Cast featuring: Caroline Brazier - Kirsten Black Swan Company & Lucy Goleby - Peggy Damon Lockwood - Phillip Queensland Theatre Company Greg McNeill - Chief present Steven Rooke - Sandy

Director: Wesley Enoch Gasp! By Set & Costume Designer: Christina Smith 25 October – 9 November 2014 Imagine a world in which the air we breathe is Lighting Designer: just another commodity like food and fuel. Trent Suidgeest Something that can be bought and sold according to market forces. How much do you Sound Designer: think you’d have to breathe? Tony Brumpton

This was the darkly comic premise on which Projection Designers: Ben Elton based his first play, the hilarious and optikal bloc

critically acclaimed satirical comedy Gasping. Design Associate: Penny Challen The play was first produced in 1990 in London’s West End. It starred Hugh Laurie and Directorial Associate: ran for a triumphant year and a half. Now Ben Daniel Evans Elton has revisited his original play and re- imagined it for a new century and a new Duration: 2 hr 10min country. This major rewrite relocates the story (including interval) to an Australia grown giddy on the resources Warning: Coarse Language boom. It’s now called Gasp! And it’s as relevant and as hil‘air’ious as ever. Venue: Heath Ledger Centre State Theatre Centre of WA Ben Elton has written fourteen bestselling books including and Inconceivable, some of TV’s most popular comedy series (Blackadder, The Tickets: Young Ones) as well as West End plays and the hit musical We Will Rock Tickets $27.90 - $79.90 You. ticketek.com.au “[Elton’s] ... career spans a remarkable and successful body of work across Ticketek outlets a range of genres.” The Age or 1300 795 012 Groups 8+ 1300 364 001 “Take a dash of writer extraordinaire, Ben Elton; add a splash of multi award- [*A service/delivery fee also applies] winning director, Wesley Enoch; and stir in our own Damon Lockwood, fresh from triumphs in Edinburgh and New York; and we have a cocktail that Touring to Brisbane: literally fizzes with laughter and energy. Gasp! is a smart comedy that will 17 November - 7 December provoke thought and laughter.” Kate Cherry, Artistic Director of Black Swan Playhouse QPAC State Theatre Company Associate Partner

Media Enquiries: Irene Jarzabek, Publicist, Black Swan State Theatre Company Tel: +61 8 9430 8134 mob +61 419 192 140 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Web: www.bsstc.com.au A co-production with Queensland Theatre Company.

ABOUT BEN ELTON

Ben Elton was a central figure in the alternative comedy scene in Britain in the 1980s, and his success has continued as he branched out into stage, novel writing, and musicals. Ben Elton is one of the most successful and long term comedic writers and performers in the world.

Benjamin Charles Elton was born on the 3rd of May 1959 in Catford, London. His family are extremely academic, including university professors and historians. He is the youngest of four children. He attended Stillness Junior School, and then Godalming Grammar School where he joined the amateur dramatics society and wrote his first play. Although he wanted to become a stagehand at a local theatre, he decided to pursue dramatic arts more academically, and studied drama at Manchester University from 1977 to 1980. It was here that he encountered Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.

He began his career in standup comedy soon after graduating from university. He also began writing comedy, and quickly became one of the central figures in the alternative British comedy scene of the 1980s. He also became a successful comedic novelist, placing political messages within his earlier novels and more recently, social critiques.

Elton has won several awards, including the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain Gold Dagger Award for fiction for his novel Popcorn, WH Smith's People Choice Fiction Award for his novel High Society, the TMA Barclays Theatre Award for best new play and the Olivier Award for best comedy for the stage play Popcorn. Ben Elton was also made a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2007.

Ben Elton is married to Sophie Gare, and Australian saxophonist. Elton recently received dual citizenship with Australia, and he and his wife split their time between Australia and London. They have three children.

His works for television include: Alfresco (1982-1983), The Young Ones (1984), Happy Families (1985), Filty, Rich and Catflap (1986), BlackAdder II (1987), (1988), BlackAdder Goes Forth (1990), The Man From Auntie (1990, 1994), The Thin Blue Line (1996), The Ben Elton Show (1998), Blessed (2005), Get a Grip (2007).

His works for radio includes Teenage Kicks.

His writing for the screen includes (1993), Maybe Baby.

His fiction writing includes Stark (1989), (1991), This Other Eden (1993), Popcorn (1996), Blast from the Past (1998), Inconceivable (1999), (2001), High Society (2002), Past Mortem (2004), The First Casualty (2005), Chart Throb (2006), (2007).

His musical theatre credits include The Beautiful Game (2003) and We Will Rock You (2003).

