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Theatre

7-1978 Australia: Australia's magazine of the performing arts 2(12) July 1978 Robert Page Editor

Lucy Wagner Editor

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Recommended Citation Page, Robert and Wagner, Lucy, (1978), Theatre Australia: Australia's magazine of the performing arts 2(12) July 1978, Theatre Publications Ltd., New Lambton Heights, 54p. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theatreaustralia/20

Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Theatre Australia: Australia's magazine of the performing arts 2(12) July 1978

Description Contents: Departments 2 Comment 3 Quotes and Queries 8 Letters 9 Whispers, Rumours and Facts 50 Guide: Theatre, Opera, Dance Spotlight 5 Canberra Theatre Centre — Marguerite Wells 6 The askM and the Everyman Experience — Sol run Hoaas 7 Katharine reviews this year’s Playwrights Conference Features 11 's Lost , Part 2 — Ross Thorne 14 The Australian Film & Television School 16 Rex & Jim International 18 Hungary has never known avant-garde Theatre — Bogdan Gieraczynski Playscript 33 Marx — Act 1, Ron Blair Dance 40 Poppy as their creation — William Shoubridge WA Ballet Company's Winter Season — Terry Owen Hans Brenaa’s Master Classes in Ballet — Terry Owen Figaro a happy medium — David Gyger Theatre Reviews 21 VIC Oh; Let me in — Suzanne Spunner Departmental — Raymond Stanley Troylus and Cressida — Vi Richards 23 NSW Da — Robert Page A Day in the Death of Joe Egg — Adrian Wintle Isn't it Pathetic at his Age — Greg Curran What Every Woman Knows; Spokesong — Lucy Wagner 26 SA Marx — Michael Morley The inW ter's Tale — Bruce McKendry 28 WA A Streetcar Named Desire — Collin O’Brien Waiting for Godat — Cliff iG llam 29 QLD — Don Batchelor City Sugar — Veronica Kelly Rocky Horror Show; Young Mo — 31 ACT Act Now — Marguerite Wells 32 TAS Tasmanian Survey — Karl Hubert Richard Fotheringham Film 46 Records 48 Books 49 Elizabeth Riddell Roger Coveil John McCallum

Publisher Theatre Publications Ltd., New Lambton Heights, 54p

This serial is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/theatreaustralia/20 7 ^ 1 - 0 9 9± ]~H£ I m • How_ much do directors need to know f about what makes ' actor s tick? ...or producers about the law?.. ...or production managers about film equipment?

Not much? And for people who’d just Just enough to do the job? love to get behind a camera, Well, we at the Open (External) Program of the Australian Film and We give hands-on experience in film and video, and opportunities Television School happen to think these things are pretty important. to learn other basic production skills in our workshops, short courses After all — what about the producer who's got the money, is ready and seminars. Our fees are reasonable and we design our training to shoot, and suddenly lands a writ for a defamatory script? to suit people with other work commitments. And isn't it the production manager who needs to know in a hurry Thousands of people around Australia have already participated what is the best equipment to produce a special effect, and where to in Open Program activities. get it? And how many directors have never really understood how actors w ork and were afraid to ask? Interested? Write to: Open (External) Program Australian Film and Television School Think we’ve got a point ? PO Box 126, North Ryde 2113 Or telephone: (02)887 1666 The Open Program provides training and retraining opportunities in these and all sorts of other industry-related skills — like marketing, small film company management, production management, camera assisting, and continuity. We can also design workshops and course to suit your particular needs. Australian Film and Television School Theatre A ustralia Departments 2 Comment 3 Quotes and Queries 8 Letters 9 Whispers, Rumours and Facts 50 Guide: Theatre, Opera, Dance July 1978 Spotlight 5 Canberra Theatre Centre — Marguerite Wells Volume 2 No. 12 6 The Mask and the Everyman Experience — Sol run Hoaas 7 reviews this year’s Playwrights Conference Features 11 Melbourne's Lost Theatres, Part 2 — Ross Thorne 14 The Australian Film & Television School 16 Rex & Jim International 18 Hungary has never known avant-garde Theatre — Bogdan Gieraczynski Playscript 33 Marx — Act 1, Ron Blair Dance 40 Poppy as their creation — William Shoubridge 42 WA Ballet Company's Winter Season — Terry Owen 43 Hans Brenaa’s Master Classes in Ballet — Terry Owen Opera 44 Figaro a happy medium — David Gyger Theatre Reviews 21 VIC Oh; Let me in — Suzanne Spunner Departmental — Raymond Stanley Troylus and Cressida — Vi Richards 23 NSW Da — Robert Page A Day in the Death of Joe Egg — Adrian Wintle Isn't it Pathetic at his Age — Greg Curran What Every Woman Knows; Spokesong — Lucy Wagner 26 SA Marx — Michael Morley The Winter's Tale — Bruce McKendry 28 WA A Streetcar Named Desire — Collin O’Brien Waiting for Godat — Cliff Gillam 29 QLD King Lear — Don Batchelor City Sugar — Veronica Kelly Rocky Horror Show; Young Mo — Richard Fotheringham 31 ACT Act Now — Marguerite Wells 32 TAS Tasmanian Survey — Karl Hubert

Film 46 Elizabeth Riddell Records 48 Roger Coveil Books 49 John McCallum rational WOLLDNGON8 ! Theatre Opera Dance

- V 1- , '■ Guidep50 Theatre Australia

Editor: Robert Page Executive Editor: Lucy Wagner Manager: Jaki Gothard

Advisory Board: John Bell, Graeme Blundell, Ellen Braye, Katharine Brisbane, Vivian Chalwyn, Gordon The flow of theatrical traffic between Aust­ Girl, Godspell and Pippin, and also started the Chater, John Clark, Michael Crosby, W.A. ralia and the two major countries of English trend of putting Australian artists into these big Enright, Jack Hibberd, Ken Horler, Garrie speaking theatre, Britain and the US, seems to shows, like Johnny Lockwood and Johnny Hutchinson, Robert Jordan, Philip Mqson, Stan be very much on the up. And at last it looks as if Farnham. Marks, Jake Newby, Phil Noyce, Raymond the one-way system that made the journey from Omodei, Philip Parsons, Diana Sharpe, Ken The latest in the long line of these shows is, of Southgate, Raymond Stanley, Elizabeth Sweeting, this end so frustrating and usually impossible, is course, A Chorus Line, still running in Marlis Thiersch, John Timlin, Tony Trench, slowly becoming two-way (and could perhaps Melbourne, but there is also plenty more on the Guthrie Worby, . become a full free-way system with a bit more way. With Michael Edgley, Brodziak and J C road work en route). Williamson’s Productions have just completed an Advertising: Jaki Gothard/Debbie Cockle Following Benjamin Franklin and the impact exciting looking line-up of drama, dance and Artist: Henry Cho it has made in the West End (Richard Wherrett’s opera from overseas that will be touring here in photo has recently been used in Plays and the next eighteen months or so. The drama front Players to advertise the E15 acting school — kicks off with Dracula this August, a new and Correspondents: with Chater’s on the cover), though sadly not subtly sensuous version of the blood-sucking N.S.W.: Editors (049) 67-4470 enough to keep it running for much longer, gentleman’s adventures. Annie, the tear-jerking Vic.: Raymond Stanley (03) 419-1204 Williamsons The Club — renamed The Players Qld.: Don Batchelor (07) 269-3018 Broadway musical follows, and later another W.A.: Joan Ambrose (09) 299-6639 — will be following in its tracks to and thriller called Deathtrap. It will be interesting to S.A.: Michael Morley (08) 275-2204 the States, though there to Washington as see how the much less obviously commercial duo opposed to Broadway. It is only sad that the of Chekhov’s The Bear and Cocteau’s The Theatre Australia gratefully acknowledges the London producers have not seen fit, as they did Human Voice that Liv Ullman is coming over to financial assistance of the Australia Council, the with Benjamin Franklin, to take the package of Literature Board of the Australia Council, the play, will do for the entrepreneurs. Interesting, Cultural Grants Board, the the excellent and commercially successful too, that an actress from the outre cinema of the Arts Grants Advisory Committee of South Nimrod production. As it is Michael Blakemore sixties (though a fine talent) has become a figure Australia, the Cultural Activities will be putting together a predominantly English that the public will pay to see, whatever the Department, the Victorian Ministry of the Arts, The Western Australian Arts Council and the cast; let’s hope it doesn’t have the same effect as dramas she is in. Assistance of the University of Newcastle. the English production of Don s Party, that of For ballet lovers the “greatest hits” approach merely confirming all the worst British has been taken, with assorted stars as the order Manuscripts: prejudices about Australians. of the day, from “Stars of World Ballet” to the Manuscripts and editorial correspondence should Last July director Alan Schneider came over Dance Theatre of Harlem, to the Full Bolshoi be forwarded to the editorial office, 80 Elizabeth from America for the Peter Summerton Ballet, to “Rudi and Friends”. And the D’Oyly Street, Mayfield, NSW 2304. Telephone (049) 67-4470. Foundation, and was here while Don't Piddle Carte Opera Company of ninety plus their full Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts and Against The Wind, Mate, was having its first symphony orchestra will be here next May to visual material supplied for this magazine, the full production at Jane Street, . This year cater for the G & S fans. publishers and their agents accept no liability for he is scheduled to direct that play on Broadway As Michael Edgley makes clear in Quotes and loss or damage which may occur. Unsolicited in the near future, after it was picked up by New manuscripts and visual material will not be Queries, Australian actors will be working in the returned unless accompanied by a stamped York producers Sandy Farber and Stanley drama productions, but perhaps the next step for addressed envelope. Opinions expressed in signed Barnett. our increasingly adventurous entrepreneurs is to articles are not necessarily those of the editors. And it’s not just our playwrights. After fifteen find the right Australian shows to export months travel and intense theatre study in overseas — just to have some of them buried Subscriptions and Advertising: Europe, designer Shaun Gurton is working in under the masks of Sesame Street characters for The subscription rate is $18.00 post free within London as assistant to Timothy O’Brien and an opening in Japan is not enough. Australia. Cheques should be made payable to Tazeena Firth for the next six months. He is Theatre Australia and posted to the publisher’s working on a number of their commissions, address. including the Rice/Webber Evita, and opera For advertising information contact Jaki Gothard/ designs for Covent Garden, and, would you Debbie Cockle — Sydney Office (02) 27-4028, believe, Sydney! Perhaps as a small concession 6th Floor, 29 Reiby Place, Sydney, NSW 2000. to the Australia Council’s direct and indirect huge payments to British artists, the Australia is published by Theatre Council of Great Britain has awarded him a Publications Ltd., 80 Elizabeth Street, Mayfield, small bursary for the period. NSW 2304. Telephone (049) 67-4470. Distributed The Queen, too, has once again recognised by subscription and through theatre foyers etc. by theatre in the Antipodes, and has this year Theatre Publications Ltd., and to newsagents awarded Kenn Brodziak the Order of the British throughout Australia by Gordon and Gotch (A’asia) Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney. Wholly Set up Empire for his services. Brodziak has indeed by Tell & Sell Promotions, printed in Australia by brought to Australia much of the best that Leader Publishing House. Britain has had to offer. It is he who has © Theatre Publications Ltd. All rights reserved introduced here Moira Lister, Joyce Grenfell, except where specified. The cover price is maximum recommended retail price only. , Canterbury Tales, The Boys in the Registered for posting as a periodical — category B. Band, , Derek Nimmo, Charlie

2 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 London since March last year and there is no ERROL BRAY, Shopfront Theatre for end in sight to its current season. Because of its Young People. unprecedented success in the National “From 4th August 1978 the Shopfront Theatre and Ayckbourn’s agent insisted that it Theatre is offering young playwrights from all be produced and presented in Australia by a over Australia the opportunity to work prestige organisation capable of giving it intensively on their craft with professional national exposure with a top cast. writers, directors and actors for three days. At the time of going to press six top actors Young writers between the ages of ten and have agreed to play in the Sydney season. They eighteen are invited to submit scripts — for TV, are Carmen Duncan, , Kate film, radio, theatre, puppets, mime; any drama Fitzpatrick, , and medium — and to apply for inclusion in the Barry Creighton. Weekend. All young writers will be dealt with The fact that the AETT was granted the individually and not as representatives of any rights indicates the high esteem with which the institution. No-one will be invited unless he or Trust is held by overseas managements. The full she submits a script. production is scheduled to open at the Theatre The Theatre’s complex includes a house Royal in October and-together with a number of where the young playwrights will stay so that major artists and properties ranging from jazz to the Weekend can also be a process of finding out classical ballet that the Trust is currently about each other’s work. The programme will negotiating to obtain for Australia — is a major include performances and videotapes of plays step in the return of the Trust to the position of written by young people and submitted for last as Jean Cocteau in his ballet Poppy. Photo: Branco Gaica. the top non commercial producer of quality year’s Weekend. We are planning to visit live theatre in Australia”. theatre and videotapes of work done by our senior writers will be shown. COMEDY AT THE COMEDY The Weekend will be supervised by the EDUCATION NOT CONDUCIVE Theatre’s staff of four and one or two of the WILTON MORLEY, Parachute Pro­ senior writers will live in. Professional writers d u c tio n s . “How wonderful for theatregoers in BARBARA MANNING, Director, who have already agreed to attend are: Peter this country that the Comedy Theatre Salamanca Theatre Co. “In June 1977 TA Kenna, Alex Buzo, Dorothy Hewett, Margaret (Melbourne) has been sold to someone with such printed a two page article on “The Tasmanian Kelly, Michael Cove, John Dingwall, Bill obvious theatrical flair and foresight as Mr Paul Theatre In Edication Company”, by Axel Kruse. Harding and Richard Bradshaw. Other writers Dainty. When it comes to stating his innovative The Company now has a new name: will be approached and we plan to have a large new artistic policy, Mr Dainty does not mince The Salamanca Theatre Company number of actors with us this year. Last year words. “Why should we turn out Australian (Tasmanian Theatre in Education Co Ltd). eighteen professionals attended. stuff just because we’re in Australia, the public This change of name was made mainly The Weekend will be free to young writers becomes bored by it.” Does this mean we can because the word “education” is not conducive except for a contribution to S10 towards the finally rid ourselves of all those dreadful old to getting good audiences for community shows food, and we anticipate that we will be able to Australian farces like Don’s Party, The Club — apparently sounds too much like a boring offer some help with fares for interstate and and The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin? Yes, lecture that will be “good” for you rather than country people. at last we can sit back and enjoy Doctor at Sea, as entertainment. Enquiries, phone Sydney 588 3948. Scripts to: Doctor In Trouble and Doctor at the Comedy The Company's headquarters is at Salamanca 88 Carlton Parade, Carlton, NSW 2218. without any fear of overtaxing our minds. Place, a row of historic stone warehouses now I only hope the public don’t become bored at the Salamanca Community Arts Centre. HOLE IN THE POCKET all this good theatre. Mr Dainty’s latest Eight members of the company will leave in late August for a tour of the USA, playing in production Love Thy Neighbour at Sydney’s JOAN AMBROSE Theatre Royal has just finished playing to 50% schools, colleges, universities and community “Theatre funding having been perenially a of the audiences The Club attracted. Maybe centres right across America, taking in Hawaii, financial problem, it is highly probable that at they’ll have better luck at the Comedy. San Francisco, Seattle, Grand Rapids, St Louis, some time in the past someone has staged a Washington, Boston and finishing at the Eugene production with the title “Hole in the Pocket”. O’Neill Memorial Theatre Centre in Waterford, TOP TRUST PRODUCTION This correspondent, however, has heard only of Connecticut. The ninth member of the the stimulating concept which is being presented company, Richard Meredith has been awarded a in July at the Hole in the Wall Theatre in Perth. JOHN LITTLE, Promotions Officer, Director’s Development Grant by the Theatre Director John Milson has arranged a workshop A E T T . “Despite heavy competition not only Board of the Australia Council and will leave to give young actors and directors an from subsidised theatre companies, but also Tasmania at the end of August. Richard opportunity to work in the exacting professional from the major commercial managements Meredith has been with the company for five throughout Australia, the AETT has been atmosphere of the Hole. years.” Damien Jamieson, who won a Theatre Board granted the Australian rights to produce Alan grant for Young Directors and who has been Ayckbourn’s most successful play, Bedroom NATIONAL YOUNG working with Joan Pope’s CATS, is directing Farce. Bedroom Farce has been playing to PLAYWRIGHT’S WEEKEND Orson Welles’ Moby Dick Rehearsed. This play capacity audiences at the National Theatre in

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 3 has a four day season starting on June 28th and STEPHIN HARGREAVE, producer. about the shows he has lined up for the coming is followed for a similar period starting on July “The 1970’s are a time of extreme un­ months, and his involvement with building 5th, by Sam Shepard’s Geography of a Horse employment within the Australian theatre; the entertainment centres for capital cities. Dreamer directed by Stephen Amos who was theatrical profession is severely over-crowded, “The shows we’ve just been lining up promise formerly with the drama section of Arts Access. with insufficient outlets for the development of to be some of the best Australia’s seen, with The company for Hole in the Pocket season has Australian talent. more dramas and musicals than ever. First of been formed with young actors mainly from the The Five-Sided Theatre was born from these course there's the stars of world ballet, which University Dramatic Society.” conditions. It is a non-profit organisation will be followed by the Georgian State Dance founded by a group of Sydney professional Company. Two Broadway shows we’re bringing SEEKING THEIR people who, tired of spending half their over are Dracula, an erotic and stimulating lives doing nothing, thought it was time to interpretation of Count Dracula’s nightly create their own opportunities. It has two aims; escapades, and little orphan Annie. Liv Ullman JOHN CUFFE, Fortune Theatre Co., to allow professional theatre people to advance will also be appearing in two plays she is C a n b e rra . their skills and provide good theatre at working on at the moment. Next year, among “The company has been in existence for just reasonable prices. other things, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company under a year, formed by three people, Pam The company was officially formed on April will be coming, and thriller called Rosenberg, Pat Hutchinson and myself. Its main 9th with Stephin Hargreave as producer and Deathtrap. We are endeavouring to involve function so far has been to provide lunchtime Julie Stafford as artistic director. Our first Australians, and there will be 90% of Australian theatre, presenting predominantly plays by production will be Lovers by Brian Friel, actors in the casts of the plays and musicals; I Australian playwrights. During its first year of opening August 10th at the Kirk Gallery, Surry hope also to be including Australians in the operation the company has made its mark on the Hills. Sesame Street Spectacular which will be community by its continual high standard, both happening next year. for lunchtime shows and performances in The cultural element of what we bring in is various high schools and colleges in ACT. ALL POINTS WEST important, but I'm far too old not to do this for Indeed, both the company and I were nominated profit. We think that all these things will be for the Critics Circle Award for drama (albeit in TONY YOULDEN, Administrator, successful, you can’t eat off prestige. We don’t the ACT). National Theatre, Perth. need prestige, but if we’re successful we will The future policy of the company is to provide “The National Theatre Company in Perth are make a lot of money. Canberra and its environs with a first class full participating in the Western Australian Arts We are talking at the moment with the Wran time professional company. This, it is hoped will Council’s Arts Access programme by providing government about an entertainment centre for give further work opportunities for professional drama services for the whole of the Western Sydney — the Government are looking for a actors, directors and administrative staff who Australian Country areas. submission that includes the Haymarket. A could come and work in Canberra, and thus Since the scheme started in March this year consortium may put in money, but the main broaden the scope of the standard by their members of the National Theatre Company point is not who builds it, but that it gets built. It expertise. Young actors could also gain more have travelled as far as Port Hedland in the needs to be in the city centre, to be totally experience when first starting out in the hard North West and Bridgetown in the South. flexible and to have adequate car parking. The world of professional theatre. We hope tha funds will be available next year Perth centre is like that, and after two years it is But as is the usual story, all this will depend to employ a permanent community access team beginning to break even and will this year show on money. The high standard we hope to to service the country areas. a small profit. I don’t see any danger in one promote cannot be done on a week to week basis Activities under the programme include entrepreneur building it; it would still be open to as is the case at present. Canberra does need a workshops in both the performing and technical everyone. In Perth we have a commitment to first class professional company, whether or not areas.” present a certain amount of entertainment in it Fortune can be the beginning of it remains to be each year, and we pay the full amount of rent seen.” CENTRE OF ENTERTAINMENT for it when we do.” (All plays and musicals will be presented in FIVE SIDED THEATRE MICHAEL EDGLEY just back from America association with Kenn Brodziak — J C l _ talked at his recent press conference in Sydney Williamson Productions.)

