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 ...
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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.
An article about Patricia Cornelius and her upcoming play Do not go gentle… from Australian Stage Online, written by Trevar Alan Chilver. See it in it’s original context here. Dreams, Visions and Constipated Old Farts Images of an ageing Ghandi flit through my mind occasionally. They’re a cliché for political activism, akin to the image of Martin Luther King Junior’s infamous proclamation, “I have a dream”. These are epic images, and Ghandi’s in particular speaks of a life well-lived, and spent on something worthwhile. For the rest of us, our dreams – whether they’re as big as Ghandi’s or not – have ...
The review of Manbeth below is written by Joanna Bowen for Australian Stage Online. See the original review here. Manbeth is a riot of masculinity; within minutes, you can smell the testosterone. This retelling of Macbeth is set in a sparse, prison-like atmosphere, wooden benches the only set pieces. The ensemble moves throughout the space with comfort and confidence, morphing it unrestrictedly alongside their switching characters. The piece is powered by a physicality which amplifies the violence and intensity of the original. The constantly moving bodies climb the chunky struts which support the ceiling, roll, fight, ...
Way back in January this year I ordered my usual 3-play mini subscription for the Melbourne Theatre Company. As July rolled around, I realised that I had tickets to see Dead Man’s Cell Phone….and I had no idea why. The blurb for the play stated: “A surrealist fantasy. Dancing out of the light-footed imagination of Sarah Ruhl, Dead Man’s Cell Phone traces one woman’s accidental quest to make a few people feel just a little bit better about themselves.” Surrealist. Fantasy. Two genres of theatre of which I’m not particularly fond. And ‘making people feel a little bit better about themselves’ sounded ...
Below is a review of Othello by The Kingsmen, written by Liza Dezfouli for Australian Stage Online. See the original review here. Othello | The Kingsmen Written by Liza Dezfouli Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:02 The geometric 90s looking set design tell you immediately that you’re in for something new and different with this production of Othello. The windows of the theatre space at 45 Downstairs are festooned with tapes of black and primary colours, suggesting the bars of a prison, the narrow window openings of a castle, or the timbers of a ship. Lighting is simple and there are few props. The action ...
Article by Michelle Griffin, published in The Age, 7 June 2010: AS A 1.9-metre-tall Tongan, 27-year-old actor Anthony Taufa is very conscious of resisting typecasting. ”I’ve always said I’m more than a security guard,” says Taufa, who has just graduated from NIDA’s prestigious acting course. ”I want to show the world that Islanders are as liberal and complex as any other nationality in Australia. ”I do want vulnerable roles, I do want to be in love, to do romantic leads.” But there is one role Taufa happily accepts as his lot in life: Othello, the Moor of Venice. At 27, he is about ...
Review from Arts Hub, written by Shelley Blake: One of history’s most famous apparent betrayals has been brought to the Melbourne stage in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 1995 production The last days of Judas Iscariot – and it seems quite fitting that a company called Human Sacrifice Theatre would be the ones to bring it home. After all it is a tale about sacrifice and redemption, isn’t it? The production, now playing at Fortyfive downstairs, is cleverly crafted and set in the court room of “down town” purgatory. The case, God and the kingdom of heaven and ...
We have just added our proposals forms for 2011 to both the gallery and theatre pages of our website. Which means of course we are now accepting exhibition and theatre proposals for next year. Bear in mind when putting in a proposal that we generally book-up nine months in advance, sometimes more, so if you have your heart set on a particular time then get in touch as soon as possible.
Read the review below or on the Oz Baby Boomer’s website. Review by Prue Bentley: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by David Myles Human Sacrifice Theatre | fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne | Until 30 May Alarm bells start ringing when you discover there’s a cast of 20. They really begin to get going when you find out you’re about to see a cast of 20 play in a small theatre, for THREE hours. And it really goes all Saint Peter’s on you, after reading that it’s “loosely based on” The Bible. In normal circumstances this could see the ...