His theatre credits include Gasping (1990), Silly Cow (1991), Popcorn (1996) and Blast From the Past (1998).

Source: http://www.illiterarty.com/biography-ben-elton

WRITER’S NOTE FROM BEN ELTON

Gasping was my first professional play and like most of my work with the exception of the odd Holocaust novel, it’s a comedy. A comedy which imagines a world where the air we breathe has to be harvested, mined and marketed just like food and fuel and all the other finite natural resources’ of our planet. Because let’s face it, the fact that air remains the one single

necessity of life which is still free, and consumed equally by rich and poor alike is just a bit of luck really. If somebody could sell it they would.

Now living in Australia as I do, in the midst of an on-going national debate about our own precious and finite resources, I couldn’t help but be struck by how much of my 25 year old play was even more relevant today than it was when it was written. And also what glorious tragi - comic theatrical potential there was in the attitudes and excesses of those characters that control the nations’ natural wealth.

I’m therefore hugely grateful and excited that Black Swan has offered me the chance to re-think and, partially, rewrite much of my original play for a new century and a new country. For new influences and new inspirations. It’s a rare and real privilege for a playwright to be presented with such an opportunity.

Black Swan is a ground breaking and innovative Theatre Company, which, under the inspired guidance of Kate Cherry, has developed an international reputation. It’s also my local theatre and I cannot wait to be a part of the team.

REVIEWS OF GASPING by Ben Elton

Ben Elton's debut play - originally seen at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, starring Hugh Laurie (House, MD) and Bernard Hill (Captain Smith in Titanic) - is a brilliantly funny satire on big business, the media, and product exploitation.

Lockheart Industries are making serious money, but Sir Chiffley Lockheart is looking for the buzz given by a new way to make money where no money existed before. Philip, his pushy workaholic executive, suggests selling "designer air" - Perrier for the nostrils - as a privatised alternative to polluted urban fug.

The marketing phenomenon of the decade has arrived and millions are quickly made! However, producing the designer air has unintended consequences, needing the kind of corporate maneuvers that would make the CEO of Enron proud. The world divides into the "haves" and the "have nots": But when the world starts Gasping, and only the biggest suckers survive...

Reviews of the London Haymarket Production

 "A sharp-witted satire on the heartlessness of market forces... extremely funny. . . [it] never, unlike the world's population, runs out of puff. . . " Independent

 "A poisonously funny morality play. . . a remarkable debut." Sunday Times

 “A brilliantly funny piece of stage magic.” Today

 “As barbed as, and much funnier than, Serious Money, the sharpest futuristic comedy since Henceforward, and the best Green comedy since the Good Life was young.’ Financial Times

 “Sheer Jacques Tati’esque…a traditional morality play…one Ben Johnson would have recognised.” International Herald Tribune

BIOGRAPHIES:

CAROLINE BRAZIER KIRSTEN

Black Swan: Gasp! marks the debut for Caroline with the company. Other Theatre: Theatre Company: Don’s Party. Melbourne Theatre Company: Enlightenment, Ray’s Tempest and Two Brothers. Bell Shakespeare: Anthony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice. Brisbane Powerhouse: The True Story of Butterfish. B Sharp: Bang La Mama: Europe. : Whale Music. Melbourne Festival: A Moment on the Lips. : Liberty Equality Fraternity. Tamarama Rock Surfers: The Removalists. Critical Stages: I Want to Sleep. Film: Rogue. TV: Rake (Seasons 1, 2 and 3), Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Terra Nova, Wild Boys, Dripping in Chocolate, , 30 Seconds, , Parralax, White Collar Blue, Young Lions, Water Rats and Walt Disney’s television series Legend of the Seeker. Awards: Sydney Theatre Award and Glug for Best Actress. Training: NIDA Graduate 1998.

LUCY GOLEBY PEGGY

Black Swan: Gasp! marks the debut for Lucy with the company. Other Theatre: La Boite: Pale Blue Dot. Mad March Hare Theatre: A Moment on the Lips. Short Film: AFTRS: Exercise, Death Sentence. Training: NIDA Graduate 2013.