* established 1967

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4 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 The Trust’s secondary function (after ’using No culture ever and managing the Centre’), is to promote and encourage the development and presentation of, comes out of that and public interest and participation in, the arts. The grants that the Trust manages to extract for emptiness this purpose go mainly on bringing in ‘present­ ations which for financial reasons would not otherwise come'. In 1976/77, one of the three Canberra Theatre plays supported (out of 19 functions funded by Centre the Trust), was local, and that had moved to the Playhouse after a highly successful season at Theatre 3. This was not promoting and Marguerite Wells encouraging local talent, but no-risk entrepren­ eurship. Every few weeks, I send the Canberra Theatre The local groups that get to use the Centre Centre staff into a fluster. When compiling the tend to be large-cast musicals, which have Theatreguide, I ring to ask them what plays they outside subsidies because they involve so many will be staging. “Oh dear”, is the reply I have people, i.e. ‘public participation’ in the arts. often had, and 1 hear the pages flicking over They would probably use the Theatre Centre frantically, “There are plenty of concerts and anyway, because they are the give-your- daughter-a-whirl-on-the-stage-Mrs-Worthington films”. Then hopefully, “You don’t want concerts or films, do you?” productions where the cast would be willing to As it happens, I don’t. I want to go to the Canberra Theatre Centre subsidise their own performance, if someone else ‘modest but handsome’ 1,200-seat Canberra didn’t do it for them. Small cast plays are of Theatre, or better, the 312-seat Playhouse to see works are increasingly produced outside course another matter. The whole of the plays. But the Playhouse can only have got its Canberra, but cut no ice here. (Of course, entrepreneurial policy smacks of big-city name in a moment of wicked cynicism on the Grapevine Productions applied to the Theatre cultural imperialism: bring quality productions part of the Canberra Theatre Trust that Trust for support from the Trust’s ‘entre­ from interstate and give the locals a bit of a turn nominally — legally — administers it. This preneurial’ funds to enable them to use the on the stage too, which, except for Fortune month the Playhouse offers us The Sound of Playhouse, but instead got $500 guarantee Theatre, snug in their foyer, leaves ‘quality’ local Music; last month it was a dance/mime against loss on condition that they didn t use it!) theatre out in the cold. Literally out in the cold, performance and Dale Woodward’s puppets; the To quote one of the Theatre trustees, ”It 's better for the sad anomaly is that the theatre centre of month before, nothing that could be put in a to leave it unused”. Canberra is not at the Canberra Theatre Centre, Theatreguide. Not one straight play in three And so they do. Use of the Centre has but at the drill-hall style Childers Street Hall, months. The Canberra Theatre has had one play declined steadily over the past three years — 601 where there are gaps between the floorboards in those three months — East. usages in 1975, 591 in 1976 and 472 in 1977. and where in winter the audience come dressed Meanwhile, an excellent production of Attendances have followed usage; 1975, 294,947; like football crowds and stand around the one Stretch of the Imagination plays alone and 1976, 269,001; 1977, 216,235. Terry Vaughan, heater at interval. And then of course, there’s unsupported in the ramshackle and depressing, the Director, prides himself on the high Canberra Repertory at Theatre 3, which can if theatrically flexible Childers Street Hall. standards and facilities the Centre offers to also be quite chilling. But for Roger Pulvers, Fortune Theatre, one of Canberra’s four those who can afford to use it. He contrasts its whose fourth professional production is to have professional companies, is staging its lunchtime annual subsidy (for maintenance only, of such a cold welcome to Canberra, the most series in the foyer of the Canberra Theatre. (Of course), favourably with those of the chilling of all is the Canberra Theatre Centre.” course it would prefer the Playhouse, but Festival Centre, the Opera House and the ... It’s so antiseptic and barren. They always financial considerations you know ...). The Canadian National Arts Centre in Ottawa. But stress how much they have to do to keep it clean. Jigsaw Company, a professional then, a building that overflows with action What they should do is not clean it at all, then youth/children’s/TIE company whose excellent naturally costs more to run. spend the money on theatre and complain to the school holiday productions are more than The Centre is caught in limbo between being funding bodies that they’ve got no money to worthy of the Playhouse stage, also perform what its annual report calls ‘virtually a clean it...” them in Childers Street Hall. (Of course they commercial enterprise’, and a Public Service But of course no self-respecting Treasury would use the Playhouse ... if they could afford body subject to Ministerial direction, staff would permit such a wicked, irresponsible it ...). Now, probably for the first time since ceilings (life wasn't meant to be cultured), and dispersal of public funds. The Canberra Theatre Boesman and Lena two years ago, a professional Treasury. Terry Vaughan says with a world- Centre will stay clean, and for Roger Pulvers at production on tour from outside Canberra is to weary sigh, “Treasury have at last stopped least, barren: “When said ‘the play at — guess where? — Childers Street Hall! asking us ‘When will you be self-sufficient?”’ As empty space’, he wasn’t talking about the It is Witold Gombrowicz in Buenos Aires by any Canberrian knows, Treasury does have a Canberra Theatre Centre. No culture ever Roger Pulvers, a Canberra playwright whose habit of asking rather naive questions. comes out of that emptiness.”

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 5 apply some principles of Noh mask making to The Mask and the the masks for Everyman and even let myself be Everyman Experience inspired by particular Noh masks for some. The morality play deals with types or categories of people, as does Noh, although in Noh they are Solrun Hoaas not allegorical or archetypal. In Noh the voice is muffled under a full-face mask; this does not The invaluable experience of making fourteen matter as the language is archaic anyway. When masks for a production of the Von text is given priority there will be a tension Hofmannstahl Everyman, directed by Rex between the visual and the verbal as expressed Cramphorn and performed outdoors in by the half-mask, which is even more obviously Canberra in March, has forced me to some new a mask than one that covers the whole face. thoughts on masks and the curious resistance to Where to make the cut, was a problem. I don’t their use in theatre here. believe there are any rules for where it should go In most commercial theatre in the West there on a half-mask. This was decided on the basis of is a great emphasis on the physical assets or type and expression. A straight, angular cut uniqueness of the actor. These are highlighted. seemed right for Faith (I thought of the lines of Even without a star system one is very conscious some nun’s habits). I wanted a full upper lip on of who is playing the role. The mask renders the Courtesan, etc. actor anonymous — even inarticulate, if behind Some Noh masks have an intermediate a full-face mask. expression that appears to change as light and In Edward Gordon Craig’s England it was shadow play on the barely delineated features. perhaps tantamount to blasphemy to speak of The subtle effect is achieved by limiting the mask as “that paramount means of dramatic expression. Carving the mask in wood, one takes expression without which acting was bound to away and takes away until the minimum needed degenerate!” And even today it may seem a bit for the expression remains. (After three years of too simple to call it “the only right medium of training as a Noh mask maker I sculpted my first portraying the expressions of the soul as shown head in clay and found the reverse process very through the expressions of the face.” difficult; one is always tempted to add features Putting Craig’s role in theatre history aside, and build up.) Faith should appear determined these outbursts of his echo for me the frustration and severe, as well as celestial, compassionate felt by anyone who believes that theatre can be even. In trying to achieve the smoothness and visual poetry, and who is up against a theatre texture that can bring out a subtle expression, I tradition not only steeped in naturalism but also experimented with the painting and sanding exceedingly word-based. Today’s Australian the mask. For these and other reasons of more process and chalky powder used in the final theatre is more open to poetry on stage than a spiritual origin, the mask is accorded the highest stages of Noh mask making. The effect of subtle few years ago; but, so far, more to verbal poetry importance in Noh — it is more than a prop or a masks is very dependent on exploring movement than that based on visual imagery. part of a costume, something to cover up the and angle of the head in relation to lighting, and This brings me back to the mask. In my little face, allow for quick transformations, or create in this particular production lighting first over five years in Australia I have met very few illusion. If fact, the whole tone of a performance appeared at dress rehearsal. people in theatre interested in masks. Perhaps it is set by the mask as the main actor chooses the The mask for Everyman himself posed the is no coincidence that those who are tend to be mask according to the way he wishes to interpret greatest problems. Without too markedly in mime, puppetry or the visual arts. The mime the role, then decides on costume and his level of individual features, it needed to evoke self- artist recognizes that “to mask is to unmask”, acting to suit it. assured haughtiness and indolence on the one that the mask can liberate one to use the body as There is nothing in these principles for the use hand, but allow for the sudden anguish in the the prime expressive medium rather than rely of the Noh mask that is too esoteric to be applied face of Death. All of this in a half-mask, on facial muscles. in another theatre tradition. There are even Noh therefore necessarily a somewhat neutral mask. (I should point out that my comments on mask types that could work just as they are in The emotional transition brought to mind one of resistance to the mask, the actor and the mask, Western theatre; aside from the masks for young my favourite Noh masks, Kantan-otoko, are no reflection on the actors who appeared in women or young men, not all that many types although it is used to express a somewhat Everyman.) have obviously Japanese features. A particular different register. In the Noh play Kantan, a In Noh, the bare face (without make-up) is mask for a ferocious deity could well work as the man searches for enlightenment, dreams that he recognized as a mask category alongside with ghost of ’s father, without any touch of lives a life of splendor and pleasure as an god and demon masks, masks for old men, the exotic. I am as much against digging into Emperor, wakes up to find it but a dream in the ghosts or young men and women. Such antiquity for the authentic as against creating brief time it took the millet to cook and realizes unmasked main roles are considered among the pastiches of orientalia from Asian theatre the transitory nature of life. The Noh mask most difficult to play because of the control inspiration. registers searching and the elated pleasure of the required to maintain a single and natural The commissioning of a Noh mask for one dream-sequence, as well as the calm of having expression throughout without it degenerating production is unusual in Japan and would be come to the end of a search. The same mask is into a grimace when expressing strong emotion unthinkable in a Western repertory system for worn throughout. In Everyman a different mask through vigorous body movements. economic reasons; no theatre can afford for one — pale and irredescent instead of the russet When as is often, though not always the case mask to pay a months wages — a professional tones of the first — was used after the absolution with Noh, a play focuses on one single emotion averages one month to make a Noh mask, a of sins. The audience for the morality play may or emotional state, the mask is obviously a great good Noh mask today costs at least $1000. It is have been less willing to suspend its disbelief and help as it can crystallize a dominant emotion. possible to simplify the technique, however. accept that Everyman could join the angel choir And it can confront the audience with it; it is I felt it must be possible, even in materials with the same face he wore while living his life easier to avoid the human eye than the eye of such as gypsona and papier mache, to try to of worldly pleasure.

6 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 reformist; and Gone with Hardy, by David In the summing-up session on the last day a Allen, an affectionate look at the survivalist motion was passed that other older-generation behind the innocent public figure of Stan Laurel. writers should be guests at future conferences. The last two more complex plays reflecting on Other motions included confirmation of the role the conflicts between external and internal of a resident designer; and the introduction of a realities, set some sophisticated problems and resident established playwright and a composer. Katharine Brisbane some notable high points: they were The Next The conference supported in principle the reviews this year’s Greatest Pleasure, a comedy-tragedy about a need for continued participation by the Film and Playwrights’ bookmaker, by Don Scott; and The Breakwater, Television School, which had joined the AN PC a study of alcoholism by John O'Donoghue. for the second year in succession, this time in a Conference. The directors were Terry Clarke, Anne two-day seminar. But it was agreed that the Harvey and Nick Enright; the dramaturgs John content this time was unsatisfactory, being too McCallum, Collin O’Brien and Gil Armstrong. generalised and unprepared. Two votes were Canberra 1978 As an observer 1 found the level of writing, carried on the future ot Theatre Australia, recently restored to Theatre Publications Ltd Probably the nicest thing about the 1978 production and performance of a very high level, after a period in partnership with Playhouse Australian National Playwrights Conference in as was the analysis and discussion following the Press. The need for, and viability of, a national Canberra was that John Osborne was not there. final performances. theatre magazine, were aired in detail in the Jack Hibberd and Dorothy Hewett were During the workshop period six seminars were subsidy session, and the meeting directed the there, Bruce Myles, and Kris undertaken, dealing with professional problems committee to urge State and Federal 1 unding Fredrikson were there, Brian Sweeney and Bob the playwright faces. There were technical bodies to recognise the value to the profession ot Adams, Colin Ballantyne, Ken Horler, Frank discussions, a seminar on how to earn a living, a national medium of communication; and Ford and Don McKie, Penne Hackforth-Jones, one of "what is actable” and two on the design passed a vote of confidence in the editorship and Terry Clarke, Tim Robertson, Tony Youlden, problems within the workshop plays, conducted John Allen — and so on. And, of course. Bob by the resident designer Kris Fredrikson. Six management of the magazine. A motion to move the conference date to Ellis. further play readings were held in the evenings There was also Professor Ochi, of Meiji and discussed with the authors. The national January in 1980 was lost. After heated discussion had been roused by University, who is translating Poor Fellow my theatre conference, held in the period when the the fact that the newly published Old Tote Country into Japanese; and Vicki Ooi from final readings were held, was less detailed in Theatre Company season included no University who is translating Long some areas but the standard of argument rose Australian play, a unanimous vote was passed Day’s Journey into Night into Cantonese (What with the introduction of written papers. There asking that funding bodies be urged to set and makes us think we know about work?) who were seminars on touring and reviewing; the enforce quotas for Australian content in the came of their own accord. seminar on subsidy in which the chairman of the programmes they fund, in accordance with their Quite enough luminaries, as Nick Enright Theatre Board, Brian Sweeney, delivered a published policies of support lor Australian pointed out in a discussion of future paper, supported by Bob Adams, was extended work. There was a lurther vote that the conferences, without any artificial gloss. into the following day. Both men stayed on at committee approach the 1 heatre Board to urge We have had some good hard-working visitors the conference for some days afterwards. the preferred use of Australian directors, actors in the past from the great abroad, like Martin A first-rate document was read by Colin Esslin, Lloyd Richards and Helen Montagu. But Ballantyne, retiring chairman of the South and designers in our theatres. what the low profile achieved this time was a Australian Theatre Company, on the duties and There was discussion, led by Algis Butavicius, conscientious concentration upon the work in responsibilities of the chairman of a regional about the fact that the Immigration Act of 1975. hand, a minimum of press attention and a company. Ballantyne is a man who has been prohibited the employment of imported professionals while a qualitied Australian was professional use of frankness. part of Adelaide theatre for two generations. He Each year the personality of the artistic was opposed on the platform by Frank Ford, unemployed. Tony Youlden said that his director makes its imprint upon the conference. chairman of FOCUS and director of community experience at the Perth Playhouse had been that it was easier for a foreign professional to This year it was Nick Rodger: dedicated, theatre in SA — a man equally dedicated to, and immigrate than to work temporarily in this organised, very much concerned with the experienced in, regional theatre. country. Chris Hood, who said he was writing a practical outcome both of innovations in the Each conference throws up a special book on Australia's immigration policy, said creative work and of the specific problems raised personality. This time it was Betty Roland, that while the act was specific the Minister had in the theatre conference held over the last four whose play Granite Peak, written in the 50s, was absolute powers of discretion. The matter was days. given a reading. The conviction of its style, so Specific, I think, is the word to describe the different from other conference works, together put aside for the conference committee's style of the fortnight. with the author's tale of how the play was investigation. Firstly there were the plays; each an "almost’’ produced for the stage in three These were a few of the points of argument. As you see, it was a workmanlike conference. innovation in its way, unlike anything recently countries before becoming a TV drama, and of The months to come will show what seeds grow familiar to Australian audiences. There were how she kept herself as a writer over fifty years, two short plays: The Centenarian, by Philip was sobering to those who heard her. from it. Ryall, a comedy in which a straightforward The Theatre Awards presented at the Playwright’s Conference by Tony Llewellyn Jones were as follows: dramatic situation about the death of Grandma

assumes absurdist dimensions; and Brisbane is S o u th W e s te r n Burning, a painter’s experimental word picture, NSW V ic to r ia A u s tr a lia Q u e e n s la n d A u s tr a lia John Krummel Geoff Kelso by Cecilia Charnock. B e s t A c to r Tony Sheldon Gordon Chater Best Actress Kris McQuade S a n d y G ore Barbara West Pat B is h o p J u d y N u n n There were three documentary plays, or plays Diane Chamberlain Best Director J o h n Bell Rodney Fisher Colin George Jeremy Muir-Smith John Milson at least based on fact: The Death of Lorca, a Raymond Omodei treatise on the ^discriminatory nature of war. Best Designer Anne Frazer Anne Frazer Rodney Ford Jennifer Carseldine A n n a F re e h Jennifer Flowers Geoff Kelso by Chris Hood; No Room for Dreamers, a ballad Best New Talent Kerry Walker Sally Cahill Michael Siberry Best New Play T h e C lu b Elocution of Elocution of Inner Voices In n e r V o i c e s play by George Hutchinson on the life and death David W illiamson Benjamin Franklin Benjam in Franklin Louis Nowra Louis Nowra Steve Spears Steve Spears of William Chidley, Sydney's eccentric sex-

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 7 Dear Sir, their artistic judgement. If Equity in Britain says that his crit was unpronounced and because of I am sorry that Paul lies has taken my article they should get a cut, then no doubt they should. this unjust. as a poker rammed up the successes of the For all this I accept that, in the case of At least with your critic there is some irony in theatre he works for, and I am relieved to be Nimrod at least, "subsidized theatre audiences his review which he obviously has not the reassured that Nimrod does not intend to be are seeing better productions than they would do perspective to grasp. That is that in reviewing drawn into the dangerous area I adumbrated. I without the profits of the market place.” I just Don't Piddle Against The Wind. Mate he has am genuinely pleased that the pot is boiling so wish that unsubsidized potential audiences could spent his time not criticising the play itself, but nicely for him. see them too. telling us what his acquaintances thought of it, 1 stand by my argument, however, and he has Yours sincerely, then criticising the QTC audience and then gets not met it. I am quite aware that subsidised Douglas Flintoff involved in a political argument over Right for theatres in this country feel under commercial Brooklyn, NSW Work, which is a Queensland political issue! All pressure. If 1 were being adventurous (a thing this could be excused as ah over reaction from a one dares not be regarding the theatre in this PS. Mr lies finds it curious that I make no critic who unfortunately happens to live in a country) I might argue that companies with reterence to the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. I fascist state; however this can't be used as an subsidies approaching a million dollars a year find it curious that he fails to recognize my first excuse because we the audience live under the can afford a much more radical attempt at sentence as a direct, admittedly dismissive, same Draconian laws and yet liked the play. bringing popular audiences into the theatre reference to that terrifying entrepreneurial Thus he has shown there are still plays around than they do. Instead of spending a fortune organization. that critics can become sophistical about, that for the 1 or 2% who can afford their audiences can boo (even if it be critics) and much shows [pace Alex Buzo — people don't really Dear Sir, more show that theatre as still alive and well — enjoy spending all that money on rock concerts It is not often that lighting designers or pity he couldn't see this. either, but rock concerts are so much more lighting design rate many lines in reviews or As Norman Lindsay wrote “no work is ever exciting) they might spend less money and let articles, so it was even more of a blow, both viciously attacked unless it has some genuine people in for nothing, and really make theatre an personally and professionally, to find in your value”. important small-c cultural activity. This does May issue that correspondent William Yours faithfully, not, however, apply to Paul Illes' theatre. Shoubridge, in his admirably lengthy article on Robert Morris My point was not that commercial and the Dance Company's Poppy, credits Mr George Dutton Park, Queensland. subsidised theatre are antithetical, but that a pre­ Gittoes with “lazer holography”, omits any occupation with bums and seats can be reference to a quite substantial, co-ordinated Dear Sir, stultifying and destructive land, again, I am film sequence, for which Mr Gittoes was relieved that in Nimrod's case it may not be). responsible, but then also credits him with Geoffrey Hutton's article on the star system Even if we conservatively accept that subsidy “lighting design" for which the writer was (Feb 1978) surely doesn’t reflect the views of does not free theatres from commercial pressure, responsible. most playgoers. If Mr Hutton remembers the we are surely entitled to hope that it gives them I m sure Mr Gittoes would object, and rightly stars of the past, he certainly has forgotten many other details. some freedom to challenge audiences rather so, had the credits been reversed. than pander to them. There is, of course, an Keep on printing, though! Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard were well implied artistic judgement in these comments. I known here in shows such as Going Up, Mary, cannot see that the theatre produced by the Yours faithfully, Oh, Lady, Lady and The Cabaret Girl long commercial/subsidised managements at present Laraine R Wheeler, before going overseas, and the slighting remark will have the far-reaching and culturally Cl- Dance Company (NSW) about Our Glad maligns our greatest musical valuable impact that I, and one or two others, Woolloomooloo, NSW star. Her revivals of The Maid were at The would like theatre to have. That is a subject for Firm's instigation and always drew in the another article. In the meantime I acknowledge Dear Sir, customers. We may be sentimental about our that Nimrod produces some very good shows, in I was a member of the Queensland audience favourites but I doubt whether a poor show ever spite of their commercial prudence. of Don't Piddle Against The Wind. Mate who succeeded just because it featured a popular star. The whole business of The Club still worries took it upon himself to boo David Rowbotham's Also, what about Glad’s other shows? After all, me. Ten lines after informing us of the crit of this play by the Queensland Theatre she starred in forty eight plays during her fifty "enormous" risks involved in transferring it to Company and am not ashamed of doing so. years on stage. the Royal, Mr lies remarks that the transfer was Now in your May edition of Theatre Marie Tempest may have played in many pre-planned "because we knew of the MTC’s Australia, your critic Richard Fotheringham poor plays, but surely Hay Fever and Dear success with the original production.” He can't supports Rowbotham; well more fool him. Octopus were worthwhile. Mr Hutton forgets have it both ways. He says that the production However he calls this booing of Rowbotham a Dorothy Brunton, Florence Young, Oscar was begun at Nimrod in order to “recoup “nasty spin-off”. It’s this ganging up of critics I Asche, Claude Flemming, Carrie Moore, Strella rehearsal and stage costs” — costs which surely object to. Don't audiences have as much right to Wilson and so many others. He may consider could have been, with not much risk, recouped their opinion as critics: perhaps because they pay the star system outmoded, but if we had a few of from the expected successful commercial season, for their seats they have more right? Why should those great personalities today the theatre might leaving Nimrod with public money for another your critic Richard Fotheringham consider be in a better financial shape. After all, most of production. In the matter of directors' critics above audience censor? What your critic us go to the theatre to be entertained, and the percentages I said that it was a good way to has failed to discern is that the audience booed presence of a popular star gives added lustre. reward them for their commercial successes, but not because they wished to protest that Mr A. C a p e rn I still hope they can be trusted not to let it colour Rowbotham wrote a bad review of the play, but The Gap, Brisbane.

