustee, Sydney Opera House 2006-2013, Associate Artistic 17
Director, Company B 2007 - 2010, Artistic Director Australian Delegation, Festival of Pacific Arts 2008, Director, My Skin My Life, Opening Ceremony, Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006, Artistic Director, Ilbijerri ATSI Theatre Co-op 2003-2006, Resident Director, Sydney Theatre Company 2000-2001, Artistic Director, Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts, 1994-1997. Awards: The Patrick White Award – The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table, Helpmann Awards – Best Play and Best New Australian Work The Sapphires, Helpmann Award – Best Presentation For Children Riverland, Deadly Award – Best Direction The Sunshine Club, Matilda Award - Best Direction The Sunshine Club, Queensland Performing Arts Centre Award - Contribution to Theatre.
Penny Challen DESIGNER
Queensland Theatre Company: Asscociate designer Gasp! Other Credits: Opera Queensland: La bohème; La Boite Theatre Company: The Glass Menagerie, Water Wars; Artslink Queensland: Sarah’s Heavy Heart; Judith Wright Centre: Doll USA American Repertory Theater, Boston: Oliver Twist (costumier). UK Royal Shakespeare Company: Taming of the Shrew (schools touring); Bush Theatre (UK):When You Cure Me, Bites; Battersea Arts Centre: Under the Earth; Oval House Theatre; Qabuka; Soho Theatre: Protection (costumes);The Gate Theatre: Hair(costumes); The Arches, Glasgow: To the Moon. Penny has also associate and assistant designed on over 40 mainstage productions in Europe and USA for The Royal Shakespeare Company; Royal Opera House; English National Opera; Hamburg Staatsoper and West End including the Oliver award winning ‘Dog in a Manger’ RSC and OBIE award winning Oliver Twist (USA). Television: The Events (UK) Art Direction.Awards: Trainee Resident Designer, Royal Shakespeare Company. Training: Bachelor of Fine Art, QCA; Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Design), NIDA.
Ben Hughes
Queensland Theatre Company: Home, The Button Event, The Effect (co-production with Sydney Theatre Company), The Mountaintop, Black Diggers (co-production with Sydney Festival), Design For Living, Trollop (as Co-Director/Designer), 1001 Nights, The Lost Property Rules, Orbit, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Pitch & The China Incident, Kelly, Head Full of Love, Fractions (co-production with
LIGHTING DESIGNER
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Hothouse Theatre), Orphans, An Oak Tree, Sacre Bleu, Fat Pig, Let The Sunshine (co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company), The Crucible, 25 Down, Stones in His Pockets, I Am My Own Wife, John Gabriel Borkman, The Estimator, Private Fears in Public Places, Man Equals Man, Waiting for Godot, Eating Ice Cream with Your Eyes Closed, The Exception and The Rule, Ruby Moon, Toy Symphony, Heroes. Other Credits: The Danger Ensemble: Caligula, The Wizard of Oz (co-production with La Boite Theatre Company & Brisbane Festival), Sons of Sin, Children of War, Loco Maricon Amor, The Hamlet Apocalypse; La Boîte Theatre Company: Medea, A Doll’s House, Cosi, Kitchen Diva, Statespeare; Belvoir: Samson (co-production with La Boite); The Nest Ensemble: Home; Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre: Vikram and the Vampire, Cabaret, Dracula, Zeitgeist, My Sublime Shadow; Woodford Folk Festival: Fire Event 2012 & 2013; Cre8ion: Fluff; Stella Electrika: The New Dead: Medea Material; Expressions Dance Company: The Host, Carmen Sweet, Propel; Queensland Ballet: Flourish, Giselle, A Classical Celebration, ...with Attitude; As Associate Lighting Designer: Elision Ensemble: The Navigator; Meryl Tankard: The Oracle; Opera Queensland: Aida; Expressions Dance Company: Where The Heart Is. Positions: Affiliate Artist, Queensland Theatre Company (2014 & 2011); Resident Lighting Designer, Queensland Theatre Company (2013); Associate Artistic Director – The Danger Ensemble; Emerging Artist, Queensland Theatre Company (2007); Professional Member, Association of Lighting Designers; Associate Lecturer – Queensland University of Technology. Awards: 2011 Groundling Award - Outstanding Contribution to Lighting Design.