DAMON LOCKWOOD PHILLIP

Black Swan: Director: Midsummer (a play with songs), including north west and south west tours. Assistant Director The Importance of Being Earnest, The White Divers of Broome. Black Swan/ Sydney Theatre Company: Signs of Life. Other Theatre: Lockwood Productions: I (Honestly) Love You, Nature as Explained by Theatre, The Suitcase Set. Barking Gecko: Improvolicious. Weeping Spoon: Trampoline. As Actor: Black Swan: Laughter on the 23rd Floor. Boundary Street. Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other Theatre: Perth Theatre Company: Taking Liberty, Dealer’s Choice. Deckchair Theatre: Romeo and Juliet, The Danger Age. Barking Gecko: His Majesty’s New Clothes, Pri-Mates. Spare Parts Puppet Theatre: Aqua Sapiens, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Arrival, The Little Prince. The Blue Room: I (Honestly) Love You, A Change in the Weather, Short Four Play, Horsehead, Kitchen, Domestic Bliss. As Playwright: Deckchair Theatre: Forget Me Not, Refractions. The Blue Room: I (Honestly) Love You, Short Four Play, Nature as Explained by Theatre, The Benefit of Hindsight, 12.15 Saturday Night, A Change in the Weather, Domestic Bliss. Barking Gecko: GoGo Fish, Pri-Mates. Spare Parts Puppet Theatre: Muttabuttasauras. Teatro Allo Scalo/Rome/The Blue Room: Horse Head. Awards: Horse Head (winner Rome Fringe Festival 2012), Domestic Bliss (winner of Write Now 2005, NSW), Nature as Explained by Theatre (play of the Month Oct 07, Australian Script Centre). Published: Pri-Mates (Australian Script Collection #6).

GREG MCNEILL SIR CHIFFLEY LOCKHEART (CHIEF)

Black Swan: The Seagull, As You Like It, The White Divers of Broome, The Damned, Madagascar, The Crucible, The Year of Living Dangerously, Money and Friends. Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: Managing Carmen. Other Theatre: Perth Theatre Company: The Removalists, An Oak Tree, Baby Boomer Blues, Cargo, Soulmates, Welcome to Dullsville, Face to Face, Covert, Cox Four, Speaking in Tongues, Third World Blues, Siren, A Passionate Woman, Dead Funny, Lockie Leonard Human Torpedo. Talk bout the Passion. {Director}. Ensemble Theatre Sydney: A Conversation. State Theatre Company of WA: Antony and Cleopatra, The Country Wife, Orpheus Descending, The Season at Sarsaparilla, Away. Deckchair Theatre:

Taking Liberty, Sweetown. Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew. Effie Crump Theatre: Conjugal Rites, Rattle Of A Simple Man, The Wee Small Hours, Livingstone, Home Open, Bedfellows, Going Bananas. Hole in the Wall: Death of a Salesman, Rusty Bugles. Independent: Macbeth, To Have and To Hold, Troilus and Cressida, A Strong Left Hand. TV: Cloudstreet, Foreign Exchange, The Shark Net, Murder x 3, FastTracks, Bay City, Ship to Shore, Clowning Around. Film: Drift, Japanese Story, Justice, Teesh and Trude, Boxed In, Pink Pyjamas. Will. Awards: 2011 WA Equity Guild Award for Best Leading Actor for Madagascar by Black Swan.

STEVEN ROOKE SANDY

Black Swan: Gasp! marks the debut for Steven with the company. Other Theatre: Queensland Theatre Company: Gloria, Macbeth, Kelly, 1001 Nights, The Removalists, Fat Pig, The Exception and the Rule, Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome. Queensland Theatre Company/Sydney Theatre Company: No Mans Land. La Boite: Julius Caesar, 48 Shades of Brown. QPAC Out of the Box: Boat. 23rd Productions: The Pillowman. QUT: The Cherry Orchard, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Spurboard, The Mill on the Floss, A Handful of Stars. Film: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Blurred, Footy Legends. Short Film: Quiet, You’ll Wake Up the War. TV: Schapelle, Always Greener, Home & Away, Beastmaster, , Comedy Inc. Awards: 2011 Matilda Award for Outstanding Body of Performance Work including Julius Caesar, No Man’s Land and The Removalists; 2011 Matilda Award for Best Supporting Actor for No Man's Land (QTC/STC); 2010 Queensland New Filmmakers' Award for Best Actor in a Main Role for Quiet: You'll Wake Up The War, 2009 Matilda Award for Best Actor in a Main Role for The Pillowman (23rd Productions).Training: Queensland University of Technology - Academy of Arts.

CREATIVES

WESLEY ENOCH DIRECTOR

Black Swan: Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: Managing Carmen. Black Swan/Company B Belvoir: The Sapphires. Queensland Theatre Company: As Director: Black Diggers (Sydney Festival season), Design for Living, Trollop, Mother Courage and Her Children, Managing Carmen, Head Full of Love, Elizabeth, Bombshells, Fountains Beyond, The Sunshine Club, Blacked 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 Melbourne Theatre Company), Yibiyung, Black Medea (c-oproductions 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 (co-production 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 (co- production 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; Iibijerri 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 ), 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, 2006-2013; Associate Artistic 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 for The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table; Helpmann Award for Best Play and Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work for The Sapphires; Helpmann Award for Best Presentation For Children for Riverland; Deadly Award for Best Direction for The Sunshine Club; Matilda Award for Best Direction for The Sunshine Club; Queensland Performing Arts Centre Award for Contribution to Theatre.