8 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 management is considering staging Rostand's success in the current Pitlochy Festival Theatre Ray Stanley’s Cyrano de Bergerac, will they please consider season, so maybe a management like Marian David Ravenswood for the title role? David tells Street will pick it up here ... Despite his horror of me it's the one part it's his ambition to play ... flying, hear strong whispers that Danny La Rue WHISPERS Michael Pate will be returning to the stage after will be jetting to Australia for a tour. In the past many years to be Liv Ullmann's leading man in we’ve missed out on quite a few top-liners RUMOURS Chekhov’s The Bear. because of their fear of being airborne, one being Ever wondered what happened to Peter Herntione Gingold ... Hasn't yet been decided, O’Shaughnessy? Well, he’s touring England when Derek Nimmo comes back to Australia, playing Praed in a production of Mrs Warren's whether he'll play new cities with Why Don't Profession, with fellow Australians Lloyd You Stay for Breakfast?, or return to his old Lamble and Walter Brown also in the cast ... stamping grounds with a new attraction. One And another Australian in England, Darlene thing is certain: he’ll time it to be in the Johnson, is in the current Stratford season Victorian capital so as not to miss the Some managements might take note that acting in The Tempest and Measure for Melbourne Cup. radio can still be a star builder. Understand that Measure ...Understand Alexander Buzo’s If you happen to be statistically minded, some the recent South Australian Theatre Company's Makassar Reef is having an American premiere Press figures for last year's Edinburgh Festival country tour of The Glass Menagerie broke at the ATC Theatre, Washington, August 31, may be of interest. It was covered by 311 quite a few records when large audiences turned directed by Gregory Falls. journalists, of whom 90 came from 22 countries out to see Patricia Kennedy in the flesh, after Looks like presenting an Offenbach operatta outside Britain. Some 6,000 column centimetres having admired her on radio for years ... is going to become an annual event with the of coverage came in newspapers and magazines, Following mounting by the MTC for him of Victorian Opera Company. Last year it was La plus over 130 hours of broadcasting time. Press Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, and his subsequent tour Belle Helene, this coming October it's Orpheus material was distributed to an international of the production, Wilton Morley apparently in the Underworld, and next year The Grand press list of over 2,000 journalists and has a similar deal going for Once a Catholic, to Duchess of Gerolstein. It’ll be the first time for broadcasters. 20 press conferences were held, be staged by the MTC in November ... Believe well over fifty years latter has been performed and there were distributed 420,000 copies of the is preparing another of his one- in this country, and in each case it'll be the same programme brochure, 75,000 posters in three man shows for early presentation next year by ‘Offenbach team': star Suzanne Steele, director sizes, 750 showcards, 1,500 programme posters, Eric Dare. What went wrong with Reg's plans Betty Pounder, designer Kenneth Rowell and 5,300 car stickers and 4,000 leaflets. Requests for London? conductor ... If Cy Rubin's were processed for 2,993 press tickets. Would be Wonder who Kenn Brodziak will cast in Broadway revival of Oh! Kay proves a success, it interesting maybe to have comparative figures Death Trap after his inspired casting of John could be the last musical to be staged by JCWs for this year's of the Arts. Waters in Dracula and Hayes Gordon in Annie. here. Notice is a cabaret theatre in New Jersey, He's been besieged by overseas agents trying to One play I didn’t expect to hear being revived USA: “Do not photograph the performers while push their clients for the coveted lead role, some is ’s wartime comedy While the they are on stage. You may come backstage and of whom are big international names ... If any Sun Shines. However, apparently it’s enjoying a shoot them after the show."

w EBBERS B OOKSELLERS 343 Little Collins Street 67 2418 Melbourne 3000 67 2559 (1st Floor)

A Selection of Ballet Guides

101 STORIES OF THE GREAT BALLETS DICTIONARY OF BALLET By George Balanchine & Francis Mason G.B.L. Wilson $4.75 $20.15

BALANCHINE’S NEW COMPLETE STORIES OF THE DANCE ENCYCLOPEDIA THE GREAT BALLETS Revised and Enlarged Edition $17.95 Edited by Anatole Cnujoy & P.W. Manchester $27.00 STORIES OF THE BALLETS by Gladys Davidson THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF BALLET $12.15 by Horst Koegler $14.50 INTRODUCING BALLET by Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp DICTIONARY OF BALLET TERMS $7.95 by Leo Kersley & Janet Sinclair $8.15

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 9 -| THE DANCE COMPANY step by step with music with Graeme Murphy Graeme Murphy, Artistic Director and Choreographer, w ill show on stage how a Benneton choreographer creates a ballet. The programme will be divided into roughly three sections: 1 Graeme, using an existing ballet from the programm repertoire, will talk about and demonstrate the original concept of the ballet, introduding AT THE the music and design elements and the selection of the dancers. Here is a great opportunity to observe and meet 2 By usingthe chosen dancers, Graeme w ill in the stars as they prepare for performances. this section demonstrate how the steps and movements are set. The audience w ill be The Bennelong Programme has been devised to invited to assist at this point, by suggesting movements and steps which they would use show something of the making of the arts — to themselves. take audiences behind the curtain and to show the 3 The final section of the programme will be a development and reason for the final product. full performance of the subject ballet, after which there will be a short question period With the co-operation of top managements all involving Graeme, the dancers and the Stage Manager. programmes are presented for day time audiences DRAMA THEATRE — tickets cost only $1.50. 1.30 pm July 3, 5, 7

2 AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE 2 MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA A THE SYDNEY * SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA behind the camera- Swingle II in session concert pitch The art of using the human voice to imitate by Courtesy of the ABC behind the screen instrumental sound is both universal and as old as the hills: In Scotland folk archivists The Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Film Institute will present five call it "m outh m usic", in New Orleans it's presents the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in programmes on films and film making in July. known as "scat singing" and in Paris in the tw o special programmes arranged and These w ill examine some technical aspects of early '60s an American musician, Ward conducted by Patrick Thomas. No ordinary film making and exhibition, show the why Swingle, took the idea and applied it to the "p ro m " or "y o u th " concerts, these and what of selection, editing and cutting and works of Johann Sebastian Bach — the Swingle programmes will show the symphony and the demonstrate with footage of local foreign film Singers were born. Their world-wide symphony orchestra in an historical context the pitfalls and triumphs of the film makers popularity brought the charms of swinging and trace their development and composition art. Guest directors of already produced baroque music to the pop charts and to the through works ranging from Bach through feature films will discuss their approach, attention of serious musicians. Beethoven and Stravinsky to Williams (Star philosophy and methods. These programmes Wars) and Nelson (Six M illion Dollar Man). A will be equally fascinating to both makers and Now there is a new group — a new sound. great variety of different orchestral watchers of film. Swingle II w ill tour Australia in August and combinations will be used to demonstrate the MUSIC ROOM for the BENNELONG PROGRAMME will versatility of the modern symphony orchestra 11.00 am July 24-28 examine the creation of the Swingle style in which is adventurous, exciting and as at home terms of construction, rehearsal and in the popular electronic media as it is in the amplification techniques. formality of the concert hall. CONCERT HALL CONCERT HALL 11.00 am August 18 11.00 am, 2.00 pm September 22

0 SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE TRUST 0THE MARIONETTE THEATRE Y THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET ^O F AUSTRALIA learn about jazz puppets- let’s make a ballet Judy Bailey, together with some of Australia's By arrangement with the Australian Ballet most outstanding jazz musicians will look at the complete mask? Foundation, the Sydney Opera House Trust the history, the development and the The internationally acclaimed puppeteer, presents members of The Australian Ballet in mechanics o f jazz in three workshop "Let's Make a Ballet" introduced by the programmes at the Sydney Opera House. Richard Bradshaw, Artistic Director of this national Company, examines this quote by A rtistic Director, Dame Peggy Van Praagh, The programmes will cover traditional and big George Bernard Shaw. D.B.E., with the Elizabethan Melbourne band sounds and w ill also concentrate on the Orchestra. This diverting programme will stimulate small modern group. These exciting sessions Part I The training o f a classical dancer. Dame are each complete in themselves but interest in making and using quick, simple but effective puppets. The performers will Peggy will use artists of the company to attendance at all three consecutive Wednesdays illustrate various aspects of training. She w ill would afford a truly comprehensive overview create the puppets on stage and the surprises w ill start when the puppets take shape. explain how this training is utilized by of the world of jazz. choreographers to create a ballet. The CONCERT HALL You will discover that: involvement o f music, decor and stage craft 12.30 pm October 4 Big Band puppetry is adult entertainment w ill also be discussed and illustrated. MUSIC ROOM puppetry is children's entertainment Part 11 The presentation, w ith fu ll scenery and 12.30 pm October 11 Small Group puppetry is a craft costumes of one Act from Frederick Ashton's MUSIC ROOM but above all, PUPPETRY ISTHEATRE. "La Fille Mai Gardee". 12.30 pm October 18 Traditional MUSIC ROOM OPERA THEATRE 10.30 am and 1.30 pm November 6 and 7 1.00 pm November 16

10 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 ROSS THORNE (JWeibou/me’s âPost t f k e a à e s

(PART 2)

Olympic Theatre 1855. A scene from with G V Brooke (right) as Macbeth, and R Younge.

In 1861 Coppin was having difficulties uninsured building being burnt to ashes in on three levels in 1904 then sold it for at the Theatre Royal. He lost a legal battle March 1872. He rented the St George’s demolition in 1933. for possession, so decided to go into direct Hall next door (later rebuilt as Hoyts Apart from the predecessors to the opposition to it by building another Deluxe/Esquire cinema) and performed Princess, Athenaeum, Palace and Her theatre a little up the hill on the opposite there until he arranged a partnership to Majesty Theatres there were two other side of Bourke Street, extending through purchase the ground lease on the Royal important houses built in the last thirty years of the 19th century and one in the to Little Collins Street (1862). It was the site and rebuild. The most extraordinary Royal Haymarket, later the Duke of aspect of this venture was its being first decade of the 20th century. They were Edinburgh, destroyed by fire in 1871. It designed (by George Browne) and built the Prince of Wales Opera House later was also quite up-to-date in design (by within eight months. It opened in Tivoli (1872), and the Academy of Music, P.T. Conlon) being more conventionally November 1872 as another large four level later Bijou (1876) and Kings, later Barclay Victorian in the auditorium, but still theatre, and hotel of similar dimensions to cinema (1908). Melbourne’s Opera House, like the without a fly-tower above the stage the previous one, but this time very much Although the latter was 86 feet deep. the English Victorian opera house style of Royal, has been detailed elsewhere*, Comfort was being introduced, with every design. The architects constructional however suffice it to say that this four level theatre was poorly designed from the seat in the stalls and dress circle being drawings are still in existence and from aspect of audience safety and after a series upholstered in red damask, and every these Susan Clarke has set up a perspec­ of running battles with the licensing bench in other parts of the house supplied tive drawing accurately showing the spatial authority, it was forced to be rebuilt in with a back rail. design and major decorative elements; 1899 for Harry Rickards of the original Coppin toured the USA as an actor in minor decoration has been assumed from Tivoli vaudeville fame. (However the the company of Charles Kean and Ellen written descriptions and similar designs of Tree from 1864, returning to Melbourne to the time. original Opera House was appreciated by Melbourne Punch 29/8/1872 for its decor­ once again take over the Theatre Royal J C Williamson took over the lease of the ation and lack of fleas.) The Tivoli opened (1866), but only to be devastated by the Royal in 1882, had the auditorium rebuilt in 1901 in Bourke Street opposite the Royal. The architects, Backhouse and Co. had designed it in the Victorian style on three levels still with the usual forest of cast-iron posts supporting the two tiers above the stalls. The stage was 60 by 64 feet with a large property room and block of dressing rooms off to the prompt side. It was originally fronted by a small four storey hotel in French Renaissance style. The capacity of 1,539 was reduced to 1,442 in 1956 when major alterations were carried out. It became a cinema for a short period after the Tivoli Circuit concluded its business until a fire prompted its removal in the 1960’s. The Bijou, a few doors up the road from the Tivoli was a much admired theatre even if it never achieved the good or ill fame of some of its competitors. It was small, seating on three levels only 1,000 persons and would therefore have had the intimacy now associated with ’s The Duke of Edinburgh/Haymarket Theatre. Destruction by fire in 1871. Theatre Royal. Also uncommon for the

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 11 The Australian Film Commission provides for the Australian film industry

• script development funding and assessments * experimental and short film assistance * bridging finance and investment loans for feature films, television packages and documentaries • marketing and promotional assistance

and general advice to the Australian film industry.

Forfurther information, contact

Director, Public Relations, Australian Film Commission, GPO Box 3984, SYDNEY, NSW 2001

CAMERON’S MANAGEMENT PTY LID new film about the magic of

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Melbourne: enquirieslJ^^^H 6th Floor 521 ToorakRoad 02 922 3297™ Toorak 3142 ANDREW VIAL FILM PRODUCTIONS (03) 247491 or 247492 51 Sinclair St PO Box 300 Crows Nest 2065 Represents: Actors Directors AUSTRALIAN THEATRE Two places available in Models PEOPLES TOUR TO the first ever specialist theatre tour to China. Animators CHINA Composers Writers 23rd September — 1 5th October 1978 Approximate incl. cost $1700. For further information contact: SYD — LON - NY — PARIS CARRILLO GANTNER HOOPLA (03)637643

12 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Sèohng. 4$

King’s Theatre (1908). Plan at gallery level.

Theatre Royal. Perspective of auditorium constructed from the architect’s the freehold for himself in 1947, and converted it to a modern cinema in 1959. working drawings (1872) by Susan Clarke.______Up until this date it had been the typical for the present Princess Theatre. Although three tier theatre with domed auditorium leased for most of its stage life by and a stage 63 ft wide by 80 ft deep Williamsons it was frequently sub-let and “arranged for the presentation of sensa­ perhaps did not achieve the fame of the tional scenes, in which live cattle or traps, Royal or Her Majestys. William Anderson motor cars, etc., may be necessary for the had the original management; he was purposes of realism” (Herald, 18/6/1908). running two companies at the time but These were the major city theatres which most of his productions were “stirring” have disappeared without trace in the last melodramas sprinkled with elaborate 130 years. A future article will relate the spectacle. In opposition to JCW’s, J and N history of the buildings on the sites of the Tait ran the theatre for their productions, current old established theatres. starring amongst others, Maggie Moore and Edgley and Dawe (1919),until the Tait * These buildings have been mentioned at brothers amalgamated with the older length in books by the same author: entrepreneur. Finally Fullers and Garnet Theatre Buildings in Australia to 1905 and Carroll held the King’s before the Norman Theatres in Australia distributed by Book Rydge of Greater Union Theatres bought People of Australia. King’s Theatre (1908). Russell Street near Bourke Street. time wras its luxurious salon for dress circle patrons. This 100 feet long space had a tesselated tiled floor and was lined on one side with arched stained glass windows and bronze statues, and on the other by large mirrors in decorative frames; a series of handsome basket crystal chandeliers lit the room at night. During a season by Brough and Boucicault in 1889 it was burnt out in a disastrous fire which killed two persons. It was rebuilt in association with the Palace Hotel which also contained space which was used as the Gaiety Theatre, for music hall style variety. Brennan ran this with his National Entertainers in the early years of this century before it and the Bijou were taken over by the management of (Sir) Ben and John Fuller. The Bijou remained an old style theatre, occasionally being used for films, until an out-of-work actors company performed for a short period in The Depression before demolition in 1934. The King’s in Russell Street also has Bijou Theatre prior to the fire of 1889. For a house of only 1,000 persons this was a received little historical attention, yet it somewhat exaggerated sketch. was designed by William Pitt, the architect

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 13 In April wrote about NIDA. This month Jenifer Hooks looks at The Australian Film and Television School.

in Australia”. And whether the students experience in the commercial film and can prove themselves and the School to the television industries. Attachments can vary men who hocked their houses to make from two days at a local film laboratory to their films in the days before government six weeks on a feature film shoot. Several training and investment in the industry. students have taken attachments overseas. Thirteen women and twelve men began They can be purely observation and a the inaugural course in 1975 in less than means of getting to know people in the adequate premises in Chatswood. On the industry, or they can be definite jobs — first morning they were all presented with albeit menial — which in many cases coffee mugs inscribed with their own provide the student’s first real taste of the names. It was all very cosy. Together that ten-hour day, six-day week business of year they made twenty five films. film-making. The experience is excellent After a year or so at Chatswood, the (assuming that in this situation even bad School moved to a building in the Lyon experience is good) and the feedback from Park Industrial Estate at North Ryde; less those who have taken School students has than inspiring geographically, but inside been overwhelmingly positive. the best-equipped School in the world. The Australian Film and Television When two years later, interim-graduate AFTVS Television Studio. School in turn provides short courses for Gill Armstrong was commissioned to students from related institutions. Last make a film about the Film School, A year it hosted the first course for students In April Richard Mills wrote about Time and a Space, the students aptly from the Conservatorium of Music, and NIDA. This month Jenifer Hooks looks at responded: “What time and what space?”. early this year, first-year NIDA students The Australian Film and Television With two subsequent years’ intakes, the spent two weeks working with the School’s School. School reached its full complement of facilities. These arrangements are obvious­ In the late sixties when little wars were seventy two students, and the building ly mutually beneficial. being waged all over the country to have suddenly shrank. Time became a four- Although attendance at the School is the “Arts” portfolios reprieved from their letter word which came up frequently at nominally nine to five, a forty hour week is joint lumping with environment and the meetings held to decide where to find a minimum for most students. A great deal aborigines at the bottom of the Ministerial enough of it to make films. of out of hours time is spent in preparing, scrap heap, the idea of an Australian Film That problem has been partially solved shooting and editing productions whilst School was reborn. Reborn, because it was by restructuring the School. For the first scheduled activités are attended during the first mentioned in the 1928 Report of the two years, twenty five and twenty four day. Students’ are well-prepared for the Royal Commission on the Moving Picture students respectively were initiated in sixty hour weeks they will meet in the Industry in Australia. every facet of film-making. The form and industry, and the hum of Steenbeks Fifty years later, the Australian Film content of their second and third years was around deadline time seranades many into and Television School has just launched its to be “evolved in consultation between the eighty hour bracket. And as the Union first graduates of the full-time, three-year staff and students”. That was optimistic. has banned work on Sundays, so has the course into the industry. They join twelve By 1977 things had changed. Applicants Film School. The doors are locked and the other graduates of a one-year Interim were asked to nominate a workshop in day of rest is spent catching up on the Course held in 1973. which to specialize — production, editing, latest releases round town or writing the Film Schools are problematical, parti­ sound or camera. And it was made clear papers necessary to fulfill the School’s cularly and ironically to their own industry. that in the third year, only a small number growing desire for academic respectability. “Can you teach film and television?” It of selected students would direct a major Week nights are also often filled with was a question pondered by many in the work. This system is bureacratically scheduled activities — from film screen­ film industry who had struggled “up the pragmatic, if not exactly popular with the ings to lectures or specialist workshops. hard way” for years in the face of a students. And it is certainly more accept­ Most of the new Australian films are guest disinterested government and the able to an industry which wasn’t at all sure screened in the School’s Main Theatre. American distribution monopoly. And by how it was going to cope with twenty four Visiting celebrities and dignitaries also many in the television industry, who had aspirant directors per annum. lecture in the Theatre quite regularly. broken all the rules twenty years before to First year students spend the initial part These sessions are open to interested get television off the ground in time for the of the year becoming thoroughly familiar people outside the School and are usually Melbourne Olympic Games. “Great days” with their chosen craft. Each workshop is taped — with student crews. they recall — panel-beating micro-wave headed by an industry professional on Yet for all the fine facilities and dishes that were blown off the top of the contract to the School. Students also spend compliments from the famous, the frenetic MCG in the wind, and driving what was some time becoming at least minimally activity and golden opportunity, the then euphemistically called an outside acquainted with every other workshop — atmosphere at the Australian Film and broadcast van at breakneck speed from and television. Concurrently they study the Television School is less than vibrant — the Olympic Pool to the MCG to catch all history of cinema under the eminent and very different from the feeling that those gold medals Australia won. They tutelage of Professor Jerzy Toeplitz, impresses visitors to NIDA. Are the were proud of themselves and they had a former head of Poland’s Film School, now divisions and differences anything more right to be. But such challenges and Director of Australia’s. Students are also than one would expect to find amongst any nationalistic fervour slipped away in the intensively drilled in the history and group of rather odd, rather creative people sixties and Australia became as good a politics of the Australian film and thrown together in a public service place? market for English and American tele­ broadcasting industries. In 1975, Professor Toeplitz described vision as it was for film. About half way through the year, the School as “a testing ground for future It was time. In May 1973, after much first-years begin to crew up on second and film and television makers, discussion, many committees, three third year films in production. Or they where they can find the necessary equip­ reports and the establishment of a pilot have the opportunity to take attachments ment and raw stock at their disposal, course, the Film and Television School Act on projects in the outside industry. where they can make films without being was passed unanimously. It remains to be Attachments are a method of learning limited in their efforts by commercial seen whether the School will fulfill Gough encouraged when they can be fitted in, and factors, market conditions or the wishes Whitlam’s belief that it would “provide an are of obvious benefit to students, and orders of producers and censors”. important stimulus to film and television especially those who have not had former But since the School assumes the role of