Alan Lawrence COMPOSER
Queensland Theatre Company: Katrin’s Drum, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, All for Love, Blithe Spirit, Betrayal, The Road To Mecca. Other Credits: England - As Composer: Old Vic: Hamlet, Merchant of Venice. As Musician: Hamlet, War Music, Anthony and Cleopatra, Love For Love, The Lady’s Not For Burning, Twelfth Night, Buster, The Lunatic The Lover And The Poet, The Smith Of Smiths; Bristol Express: Between The Lines; The Gate Theatre: Turcaret; Mayfest Glasgow: Pat Hobby Stories; Croyden Warehouse: Through A Glass Darkly, The Doghouse, Playing Sinatra. Australia - Eumundi Indy: Playing Sinatra, Home, Moonlight and Magnolias, Chain of Deceit; BATS: Picnic At Hanging Rock; For the Concert Platform: Divisions for Orchestra, Adopted Ratios, Around Seven After Five, Encryption 1 and 2, Hoop Of The World, Chromatograph, Colloque Vif, Composition With Eames Chair, The Instant Burst of Clamour, XY, Jacques Pasquier Rencontre Yvonne 19
Audette Ici, Katrin’s Drum, Katrin Redux, Marteaux Suspendus, OffShore. Site Specific Work: The Turner Prize, Museum of London, Madame Tussauds Amsterdam (production), Granada Television Studios, Jacques Pasquier Exhibition in Warmenhuizsen, Cannes and Brisbane. Publications: Time Pieces, Easy Pickings, Merchant of Venice, Ten Traditional Carols, Dancing Days, nine pieces for the current AMEB percussion syllabus. Film: Shell British Regional Films - The Fens, The Welsh Marches, The Water Highway, Glad You Belong; Phoenix Films - A Day in the Night, Blood Sisters; BFI/ Spectre Films - Animation for Live Action, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, Thou Shalt Not Adore False Gods; Channel 4 - Winter Trees (sound design); Shell/Cresswell Films - Ekofisk, Pipeline Across The Menai, Slinging Safely, Dossier Termination, North Sea Oil; Staggered, Tall Guy (production), Arts Council of G. B/Bow Visions: A13. Television: BBC: Tx, Pandaemonium, A Perfect Oil Spill (Horizon), The Net, Making Advances, Disputed Legacy, Live TV, Sundial, The Birmingham Wives, Limelight The Film Years, Stitching Up The NHS; ABC: Four Corners; Channel 4: Rory Bremner Who Else, Turner Prize’93, Turner Prize’94, TV Heaven, Dream of Venus Butterfly, The Battle For Orgreve; Granada TV: Two Boys From Bangkok, Law Matters. Radio Drama: BBC: Play Federico For Me. Positions: Musicians Union Representative, Associate Composer, Queensland Symphony Orchestra 2002.
Kathryn O'Halloran STAGE MANAGER
Queensland Theatre Company: As Stage Manager: Treasure Island, An Oak Tree, Hurry Up and Wait! As Assistant Stage Manager: God Of Carnage, Rabbit Hole. Other Credits: As Event Co-ordinator: Sydney Festival: Carriageworks, AAMI Ferrython, Festival First Night. As Stage Manager: Brisbane Powerhouse, QPAC, Out Of the Box, State Library of Queensland, National Play Festival. As Assistant Stage Manager: SpoonTree Productions: The Man The Sea Saw. Sydney Festival: Domain Concert Series. Queensland Ballet: Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, Swan Lake, King Arthur and The Tales Of Camelot, The Little Mermaid, Carmen, Fonteyn Remembered, Romeo & Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As Stage Management Tutor: QUT Technical Production Course. Training: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Production), QUT.
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COMING SOON TO TH Suddenly single after his wife throws him out on the street, despairing journalist Felix reluctantly accepts the hospitality of his buddy Oscar, a sportswriter and Grade A slob. Oscar’s sprawling apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side would once have been palatial – but after his own recent divorce, he lives in the midst of an ever-growing midden of domestic detritus. A big spender, a problem gambler, a hedonist, a boozer and a rake, he’s everything the neurotically neat and fastidious Felix is not. They’re the best of pals, but living together is proving a bit of a stretch. A classic comedy from Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Award-winning American playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, The Odd Couple reteams the odd couple from 2013’s Design For Living, Jason Klarwein and Tama Matheson, as the housemates from hell. The Odd Couple will be the last production directed by Wesley Enoch in his role as QTC’s Artistic Director.
