And interview with Nadja Kostich, director of upcoming play Bare Witness. Interview by Paul Andrew, published on Australian Stage Online. See the interview in its original context here. Bare Witness by Mari Lourey draws on the real life experiences of photo journalists and foreign correspondents in the Balkans, East Timor and Iraq, roles which have become increasingly dangerous, while their moral validity is increasingly questioned. Australian Stage’s Paul Andrew speaks to Director Nadja Kostich ahead of the show’s Melbourne season. What stories do you feel are most urgent for theatre right now? Stories with heart. Real stories about us. Difficult stories. Poetry of the people…for the people. I’ve ...
Archives for “Independent Theatre”
An article about Bare Witness from Theatre People. See it in its original context here. Without realising, I pass into the zone of a dangerous place… Bare Witness, a new Australian play by Mari Lourey (Dirty Angels, The Bridge, Digging Into The Green Mountain, ) and directed by Nadja Kostich, will premiere at fortyfivedownstairs, as a special La Mama presentation, featuring a stellar cast including Isaac Drandic, Daniela Farinacci, Todd MacDonald, Adam McConvell and Maria Theodorakis. Set in the Balkans, East Timor and Iraq, against the complex terrain of contemporary photojournalism, Bare Witness scrutinises the way we view our humanity – through the ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Trevar Alan Chilver for his blog Foyer Talk See it in it’s original context here. Seeing Do Not Go Gentle was an experience. Not just because it’s a great show, but because I got the opportunity to meet Patricia Cornelius, the play’s writer, before the show opened. That, and the fact that fortyfivedownstairs is a fantastic venue with more character than a Shakespearean king. Equally admirable were the performances of a fantastic cast, admirably lead by Rhys McConnochie, all bringing their characters to life in a way that should connect with audiences of all ages. Freezing my ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Anne Marie Peard for her blog Sometimes Melbourne and for AussieTheatre.com. See it in it’s original context here. In 2006 Melbourne playwright Patricia Cornelius won the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and the RE Ross Trust Playwrights award for Do not go gentle… Finally, we get to see a production (thank you fortyfivedownstairs) and the full theatre, longish run and sold out nights are proving that award-winning plays aren’t real until they are produced and shared with an audience. Cornelius uses the metaphor of Scott’s Antarctic expedition (yep, the one that didn’t end well) to ...
Article by Mark Smith for the Moonee Valley Leader. See it in its original context here. Jan Friedl is ready for her role in the award-winning Melbourne production Do Not Go Gentle. TONY GOUGH N07MV602 KENSINGTON actress Jan Friedl has been a star in some of theatre’s biggest touring stage productions, but she says there is no better feeling than being a part of a quality home-grown production. The film, TV and theatre actress is happy to forgo the big stage spotlight of past productions such as Romeo and Juliet or Great Expectations to bring to life the vision ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written byNatasha Boyd for Theatre People. See it in it’s original context here. Submitted by K.E. Weber on Tuesday, 10th Aug 2010 Do not go gentle…grapples with existential questions of love, death, loss, happiness and the lust to live life to its fullest. The intention of former arts broadcaster and writer, Mary Lou Jelbart, who is the founder of fortyfivedownstairs, has been successfully realised in a short space of time and obtained a well deserved reputation as creating a venue that produces a varied range of independent theatre and art space. ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Prue Bentley for 774 ABC Melbourne. See it in it’s original context here. Pamela Rabe as Bowen in Patricia Cornelius’ Do Not Go Gentle. Photo by Jeff Busby. We fear the unfulfilled life. In the world as we know it, full of aspiration and glamour, there is something monstrous about coming to our end full of regret. In Do Not Go Gentle, the latest work from Patricia Cornelius puts a group of ageing characters out on the ice to face their lives, their choices and their challenges. And they do it ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Martin Ball for The Age. See it in it’s original context here. Do Not Go Gentle REVIEWED BY MARTIN BALL August 9, 2010 An extraordinary cast Reviewer rating: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars By Patricia Cornelius 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane. Until August 29. DYLAN Thomas’s famous poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a passionate clarion call to live life to its utmost, even into old age. Such a philosophy of not going quietly – spelled out in the poem’s refrain, to ”Rage, rage against the dying of ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Alison Croggon for The Australian. See it in it’s original context here. The poetry of age in an uncertain world Alison Croggan From: The Australian August 09, 2010 12:00AM PATRICIA Cornelius’s award-winning play borrows its title from Dylan Thomas’s poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. Perhaps the most beautiful villanelle written in English, Thomas’s poem celebrates the vivid life of old age, pressed hard up against death: “Old age should burn and rave at close of day”. Likewise, Do Not Go ...