14 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 A TIME AND A SPACE ... self-image of the Film and Television Executive Producer on all student films, flict over The Unknown Industrial School was the recent festival of graduate and since they are so concerned with Prisoner. When critics of the industry' are films. At both public screenings, there was industry acceptance of their diploma, the screaming for contemporary themes and standing room only (although strangely wishes and orders of producers have honest, clear-eyed appraisals of Australian enough, very few of the seats were taken up inevitably and perhaps even unconsciously society, it is disappointing that the Film by School management and staff) and the crept in to limit the efforts of student film and Television School is not paving the audience response to the students’ films makers. However unfettered has been the way in spearheading a frank and free renewed optimism. Industry screenings creation, the assessment is often not made approach. If Australian films are non- also provoked positive comment on tech­ in the same state of mind. Whether this is confrontational, is it any v/onder? nical competence, diversity of theme and a good or bad thing is debatable; it just Other problems include the ratio of style, and production values. It showed isn’t quite what the Professor had in mind, women to men. After an idyllic inaugu­ what could be achieved from the early and inevitably some disillusionment ration in International Women’s Year, atmosphere of idealism relatively free ensues from unrealized ideals and expect­ when thirteen women took up the course, only three were selected the following year creative development and well-directed ations. funds. The next few years will determine Worse is the censorship role. Colin and seven in 1977. This year the number whether the Australian Film and Tele­ Young, Director of the National Film was down again, to only five. Any vision School can recapture its early spark, School in Great Britain, has pointed out complaints about NIDA’s selection of nine its idealism and a sense of its own destiny that new and subversive ideas develop in women and thirteen men, pale in in the Australian film and television Film Schools. In this country, it takes comparison to Film School policy. industry, and can thus maintain its ability great strength for a government-financed NIDA is older and it can already point to attract the top people for which it was institution to support new and subversive to an impressive list of graduates, over obviously designed. If it’s standing room ideas, or even old but political ones. Last twenty years, its first priority has remained only at next year’s graduation screening — year the Australian Film and Television the creative development of its students, School wavered on censorship several and budgetary emphasis is always on and the one after.... perhaps the Australian School might not swell the times. Such a School should be capable of training. Perhaps this commitment, and ranks in the wastelands of Academe, but bearing a radical tag, and had they made a its associated bureaucratic asceticism are might take its place on the short list of stand to establish a lead on contemporary- factors contributing to the dedicated and internationally relevant film and television issues, one wonders whether it might not creative atmosphere at NIDA. have helped Film Australia’s recent con­ One thing that countered the declining Schools. ... AND A COMMON GROUND. AFTVS — an applicant’s eye view by May Kamillion (pseudonym for tax evasion dahlings!) to television, a subject in which I was a Bea Star did not get into NIDA, but series of still photographs — put them May Kamillion was, to her great surprise, together to make another story. There little better grounded than European cinema. And finally we reached the only selected for the Australian Film & were three predictable options — I didn’t rapport for an hour on the subject of Television School. use any. “I don’t sink zis qvite vorks” was the comment. Well, that wasn’t unex­ Picnic at Hanging Rock. It took a whole day to prove to the pected. Next we had to watch a movie and Then mercifully it was all over. I flew for selection panel that you were “creative”. answer specific questions about it. It was There were several tests — and four the door. “You vill vait outside pleaze”. a National Film Board of Canada produc­ Oh no — the parking meter would run out. different interview panels each consisting tion which made me a bit crabby as an of three people — the relevant workshop Terser by the minute I was called back to entrance test to the Australian Film and be told I was still in the running — the head, a member of School management, Television School .... however I buried and an industry person. surprise to end the day of surprises — but that and answered the questions. Another I knew that meant nothing, borderliners Applicants were closeted in rooms doing applicant was madly writing six pages as get axed a little later. And I got the the various tests prescribed by the my brain dried .... I gave up and went to dreaded pink parking slip — $10.00 for all workshop of their choice; editing, camera, lunch. that! sound or production. Others were looking Coming back, I got stuck in a traffic jam at a movie, others “rehearsing” for their — but it didn’t matter because by this time A couple of months later, I got a yellow panel interview. And this carousel of 7 knew I wouldn’t get into this esoteric slip — a congratulatory telegram. So did student hopefuls was being choreographed institution. I couldn’t relate to the ladies the little guy in the patched jeans. It didn’t by a couple of terribly nicely dressed and reading Cleo, the applicant with long hair matter much to either of us. I would have nicely spoken ladies who read Cleo and patched jeans — or the great minds of gone on working in television. He would between takes. It was all a bit unhinging. the interview panel. “What’s your have gone on making a crust from The first test for aspirant editors was to favourite movie?”. “The Wizard of Oz’’. commercials while he made his grant be locked in a room with a view, a splicer Silence. “Favourite Filmmaker?” they films. It is difficult to judge where we and a strip of film containing thirty shots, asked hopefully. “Walt Disney”. Dead might have been if we hadn’t been twelve of which were to be used to make a silence! We moved guardedly around a few transported to Sydney, but perhaps the story. “Where’s the button” I asked, more topics. “What do you read?” (they most important thing is that we repre­ betraying my nasty background in the were getting desperate now) Why is it that sented the extremes of the School intake. electronic media. They weren’t amused, when somebody asks you what you read For three years we now work together with but politely introduced me to the splicer. you can’t think of a single title you’ve put eighteen other students. When we go our The exercise wasn’t easy, so I took the away in the last five years?!“Why do you separate ways again, we will share a funny way out with something reminiscent want to do editing?” “I enjoy it”. “Do you common ground, a common understand­ of Monty Python — but again they were want to direct?” “No”, (that was a crucial ing which is unique in the history of the not amused. So on to the next test — a question I later discovered) We moved on Australian film and television industry.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 15 REX & JIM Aston

The story of the Paris Theatre has not articulating it, I feel that the desire for a yet been fully researched but we know that less naturalistic, or more poetic, a more when it opened in 1912 as The Australian imaginative theatre is common to all the Picture Palace in a Burley Griffin designed actors, writers and designers who have complex that also included shop and office been drawn together in the venture — it is space, it presented silent films interspersed certainly something that Rex and I have in with stage shows. Later renamed The common, and it is certainly the basic Tatler, it housed live companies, including orientation of the company’s artistic one associated with Peter Finch. When the policy. theatre, then known as The Park, was taken over by Hoyts in the 1950’s it was REX: again renamed, this time as The Paris, and used as a long-run movie house. Hoyts One of the great difficulties we face is allowed the lease to lapse and the theatre the insecurity of the venture. At this was empty for some time until, in June moment we are uncertain as to whether 1977, John Allen, an independent initial fund-raising will take us any further manager, took up the lease for the than the first production. This puts an presentation of new wave concerts and unfair pressure on it — we cannot underground films. When, at the end of humanly solve all the problems of begin­ 1977, our projected season of new plays for ning the sort of company we want in the the fell through, John short period before we begin rehearsal on Allen offered the Paris as a possible home the first play. The establishment of the for a new theatre company. In taking up principles on which the company operates this offer we have had two closely related needs to be seen as a developing process objectives: to present the Australian plays not as a kind of immediate declaration of intended for the Seymour Centre season on human rights. However, it seems to me an independent basis (the plays in question that at least one long-standing pre­ are Dorothy Hewett’s Pandora’s Cross, occupation of mine may be included for Louis Nowra’s Visions and Patrick White’s consideration in these planning stages: the A Cheery Soul which, together with a development of a distinctive company style pantomime by Bill Harding, make up our — not only in relation to the selection of projected first season), and to form a material, the design of the productions, company for their presentation. We see the choice of graphic style in which the this as an opportunity to set up a better company presents itself but, most import­ working situation for all concerned than antly of all, in relation to the performance any we have hitherto encountered. For the itself, the acting style. We must feel our press conference which announced the way towards a style of performance that venture we devised the three broad policy will be uniquely suited to telling ‘the story statements which follow. Each of the of our times’. The planned work for this statements is here accompanied by some year, being new and Australian, will give specific comments from one or the other of us a chance to discover such a style for us, or from a member of the company. ourselves, on our own terms and later, from the security of it, we will be able to 1. The aim of the Paris Company re-examine classics and the work of other cultures and other periods. is to tell the story of our times.

JIM: 2. The aim of the Paris Company is to make the story-tellers Early experiences like seeing the first responsible for the way the story productions of the Patrick White plays is told. and the first shows gave REX & JIM : me an insight into the way theatre can reveal our own lives to us in an immediate It would be impossible to start a theatre and direct way. I’ve since come to feel that company in Australia without some notion this is the vital role of the theatre. To show of a co-operative and democratic ideal — people who they are, how they relate to one just in reaction to the conventional another and to the world around them, is managements for whom we have all to enrich a culture, however unwilling it worked. How far these ideals can be may be to accept the reflection of itself. Of pursued into practice will become course, since the ’60’s there have been apparent as we go along — our first step many other writers with explicit aims of the has been to assemble a group of actors, same kind, but the life-giving element of designers and technical people who wish to poetry and imagination, first revealed to be associated with the idea of the me in the White plays, has always seemed company, who can contribute to its to me both the most important and the formation, and who can also present the least developed in Australian theatrical first season of plays. Such artists will be writing. Although other members of the Robyn Nevin known as associates of the company and company may choose different ways of will continue to work with it as often as

16 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 )f our times

possible while the company continues in essential renovation of the theatre will be existence. In each production one member borne by the State Government and the of the acting company will be elected as a City Council. A large number of talented representative in all planning decisions people are, as usual, subsidising this made by the artistic, business and theatre theatre venture with their time, energy and managers. The main consideration in money in the hope of founding a company planning the working structure is to allow on principles of integrity, idealism and for all degrees of involvement and respon­ professionalism. sibility, not only for the actors but also for ****** the technical staff, the designers, the publicists — to some extent our whole image of the company is formed in The personnel already assembled in the reaction to those working situations we name of the Paris Company make an have all encountered where anxious hired impressive list: actors include Jennifer bunnies dig there individual burrows Claire, , Kate Fitzpatrick, hoping that someone up above knows what , Julie McGregor, Robyn the plan is. Nevin, Neil Redfern, Geraldine Turner and John Paramor; designers include 3. The aim of the Paris Company Luciana Arrighi and Brian Thomson; company manager is Elizabeth Knight; is to make the story worth the stage manager is Bill Walker; production price of a ticket. manager is Jono Enemark; publicists are REX & JIM : Gil Appleton and Fran Moore. Arthur Dignam has been elected actors’ represen­ The trend in theatre seems to be towards tative for the first production and it increasingly small companies playing in seemed appropriate that I should ask him increasingly large subsidies. One of our for an indication of the sort of contribution primary intentions is to confront the he sees himself making. His reply, which problem of commercial viability — we feel follows, shows Arthur’s interest in the that with an eight hundred-seat theatre, director’s role — an interest we hope to see large-scale plays and productions, and an pursued into practice at the Paris. all-star company, that there is a good possibility of the venture’s financial ARTHUR: success. We propose to keep the price of the five hundred and fifty stalls seats at $5 An actor’s first responsibility is to the and, while tickets will be available in text. What does it say? What does the advance at the usual agencies, the stalls playwright intend? This may sound simple will not be numbered. This, together with but it is not. Think how often, even with the central city location and the avail­ someone whose conversational style is ability of seats at the door, should make familiar to you, you are forced to ask the decision to see a play as easy and ‘What did you say?’ and further, ‘Well, impromptu a matter as the decision to see what do you mean by that?’ Unfortunately a film. In short we hope to interest a large, as actors, we don’t do this often enough. general audience in the Paris and we do The four-week rehearsal period, imposed not think we will, in the words Patrick by considerations of economy rather than White used at our press conference, ‘send craft, is no help, but the real problem is them yawning back to their suburbs’. For our own tendency to assume rather than indication of our financial arrangements I investigate. And we make assumptions not have asked Elizabeth Knight, our only about plays but also about ourselves, company manager, for a short statement. about our craft. Usually, in my experience, the director has made several sweeping ELIZABETH: assumptions about the play before he starts rehearsal. These assumptions may At present we are constituted as a or may not be relevant to the text — they trustee company. The four trustees are the are more probably relevant to a perform­ two artistic managers, the theatre manager ance he saw in Winnipeg in 1963. In these and the company manager. Our initial circumstances an actor’s function has little capital for production costs is being raised to do with the craft of acting and a great by donation and by fund-raising events deal to do with survival. And the end like the recent auction of paintings given result? Well, a text isn’t a play — a play is by twelve Sydney artists. At date of writing a public experience and a text is a private we have raised two-thirds of the estimated one. The gap, is rarely bridged. Mostly first production budget. Our on-going what the public see is a more or less financial arrangments include the don­ animated text, constantly threatening to ation of the services of all personnel during breathe its last, and manifesting symptoms the rehearsal period of the first produc­ of life only because the actors have tion, the acceptance of minimal salaries abandoned their serious, absorbing and ($150) during the run, and the sharing of rewarding craft, in order to man the profits after it. We hope that the cost of oxygen pump.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 17 International Bogdan Gieraczynski Hungary has never known avant-garde theatre.

Eminent Hungarian actors sometimes look for new ways of doing things. The renowned actor Miklos Gabor gave up Budapest for the little town of Kecskemet where thirty odd-year old director Jozsef Ruszt, who is believed to be an advocate of Grotowski’s ideas, works in the local theatre which is noted for its artistic community spirit. This theatre also produces mainly classical works — the famous productions of Schiller's Don Carlos, Shakespeare's tragedies, Euripides — but it treats them as a means of expressing its stance in relation to the world and not as material for building up a performance. The leading actress of the National Theatre in Budapest. Mari I'orocsik, has for almost four years appeared on the stage of the 25 Theatre as a guest artist in Endre Eejes' successful play Cserepes Margit Hazassaga. The play was directed by a former actor of the National Theatre, Istvan Iglodi. The 25 Theatre is an experimental theatre, representing the current of artistic quests. In the incipient stage of its existence — the theatre was characterised by a certain homogeneity of its interests as regards literature and actorship. It had a preference for poetic-reflective works. Their realisation was based on a composition of the word and, often, of ballet like movement. I oday, one can hardly speak of a homogenous stylistic of the theatre; eg the gross satirical play Belly by East German Kurt Bartsch provided an opportunity for putting on a neat musical show Hungary with its population of ten and a half Madach (1823-1864) were often and respectfully with some elements of epic theatre and circus. million has thirty four theatres. But its capital, staged, but somehow remained outside the The 25 Theatre also staged Ballad of Mason Budapest, the cultural centre of the country, has mainstream of theatrical life and had little effect Kelentan's Wife, a travesty of an old Hungarian only eleven playhouses. This is not much for a on it. Hungary has never known what we call ballad by the theatre's manager and director two-and-a-half-million metropolis. The theatre avant-garde theatre. Nor has it ever had an Laszlo Gyurko: A castle is being built, but the does not seem to be the strongest side of outstanding director-innovator able to shake or walls crumble instantly. To propitiate the gods, Hungary's cultural life and this state of affairs is even slightly rock the fossilised tradition. the masons offer Mason Kelentan's wife as a frankly admitted by Hungarians themselves. A Hungarian theatre has positively been an actors' sacrifice and immure her. So runs the ballad. In similar conclusion suggests itself when you theatre, inclined to stardom and impervious to the director's version it is a story of futile efforts consider the building of theatres there: apart fads from the outside world. This long, to build the edifice of human life, happiness, from the modern Madach Theatre, all the other conservative tradition still weighs heavy on it. beauty, peace. It, however, keeps crumbling. theatre halls either date back to the 19th century The audiences which have got used to it must be The sacrifice of Kelentan's wife is not an act of or have been adapted from cabaret and cinema first re-educated and shown new horizons. coercion, but will it serve any useful purpose? halls, and even tenement houses. First attempts have already been made. In The symbolic sense of the play is quite obvious. In spite of the fact that the first theatre in Budapest, Laszlo Gyurko has for seven years The 25 Theatre has a small auditorium, Hungary was opened in the town of Sopron in been running the experimental 25 Theatre. In seating no more than a hundred. Before this 1769 and another in Budapest in 1774, the the provinces, where, they say, things look house, eight actors perform this poetic tale made development of this domain of art has been livelier, young directors are trying, with varying up of voices, gestures, symbolic scenes in which uneven and many aspects of it neglected. success, to realize their innovatory ambitions. violence rubs shoulders with philosophical Dominant in the tradition of Hungarian theatre Also the staging of plays by contemporary reflection. The actors are very skillful. They use have been light opera and low comedy, with Hungarian and foreign playwrights compels their voices in a masterly manner; they begin plays about the life of the middle classes directors to look for new forms and ways of with articulating separate sounds which accounting for a considerable share of the producing them. According to Hungarian gradually combine into words and whole repertoire. The great romantic dramas by theatre makers themselves, their theatre is in the sentences. Also the use of the body is very Mihaly Vorosmarty (1800-1855) and Imre doldrums. impressive.

18 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 In sum, this is the Hungarian road towards Othello is played by Ferenc Bessenyei, an play was made by the theatre into a great show about fear, fanaticism and orgiastic debauchery. the modern theatre. actor with a splendid low voice and a subtley Another play. King Lear, directed by Karolyn toned-down expressiveness, he has a majestic It was not by chance that the historical and Szigeti, was described in a programme note as “a appearance and dignified demeanour and his costume drama made its appearance in Pecs. A version by the 25 Theatre”. It was an honest acting is restrained and spare in its outward characteristic of Hungarian theatrical life is a statement for King Lear had been abbreviated manifestations. If Othello is a great creation, preponderance of historical themes in plays by and “rewritten”; the denouement has been then lago, played by Peter Huszti, is stunning modern playwrights. Historical plays are turned altered so that Cordelia, the jester, and good because of a quite new conception of the part. out, for instance, by writers so different as people gain the upper hand. A fool’s cap with He is a young, gay, likable mean. No fiend. He is Gyula Hernadi, Gyula Illyes and Magda Szabo. tiny bells becomes in the play a token of simply mischievous and likes to play nasty tricks Their work is based on a thorough knowledge of nobleness. It is worn by those who were on people. Just an enfant terrible. The Budapest history and an insight into the nature of social wronged in the past. Cordelia’s coming to power production of Othello was one of the most processes. is a recompense. In this way the epilogue was to interesting theatrical events of the last season. A Hungarian speciality is operetta, above all have acquired an ironical sense. But it seemed The National Theatre in Pecs is a big the traditional repertoire of Lehar, Offenbach, merely sentimental, not at all befitting a tragedy enterprise. It has on its staff fifty actors, twenty Kalman. Modern musicals are also very popular. 1 saw one of them on the studio stage of the by Shakespeare. singers, a ballet, a choir and an orchestra. It Talking of Shakespeare, the Madach Theatre operates two stages, and, apart from evening Operetta Theatre. It was Harvey Schmidt's in Budapest recently produced Othello directed performances, gives a great number of matinees Fantastic, which a few years ago made a hit on by Otto Adam. The performance progressed at a for children and young people. The National Broadway. Hungarian director Laszo Seregi good pace, was compact and natural. However, Theatre in Pecs seems to prefer modern plays to staged it in one of the foyers of the theatre, a there was a drawback to the production: the classical works. At least such an inference can be small hall, seating no more than one hundred. scenery. But this is a weak point of all made from the programme for the last season. In No stage, full lights. Actors-singers without Hungarian theatres. There are simply, no the first half of the season Hungarian drama was make-up, in everyday clothes — anyway the scenery designers for there are no schools for represented by two writers: the outstanding poet action takes place in modern times — mingle them! The decor is the work of easel painters. Gyula Illyes and the recent debutant Istvan with the audience — move among the chairs, sit I he Venice of Othello is greyish with a light Sarospataky. The former wrote a historical on chair arms. The whole has the air ot an blue sky dotted with white clouds. The costumes comedy Daniel Among His Folks, the action of informal musical party. are bungled. What a pity! For against this which is set against the background of a struggle What is Hungarian theatre — Szinhaz — in background an, in many ways, enchanting to defend the Reformation in Transylvania, Hungarian — like? Neither very good, nor very spactacle unfolds. Desdemona. young and while the latter is the author of a metaphorical bad. It is an average theatre, perhaps even quite pretty, is rendered satisfactorily. Minor parts are play called The Plague-stricken Dance, which is good. It may not be very original, but it is acted skillfully. But the truly great creations are thematically related to Camus The Plague and sometimes ambitious and tries hard to find its Othello and Iago. Ionesco’s Playing At Being Killed. Sarospataky's own style.

NATIONAL THEATRE COMPANY at the PLAYHOUSE Performing June 28 to July 22 at the Playhouse Performing July 26 to August 19 at the Playhouse A HAPPY AND HOLY OCCASION THE GHOST TRAIN by John O’Donoghue by Arnold Ridley The W.A. premiere of this nostalgic comedy, which The famous comedy thriller classic. Six stranded won the National Play Competition in 1974. The passengers, forced to stay the night in the waiting O’Mahon family hold a party for their son Christy, room of a small, isolated railway station, ignore the who is about to start his long studies for the stationmaster’s warnings of a weird ghost train. priesthood. They hope the guests will present the But there are surprise developments as the story boy with some much-needed cash to cover the costs thrills, chills, shudders and laughs its way to a of outfitting him. The evening, however, produces frantic conclusion. A great night out for all ages! many unexpected developments! The dialogue is brilliant, with a fine understanding of the blood and Directed by Edgar Metcalfe guts of the typically Irish and Australian characters.

Directed by Stephen Barry Artists appearing in these productions include:- Roz Barr, Merrin Canning, Robert Faggetter, Margaret Ford, Andy King, Ivan King, Robert van Mackelenberg, Jenny McNae, Leone Martin-Smith, Edgar Metcalfe, Joan Sydney, Leslie Wright. Both Productions designed by Sue Russell. The Playhouse, 3 Pier Street, Perth 6000 W.A.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 19 B O O K S O F INTEREST

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Patio dreams at the play box. OH LET ME IN

SUZANNESPUNNER Oh by Ted Neilsen, Hoopla Theatre Foundation Playbox Theatre, Melbourne. Director. Graeme Blundell; Designer, Peter Corrigan; with Peter Cummins [Mikel. Anne Phelan (Suel; Michael Duffield (Surgeon) and Jillian A rch er (Mermaidl. Lei Me In by Ted Neilsen. Director. Graeme Blundell; Designer. Peter Corrigan; with Peter Cummins (Norm): Anne Phelan (Mill: Michael Duffield (Fred) Jillian A rch er (Loisl and Dianna Greentree (Nam. (Professional)

These two plays by Ted Neilsen are the first to emerge from the Sunday evening workshops organised by Hoopla in associa­ tion with The Age and Penguin Books, and according to Neilsen they were written in VicRail carriage on the Glen Waverley Line. In a gentle, ironic way, both plays scratch away at the fantasies embedded in part everyone — husband, wife, surgeon Forum Magazine. the smooth domestic veneer of suburbia and mermaid — was very cool and Let Me In is seeped in hopelessness and and suggest more profound disturbances unruffled. However towards the end the smallness, so many battles lost and dreams in everyday life at other levels. They are writer lost his nerve and introduced dashed before they’ve hardly been dreamt direct and accessible without being locked common or garden moral concern for the but there is also an inverted courage in the way everyone just goes on. They neither into, or defined by their basic naturalism other (the surgeon/lover begins to worry and while critical of suburbia they are the wife about whether her husband is give in nor get out and there is no voice explicit or implied to protest the society mercifully free of pretensions to a deeper, adequate to the task of satisfying the more tragic vision. As a theatrical whole mermaid) and the magic dissipates, that has propagated such unfulfilled lives. Oh holds together better but Let Me In is leaving the play to what now becomes an Angst and existential doubt can be shelved, rather than transcended, because more ambitious and points to directions awkward naturalistic resolution. Neilsen could follow in the future. As the husband and wife, Peter the ideologies of the lucky country — mateship, giving it a go and making do Oh begins over the conjugal kitchen Cummins and Anne Phelan have a sure sink in a suburban home as a properly sense of the restraint required of them and without whinging — reign supreme. married couple Mike(Peter Cummins) and like the characters they play they never By showing the cultural artefacts which Sue(Anne Phelan) engage in their evening really have a chance to let go whereas maintain without sustaining, the lives of ritual-doing the washing up together. The Michael Duffield and Jillian Archer can let his characters, Neilsen has hit upon the director, writer and actors have all deftly go but only in the direction of being more ‘personal’ reasons why most socially observed this mini power struggle and surgeonly or mermaidenly. Peter radical action in Australia invariably bring its ploys and counter ploys — “I’ll Corrigan’s Display Home kitchen setting flounders in a sea of hire purchase and wash, but if you’d rather I’ll dry” — to life, set was disappointing, notwithstanding the footy scores. In the end the play is a victim and there is some nice ego-battle business amber glitter of the hundreds of beer of its own inertia — characters bubble to about who can stack the stoneware coffee bottles suspended from the ceiling, it told life and reveal themselves with wit and cups highest and most dangerously. us nothing more than what the play telling detail and then subside until it’s Manoeuvring between the dishes, the established in the opening minutes. someone else’s turn, but no one ever makes detergent and the rubber gloves they begin For the second play, Let Me In the sustained contact with anyone else or for a tentative low key discussion about their bottles remained and park benches that matter ultimately with the audience: sexual fantasies — he wants to watch her replaced the kitchen ware to no greater it is all a series of flashes in the pan. Let with his mate from a vantage point in the effect. In Let Me In five characters who Me In is more demanding on its actors wardrobe, she wouldn’t mind getting off have in some way missed out on La Dolce than Oh and Peter Cummins, Anne with her girlfriend. They repeatedly dis­ Vita in Doncaster or Dandenong are Phelan and Jillian Archer have an miss their wishes as idle and silly while waiting somewhere for something and opportunity to show their mettle, but they obviously enjoying the licence, and when the play ends they are still wondering no sooner take off than the play drops eventually they admit what they would why they missed out. Again the setting is back and shuffles forward again. really like .... the real unremarkable world of contem­ And no sooner has he said he fancies a porary Australia and its necessary antidote Both plays indicate that Ted Neilsen is a mermaid on a platter of soft, fluffy rice — escape into the collective unconscious of writer of considerable promise with wider and she a surgeon in a white mask and the Australian Dream. The fantasias of the and more sensitive empathy for suburban boots with Dettol scrubbed hands, than programmed unconscious of a nation are Australia than Williamson and a subtler there is a knock at the door and a surgeon all there — be they a big win at the races in more ironic wit than Hibberd but his bearing an injured mermaid in a wheel Tattslotto, or the newer opiates of talent needs to be more probing and barrow appears. W hat was so delightful consumerism — red spot specials at K critically focused than it is in Oh and Let about what followed was that for the most Mart or multiple orgasms by courtesy of Me In.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 21 Should be in the repertoire of all national companies. DEPARTMENTAL