17 Oct – 8 Nov Playhouse, QPAC 136 246 or queenslandtheatre.com.au Director Wesley Enoch recreates the magic and chaos of the beloved 1968 film starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
“There is scarcely a moment that is not hilarious.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
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E P L AY H O U S E , Q P A C Step through the doors of F.G. Goode’s department store and into a marvellous musical whirl of glitz and glamour with Ladies in Black. This world premiere adaptation of Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel, The Women in Black, is brought to life by internationally-acclaimed director Simon Phillips (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Love Never Dies) with original music from superstar singer and musician, Tim Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House). Sydney is crossing the threshold between the stuffy repression of the 1950s and the glorious liberation of the 1960s. Bright-eyed bookish school leaver Lisa is to join the sales staff in the city’s most prestigious department store. In that summer of innocence, a world of possibilities opens up as she befriends the colourful denizens of the women’s frocks department – including her new mentor, the exotic European Magda, mysterious mistress of the gowns. With a dash of delicate comedy, Ladies in Black is a magical modern-day fairytale set in a city on the cusp of becoming cosmopolitan, and marks the triumphant return of musical theatre to Queensland Theatre Company’s stage.
Queensland Theatre Company in association with Queensland Performing Arts Centre presents
Book by Carolyn Burns Music and lyrics by Tim Finn Based on Madeleine St John’s novel, The Women in Black
“[Madeleine] St John enthusiasts mention her work in the same breath as Chekhov, Muriel Spark …” THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
14 Nov – 6 Dec Playhouse, QPAC 136 246 or queenslandtheatre.com.au
23 Ladies in Black is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
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PATRON His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC Governor of Queensland MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Richard Fotheringham (Chair) Elizabeth Jameson (Deputy Chair) Julieanne Alroe Kirstin Ferguson Erin Feros Simon Gallaher Peter Hudson Nathan Jarro ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Wesley Enoch EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sue Donnelly Executive Assistant: Tammy Sleeth Artistic Associate: Andrea Moor Resident Director: Jason Klarwein Programming Manager/ Senior Producer: Katherine Hoepper Producer (New Work and Development): Shari Irwin Artistic Coordinator: Samantha French Touring and Regional Program Coordinator: Christine Johnstone Producer (Education and Youth Programs): Heidi Irvine Programming Project Officer: Laurel Collins Chief Financial Officer: Michael Cullinan Systems Accountant: Roxane Eden Assistant Accountant: Joelene Wright Finance Officer: Robin Koski Venue and Operations Supervisor: Julian Messer Front of House and Events Supervisor: Deirdree Wallace Front of House and Events Officer: Leisha Du Bois
Marketing Manager: Yvonne Whittington Marketing Coordinator: Amanda Solomons Marketing Officer: Tanya Leadbetter Marketing Assistant: Yuverina Shewpersad Digital Marketing Officer: David D’Arcy Database Trainer and Supervisor: Dale Ric-Hansen Publicist: Kath Rose and Associates Ticketing Coordinator: Maggie Holmes Ticketing Officers: Donna Fields-Brown Maneka Singh Philanthropy Manager: Amanda Jolly Corporate Partnerships Manager: Nikki Porter Development Coordinator: Dee Morris Researcher and Grant Writer: Danielle Bentley Production Manager: Toni Glynn Technical Coordinator: Daniel Maddison Production Coordinator: Scott Klupfel Production Assistant: Lilith Tremmery Head of Workshop: Peter Sands Company Carpenter/ Head Mechanist: John Pierce Carpenter: Jamie Bowman Head of Wardrobe: Vicki Martin Costume Supervisor: Nathalie Ryner Indigenous Reference Group: Nathan Jarro (Chair) Adam James Michael Tuahine Paula Nazarski Todd Phillips
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Associate Artists: Rod Ainsworth Candy Bowers Carol Burns Katherine Lyall-Watson David Morton Gayle MacGregor Paula Nazarski Ngoc Phan Lucas Stibbard Front of House (The GreenHouse): Anita Hughes Madison Bell Mollie Thomas Sally Lewis Jonthan Petersson Nathan Hollingworth Charlotte Moutrey Happy Days Production Staff Props Maker: Michelle Betts Scenic Artist: Leo Herreygers Cutter: Leigh Buchannan Wig Stylist: Michael Green Wardrobe Maintenance: Liezel Buckenham Production Electrician: Nick Toll Sound Consultant: Will Moore Stage Management Secondment Griffith University: Jeremy Gordon
FOUNDING DIRECTOR Alan Edwards, AM, MBE (1925 – 2003)
Queensland Theatre Company is a member of Live Performance Australia.