CHRISTINA SMITH SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Black Swan: As you Like It, A Streetcar Named Desire, Rising Water, Much Ado About Nothing, The Year of Magical Thinking. Black Swan/Melbourne Theatre Company: National Interest, The Swimming Club. Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: Other Desert Cities. Other Theatre: State Opera of South Australia/ and New Zealand Opera: La Traviata, Melbourne Theatre Company: Elling, Clybourne Park, The Seed, A Behanding in Spokane, Boston Marriage, Blackbird, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Clean House, Things We Do For Love, The Daylight Atheist, Honour. Malthouse Theatre: Porn.Cake, Black Medea. Queensland Theatre Company: Mother Courage and her Children, The Female of the Species. Sydney Theatre Company: Troupers. Bell Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ilbijerri: Rainbow’s End. Playbox: Julia 3, Ruby Moon, Svetlana in Slingbacks, Post Felicity, Inside 01. Red Stitch: Jesus Hopped the A Train. Neonheart Theatre: The Eskimo. Victorian Opera: The Turn of the Screw, Cosi Fan Tutte. New Zealand Opera: Madame Butterfly. As Costume Designer: Black Swan: Blackrock. Other Theatre: Melbourne Theatre Company: Realism, Humble Boy, Proof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Three Days of Rain. The Australian Ballet: Personal Best. Victorian Opera: The Marriage of Figoro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni. West Australian Ballet: The Nutcracker. As Set Designer: Black Swan: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night. Other Theatre: Melbourne Theatre Company: Boy Gets Girl. Other: Scenic elements for the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI, Circa theatrette installation at the National Museum of Australia, Design team for 2006 Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Awards: 2005 Green Room Award in theatre design for Honour, The Daylight Atheist and Julia 3. Training: Set and Costume Design at WAAPA.

TRENT SUIDGEEST LIGHTING DESIGNER

Black Swan: Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Dust, The House on The Lake, Midsummer (a play with songs), The Importance of Being Earnest, The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Boy Gets Girl, Arcadia, The White Divers of Broome, When The Rain Stops Falling, Ninety, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Graham Walne). Black Swan/Belvoir: The Sapphires. Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: Other Desert Cities, Managing Carmen. Black Swan /Melbourne Theatre Company: National Interest. The HotBed Ensemble: pool (no water), The Dark Room. Other Theatre: Sydney Festival: I Am Eora. Yirra Yaakin: Waltzing The Wilarra. The Production Company: Kismet, The King and I. Barking Gecko: Jasper Jones, Duck, Death and the Tulip, The Amber Amulet, Fatty Wombat. Perth Theatre Company: An Oak Tree. Steps Youth Dance Company: Try Hard, Compact Dance, Moonwebs and Scorched Thongs. Strut Dance/Alice Lee Holland: Tiny Little Tragedies. Aimee Smith: Wintering. Buzz Dance: Genie (us). Secondments: Billy Elliot The Musical (Broadway), High School Musical (Australian Tour), Wicked (Australia) Installations: Jackman Furness Foundation of Performing Arts Launch. PIAF: Festival Gardens 2012. As Set & Lighting Designer: Black Swan: Shrine, Death of a Salesman. Steps Youth Dance Company: Fights & Flights Positions: DCA Young People and the Arts Funding Panelist 2009-2012, WAAPA Board 2007-2008. Grants: 2010 Artstart Grant, 2014 Australia Council Creative professionals. Training: 2008 WAAPA graduate.

TONY BRUMPTON SOUND DESIGNER

Black Swan/Queensland Theatre Company: As Sound Designer: Other Desert Cities, Managing Carmen. Other Theatre: Queensland Theatre Company: The Mountaintop, Australia Day, Black Diggers (Sydney Festival Season), Design For Living, Pygmalion, No Man’s Land (co-production with Sydney Theatre Company), Sacre Bleu!, Macbeth (co-production with Brisbane Festival), Fat Pig, The Little Dog Laughed, The Crucible, God of Carnage (co-production with Black Swan State Theatre Company), I am My