RAYMOND STANLEY

Departmental by Mervyn Rutherford. Melbourne Theatre Company, Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne. Opened 25 May, 1978. Director, Bruce Myles; Designer. Maree Menzel. Inspector Cook. Lloyd Cunnington; Superintendent Spartan, Simon Chilvers; Constable Mcllveney, G ary Day; Constable First Class Pyers, Rod Williams. (Professional)

With the exception of Breaker Morant, every Australian play I have seen recently has bored me through being extended revue material, badly and incompletely written, or blatant copying in style and/or content of overseas plays of past decades. Some have been partly redeemed by outstanding performances and direction, but for me the point has been rapidly approaching when I felt I never wanted to see another Australian play, unless it was by , Ray Lawler or the all too rare The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin or The Last of the Knucklemen. It is my firm belief — shared I have recently discovered by many others — that the average far-from-finished, mediocre, locally written play is driving people away from live theatre, despite the lavish praise from playwright and publisher critics who obviously have axes of their own to grind. Now there comes upon the scene Mervyn contrast Constable Mcllveney is reticent conscious most of the time of a sure and Rutherford’s Departmental, which does about his personal life, plays everything skilled craftsman at work. Only early in much to restore my faith that there are strictly by the book, can quote police rules the second act does it sag a little when dramatists other than Williamson and and regulations and his rare arrests are Cook and Spartan, relaxing over a Lawler capable of writing first class plays restricted to drunks and vagrants. There is sandwich and coffee, talk about their which have appeal for the majority rather an air of mystery about him and it seems careers and personal life. Much of this than the minority. nothing can make him lose his cool. After duologue contributes little to the play’s Departmental is an Australian play eight years in the force, he has not taken progress and appears to be the playwright simply because it is set in Australia, is examinations, seemingly has no ambitions getting a few personal chips and experi­ about members of the NSW police force, and, for no given reasons, has been ences off his chest. Deletion or pruning of and is written by an Australian, who also transferred from one station to another in the sequence could be to the play’s happens to be an ex-member of the police quick succession. advantage. force. Apart from that it can mingle with Within hours of the theft — and before Bruce Myles, in his directoral debut for the best from England and America. It is able to obtain any sleep — the two the MTC, does well by playwright obviously written with great background constables are interrogated, both sep­ Rutherford, never allowing the pace to lag authenticity — possibly based on incidents arately and together, by Inspector Cook and bringing out all the necessary points, and characters the author has come and his visiting superior, Superintendent without over-stressing in any direction. He across. Whether the events could be Spartan. Cook is an average police officer: is greatly assisted by Maree Menzel’s applicable to overseas police forces — or an honest, good upholder of the law, with sparse but most practical skeletal set. even interstate law enforcers — one does little imagination. Spartan, saddled with a Simon Chilvers as the Superintendent not know. The simple fact is, this play family from his early years, thinks he can gives one of the most notable perform­ stands up as it is as sheer entertainment, handle all situations with his own brand of ances of his career — suavely authorative, capable of*holding audiences anywhere in bullying, aiming to trap the culprit into slightly sinister, but behind it all intensely the world. Unlike many Australian plays, confession and then forgive, believing the human. Rod Williams, who plays Pyers, it does not rely upon four letter words or man will be a better policeman for the hold also is utterly believable, managing scenes of violence for its kicks; it also that will remain over him for the rest of his humour and moments of pathos with happens to be extremely well written, with working days. equal efficiency. exceptionally well drawn characters. The interrogation, however, does not go Lloyd Cunnington and Gary Day, as Although Departmental lacks an entirely according to Spartan’s plans and Cook and Mcllveney, are less comfortable involved plot, it grips throughout. A ultimately it is he who can be found to be in their roles — at least at the official substantial sum of money has been stolen guilty of not performing his duties opening performance. Fluffing several during the night from a police station safe. satisfactorily. Although the culprit is lines, Cunnington just the same turns in There are only two suspects: the two revealed, the play provides several his best performance since portraying constables on duty at the time. Constable intriguing twists, one of the four policemen Jason in The Last o f the Knucklemen. Day Pyers is a likeable, talkative, ordinary, suicides, and the play ends on a note of has a somewhat restricting role which good-natured Australian, who is not too possible vengeance with Mcllveney’s provides him with little scope for more bright and is easily hoodwinked; he sees mysterious motivations still veiled. than a one-level characterisation. He has nothing wrong in taking bribes, cheating Rutherford’s dialogue is true to life and to create an air of mystery, be precise and on his wife and mounting up debts. In flows along naturally, so that one is respectful, and above all never on the

22 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Theatre/NSW surface appear ruffled. The actor obvious­ ly finds difficulty in getting into Mcllveney’s skin to his own satisfaction, and his uncertainty tends to show. Doubtless after playing a few more performances, both Cunnington and Day will be as tip top as their fellow players. Departmental is a play which should be in the repertoire of all national companies. It appears to possess much potential for a telemovie. And if Mervyn Rutherford’s other plays can reach the heights of this one, he undoubtedly is all set to become a big international name.

Misguided idea about what acting is TROYLUS AND CRESSIDA

VI RICHARDS

Troylus and Cressida by Shakespeare. Presented by Old Scream, Pram Factory, Melbourne, Vic. Director, Peter King. (Amateurl Of all the things that have been done in the name of, in spite of, against the spirit of, despite, to and on Shakespeare, most are understandable in terms of their locale, fashion and time. The man wrote a Tom Farley (Da), Des Rolfe (Drum) and Maggie Kirkpatrick few plays off which the imagination of the (Mother) in the Old Tote’s Da. Photo: Robert McFarlane. language has been feeding ever since. He’s part of Australia’s heritage too, and the pity of it is the lack of interest by the major ished salt of the earth, life long gardener. companies (Nimrod excepted) to discover Deftly constructed It is meant to be a swift visit exorcising an approach stemming from our culture. the painful beginnings in a working class It has been left to fringe groups to have a humorous play household from the mind of a now go. Some have been successful: James successful middle class writer by commit­ McCaughey and Theatre Projects’ Othello PA______ting all the brie a brae to the flames. But of a few years ago, and some not, like Old the appearance of one-time friend Oliver, Scream’s Troylus at the Pram Factory. appropriately ineffectual as played by It’s one of those occasions when a ROBERT PAGE Alan Tobin, stirs old embers, and the first fleeting image of Da appears (to an misguided idea about what acting is Da by Hugh Leonard. , Parade results in a production that is more or less Theatre, Sydney, NSW. Opened 30 May 1978. Director, P et«r incongruous lighting change, never unintelligible, especially when the Collingwood; Designer. James Ridawood; Lighting, repeated). The friend has not flown the Jerry Luke; Stage Manager, , Ragini nets, but remained in the small Irish acoustics of the Pram Factory require a W erner. real sense of diction for any words at all to Charlie (now). Max Meldrum; Oliver, Alan Tobin; Da, Tom village, married with four offspring and a be heard. In this production the rather Farley; Mother. Maggie Kirkpatrick; Charlie (then). Tom monument to what might have been. Burlinson; Drumm, Des Rolfe; Mrs Prynne, Jessica Charlie, though, was always different. undergraduate vocalising meant that Noad; The Yellow Peril, Claire Crowther. about every twentieth word was audible. Professional More adventurous both in his concern for And I do not think that director Peter literature, outstripping his parents by early King was unaware of this. There was, with Hugh Leonard’s Da is in the recherche adolescence, and his first sexual stirring in one exception, a deliberate attempt to du temps perdu mode, a vision and a gawky flirtation with the Yellow Peril, physically and vocally portray the opposite revision of homeland and past through the the local bike. Each had earned parental of what the sense of the speech intended. eyes of a middle aged emigre. Usually such disdain, the one a betrayal of class, the This perversion of the language is OK if autobiographically based pieces are the other of small town Catholic morality. The some kind of theatrical point is being first opuses of awakening talent, not the young man does not feel guilt, but made, but in a production which was umpteenth after two score years of a career resentment and rejection, which Tom supposed to emphasise the narrative and majorly concerned with feeding the Burlinson as “Charlie Then” admirably sexual aspects of the play it was more than insatiable radio, TV and film media. The brings out. a distraction. It was a disaster. purgation that this is can often lead to a A major influence in his formative years The same applied to the physical aspect pained introspection in the central is Mr Drumm, philosophical mento and of the production. Every opportunity for character which Max Meldrum did not later employer, casting pearls of wisdom, artificial groupings, buffonery running wholly overcome. sometimes cultured sometimes home spun. around in circles, and making things hard The setting is Ireland, or perhaps largely The character is, one assumes, based on to follow was taken. the mind of Charlie, Leonard’s persona, Joyce — and played as a look-alike by Des The exception to all this was David for the play is as much a visualisation of R0lfe _ a hero of Leonard himself of Kendall, who used experience and skill in confrontations with characters long since whose works he has done many adapta­ the service of sense to give a beautifully dead, or replays of memory tapes of tions. Unfortunately the play is no Portrait controlled series of performances. Not that incidents in youth, as opposed to straight of the Artist revolving around moments of he wasn’t stretching sentences and using flashbacks. The springboard for this benediction of budding genius, nor even a the odd bit of grotesquerie, but he seemed revaluation of the past is the death of old Proustian burrowing under the face of to know what and why he was doing it. His foster father Da, and the consequent reality. Rather it hinges on the son’s performance gave some idea of what might return of Charlie after a long absence to realisation, after all the eradication he be done. By some other group. sort out the few effects of this impover­ yearned for of all that was past, that Da

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 23 had a good soul, wanting the best for his a veritable fount of platitudes whose Olde Stuffe in the Sunday Australian I adopted son though often holding him contempt for Sheila is thinly concealed: I remarked that the material had become back. can’t help feeling the denouement would “overfamiliar” and that Edna was now One cannot condemn the play for what have been strengthened in terms of “merely a satirical figure”, that BH was in it is not; the problem is that the play credibility had she been introduced at an danger “of turning like Sandy and Edna arouses expectations of a stature that it earlier point in the play — even during Act before him, into a National institution” never achieves. The final assessment is I. These structural considerations did not and that I thought Aussie humour should that of accomplished professionalism in diminish the stylishness of this production, discover a new direction “away from our the writer, of a deftly constructed and nor in general the finely textured quality of limited notions of satire, away from humorous play, and a production under the acting. Terry O’Connell by some “relevance”, from literal minded Peter Collingwood that admirably serves magical process of his own devising (the humour” . it. One cannot help musing that if this is a unimaginative might term it ‘technique’) All somewhat highfalutin’ no doubt. But worthy example of the work of “the finest created a chameleon character of Brian, humour did take off in another direction Irish playwright alive today” then our own moving fluently from mordant wit through (Woolongong the brave, Flash Nick, Aunty writers can hold their heads up high. alert mimicry to desperate funniness, by Jack, Norman Gunston etc). And no one far the most consistently compassionate could’ve known that Edna herself would performance we’ve seen from him in become an institution in a very real sense, Wagga. as “Dame” Edna Everage. After Gough Substantial, moving Elaine Mangan, while not texturing her Whitlam has dipped his sword, and funny. Sheila quite as richly, was rarely less than the former homemaker from compelling, her primary attribute a superb Humoresque Street was no longer “just a A DAY IN THE DEATH stage fluency. John Francis’ highly show”, but a living breathing, not to OF JOE EGG amusing Freddie never slipped into cari­ mention, talking celebrity somewhat cature, Ida Buckley’s Grace was poised beyond the interest created by a mere Mrs but needed more relaxation, Sharon Hillis Edna's appearances at Ascot (in a mad hat ADRIAN W1NTLE was a capably middle-class Pam and replica of the Opera House) at the Palace, Christine Fisher brought a kind of on TV and radio, indeed all over the place, A Day in the Death o f Joe Egg by Peter Nichols. Riverina sepulchred dignity to the spastic child. became once again convulsively funny and Trucking Company Theatre. Wagga, NSW. Opened June I. Faced with performers of this overall Director. Les Winspear; costumes. Eleanor McDonald. original. She also found time to present Brian, Terry O’Connell; Sheila. Elaine Mangan; Joe, calibre, Les Winspear could hardly have Dame Edna’s Coffee Table Book which Christine Fisher; Freddie. John Francis; Pam, Sharon failed to succeed in his major production Mr Stephen Sondheim has described as “a H illis; Grace, Ida Buckley. debut. Yet this production must qualify as (Professional) wonderful coffee table” and of which, or in the finest piece of theatre the Trucking which, Miss Joan Bakewell, whom our Company has given us, substantial, heroine once memorably encountered on The Riverina Trucking Company’s moving and funny. the BBC, has said “You couldn’t do worse production of Peter Nichols’ A Day in the than follow her every example” . I found I Death of Joe Egg represented almost was besotted with the former Edna Beasley illusory successfulness in blending play, all over again. The lady had become, nay performers, theatre and audience into a A far cry from “a is, a real event! rich theatrical experience. nice night s It was certainly an event when our Measurement is man’s only safeguard properly regal protagonist was mistaken against illusion, as Plato so long ago entertainment” for the Queen in the second Barry observed; therefore let it be said immed­ Mackenzie film (in which she also visits iately that the physical properties of the ISN’T IT PATHETIC AT Transylvania!). An event too, was the small (120 seat) Trucking Company HIS AGE? London show Housewife Superstar in the Theatre made it an ideal forum for the long hot summer of 1976, a record intimacies this play demands; that play­ breaking entertainment which has been wright Peter Nichols is a jokester of GREG CURRAN recorded for posterity. Dame Edna is now Perelman proportions; and that the play’s dropping names like confetti and her free pathos and wit were explored convincingly Isn’t It Pathetic A t His Age? by Barrie Humphries. Her and frank references to Dame Peggy at such close quarters. Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, NSW. Opened 24 May 1978. Barrie Humphries one man show. Ashcroft (“in a wonderful state of preser­ These two elements are pursued relent­ (Professional) vation”), Dame Margo and Dame (sic) lessly by Mr Nichols. In the first act he Joan Plowright are hilariously impertinent. achieves a piquant balance between reality In the early and mid 1960s (how long Dame Joan was playing the theatre next and fantasy: between the consuming ago that seems readers!), no one enoyed door to her Australian rival and, according immediacy of spastic illness and the the adventures of Edna Everage and Sandy to the stage boys “used to listen through desperately humorous word-games Stone more than yours truly. Edna was the wall with her toothbrush mug just to enacted by the parents to serve as then the indomitable suburban mum, hear what a real audience sounded like”. counterbalance, explanation and perhaps anchored, as it were, at Moonee Ponds. This is the international superstar talking expiation as well. The fact that much of Her attempts to sponsor a migrant while and the script fits (ditto the tiara). The the humour is of an undergraduate variety mother minded little Kenny at home, and record is wonderfully memorable and in its concern for making a pun at any Sandy and Beryl’s Easter with young again imitable, and perhaps edible, — you price practically guarantees a high level of Wayne and Marilyn Hiscock, were but two can dine out on it. onlooker absorption, as well as incident­ of the sketches heard, many times and oft, Having (micro) grooved on Dame E (and ally creating sharply defined emotional on our microgroove. In the theatre, too, indeed Les Patterson), especially early in polarities. the characters (for then they were Londres 1977 when every old acquaintance Nichols is shrewd enough to employ the characters) and the situations were fresh, and antipodean expatriate whacker, vaudevillian device of having his life-like, believable, irresistable really seemed to have seen the 1976 show or characters address the audience, a tech­ when-you-come-to-think-of-it. And last, possessed (sic) the record I was expecting a nique that enables a great deal of but not least, marvellously imitable (to lot from the new show in Sydney. However, necessary detail, otherwise dull in boot). I was disappointed by Isn’t it Pathetic at dialogue, to be accommodated gracefully. However, by 1968, I was beginning to his age? In the first place the peripheral Yet his command of verbal counterpoint, have a few doubting thoughts in the characters don’t help on this occasion. engagingly displayed in the first act, is put Australian Quarterly I wrote ‘Edna is still Lance Boyle the new style union leader to stringent test in the second act, when as formidable as ever, but I think Barry playing up in Hong Kong, and Les the knockabout element threatens to Humphries has run dry on this subject”. Patterson Australian cultural attache to obscure the corrosive issues at stake. Pompous youthful twaddle, I suppose. But the court of St James both seemed much Brian’s mother, for instance, emerges as I get worse! In 1971, reviewing A Load o f fresher and funnier (and in Les’s case,

24 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 The effects of causes on attachments WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS SPOKESONG

LUCY WAGNER

What Every Woman Knows by J M Barrie. Marian Street Theatre, Sydney, NSW. Opened 9 June 1978. Director, Alastair Duncan; Designer, Michael O’Kane; Lighting, Michael Ney, Stage Manager, France« T aylor. Alick Wylie, Oordon McDougall; James Wylie. Bevan W ilson; David Wylie, Phillip Hinton; Maggie Wylie, Janice Finn; John Shand, Tom McCarthy; Comtesse de la Briere, Marcella Burgoyne; Lady Sybil Tenterton, Louise Pajo; Charles Venables, Redmond Phillips; Mr Fieke, Thomas. Terry Peck; Grace, Lisa Moore. Professional

Spokesongor the Common Wheel by Stewart Parker; Music by Jimmy Kennedy. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, NSW. Opened 6 June 1978. Director, Don Reid; Designer, Doug Anderson; wonderfully vulgar), in a recent Bulletin be humourously and humanely observed. I Piano. Julie Wright, Peter Hamilton. could’ve done without the reference to the The Trick Cyclist. Harold Jones; Frank Stock, Brian article and on that record (respectively). Young; Daisy Bell, Rosalind Spiers; Francis Stock, Ross Sandy Stone was killed off in 1971 to the state of Madge’s skin, and the ending of Hohnen. best of my recollection; his present the Sandy sketch, not to mention Norm Professional reappearance as a ghost is stretching Everage’s colostomy. things somewhat. The lack of really funny moments We seem to be getting a spate of Celtic As to Edna (and Les too) perhaps the highlights these matters, which critics and plays in Sydney; following Da at the Old humour no longer seems (to me anyway) to commentators tend to label “dark” or Tote, Marian Street have opened J M have a local context that’s really interest­ “black”. But such labels imply some Barrie’s Scottish comedy What Every ing; may-be it’s the English context that degree of depth of significance in the Woman Knows about a canny lass who creates the event — the incredulity and material. I don’t really know whether these manages her husbands affairs without falling about of a pommy audience plus a somewhat cruel jibes are just a desperate letting him know, and at the Ensemble is more distinctively theatrical atmosphere, attempt to keep the locals happy with Spokesong, an Irish musical about the that makes for piquancy eg “Why is this something they can relate to (and they sure Belfast troubles, the history of the bicycle the most successful show in the history of do) or whether this so called “humour” and the championing of causes. the English speaking world — Because springs from a subconscious desire to do What Every Woman Knows, and what people are sick to death of the theatre”. the characters in, or both, or what. It every man does not, is that behind every And of the Globe Theater where the star might make an interesting seminar after good man is a good woman. The case in was pfaying “Little Shakespeare himself the show one night. In the meantime, this point is Maggie Wylie, an ageing (twenty used to jump around up on this stage, odd evening is a far cry from the “nice seven), charmless spinster whose father dressed as a woman most of the time”. night’s entertainment” enjoyed in happier, and brothers manage to marry her off to Perhaps the by-play with the West End more innocent days. the up and coming MP John Shand. The audience is better. To a woman answering Hon J Shand started life as a railway a question — “Do you often interrupt porter, and Maggie’s background is one of West End shows dear?”). In fact a lot of regretted lack of education, but as John the London show is based on playing the moves up the parliamentary ladder, so audience. Again may-be the idea of DE on she learns French, and everything he a record (or on TV or in the papers) is now studies, to be the perfect wife to him. funnier than the reality on stage. But I When they get to London, and a think the main reason I felt let down is ministerial post appears to be in the offing that the London material is or seems much the system starts to break down. The more interesting, it certainly hangs catalyst is lovely Lady Sybil who forms a together better. Back in Terra Australis, romantic attachment with the previously (a) the tone of some of the spiel (eg Edna’s immovable Scot, and Maggie stays true to mixed feelings about Joyleen, Brucie’s wife her promise not to behave like any other (now returned to Rozelle) is rather wife under such circumstances. She ships unconvincing on this occasion and, despite them off to the country together where similarities, hardly compares in interest they quickly tire of each other. John also with the suspensefull 1976 number about discovers there, that strangely he has lost the contents of Joyleen’s Ruislip (London) the inspiration needed to write the speech bathroom), (b) the seeming thinness of the of his life time, and after a period of shock material (like the poor those gladdies are happily accepts that his success is the still with us) and (c) the bitter way in which outcome of the matrimonial partnership. some characters are treated, are all curious Alastair Duncan’s direction captures to say the least. the essence of the play; it is light and For example Beryl, Sandy’s widow, has smartly paced, but doesn’t miss out on the a sort of wake in which, among other compassion with which J M Barrie has things, Sandy’s side of the wardrobe is drawn his characters. The casting could thrown open to the friends and neighbours not be bettered. Janice Finn’s unusual — for pickings! I found this incredible — looks smoothly encompass the early an unnecessary kick in the pants to the charmless Maggie through to the self- memory of a character who, like Madge Barrie Humphries as Dame Edna Everage. assured but selfless wife whose humorous Allsop, one of Edna’s bridesmaids, used to outlook forces even her dour husband to