Host an evening at the theatre
Let QTC create a unique evening at the theatre to entertain your clients and colleagues. A range of dinner and cocktail packages are available to you and can be tailored to suit your specific requirements. Suitable for groups for up to 200 people, an evening of fine food and wonderful theatre will be a memorable experience for you and your guests. For more information contact the Corporate Partnerships Manager on 07 3010 7612.
Acknowledgements Rehearsal Photography: Stephen Henry PONDERA Physiotherapy & Pilates
“Curtain Image” Art Gallery of New South Wales imagereproduction@ag.nsw. gov.au John Glover (England; Australia, b.1767, d.1849) Launceston and the river Tamar (circa 1832) oil on canvas, 76.7 x 113.3 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales Anonymous gift 1972 Photo: AGNSW 41.1972
To ensure that patrons enjoy the performance, management asks you to note: • Cameras, tape recorders and paging devices should not be used inside the auditorium. • Switch off alarms and mobile phones prior to the performance. • A single cough measures approximately 65 decibels of sound. The use of a handkerchief helps greatly to soften the sound. The management reserves the right to refuse admission, also to make any alterations to the cast which may be rendered necessary by illness or other unavoidable causes. Patrons are advised that the Bille Brown Studio has EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES, a FIRE ALARM system and EXIT passageways. In case of an alert, patrons should remain calm, look for the closest EXIT sign in GREEN, listen to and comply with directions given by the in-house trained attendants and move in an orderly fashion to the open spaces outside the venue.
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Choose award-winning wines, produce, gifts and experiences that showcase Queensland’s best...
www.clovely.com.au GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE: AUSTRALIA’S BEST CELLAR DOOR AWARDS 2015 28 JAMES HALLIDAY’S WINE COMPANION: TOP 5 STAR WINERY 2015
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Who murdered Nellie Duffy?
If you would like to know,
join the QTC Legal Chapter as they raise funds to commission a play about an infamous Queensland murder case that took place on Carpentaria Downs Station in 1908. Housekeeper Nellie Duffy was found brutally murdered in her bed. An Aboriginal station hand, Billy, was charged but the jury refused to convict him despite his "confessions". Where does the truth lie?
Nellie Duffy Project Supporters 4 Anonymous Roslyn Atkinson & Richard Fotheringham Michael & Anne Back Jennifer Batts James Bell Sarah Bradley Madeleine Brennan Peter Bridgman & Susan Booth S.J & K.W Brooks Sue Brown Patricia Byrne Carter Newell Lawyers Sheryl Cornack Leone Costigan Peter Davis
Ralph & Frances Devlin Richard Douglas Adrian Duffy Scott Falvey Richard Fryberg H G Fryberg Elizabeth Gaffney Anthony Glynn Milton Griffin John & Lois Griffin Michael Hodge Kevin & Joanne Holyoak EM Jameson & AL Anderson Joshua Jones
Stephen Keim Liam Kelly Declan Kelly Asif Khan Fleur Kingham Raymond & Audrey Lawrence John & Janice Logan Sarah Ludwig Stephen & Hana Mackie John & Julienne McKenna Margaret McMurdo Kerri Mellifont Denise & Richard Morton
If you would like to find out more about this intriguing case and contribute towards the play commission, please visit queenslandtheatre.com.au/nellieduffy or phone 3010 7668. Donations to this project are tax deductible. 30
Debra & Patrick Mullins Andrew O'Brien Dan O'Gorman Leanne O'Shea & Peter Gilroy Dominic O'Sullivan Adam Pomerenke Tina Previtera Robertson O'Gorman Solicitors Jeff Rolls & Barbara Houlihan Walter Sofronoff Michael Stewart van de Graaff Lawyers Greg & Sally Vickery Elizabeth Wilson
Thank You To Our Current Donors $10,000+
$5,000-$9,999
We thank all our generous donors for their contribution to our work.
1 Anonymous Pamela M Marx Cathryn Mittelheuser AM Bruce & Sue Shepherd
Your assistance makes it possible for us to enrich the cultural life of our community.
$2,000-$4,999
Richard Fotheringham & Roslyn Atkinson AO John & Lynnly Chalk Wesley Enoch John & Gabrielle Hull Tim & Kym Reid
Donations over $250 are acknowledged for 12 months from the date of donation. Visit queenslandtheatre.com.au or phone our Philanthropy Manager on 07 3010 7621 to find out how you can support our work.