This review of Do not go gentle… was written by Andrew Fuhrmann for Crikey. See it in it’s original context here. Photo by Jeff Busby: Malcolm Robertson, Pamela Rabe, Terry Norris and Anne Phelan Dylan Thomas’ famous exhortation that old age should burn and rage at close of day is here filled out with a specific and passionate argument by playwright Patricia Cornelius: the rage against the dying of the light is the rage of memory, of memory projected forward into action, into the renewal or reconsideration of old convictions, into reconciliations, into fresh desires, into affirmations, and ...
Read the review of Do not go gentle… on Australian Stage Online below. See it in its original context here. Written by Liza Dezfouli Saturday, 07 August 2010 15:20 Left – Terry Norris, Anne Phelan and Rhys McConnochie. Cover – Pamela Rabe and Rhys McConnochie. Photos – Jeff Busby Inspired by those famous words of Dylan Thomas and the story of Captain Scott’s trek to Antarctica in the early 1900s, Do Not Go Gentle by Patricia Cornelius is a beautifully rendered theatre piece. With a variety of dramatic responses to its themes this play gives a lovely sense of what’s possible on ...
See the below interview by John Bailey with some three of the Do not go gentle… cast and the director. See the interview in it’s original context on Bailey’s blog, Capital Idea, here. Do not go gentle…is written by Patricia Cornelius, directed by Julian Meyrick and produced by fortyfivedownstairs. The play runs from 6 – 29 August. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A few weeks ago I sat down with director Julian Meyrick and some of the cast of Do not go gentle…, opening tomorrow at fortyfivedownstairs. At the table were: Rhys McConnochie, 73 Malcolm Robertson, 77 Terry Norris, 80 And Mr. Meyrick. Those ages might give it away. The characters of ...
An interview with Do not go gentle… director Julian Meyrick from Crikey’s Blog Curtain Call. See the interview in its original context here. Next week, Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs will present the world premier of Do not go gentle… , written by Patricia Cornelius and directed by Julian Meyrick. It’s an award-winning script using Robert Falcon Scott’s final — and fatal — Antarctic expedition of 1910-13 as an allegory for life in an aged care facility and the final journey that five of its residents take through dotage into death. Cornelius employs Scott’s tragic end to amplify the struggle of her five geranauts against the ...
This review of Manbeth is from White Whale Theatre’s Captain’s Blog. See it in it’s original context here. I was, I have to admit, a little worried as I made my way down the familiar set of stairs at 45 Flinders Lane last night. The idea of an all-male Macbeth, set in a jail, has some cheesy potential. In theory, it could have been cheesier than a deep fried wheel of King Island Blue Brie. But a number of my most trusted carrier pigeons had informed me that this was not the case. And, I’m happy to ...
Patricia Cornelius in ‘On the Spot‘, The Age, A2, July 24, 2010: Read more about Patricia’s play Do not go gentle… here.
La Chat Noir: A (B)romance in One ActI Love You, Bro is a creepy little black comedy that is becoming justifiably famous since its debut at the 2007 Melbourne Fringe and subsequent season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Set in England the eighty minute solo act is told by Johnny (Ash Flanders) who recounts how, as a lonely fourteen year-old, he began a chat-room relationship that nearly cost him his life. Bored and frustrated Johnny spends his nights at his computer talking to equally bored and frustrated strangers until he meets by chance another boy in his town who ...
For consistency in presenting a range of interesting repertoire I would have to nominate Red Stitch [again]. Red Stitch have mostly presented drama and strong drama at that. They wrapped their year with a scalding British play Motortown that took no prisoners. When they present comedy it is not usually light. Wild East by a writer that keeps defying the mainstream, April de Angelis, was a case of Red Stitch's 'funny peculiar' as opposed to 'funny ha-ha' comedy. Jack Goes Boating as a near exception. It felt like it was an offshoot of the Seinfeld school but in presenting it ...
Lost in the WoodsGiven the synopsis from the media release that Brindabella is a "baroque fantasia", evoking both the "seductive danger" of the Australian bush and Jean Cocteau's film version of La Belle et le Bête (Beauty and the Beast) a lot of the audience were in for a shock. The publicity images were of pink draped and pretty young men lolling about in girlie underwear or less but what emerged was very different. In the event I was quite glad. Those images suggested to me more of an influence from Bavo Defurne’s films than anything by Msr. Cocteau.Using the ...
Let There Be Light ... Comedy!Uncle Semolina (and Friends) is a performing arts collective with a knack for turning out memorable theatre in the most unlikely places like an abandoned shop or a shipping container. After the success of their reinterpretation of the ancient and homoerotic epic Gilgamesh Uncle Semolina are tackling that daddy of all epics, the Bible, in their Chronicles of the Old Testament, a selection of the sordid, taboo-ridden and violent stories from the Old Testament so beloved of fundamentalists.Using their trademark props, namely a collection of children's toys and kindergarten furniture, the cast act out the ...