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 25 Theatre /S A

A play about Marx somewhere in this script MARX ______

MICHAEL MORLEY

Marx by Ron Blair. South Australian Theatre Company, Playhouse, Adelaide, SA. Opened 1 June 1978. Director, Colin Qaorga; Designer, Axel Bartz; Lighting, Nigel Levings; Assistant to Director, Kerrie Macarthur. Karl Marx, Neil Fitzpatrick; Liebnecht, Peter Schwarz; Jenny Marx. Daphne Grey; August von Willich, Doctor, Paul Soniika; Konrad Schramm, Michael Siberry; Christian Weitling, Uncle, Ronald Falk; Lenchen. Chris M ahoney; Bodfish. Robin Bowerlng. (Professional)

Dramatists have always had problems with the attempt to write a drama centred on political figures and creative writers. Kings, queens, generals and saints have always proved more manageable for the dramatist and more convincing to his audience; and there are few examples of plays in which the personality and spirit of an important political figure are success­ fully conveyed in either the public or the private sphere. Robert Bolt’s State o f Janice Finn (Maggie) and Tom McCarthy (John) in What Every Woman Knows Revolution, in spite of character studies of Photo: Peter Holderness Lenin and Trotsky which are more effective than any in Ron Blair’s Marx, is love her. And the pomposity of Tom perception than those of What Every still only intermittently convincing in its McCarthy is tempered with enough Woman Knows. attempt to relate such figures to the wider endearing mannerisms to make her love However, again the characterisation and real historical stage on which they and his final conversion quite credible. As carries the evening with Brian Young as moved. And Buchner’s D anton’s Death a Scot himself, Gordon McDougall has the Frank and Rosalind Speirs as the teacher and Weiss’ M arat/Sade are special cases father to a tee, and Phillip Hinton is both Daisy Bell complementing and sparking in as much as both authors locate the funny and moving as Maggie’s favourite off each other’s performances most effect­ action of their plays in extreme situations brother. ively. His lackadaisical manner belies his and moments of unusual crisis for the The play itself should not be scorned deep concern for righting the wrongs of the protagonists. because of its very dated title; its Wildean city — albeit through the provision of The political biography in the theatre is wit surrounds the very reasonable prop­ 50,000 municipal bikes — which meets at a genre bristling with difficulties: maybe osition that no man is an island, and often a final point with her early inability to cope the appropriate form for a treatment of partnerships in work allow a drawing from with the situation that grows into the Karl Marx could be a modified version of a greater range of skills. That a wife realisation that living with the problem is the ‘epic theatre’ used by Brecht in prefers to subordinate her own ego and the only way to possibly help it. Harold Galileo. But the dramatist would still be career to her husband’s is in general a Jones’ Trick Cyclist and assorted characters faced with a crucial problem: will the hardly acceptable position to take today, was versatile and interesting, but suffered audience see a political figure (particularly but the reasons, both deep and superficial, from a lack of coherence in the writing. He one from the recent past) as possessing why people form attachments and work for plays all the peripheral characters, most of that combination of - possibly mythical — causes are most accurately charted in this whom are anti-cycle, but as the trick historical significance and intrinsically play. cyclist and kind of MC he is the singer of interesting -- even if mundane — private The effects of causes on attachments is “Spokesong” the paean to the bicycle. concerns that one observes in figures like also one of the themes of Spokesong, or The music was pleasant enough, but Marat, Danton and Galileo? For it is in the Common Wheel, by Irish writer distinctly unmemorable, as is generally, this area that much of the tension Stewart Parker. Belfast bicycle shop­ perhaps, the metaphor of cycling for the necessary for the play’s momentum can keeper Frank Stock has inherited a love of balanced straightforward way of life. Don often (though not invariably) be found. these machines from his grandparents Reid’s production though, certainly has And if a writer chooses to write a play Francis and Kitty. The story of their those attributes; the set is spare but about Marx, he must presumably be trying romance, marriage and involvement in the evocative and only leaves to be desired to say something more significant about first world war parallels in flashback and more space for the eight or so species of that figure’s place in history than one his memory, Frank’s involvement with a the beast to be ridden in. Somehow the would expect if he were concentrating on young school teacher and the Irish civil whole play just misses out on being an the day-to-day concerns of an unknown, war. In spite of its more modern outright winner, and with the music is yet typical German emigre of the 1850’s. perspective and concerns, the play’s thoroughly enjoyable at the time, but gets Ron Blair’s play all too often sounds like comments are really of less profundity and no further than the foot-tapping obvious. “The Secret Life of Walter M arz” mixed

26 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Christian Brothers deserves all the praise it up with “ Revolutionary Analysis of the clearly deposited in the pawnshop more for has received for its superb writing and Class Situation among the Oppressed of the author’s convenience than for the conducting of any business. They were not marvellous theatricality, has a play about Europe as Provided at the Lodgings of K. Marx somewhere in this script. The first Marx”. He has chosen to set the three acts helped either by the setting or Colin George’s direction, both of which act certainly has its moments, but the of his play in a London which seems the remainder is a lost cause. To modify one of product of a reading of Dickens that appeared excessively, deliberately neat and unimaginative. In particular, the pausing Marx’s own observations: “Writers make provides both author and audience with a their own plays, but they should not make comfortably familiar starting point. The for audience response to supposedly them exactly as they please”. Well, not in orthodox naturalism of the piece and its effective cap-lines merely showed how both conventional characterisation prevent the author and director had miscalculated. this case, anyway. audience from gaining any new insights. It may be that Ron Blair, whose As Marx sips wine with emigre friends and armchair revolutionaries, spicing his con­ out to a dark oblivion but after due versation with supposedly revealing THE W IN TE R ’S TALE penance is welcomed back into a life pronouncements (“If you attempt to plentiful and chaste. The play to the influence workers . . . without a body of BRUCE McKENDRY audiences of 1610 must have appealed as doctrine and clear scientific ideas, then the movie legends of ‘love will win through’ you are playing an empty and unscrup­ A Winter's Tale by . Adelaide Theatre do to today’s. The characters in the play ulous game”) we are clearly meant to see Groups, Sheridan Theatre, Adelaide SA. Opened 1 June, 1978. seem so manipulated as to be puppets, the coming alive before us the selfish, arrogant Director, Brian Debnam; Designer, Jim Cowley; Music, strings very obviously controlled with a Jeff C arroll. yet fascinating figure who advocated Leontes. David Reed; Polixenes, Andrew Clarke; Paulina, purpose. We see a king caught up in a fit solidarity and revolution. Instead we get a Pamela Clarke; Perdita, Christine Harris; Clown, Dina of jealousy, the seeming death of his family cardboard cut-out, mouthing ponderous Panozzo; Dion, Rustic. Greg Elliott; Galoer, Lord. Bill Hastings; Lady, Mopsa, Pip Lewin; Servant, A ndrew and a sixteen year burden of guilt. But how platitudes in between glaringly anachron­ Todd; Lord, Rustic. Chris Strain; Hermione. M yfanw y thin and mercurial are the characters in istic one-liners which would seem more May; Cantillo, Brian Wellington; Antigonus, Florizel; this play; small cameos hand picked from Martin Portus; Autolycus. Hardy Stow; Old Shepherd, appropriate in the mouth of a bad Bill James; Cleomenes. Rustic. Hedley Buxton; Ennlia, the wardrobe. In the end all is reborn as if stand-up comic, or an escapee from a Dorcas, Jill Cross; Lord, Rustic Bruce Carter; Lady, nothing had passed merely fate at work. sub-Neil Simon conversation caper. Rustic, Mary Sitarenos. The Adelaide Theatre Group in present­ (Sample: Lenchen Oh, Moor [Marx nick­ (Amateur) ing the play seem to be saying ‘look what name], you’ve got enough problems we can do’ which is fair enough for indeed without mine. Marx Tell me. Lenchen I’m Shakespeares’ journey to the play The they do do it. The production holds overdue. Marx So is the rent. W hat s Winters Tale is well known; near the end together because it is paced to sustain; new?) I feel sure that a cursory reading of of his life after sagas of high passion, ideal scene follows scene at lightning pace. Marx’ correspondence would have yielded fancy, humour, thick jealousy and so many Using the seemingly many, in fact few, better examples of His wit than the above things, the man wrote a play that is a entrances at the Sheridan Theatre you tired joke. complexity of turnabouts, contradicting sometimes felt you were at a meeting place Of course, one can counter such perhaps complementing his earlier of tunnels deep within the ground. The objections to the play by saying that it is displays of morality. In The Winters Tale stage environment was functional yet Blair’s picture of Marx rather than the wicked and so tragic person is not cast gracious to look at utilizing gauzes, orbital history’s which is relevant for the play. True — were it not for the fact that, far from offering us an ironic or even travestied view of Marx, Blair merely trivialises him. The structure of the play points to its mechanical, second-hand quality: Act One — Marx chez soi in Soho, playing chess, discussing revolution, being rude, screwing the servant; Act Two — Marx and the capitalist world without, what better than a pawnshop (microcosmic- image-of-the-macrocosm-where-exchange- and-exploitation-hold-sway) with chats with the butcher and pawnshop owner and finally shouts from yet another abortive revolution off? Act Three — as for Act One, though now it’s time for a darker mood and more serious things, Marx the mighty man surmounting form­ idable odds. The most formidable barrier confront­ ing the Marx of this play is the pile of verbiage: and all things considered, Neil Fitzpatrick copes well, especially in the first act, where he imparts energy and ebullience to the lines. But the character­ isation, complete with stock stage German accent, lacks nuances and any real motivation, so that by the third act, one mm knows that the ground has been well and truly covered. Some of the supporting roles are quite sharply written and observed: Paul Sonkilla’s Willich and Michael Siberry’s Schramm stood out here, with the former providing a nice counterweight to Neil Fitzpatrick’s coarseness (of the role, not the performer). The others had fairly thankless tasks, and one felt for Ronald Falk and Robin Bowery who were Dina Panozzo in ATG’s The W inter’s Tale Photo: Barbara Provo

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 27 Theatre/WA modular seating and a large sun come painted pentacle upstage on the famous Sheridan back wall. It is a pity the sheer space available was not larger for I believe the play would benefit. Brian Debnam the director has a fine group of hard working actors with him who produce on the whole balanced yet still individual performances. As the two kings, David Reed and Andrew Clark deliver well and handle their many upheavals of fate with aplomb. As Hermione the somehow saintly, Myfanwy May does something difficult to do on such a small stage and that is to become at times quite separate and alone. Christine Harris as Perdita exudes a youthfullness befitting the idyll that Winters Tale is, though the transformation from son to daughter is a tricky one. Shakespeare had to have his cordon-bleu character and this time its Florizel, the prince of Bohemia; playing this role as well as Antigonus is Martin Portus doing it with ease and character. Possibly the greatest extension of characterisation came from Dina Panozzo playing the clown son of the old later, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin shepherd who fathers young Perdita. What has not Spring and Truffaut’s The Four Hundred Though her voice was much altered and Blows. she wore padding out to here, her survived is the I therefore went to see Streetcar at the vaudevillian ways certainly won the Playhouse with some apprehension. I need audience over. The mildness of Shake­ dramatic form not have worried . . . well, not much. speare’s venom for rogues and villians in Certainly Margaret Anketell’s playing of this play is demonstrated in the character A STREETCAR NAMED Blanche Dubois alone was worth the trip; of Autolycus. Hardy Stow who played the DESIRE and Williams’ play has survived the thirty role tried too hard at times, seeming to be years, but for one or two aspects which I too busy at what he was doing; it can’t be will deal with in a moment. easy to play a sham within the frame work COLLIN O’BRIEN ‘You have paid the price of admission’ of a play of sham and deceit. says a character in Williams’ more A funny thing happened at interval. As A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. National symbolic play Camino Real, ‘desparation’. the actors trailed off and the music took Theatre, Playhouse, Perth, WA. Director. Stephan Barrry; Designer, Qraham Maclean; Lighting, Duncan Ord; Stage Blanche is arguably Williams’ most com­ over the musicians, who played the Manager, Chrietlne Randall. passionate and articulate exploration of musical oddities, beautifully I might add Blanche Duboise, Margaret Anketell; Stella Kowalski, the despair which is necessarily at the end on a lute type instrument and an ancient Leith Taylor; Stanley Kowalski, Steve Jodrell; Harold of the road of that false view of life, Mitchell, Leslie Wright; Eunice Hubbell, P atricia snake charmer flute, walked on stage and Skevington; Steve Hubbell, Andy King; Pablo Gonzales, Southern gentility. It is the reality of sat on the bench whilst continuing to play. Ivan King; The Collector, Doctor, Robert van Scarlett O’Hara twenty years on. Here we It had all the touches of sit back ladies and Mackelenberg; Mexican Woman, Wanda Davidson; Nurse, Margarie Fletcher; Sailor. Bob Clarke. see such gentility at the point of despair, a gentlemen let our sound roll through your (Professional) snobbish overheated yet arid sensitivity, a minds; but alack, wasn’t long before the hothouse flower which withers at the touch flutist started wrinkling his cheeks and An especially stunning performance of a of reality. A gift for a good actress, and puckering his brow. The vibes between play or a particular character can so Miss Anketell took it in both hands. them kept saying “we’re out of key you dominate a whole generation that it must As her protagonist man-as-sensual- know”. To the people it sounded fine but affect all subsequent performances. The animal Stanley, Steve Jodrell managed the after heavy facial dialogue it was decided effect is particularly strong when the brutishness well but missed that still to peter out again and discreetly leave the performance is committed to film, as was brooding quality of the animal coiled to stage. The music during the evening the case with Olivier’s Richard III. With spring which Brando achieved so well. I’m helped the flow of things and even Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named not suggesting that Jodrell should have provided comic relief in an incident where Desire the skewing factor is the film copied his predecessor, but picked up the a flute magically played itself. starring Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh and general point that power often comes from Adelaide is fortunate in having the Karl Maldon. stillness. The physical aggression was there South Australian Theatre Company to It is not just that the performances were — flying bottletops, sweaty shirts and stage productions of the grand scale so brilliant, which they were. Streetcar was much flinging about — but the rages came why should the Adelaide Theatre Group one of those films which transformed our a little too gratuitously: a mad dog rather undertake a play of fairly large magnitude consciousness of what is possible in the than a crouched jaguar. Jodrell seemed to like The Winters Tale? It does work, yes, medium, shattered the conventions. The be playing the part from Blanche’s point of but could it have worked better? We are animal sensuality of Brando’s Stanley view rather than Stanley’s. fortunately or unfortunately used to seeing Kowalski exploded the sham Hayes Office One of the delights of the production was elaborate stagings and lavish decor. bakelite Blondie and Dagwood Hollywood Leith Taylor’s Stella. She managed the Adelaide’s taste for the classics has been version of sexuality. A Method actor, balance between compassion for her sister well met of late; Macbeth, Oedipus and Brando simply ignored the cliches and (tinged with long-standing sibling resent­ Henry IV 1 & 2. More and more people played closer to reality than anyone had ment) and her genuine response to want to see the realness of the times gone dared for years. Vivien Leigh, as his Stanley’s unashamed sensuality. I cannot by. Sometimes it’s not enough to ride on antagonist, was virtually set up years remember seeing the role more memorably the word alone. before by her role of Scarlett O’Hara in played. The Adelaide Theatre Group’s Winters Gone With The Wind, so that another It seems to me that what has not Tale is a play interpretated for an audience myth went to the wall; Southern Gentility. survived the thirty years is the dramatic to enjoy and with the resources available a As an image of reality in the cinema form. I think we now find eleven scenes in credit to those involved. Streetcar was as important for its time as, sequence on the ‘later that night and