1 Anonymous William Ash & Margi Brown Ash John H Casey Sue Donnelly Kirstin & Glen Ferguson Alan Galwey Bruce & Alexandra Grove E M Jameson & A L Anderson Trevor Love & Vivienne Johnson The Prior Family Cecily Stevenson
Creative Partnerships Australia RACQ Foundation The Siganto Foundation Tim Fairfax Family Foundation
$1,000-$1,999 5 Anonymous Anne & Peter Allen Lisa & William Bruce Mathieu & Anastasia Ellerby William & Claire Glasson Merrilyn Goos Geoffrey Hirst & Sally Wilde David & Katrina King Noela & Colin Kratzing Susan Learmonth & Bernard Curran
$250-$499 15 Anonymous Leanne Austin Phil Barker Melissa Bennett Emma Benson Loiusa Bewley & Geoff Harris Ethna Brown Joan Brown Margaret Byrne Michael & Margaret Clancy Christine Comans Anthony Costantini June Craw OAM Michael Cullinan Judi Ewings William & Lenore Ferguson Kate Foy Peter & Gay Gibson Ian & Ruth Gough Anita Green Andrea & Malcolm Hall-Brown
TRUST & FOUNDATIONS
Dean & Kath Merlo Karl & Louise Morris Donal & Una O’Sullivan Plate Marketing Geoffrey Rush AC Marianna Serghi Damien Thomson & Glenise Berry Sandy Vigar & Martin Pearson R & M Williams
$500-$999 8 Anonymous Melissa Agnew Julieanne Alroe Stephen & Jennifer Boyd Ian Bunzli Rita Carter-Brown Bob Cleland Alan & Annette Davie Peter Delaney & Mary Melling Erin Feros Toni Glynn Pamela Greet & Nicholas Beaton Hudson Family Amanda Jolly Tempe Keune Ross & Sophia Lamont Joan M. Lawrence Fred & Margaret Leditschke Andrew & Kate Lister B Lloyd Brad Mammino
David Hardidge Albert & Carmen Hili Katherine Hoepper Marc James Olwyn M Kerr Tammy S Linde Sandra McCullagh Carolyn McIlvenny Angie & Peter McPhee Hon. Tom McVeigh Sandra McVeigh Dee Morris & Reny Rennie Philip & Fran Morrison Darryl Nisbet Kartina Oei Catherine Quinn People Resourcing Donald Robertson Lyn & Joanne Scott Bronwyn Springer Amy Walduck D & J Woodward
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Ian & Rhyl McLeod Rob & Barbara Murray Nicklin Medical Service Denise O'Boyle Greg & Wendy O’Meara Diane & Robert Parcell Blayne & Helen Pitts Bruce Richardson & Taninnuch Stone John Richardson & Kirsty Taylor Gary Sawyer Phoebe Stephens Flowers Wendy Tonkes Margaret & Norman Wicks Gillian Wilton Ian Yeo & Sylvia Alexander Sharon York & Mark Smith
Be part of something bigger. At Bendigo Bank we recognise that local clubs, projects and community groups are an important part of the community. That’s why we show our support in many different ways – like sponsoring Queensland Theatre Company. As a Bendigo Bank customer you benefit from a great range of competitive products and personal service, plus the satisfaction of knowing your banking is contributing to your community. So just by banking with us, you’re automatically part of something bigger. Visit www.bendigobank.com.au or phone 1300 BENDIGO to find out more.
bendigobank.com.au Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited, ABN 11 068 049 178 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 237879. S48951-4B (234987_v20) (2/01/2015) 32
Thanks to our Sponsors Government Partners
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78 Montague Rd, South Brisbane PO Box 3310 South Brisbane BC QLD 4101 Tel 07 3010 7600 Fax 07 3010 7699 Ticketing 1800 355 528 queenslandtheatre.com.au mail@queenslandtheatre.com.au facebook.com/qldtheatreco twitter.com/qldtheatreco instagram.com/qldtheatreco Š The State of Queensland (Queensland Theatre Company) 2015 Disclaimer: Every endeavour has been made to ensure that the contents of this brochure are correct at the time of printing. However, things can change. Queensland Theatre Company reserves the right to vary advertised programs and to add, withdraw or substitute artists as necessary.