Own Wife, Private Fears in Public Places, Absurd Person Singular, The Removalists, Waiting for Godot, Hurry Up and Wait (co-production with deBase Theatre Company), Eating Ice Cream With Your Eyes Closed, Beckett x3, Maxine Mellor’s Mystery Project (co-production with State Library of Queensland). As Co-Sound Designer: The August Moon, Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome: A Shakespeare Commentary (co-production with Bell Shakespeare Company), Stones in his Pockets. As Composer/Sound Designer: Dead Puppet Society: The Harbinger, The Timely Death of Victor Blott. I-Pin Lin’s productions: Bamboo, Harmony, 4orces and 1984–2005; QUT Dance: Current, Fade Away, Accented Bodies, Altered States. Positions: Affiliate Artist, Queensland Theatre Company (2014), Associate Artist/Head of Audio, Queensland Theatre Company (2011); Emerging Artist, Queensland Theatre Company (2010); Tone Black Productions (Company Owner), Lecturer – QUT.

Daniel Evans DIRECTORIAL ASSOCIATE

Queensland Theatre Company: As Director/Co-creator: As Director: The China Incident. Other Credits: As Director: The Good Room: Rabbit, Single Admissions; Griffith University: Superfamousnobodies, Wide Awake & Wasted, Oedipus The King, DNA, Here Goes Nothing, Face To The Wall, Antigone, Totally Epic & Utterly Lame, Big Hair In America. As Writer: Vodka Cranberry Soda, Never For Ever, The Lady Of The House Of Love, Ivy Shambitt & The Sound Machine, Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind. As Writer/Director: the little red company: How To Make Snow. The Good Room: Holy Guacamole. Metro Arts Independents: The Reunion (with Rebecca Meston). As Co-Deviser: The Nest: Eve; The Good Room: Where We Begin, I Should Have Drunk More Champagne. Television: Producer: Southern Star: Big Brother 2009-2014. Writer: SBS: Eurovision Song Contest 2009/10. Positions: Co-Founder: The Good Room. Contributor: frankie Magazine. Performance Producer: Metro Arts, 2009 – 2012. Co- Director: National Young Writers’ Festival 2009/10. Awards: Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2014-2015. Training: Bachelor of Creative Industries (Interdisciplinary), Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

ABOUT BLACK SWAN STATE THEATRE COMPANY

Black Swan State Theatre Company is Western Australia’s Flagship Theatre Company and one of Australia’s foremost theatre companies. Since its inception in 1991, Black Swan has earned both critical and popular acclaim for its world premiere productions and highly distinctive (re)interpretations of international theatre classics – all of which are infused with the unique culture of Western Australia. These have included such landmark productions as Bran Nue Dae, Corrugation Road, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, Cloudstreet (Perth, Sydney, London and Dublin seasons), The Odyssey, and more recently, The Sapphires (Perth, Canberra, London and Korea seasons).

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kate Cherry, Black Swan has created the Rio Tinto Black Swan Commissions, a commissioning program investing into WA’s creative future and showcasing Western Australian stories. The Company also runs professional development programs for emerging Western Australian artists, including the Emerging Writers Group and Emerging Artists and Resident Artists programs.

Black Swan State Theatre Company has been Resident Company in the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia since 2011. In its inaugural season in the State Theatre Centre, Black Swan presented the world premiere of Rising Water, the first piece written by Tim Winton specifically for the stage. The company has since staged and toured two critically acclaimed Winton plays. In the same year, Black Swan was the first Australian theatre company to broadcast a live stage performance, when Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Kate Cherry, was broadcast in real time to audiences across regional Western Australia. Live broadcasts have since become an annual event for Black Swan, as part of the Company’s annual regional touring and engagement programs.

Performing in its new home at the State Theatre Centre has resulted in a surge of popularity for Black Swan: In 2011 over 52,000 people attended a Black Swan production at the , with many more attending a Black Swan performance at national or international venues.

For 2014, the mainstage season of six plays contains a mix of classics and new work, and two plays in the Studio Underground as part of the new initiative called Black Swan Lab which will provide dynamic opportunities for ambitious artistic collaborations. In its inaugural year, the Black Swan Lab presented two world premieres, Flood by Perth writer Chris Isaacs which was part of Fringe World Festival 2014 and The House on The Lake by Aidan Fennessy.

Highlights of Black Swan’s 2014 season include:

• A sold-out and extended season of Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Kate Cherry with Sigrid Thornton as Blanche DuBois. • Roger Hodgman directed a large WA cast in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. • The World Premiere of Dust, set in Perth 2014, by acclaimed Australian playwright Suzie Miller and commissioned by Rio Tinto. • International actor Greta Scacchi and her daughter Leila George with actor Andrew McFarlane starred in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Kate Cherry. • Peter Rowsthorn featured in the role of comedian Max Prince in Neil Simon’s comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor.

For further information please visit: www.bsstc.com.au