28 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Theatre / Queensland afternoon, two weeks later’ pattern both questions. The boy was still Boy, Didi and too obvious and too detrimental to Gogo still politely called Pozzo mister. dramatic rhythm. It also mitigates against The issue of gender was a non-issue, the smaller parts, which suffer from too except for what Morris gained in terms of brief and disconnected exposure. After all, alienation effect. His design for the it is difficult for an actor to merely come production also stressed the “play” aspect on and say (say) ‘Beulah, honey, have you of (forgive me) the play. The Hole was seen mah trousers?” then go straight off, dressed out like the inside of a foldout and suggest character of the depth and toybox with a nursery-style Sun and Moon subtlety of Hamlet. Even so, Leslie Wright hung on the back wall either side of an did not take such opportunities as he had oblique band of yellow bisecting a kiddy QTC has spoken with with Mitch, whom he played too close to version of a Magritte sky. On the stage caricature. proper the white stand-up tree and, the voice of This production was the new Playhouse replacing Beckett’s mound, Morris’s director Stephen Barry’s first chance to Magritte-styled cracked egg. So the old Shakespeare. show us what he could do with a play of familiar tune was to be cranked out qua some depth. He had demonstrated his qua qua qua Theatre, not as has so often, KING LEAR competence with his direction of and misguidedly been done, Life. Wind up Didi and Gogo and Pozzo and Lucky and Ayckbournes whodoneher trilogy The DON BATCHELOR Norman Conquests, but that is all they all and set them going and what did we have? Well, Joan Sydney as Didi and Nita King Lear by William Shakespeare. Queensland Theatre Com require (in my opinion Ayckbourne is the pany, SGIO Theatre, Brisbane, Qld. Opened 17 May, 1978. most currently overrated playwright in Pannell as Gogo for two. Morris eschewed Director, Alan Edwards; Designer, Peter Cooke, Lighting, England). The fine balance between the the familiar bowlers and gave Sydney a David Read; Music, Jim Cotter; Stage Manager, David Holmesian deer-stalker worn sideways and G ration. three protagonists of Streetcar must be Lear. Warren Mitchell; Goneril, Pat Thomson; Regan, credited to Mr Barry. If I have a quarrel Pannell a battered old Akubra, but Fay Kelton; Cordelia. Ingrid Mason; Gloucester, Ben otherwise they were the tramps we d G a b rie l; Edmund, Ivar Kants; Edgar, W a rw ic k with him, it is that the pace of the play was Comber; Kent. Gordon Glenwright; Fool. G eoffrey too even, I could have done with more known and loved. Rush; Oswald, Russell Newman; Actor 1, G eoff change of rhythm and lead up to and away As Gogo, eternally the pessimist, Pannel Cartwright; Actor 2. Ron Layne. from climaxes. Mind you, I did see it on was a miniature dead-beat with a down- (Professional) the second night. turned mouth. As the sempiternally optimistic Didi Joan Sydney was a The QTC production of King Lear is superannuated stand up comic who d certainly the best Shakespeare they have served time in the working men’s clubs of done. The direction was intelligent, the Working on the Northern England. I was initially put off stage environment was powerful, visually by the broad accent, but she had settled economic in its means and well suited to melody itself into it halfway through, mostly because the peculiarities of the SGIO, the costumes Sydney’s range and flexibility in the role were courageously dramatic in design and WAITING FOR GODOT defied its potential limitations and turned superbly made and at the heart of things it to a positive virtue. The two tramps are was an intensely conceived perform­ the core of the play; the entropic frenzy of ance by Warren Mitchell that thrust past CLIFF GILLAM their “canters” is its rhythm, their waiting the particulars of kingship, old age and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. National Theatre its meaning. Here I felt Nita Pannell fatherhood that so clutter critical consider­ Company, Greenroom, Perth WA. Opened 2 June 1978. sometimes lost, not tuned to the rhythms, ation of the play, and concentrated all its Director, Mlk« Morris; Lighting, Stsvo Amos; Stage sometimes hesitant. But Sydney was considerable resources on presenting the Manager, Liz Donaldson. Estragon, Nlta Pannell; Vladimir, Joan Sydney; Pozzo, Jenny Silburn; Lucky. magnificent, redeeming her hesitations, paradigm of suffering man, made wise by Celestp Anthonese; Boy. Rae Gibson. pulling her through and along, as it is only affliction and redeemed by love. right Didi should for Gogo. All round the periphery there were Remember when people rioted over I can’t remember having seen Jenny elements that detracted from the primal Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot, back Silburn and Celeste Anthonese (Pozzo and force — certain gaucheries of perform­ then when Parisians greeted the really new Lucky respectively) before, but I do ance, especially in the role of Edgar and with howls of pain, having been punched remember thinking that Pozzo should consequently of Poor Tom, a somewhat in their theatrical prejudice? That was have been grosser, in every sense, that it feeble storm, the alienation effect of over a quarter-century ago, and since then was in Silburn’s power, despite terrific having some audience on stage, which was Waiting for Godot has been done almost effort, to make him. But oddly enough, out of style with the rest of the production, to death.the irritant injection became after Joan Sydney’s excellent performance amateurish thumps and bumps back- pleasantly, innocuously familiar, a pop­ what remains in my mind about this Godot stage, a broadsword that bent in Gordon ular brand name among that range of was something which has been thrown Glenwright’s hand after a few desultory narcoleptics collectively known as Classics away, walked through, hurried over, or dabs at an opponent; extraneous distrac­ of the Modern Theatre. This is not to otherwise neglected by directors in every tions included a bunch of philistines from knock the play itself, merely to point out other Godot I’ve seen.this was part of the Brisbane Grammar School, and the that comtempt is easily bred by time, and Boy, Godot’s messenger, played in Mor­ constant noise of pneumatic drills working thus directors who choose these days to do ris’s production as a semi-mute by mime on an underground railway tunnel beneath a Godot find themselves looking about for artist Rae Gibson. There was something the auditorium. All this meant that catharsis was less than complete, but the an angle, a way to refurbish the familiar. both immediately affecting and absolutely core of the play was so clearly conceived The problem however is what to do with a true in her “conversations”, part mimed, that the result was still deeply moving. tree, a rood, two tramps, the sun and part grunted, with Didi. A messenger from Warren Mitchell shaped his perform­ moon? What to do with a play which Godot must be an innocent on the ance very well. His blustering old fool of a dictates its own rythms so precisely? What frontiers of language, for Godot lives king, demanding outward shows of love at to do with something so uncompromising before and after words. If Morris’s other the beginning of the play had really come that any addition becomes glaringly innovations were in the end but a new full circle by the end to a much more obvious gimmickry? bandstand on which to play the same old commanding personal authority, bred of Mike Morris’s answer to these questions tune, this was working on the melody wisdom and nourished by the love of was to do Godot with an all-female cast. A itself, a new and felicitous arrangement.for Cordelia and the Fool. The dramatic cunning ploy this, promotionally speaking. this alone the production was well worth function of Fool/Cordelia as the loving Questions about town. “Godot in reverse seeing. Not that I’d miss a production of catalyst in Lear’s painful journey to drag?” “What about Didi’s prostrate Waiting for Godot anyway - wherever it’s self-realisation is central to the play, and problem?” “Will Godot’s boy be called done and by whom, they’re playing my neither nor Ingrid Mason girl?” etc. As it turned out, all irrelevant song.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 29 made the most of it. Rush was admirably Through grotesque manipulations of his theatre doesn’t have to start at the funny (which Fools in Lear often aren’t), a prestige Brazil and Nicola front up for the proscenium line, here was a total event. sort of independent zany, and as the clash where he sadistically pushes her in So it was easy to be impressed; but motive force in Lear’s self-discovery he was order to find out how much monstering very deliberate. What one missed was the afterwards I could only agree with widely she can withstand, and discovers that it’s held opinion: that this production had its quality of his caring for the old man, quite a lot; in fact rather more than he can. moments, but it wasn’t a riotous success. It particularly in off-focus moments. Ingrid After all, despite the disadvantages of Mason achieved this alright, and her still could be, for the actors gave one of the relative youth, the recession generation has tensest opening night performances I can unerring sense of line gave her a stylish had rather more practice in the role of physical presence (she’s a costume maker’s remember, and the staging was a technical social victim. A parallel grittiness drives jungle through which neither actors nor dream), but vocally she lacked command. I Brazil’s tenacious assistant Rex (Bruce wonder how far each of these performers technicians had yet beaten a safe and Morley) to imitate and eventually replace secure path. Only Mark Hembrow’s Rocky was the victim of diffidence towards the him. The star himself eventually accepts star. the offer of the big “SM network”, Jim Cotter’s music provided a sound decamping from his defeat to purvey in environment which was interestingly greener southern fields his technicolor evocative and always sympathetic to the transmitted valium, supporter and sup- action. presser of salesman and consumer alike. it is commonly remarked how, for all Note: In order to pay post-election debts their resources and money, the State the state Labor Party machine recently companies produce theatrical mons­ sold to 2SM its interest in 4KQ, the trosities. Often the available hardware and “Labor” station. personnel seem to get in the way of any The play’s direction is basically firm; in direct contact between playwright and parts one misses some emotional variety in people. How refreshing, therefore, to the interpersonal tensions of inimical report that on this occasion the play was colleagues condemned to prowl the same well served — that the QTC has opened its small cage. The climactic competition is collective mouth and spoken with the voice rewardingly black and funny, the primary of Shakespeare. coloured set of electronic gadgetry express­ ive and elegant. Off-mike, Craig Cronin’s Brazil suggest more bile than panicked The play doesn’t fury; when on air he exudes the right manic mid-Pacific speed-popping know where to go cadences. He becomes far more compel­ ling amplified, which I guess just goes either precisely to show. C IT Y SUGAR ROCKY HORROR SHOW VERONICA KELLY YOUNG MO City Sugar by Stephen Poliakoff, La Boite Theatre, Brisbane, Qld. Opened 26 May 1978, Director: Jennifer Blocksidge Rex, Bruce Morley; Leonard Brazil, Craigh Cronin; RICHARD FOTHERINGHAM Nicola Davies, Sue McLeod; Susan, Margaret Finucan; The Rocky Horror Show by Richard O’Brien. G & M Big John. David Byrne; Jane, Monica Gilfedder. Promotions, The Rialto, Brisbane Qld. Opened 5 May, 1978. (Amateur) Director. Bryan Nason; Musical Director. Ralph Tyrrell; Designer, Fiona Reilly; Choreographer, Keith Bain; Lighting. John Hoenig; Sound, Leigh Wayper; Production The noisome sounds of commercial Manager. Graeme McCoubrie. radio permeate Australia’s aural collective Usherette, Magenta, Kathryn Porrill; Brad, Chris Bell; Janet, Rosemary Ricketts; Criminologist. Brian Blain; memory; but, as the programme notes for Riff Raff, Ric Herbert; Columbia. Candy Raymond; La Boite’s City Sugar remind us, they are Frank N Furter, Michael McCaffrey; Rocky, M ark for the British an experience of a mere five Hem brow ; Eddie, Doctor Scott. Paul Johnstone. Drums, Peter Hudson; Bass, Gary Broadhurst; Keyboards, years’ duration, ever since Radio Caroline Peter Harvey; Guitar. Kaise Steen; Saxophonist, Eddie pulled down her Jolly Roger and sailed Thomson. ashore to become part of established big (Professional) business. Jennifer Bloxsidge’s production invites us to see with fresh eyes — and hear Young Mo by Steve J Spears. La Boite Theatre. Brisbane, Qld. Opened 14 April, 1978. Director, Rick Billinghurst; with quadraphonically-assaulted ears — Designer. David Bell; Piano, Mary Anne Murphy; Drums, this phenomenon integral to our mass Chris Willems, Stage Manager. Paddy Teuma. culture, and implicitly to share the Mo, Rod Wissler; Fleckler, Lisa, Queenie Paul, Kaye Stevenson; Sadie Gale, Kitty, Mary Lou, Dolly, Kary playwright’s dim view of where we are in Perry; Rabbi, Sir Fiarold, Professor. Bruce McCormack; the late ’70’s goal-less, soul-less mass Mr Sluice, Bones, Stiffy. Dave Watson; Mrs Sluice, Patron, consumer circus. Mary Anne Murphy; Barman, Lawyer, Workman 1. Sean Mee; Dream Dolly, Workman 2, Critic, Garry Cook; Joe. It’s hard to disagree with Poliakoff’s Chris Willems. contention, voiced by Leonard Brazil (Amateur with Professional direction! (Craig Cronin), ace DJ of the intelligently localised “Radio 4BY”, that the great days of ’60’s hope are over and the post-Beatle There was a feeling of excitement and present a sad postlude in comparison. You goodwill at the Rocky Horror opening. out there, remember May 1968? Quite, Here was something which was attracting who does. Having established this much, younger different people to theatre. Here the play doesn’t know where to go either. was a major showcase for some great and Its- action concerns the electronic hitherto unrecognized Queensland talent. vampirisation by the still-rebellious Brazil Here was the rediscovery of part of Michael McCaffrey as Frank-N-Furter in of a random voice owned by a blank girl, Brisbane’s theatre history — the Rialto at Bryan Nason’s Rocky Horror Show. Nicola (Sue McLeod) already numbed by a West End, ideal atmosphere for Rocky Photo: Pierce Studio. mindless job in a dire supermarket. Horror. And just when we’d forgotten that

30 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Theatre/ACT was up to size, and his Sword of Damocles number was the one genuine show stopper — an amazing display of youthful joy. Amongst other good points were Fiona Reilly’s adventure playground set, and the fine musicianship of all concerned. The show occasionally took off, but it never stayed airborne. The simplest flaw was the leaden slowness with which all the actors deliver­ ed the fairly feeble dialogue which links the numbers; lightness and slickness would have cut five minutes off the show and made it a lot more fun. Rather more serious was the lack of eroticism. The play’s only justification is as a celebration of the breakdown of the heterosexual fifties into the do what thou enjoy seventies, yet this production merely hinted at sexuality with a coy and furtive giggle. Michael McCaffrey was a striking looking Frank-N-Furter, but played the foundation stones in the outback and then, role sadly gay rather than rampantly Politicisation on a fanning themselves with relief at having sexual — which made his seduction of got it all over, rush back from Canberra’s Janet somewhat implausible, and Rocky’s non-issue prohibition to Melbourne’s pubs or to desperate attem pt to escape from him even their property at Nareen or to their peanuts, odder. And everyone else looked so clean because their peanuts need them, and and wholesome; nice kids dressing up as ACT NOW leave the poor public servants whining that the queeries they’d seen in the movie, it “Canberra’s a word, a sentence incurred, came across as teenybopper porn rather MARGUERITE WELLS they’re hundreds of miles from home . than transexual turn-on. You hear that now, often enough, but It will be a moderate success — the Act Now by The Jigsaw Company and Vashti always seriously...... It is nice to see it technical effects and rock music will see to Waterhouse. The Jigsaw Company, in Repertory, various parodied. Then there were the meat pies that. Whether it will be more depends on locations. Direct, Carol Woodrow; Actor/Tutors, Cam illa Blunden, Ewa Czajor, Tim Mackay, Steve Tayne, .... the sixty thousand meat pies for the the possibility that many of these flaws Jennie Vaskess. noble People of Australia who were to turn simply reflect the tentativeness of a (Professional) ______up, in their sixty thousands presumably, production which wasn’t quite ready to As far as politics go, I could only and camp out in Canberra’s zero temp­ open. I hope so, for it’s a worthy venture describe Act Now as naive Fraserian eratures, that May fifty-one years ago which deserves to run till Christmas. Federalism, tinged with the self-righteous when the Temporary Parliament House Meanwhile across the river at La Boite sentimentality that Americans, and now, that still sits under Camp Hill, was Rick Billinghurst’s production of Young Gawdelpus, Australians, reserve for inaugurated. No doubt the burial of those Mo is having a successful run. He’s boldly motherhood and democracy (clutch your sixty-thousand symbols of Australian good attacked the main problem with this hat to your heart and wipe your eyes). taste and apathy, when the people of uneven script (the fact that as penned Mo Yes, Virginia, there are people who Australia failed to turn up, accounts for is a minor character in his own play) by disapprove of motherhood. There are the flourishing state of the parliamentary bolstering the second act with more Mo those who are not stirred to fury at the rose gardens to this day. routines. Rod Wissler is a first rate thought that they in Canberra are deprived When, as we progress through the phyiscal Mo, and is backed up by a clever of their Democratic Right to a State or twentieth century, 1948 brings a member to soubrette duo in Kay Stevenson and Kay local government like those lucky people represent the ACT Federal parliament, Perry. The other performances however out there in the Federated States of and the benighted people find that he s range from the eccentric to the dreadful, Australia. There are even those who regard only allowed to vote on Territory matters, and the set was an unhelpful hodge-podge local and state politicians as bloated their dismay at still being non-voters like which splattered little bits of the action all big-fish bull-frogs in little ponds who “lunatics, criminals, aboriginals, children over the theatre. It was an error perhaps to croak out of tune and even more out of and aliens”, somehow fails to bring a lump let us hear thirty seconds of the real Stiffy time, without sense and with only pern­ to the throat. A squirm perhaps. If and Mo in one of their radio shows — it icious effect. Some people (voice sinks to a anything in the play belittled the horror of was faster, lighter, and funnier than whisper), even think that there aren’t the injustice of the disenfrachisement of anything in the show, and pointed up the enough smart or honest people in the the people of Canberra, it was that fact that this play makes Mo an obvious country to make one parliament, let alone comment.... and coarse 1970s pub entertainer rather eight, and that the trick would be to But then, dashing heroes, dastardly than the subtly vulgar genius of a less reduce the number of parliaments to one, villains, put-upon public servants and liberated age. not add another just so that the people of demented bureaucrats are always fun, squirms and belittling not withstanding. My only quarrel with the production was the ACT don’t feel left out of Truth, that it made no attempt to develop the Justice and the Democratic Way. And the Jigsaw Company is always fun too. theme of Mo as both great comic and But abuse isn’t criticism, and if the Their energy and deftness are qualities thoroughly unpleasant person. As I recall Jigsaw Company managed to provoke such sadly lacking in the rather depressing the catalogue of Mo’s backstage crimes (in venom in one so placid, sweet tempered theatre of Canberra, all to obviously made for demented bureaucrats. When I was a Act Two) was cut, and the ‘real’ scenes and silken-tongued as I am when I’m child theatre for children was all patron­ were played either for laughs or for asleep, then they achieved exactly what ising pantomime. Now I am an adult, the mawkish and false sentiment, thus losing they set out to achieve; the politicisation of best theatre in Canberra is for kids (The the nastiness of the real Mo. But it’s a a non-issue that, despite its enormous Jigsaw Company’s TIE) or by them (The theme only hinted at in the script anyway, importance, has kept all but the bull-frogs and given the limitations of the play and of Canberra in a state of gentle torpor for Children’s Theatre). And then, when the Jigsaw Company does a production for the unevenness of his cast, Rick Billing- too long. adults (also for high schools), they fail to hurst clearly opted for rough energy and If I had been able to keep my mind off take my politics into account! Thought­ enriched comic material to keep us politics, I would have loved Act Now. It’s entertained if not enlightened. not hard to love politicians who lay less ......

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 31 Theatre IT AS

‘The elusive good night out can be found here!’... says Peter Smark’s Vacuum created is also by the Victorian Opera during the next twelve months. Eating Out In being filled It is of interest to note that the Tasmanian Theatre Company has success­ Melbourne 1978 TASMANIAN SURVEY fully pursued such an entrepreneurial policy for some time now, with the blessing of the theatre board of the Australia New show opening Thursday KARL HUBERT Council. June 8th Its artistic director, John Unicomb, The fortunes of theatre in Tasmania makes periodic trips to Melbourne, change like the tides which wash the Adelaide, and Sydney, to buy productions. shores of the Island State. Times of high This enables audiences in Hobart, Laun­ Makin’ Wicky Wacky activity are followed by periods when ceston, and Burnie, to see professional nothing much happens, while events of productions which could not be mounted A night of hot harmonies genuine importance in theatre are rare. locally. Love Thy Neighbour and Steven and humour with One of the reasons for this calm state of Berkoff’s East are in this category. affairs is that the State’s old established Tasmanians love musicals and this The Crackers companies, for instance the venerable explains the popularity of Theatre Royal Directed by John O'May Anglesea Theatre Club (est. 1868), and Light Opera Company productions. Hobart’s Repertory Theatre Society, have Showboat, staged at Hobart’s Theatre Choreographed by loyal support from a wide circle of friends Royal was a success. It was directed by Karen Johnson which enables them to mount three night Arthur Sherman, of Sydney. Earlier in the or six night seasons without difficulty. year, Hobart Repertory presented a two- From time to time new companies form, week season of No, No Nanette, and the Starring: announcing often grandiose plans and annual University Revue did particularly quite often exiting after staging a few well. It is rumoured that the Old Nick Yasmin Shoobridge unexciting plays. Company made a lot of money and that it Ruth Schoenheimer It all proves that Tasmanian audiences intends to invest some of it in a production Patricia L'nane are well able to distinguish between good of a more serious nature. Among the small Peter Crichton theatre and bad, whether amateur or stages, the Riverside Arts Club and the David Evans professional. This has happened to several Hobart Theatre Club are doing valuable Marsh Robinson groups formed during the “Whitlam work. Meanwhile, another theatre rest­ Spring” when subsidies were freely avail­ aurant has opened in Tasmania’s capital, able, and more recently, to the Tasmanian the Cedar Court, at Hadley’s Hotel. The Opera Company, which quietly passed other two are the Explorer Motor Inn, BOOK NOW away after a prolonged illness. The final located on a hill high above the city, and 419.6226,419.6225 blow came when the Australia Council Wrest Point Casino, which has invested announced there would be no more some $300,000 in this venture. The Fully Licenced subsidies. There were the obligatory Explorer has a strong local flavor, while 64 Smith St., Collingwood shrieks of horror by politicians; however, the Cedar Court stresses dance routines those who genuinely love opera largely and live music. Wrest Point features remained silent. imported dancers and lavish costumes. One man prominent in operatic matters The Salamanca Theatre, whose main said it was better to import opera from sphere of work is theatre in education, is We are always interested in other States than to tolerate mediocre getting ready for its tour of the United work by a local company, even if it States, and its neighbor, the Tasmanian new acts and scripts... contact professed to be “professional”. Puppet Theatre recently returned from a for circus to cabaret!! And the vacuum thus created is being tour of Indonesia, not much richer but filled. Hobart opera lovers will see with considerable prestige. And Puppet productions by the Tasmanian Conser- director Peter Wilson is organising the vatorium of Music, the Australian Opera, first international puppet festival to be the South Australian Opera, and possibly held in this part of the world.

32 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978

and last Acts the misery of Marx’s penury at this 1967 staying ten years and showed a true particular time is captured, as is the love that theatrical instinct for poverty by leaving just INTRODUCTION bound him to his aristocrat wife Jenny, and the before qualifying for his superannuation to By Colin George equally unshakeable attachment of the maid become assistant director of the SATC. Lenchen to all in that extraordinary household. He began writing for the theatre in 1970 when To write a play about any great historical involved in the creation of the Old Nimrod Street Ron Biair began writing Marx in 1974 when figure is a hazardous business, there are Theatre. A list of his plays given below, all of he was living in London. He had read Edmund so many preconceived ideas to counter. Ron which have received successful professional Wilson's book To The Finland Station and his Blair’s achievement in Marx is to offer us a production confirm his standing as one of immediate inspiration was that period in Marx’s credible human being and so involve us as to Australia’s contemporary writers. Marx he life when he was living in Soho as a political send us back again to re-examine the legend. began writing in 1974 when on a visit to exile. The years 1850 to 1851 were dark ones for London. The original inspiration had been Marx, and his family life was fraught with great Edmund Wilson’s To The Finland Station. “I unhappiness. was drawn to Marx — an extraordinary person The Marx family were living in two crowded ORIGINAL CAST who endured hardships under which a normal rooms in 28 Dean Street, to which they had Karl Marx Neil Fitzpatrick man would crumble. Then I realised that he moved from an equally squalid environment Wilhelm Liebnecht Peter Schwarz thrived on opposition; it fed his obsession.” further up the street. A young son had died and Jenny Marx Daphne Grey In the very footsteps of his protagonist he the move was an attempt to escape from the August Von Willich Paul Sonkilla visited the British Museum to read more about depressing memories of their former living Konrad Schramm Michael Siberry Marx, and dined in Dean Street’s Quo Vadis quarters. The place they found themselves in, Christian Weitling Ronald Falk Restaurant — the present offices upstairs being which is the setting of the play, was to prove an Helene Demuth rooms the Marx family occupied at the time of equally harrowing resting place. It was in this (Lenchen) Chris Mahoney the play. At the request of the SATC, he squalor that Marx’s wife Jenny gave birth to a Uncle Ronald Falk completed the play for its premiere in Adelaide. baby daughter which subsequently died: then Bodfish Robin Bowering A champion of new Australian work (other Lenchen, the family’s maidservant, became Doctor Paul Sonkilla than his own!) he directed John O'Donoghue’s A pregnant by Marx. Happy And Holy Occasion last season and is Ron Blair has taken this sequence of events The play was directed by Colin George and designed by Axel Bartz. First performed by now working on Roger Pulver’s Cedoona. and shown us Marx the man entangled in “Working as a director, taking a play apart domestic upheaval; at the same time there runs the South Australian Theatre Company on 1 June, 1978. and reassembling it with the performers has through the play the vision that could cut given a new theatrical impetus and awareness to through the empty rhetoric of the my own writing” he comments. revolutionaries of 1848 and was finally to be BIOGRAPHY OF PLAYWRIGHT enshrined in Das Kapital. RON BLAIR 1970 Biggies It is a tribute to his quality as a writer than Ron Blair was born in Sydney, his father 1970 Hamlet on Ice Ron Blair has deliberately chosen to lace his play worked in shipping there, and he has two with comedy: few playwrights would have brothers both chemists. However, after 1971 Flash Jim Vaux dared, as he does in the second Act, to edge near attending the Christian Brothers High School in 1973 Kabul farce, with his revolutionary hero about to pawn Lewisham he majored in English and History at 1973 President Wilson in Paris his trousers and join the ranks of many a stage Sydney University and left determined to earn a 1975 The Christian Brothers vicar. By placing his second Act in the living as a writer. 1976 Mad Bad and Dangerous to neighbourhood pawnshop he, at one stroke, For four years he did precisely this as an gains immediate theatrical access to the political advertising copy writer, working on assignments Know argument of the play and the protagonist such as welding fluxes excising the self-indulgent 1977 Perfect Strangers himself becomes involved in the confrontation and baroque from his writing. A Place In The Present of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In the first He joined the ABC Drama Department in 1978 Marx

gradually, as you grow accustomed to the fog, ACT ONE you can make out certain objects which “Such pain and such effort it cost to build a The front room of the Marx lodgings in 28 Dean distinguish themselves from the surrounding stronghold for the mind and the will outside the Street, Soho, 1850. haze. Everything is dirty and covered with dust, makeshifts of human society”. so that to sit down becomes a thoroughly Edmund Wilson: To The Finland Station. It is a large room with two entrances: one to a dangerous business. Here is a chair with only back room and one to the landing and the three legs ... but none of these things embarrass ® Ron Blair 1978. corridor. There are three windows on one wall Marx or his wife”. All rights: M & L Casting, 49 Darlinghurst Road, looking down onto the street from the second The set may include the staircase up to the Kings Cross 2010. floor. door of the Marx flat. Dialogue has been We have a vivid description of life at Dean included to cover entrances and exits on the CAST Street from a Prussian police spy whose report stairs. came to light in 1921: KARL MARX (“the Moor"), 32 “Marx lives in one of the worst, therefore one (Liebnecht and Marx are playing chess. JENNY, his wife, 36 of the cheapest quarters in London. The one Liebnecht moves) HELENE DEMUTH (Lenchen), the maid, 27 looking out on the street is the salon, and the Lieb: Check. What were you saying? WILHELM LIEBNECHT, 24 bedroom is at the back. In the whole apartment (pause) About emigres. You were saying that — AUGUST VON WILLICH. 40 there is not one clean and solid piece of M arx: I know what I was saying Liebnecht. KONRAD SCHRAMM. 28 furniture. Everything is broken, tattered and Lieb: Sorry. Um ... check. CHRISTIAN WEITLING, 42 torn, with a half inch of dust over everything Marx pushes back his chair and without taking UNCLE, a pawnbroker and the greatest disorder everywhere. In the his eyes from the board, takes a cigar and lights BODFISH. a butcher middle of the salon there is a large old fashioned it. DOCTOR. table covered with an oil cloth and on it there lie M arx: I was talking about that foolish Russian WEITLING may be doubled with UNCLE manuscripts, books and newspapers, as well as baroness who keeps her doors open in St. John’s WILLICH may be doubled with THE DOCTOR. children’s toys, the rags and tatters of his wife’s Wood. Who can keep count of the emigre sewing basket, several cups with broken rims, bedbugs crawling between her aristocratic loins? ACT ONE: A large room in Soho, London. 1850 knives and forks, lamps, an inkpot, tumblers, Lieb: But she is an intelligent woman. You ACT TWO: A pawnshop in Soho, three months Dutch clay pipes, tobacco ash and all on the must concede that. later. same table. A seller of second hand goods would M arx : They say that parts of her body are ACT THREE: Same as Act One, six months be ashamed to give away such a remarkable worth the enjoying. Believe me Liebnecht, one after Act Two. 1851. collection of odds and ends. When you enter of them is not her brain. Marx's room, smoke and tobacco fumes make Lieb: I think she is a woman of beauty, wit and your eyes water So much that for a moment you charm (indicating the board). seem to be groping about in a cavern, but You resign?

34 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 M arx: The sad truth my young friend is that printer. Newcastle. emigration turns everyone into a fool and an ass Jenny comes to the doorway. He laughs hugely at this joke. No one else joins and a common knave unless ... (he contemplates Jen n y: What0 1 was half asleep. in except Schramm. a move) unless ... (he lifts his hand to move) M arx : The printer who offered me 25 pounds. Jenn y: There is a little wine, gentlemen, unless he manages ... (he takes Liebnecht's (pause) You remember! should you want some. queen) to occupy his mind usefully. Jetzt hab' Jen n y: Isn't his name Eisenmann? S ch ram m : Please don’t worry about us Frau ich dich (Now I’ve got you!) M arx: That’s right — Eisenmann! A berliner. Marx. We shall look after ourselves. You must Enter Jenny Marx: she is heavily pregnant. Do you know him Liebnecht? rest. M arx : Jen n y: Who’s winning? Lieb: No. not at all. Is he in London? Schramm is right, my dear. You go in Lieb: The moor is winning ... as usual. 1 thought M arx: Yes; I have to get this to him today. and rest. Lenchen will take good care of us. 1 had him but he just took my queen. Lieb: Eisenmann. No. I don't know him. Meanwhile, we shall warm ourselves with this. Je n n y : He has a weakness for aristocratic Jen n y: So long as he pays. We could do with Marx proceeds to pour wine. women. the money. Jenn y: Good night gentlemen. Jenny exits to the back room. Exit to back room. O m nes: Good night. Good night Frau Marx. M arx: Your move Liebnecht. Lieb: So long as you don't regret it. Exit Jenny. Lieb: What’s the point? You'll have me in six M arx: Never regret crushing fools, Liebnecht. S ch ram m : And who is winning, Wilhelm? moves. Let us clean our own stables first before we turn Lieb: The moor has won. He took my queen. M arx: My friend, do not give up so easily. our attention to palaces and parliaments. W illic h : A game between Weitling and you, Remember the French. They lost both their king Willich and Schramm climb the stairs. Optional Marx. Now that I would like to see! and their queen and still defeated the revolution. dialogue under. M arx: It would be an unequal match Willich. The forces of reaction are vicious indeed. Take S c h ra m m : But he is coming. Herr Weitling would first of all behead his own this case in front of us. 1 have come near to W illic h : Oh yes. He's coming alright. king and queen and then harangue the rest of his defeating you with a miserable knight. A S c h ra m m : It's not hard to get lost. That's pieces until they fell asleep. medieval mountebank, an insipid anachronistic what 1 meant. Others laugh except Willich. nonenity, some ferret faced Pomeranian who, if W illic h : Don't you worry about him. It would W illic h : That's a cheap joke. Weitling is no he could talk would be nothing more than a loud take a bigger city than London to lose Weitling. ordinary exile, Marx. He has seen blood spilt for mouthed, impudent windbag. Come, Liebnecht. They knock at the door to the Marx flat. the cause. Your move. M arx: Jenny, the door. No, you stay there M arx: Spilling blood is easy. Doctors do it every Lieb: Oh well, if it gives you any pleasure. Liebnecht. It could be some debt collector. day. M arx: It does. Jenny has become an expert in such things. Lieb: But Weitling does have a reputation. He moves. Jenny emerges from the back room and crosses Moor. Lieb: 1 think chess must have been invented by to the front door. M arx: So do strumpets. Yes, yes. yes Willich, I emigres. M arx: (taking back the ms) Yes Liebnecht, just will keep an open mind. M arx : (moving a piece) A pity so few of them because a certain few humbugs have leafed W illic h : You seem to have made up your mind can play it well. through Hegel's encyclopaedia, they imagine already Marx. Lieb: Have we played the revolution any they can dispense with using their brains for the M arx: Let us say 1 have my suspicions. better? rest of their lives. S ch ram m : But to be fair Moor — M arx: If we failed, it is because so many of the Jenny has opened the front door. Enter Willich M arx: To be fair! To be fair! Revolution is not a revolutionaries themselves are failures. Look at and Schramm. sport subject to the strictures of a gamekeeper our fellow countrymen who have infested this Jen n y: Good evening gentlemen. Come in Schramm. Nor is it a pastime for idle city in the past few years. Most of them are please. demagogues. romantic liars or experienced swindlers — W illic h : Good evening Frau Marx. W illic h : Have you ever met Weitling? blowflies wrapped up in a robe of speculative S c h ra m m : I trust you are well. M arx: I may have. 1 meet many people! cobwebs. M arx: Come in and close the door! Do you Lieb: You must admit. Willich. that Soho is Lieb: Some good men too. want to let a bailiff in? lousy with emigres. M arx : Very few. Believe me, 1 know what I’m Jenn y: Your coats please gentlemen. W illic h : Just a minute. Christian Weitling is talking about. I have just finished an article on Willich & Schramm: Thank you. Here you not just another emigre. He is a serious student the hordes of German Jesus Christs and worn are. of the revolution and is recognised as such by out Werthers who have swarmed into London M arx: Some fellow was loitering on the the secret police who hunt him from one and infested Soho since 1848. staircase all morning. I was in the lavatory when country to the next. He is far from a sportsman Lieb: (moving a piece) May I see it? he arrived and had to stay there until he had or a demagogue. M arx : You're welcome. gone. Spend three hours locked in a lavatory and M arx: Perhaps. Marx surveys the board. tell me there is a god. W illic h : He is wanted by the police in three Lieb: Where are you going to publish this? Jen n y: You enjoyed it. countries at least. M arx : (moving a piece) In Germany. M arx: How do you mean, my dear? M arx: Who isn't? Lieb: But you can't publish this. Jenn y: You were still there after the bailiff had S ch ram m : Touche, Willich. M arx: And why not may 1 ask? gone. W illic h : He has suffered for his beliefs. He has Lieb: Well, it’s — it's -- M arx: That’s true. I finished reading been thrown into prison in one country after M arx: Proceed Liebnecht. Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom. another. Lieb: The men you have written about here are W illic h : Ah! Weitling's book. M arx: So he likes prisons. colleagues. Or have been. M arx : Yes. Since we are to be honoured this W illic h : Don't be stupid Marx. There's not a M arx: Your verb is pertinent. Liebnecht. They evening with a visit by Herr Weitling, I thought gaol in Europe that can hold him. No sooner are hasbeens every one and yet each pretends to 1 should read through it once again. he's in, than he’s out again spreading the have the sacred flame of truth burning within S c h ra m m : Do you think it stands up? revolution. him. Closer examination reveals them all as M arx: It is a brilliant work Schramm. Yes, a M arx: In prison, out of prison, in prison out of mildewed charlatans. brilliant work. It is of course a great pity that his prison. What is he — an escape artist? He should Lieb: Attack their politics, their heresies — yes! life has not been as intelligent. be in a circus? But everything here is very personal. Merely W illic h : You're wrong Marx. Not only W illic h : He is important Marx. The workers abuse. Weitling is a writer of genius- idolise him. They can recognise a leader when M arx: Abuse has a secure and honourable place M arx: Men rarely live up to their writings. ihey see one. in political journalism. If you seek to destroy Jen n y: Gentlemen — please sit down. 1 know M arx: 1 don't doubt they can. your opponent, destroy him utterly. Brutality you want to talk. W illic h : When he comes here tonight, 1 want and subtlety are essential ingredients found in M arx : Yes, yes. Make yourselves at home you to treat him seriously. any polemic worth the name. Politics is not a gentlemen. What's the matter Schramm? Lieb: We will. We've all heard of Weitling. sport for gentlemen Liebnecht. It is a fight to the S c h ra m m : I was wondering Moor, if I might W illic h : He is only coming here because 1 death. have my coat back. It seems to have got cold. asked him. He has no reason to see you Marx. Pause. Moves a piece — takes a piece. M arx: Has it? Stoke up the fire Schramm. M arx: None whatsoever. Lieb: Who is this printer? Jenn y: There is no more coal. Lenchen has W illic h : But I convinced him that you might M arx: I forget his name. Jenny will know. gone out for some. write about him, publicise his ideas. (calls) Jenny! Jenny, are you awake? Lieb: Do you think she is all right? She has been M arx: His ideas! Je n n y : What is it? I am lying down. gone for some time. W illic h : I believe Weitling will be a force in ihe M arx : What is the name of that German M arx: Perhaps she has gone to fetch coals from revolution.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 35 M arx : Perhaps he will. Perhaps he will. W illic h : Marx has an uneasy sense of humour, W e itlin g : Those who fought in 1848, did so Lieb: (pause) What have you got against him Christian. because they were starving. Their methods were Moor? W e itlin g : (trying to laugh)Oh, I see. desperate because they were desperate. They did M arx : Nothing specific. It's just that all these M arx: This is a very fine coat, Excellent not consider methods and principles; they were emigres stumble into London with fatuous craftsmanship. fighting for their very lives one way or the other. notions about revolution. Most of them have W e itlin g : Thank you Herr Doktor. (pause) If They stood to gain more at the barricades than made a series of shattering discoveries which you have some material, I would be honoured to at their workbenches. How could they consider wouldn't rock an egg. The other day I ran into make such a coat for you. such abstractions as methods and principles? one typical German Jesus Christ and he told me W illic h : Now there is a generous offer Marx. M arx: If they had, the revolution would have with baited breath that — wait for it gentlemen M arx: I am overwhelmed, if you make succeeded. — that in this he has observed revolutions with such care as you make your W e itlin g : I myself have seen these people! And distinct contrasts between the rich and the poor. frockcoats, who could complain. not just a few, but thousands! 1 have spoken to Imagine that! W e itlin g : Who has been complaining? them in one city after another. The door opens quietly and Weitling enters M arx: Do you think about anything when you W illic h : And spoken brilliantly too. unobserved. sit sewing, or do the stitches just 'happen'? M arx: 1 don't doubt it. W illic h : Weitling has no illusions about — W e itlin g : (at a loss) I thought my business here W e itlin g : 1 brought them hope and without M arx: I have no doubt gentlemen that this tonight was more of a political nature. hope, there will never be a revolution. fellow has told others of this bizarre discovery W illic h : And so it is. M arx: Hope makes a poor sort of gunpowder. and that he is, at this moment, being feted as the W e itlin g : You did not tell me August, that the Hope alone is hopeless against government Saviour of Tottenham Court Road. But we Herr Doktor needed a coat. cannon, Weitling. know him ... W illic h : (grimly)That’s not all he needs. W e itlin g : In point of fact - W illic h : This has nothing to do with Weitling. Lieb: Weitling, do you consider that the spirit M arx: In point of fact it is hopeless playing M arx: ... for what he is: a rowdy, loudmouthed, of 1848 is dead? John the Baptist unless you have Jesus Christ impudent windbag. W e itlin g : The revolutions of 1848, in arriving on the next train, (rises) does he think W e itlin g : Ahem. themselves, may not have succeeded. he is Jesus Christ. M arx: Get out! there is no one here called M arx : Granted that you make coats with care W illic h : (pause) There is no call for that Marx! He left last week. Get out and close the remark Marx. door! and attention; should not revolutions be made the same way? M arx: I am being perfectly serious. Our tailor W illic h : Christian! Here he is Marx! This is W e itlin g : Of course. What is your point? here thinks that being hunted from one country Christian Weitling! M arx: the Revolution of 1848 is dead; so dead it to another by the police, is a sufficient M arx: (closing the front door) Won't you come stinks. Agreed? qualification for leading a revolution. in Weitling? W e itlin g : If the revolution failed, its spirit W e itlin g : I think nothing of the kind. W e itlin g : Urn ... I am in. lives. Slumbering perhaps, rather than dead. But M arx: Did you ever remain in the one place M arx : So you are. Well: so at last 1 meet the it is alive. long enough to see the full effects of your celebrated author of Guarantees of Harmony oratory? and Freedom. W illic h : And it is our duty to see that it sleeps to good advantage. When the spirit is roused W e itlin g : If I had to leave a country quickly, it W e itlin g : And I am honoured to meet you Dr again, then we must be ready. was not through choice. I am not an exile by Marx. M arx: Tell me gentlemen — what are we to do choice. Herr Doktor. W illic h : Let me take your coat Christian. with ourselves while the revolution “slumbers"? Lieb: Which of us is? M arx: You may want to keep your coat on. It’s S c h ra m m : Educate the workers to our M arx: Just a minute Liebnecht. I am not quite cold in here. methods. Implement what we have learned from questioning your commitment or your integrity W e itlin g : No, no. I have been in much colder our own past failures. or your bravery but I am saying Weitling. that places, I assure you. W illic h : Implement with action. The time for to offer people hope and nothing else, is pure M arx: You have? Pray tell, what kind of theories is past. The bourgeoisie are glutted with fraud. places? our theories. Let us prepare a harsher diet; W e itlin g : Someone has to tell the workers that W e itlin g : 1 have been a reluctant connoisseur bayonets and grapeshot. they are not alone in their misery, that there are of the dungeons of Europe. M arx: What do you say Weitling? others in other countries who suffer with them. M arx : You mean we have a hero in our midst? W e itlin g : Everyone knows we did not succeed Revolution is more possible when workers in W e itlin g : Oh no, Herr Doktor, nothing like in 1848. We are still counting our losses. But England and France and Germany learn they that. that doesn't mean that we should waste time belong to a universal brotherhood. W illic h : Yes Christian, a true hero. licking our wounds. M arx: Universal brotherhood! And what is M arx: In that case, let me take your coat. It is W illic h : Certainly not. that, pray? 1 will tell you: universal brotherhood not often I have the pleasure of taking a true Lieb: If the Revolution of 1848 compelled all is nothing more than a random fraternization hero’s coat. Europe to. without regard to historical position. It It is a well cut overcoat: it reveals a red M arx : Weitling, you have made a reputation completely ignores the social level of waistcoat for yourself in Germany with your communist development of individual peoples. Universal M arx: What colour would you call that propaganda. You have won over many workers. brotherhood is a handy mouthful of words waistcoat Weitling? Is that right? which boils down to nothing more than W e itlin g : Let us call it: the colour of bourgeois W e itlin g : So I am led to believe, yes. dangerous sentimentality and political blood. M arx: You have won over so many workers romanticism. M arx: You had to wade through so much to get that now most of them have been put out of W e itlin g : It has been my experience that here? work and are starving. How do you defend that? workers in every country share sufferings in Weitling laughs, not knowing how to take this W illic h : Herr Weitling is not here to defend common and W illic h : (quickly) Konrad Schramm. himself, Marx. He does not acknowledge you as M arx: Let me hear no more snivelling about the W e itlin g : Honoured. a grand inquisitor. sufferings of mankind and your humanistic W illic h : And Wilhelm Liebnecht. W e itlin g : No August. I don't mind, truly. drivel about universal love. What is your Weitling & Liebnecht: Honoured. Continue. Herr Doktor. doctrine! M arx: This too is a fine frock coat. Did you M arx: How do you defend your socio-economic W e itlin g : In the first place - make it youself, Weitling? agitation? And on what grounds do you propose M arx: Have you thought out a clear W e itlin g : As a matter of fact, I did. I am a to defend your agitation in the future? intellectual plan for revolution? tailor by trade. W e itlin g : (pause) If you want reasons for W e itlin g : I think I should mention Herr M arx : Yes, so I have heard. Would you make revolutionary activity, then I suggest you look at Doktor - me such a coat? the wretched way the workers are forced to live, M arx: Based your views on sound scientific W illic h : Herr Weitling has more important the even more wretched way they are forced to ideas? (pause) Well. I’m waiting. work now Marx. He tailors revolutions. die. Then look at the murderers who inflict these W illic h : I refuse to have my friend M arx: To order? deaths, the god-fearing bourgeoisie, and see how interrogated in this fashion. W e itlin g : I’m sorry? they want for nothing. I am amazed I should M arx: I am not talking to you Willich. I am Willich gets wine for Weitling have to defend the principle of revolution to you talking to our revolutionary tailor here. I'm sure M arx: If I ordered a revolution from you, of all people. he can speak for himself. He seems to find it easy would you make one for me? M arx: I am not questioning your principle, enough to speak for others. Well? W e itlin g : I don’t understand. Herr Weitling. I am questioning your method. W e itlin g : The human spirit needs no doctrine

36 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 to know it is in chains and must struggle to be by turning the pages of books. if I have to listen to him a moment longer. free. M arx: Ignorance has never helped anybody yet! W illic h : And you are a sleazy, drunken traitor. M arx : Horse shit! Revolution is a serious What is the point of living dangerously? That is M arx : Get out of my house you grotesque, business. If you attempt to influence workers — for cowboys, cossacks and whores. The thing is cretinous bedbug especially German workers — without a body of to think dangerously. That is real heroism! Sit W illic h : You're a buffoon Marx doctrine and clear scientific ideas, then you are down Weitling. Revolution is far too important M arx: Prussian poseur playing an unscrupulous game. You are setting to bandy words about. Lieb: Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Is this the way yourself up as a demagogue to mesmerise a lot of W e itlin g : My coat please. to settle things? open mouthed donkeys. M arx: The business of revolution cannot be S ch ram m : You are a disgrace Willich. a S ch ram m : But Moor, surely oratory has its entrusted to a tailor’s dummy. disgrace. place in the revolution. W illic h : Get his coat Schramm. I’ll come with M arx: An elongated sewer rat - M arx: In perhaps. They go in for hot air you Christian I’ve had enough of this gutter W illic h : Vile, yiddish numbskull!! and martyrs in Russia. But not. my friends, in journalist. Marx throws wine into Willich s face. All the Germany which we all know only too well. In a M arx: I am sorry you are going Weitling. We so men leap to their feet. Jenny Marx chooses this civilized country like Germany, nothing can be rarely see a splash of colour here. Please don't moment to emerge from the back room and achieved without doctrine and up to the present misunderstand me. I have the greatest respect cross the room. The men freeze. She exits there has been nothing but a lot of noise and for a good tailor. through the front door and goes to the lavatory dubious excitement. As a result, the revolution W e itlin g : (taking the coat) Thank you Herr on the landing. has got itself all the attention of an actress with Schramm. No August. There is no need for you Lieb: Oh gentlemen, please! loose morals. to come. We exiles are split into enough factions S ch ram m : You deserved that Willich. W illic h : I demand satisfaction. W illic h : The men who fought in 1848 used as it is without my causing another. You stay. (pause) their own blood, Marx, not yours. Besides I'd like to walk by myself a while, (to M arx: What are you complaining about. It was M arx: And most of them stayed at their posts the others) Gentlemen. a good wine. Engels sent it; it must be good. You until they had had enough which as we know He nods. Willich closes the door after Weitling will have worse thrown at you than this. gentlemen, does not take long — in battle or in exits. Willich. bed. We need men with hardier appetites. Let us W illic h : You are despicably smug Marx. W illic h : Choose your weapons. Marx. have done with fatuous gestures. If there are the M arx: If you listen to bombastic nonsense, you M arx: Oh get out. I have no time for Prussian men ready, let us give them ideas and not just will live to be cheated by idiots and scoundrels. tomfooleries. words. We need thinkers, not recruiting Lieb: He wasn’t a scoundrel. Moor. W illic h : Choose whatever time; whatever sergeants. M arx: No, just an idiot. He wanders across place. But 1 insist on satisfaction. Marx sits Europe charming the masses to revolt and leaves M arx: Get out. Goosestep off to Buckingham W e itlin g : Thank you Herr Doktor. It is a just as the army arrives, to begin its slaughter. Palace and lick Albert's dancing pumps. 1 have comfort indeed to learn that my life has been a Such revolution is short lived gentlemen, life is no intention of engaging in student frolics. fatuous gesture. I can only wish that the police long. That is the view of this "gutter journalist”. S ch ram m : Pistols. throughout Europe could dismiss me so blithely. W illic h : Typically defeatist nonsense. You Lieb: Keep out of it Schramm. I might then still have a home. have lost your courage and are not prepared to W illic h : What did you say? M arx : You are well meaning, Weitling. But admit it. You will be committed to a lunatic S ch ram m : I said pistols. I am accepting your being wanted by the police is no imprimatur of asylum before you commit yourself to the challenge on behalf of Dr Marx. integrity. There is not a man here who is not revolution. M arx: No Schramm, you are more use to me wanted by the police in at least three countries. M arx: Willich. I am content to make only one alive. Liebnecht, show this non commissioned Oh, I have not the least doubt you mean well. enemy a night for the moment. Please don't cockroach to the door. We have serious matters W e itlin g : Thank you. But to tell you the truth, make me exceed my quota. to diseuss. Herr Doktor, I am heartily sick of your S ch ram m : But isn’t it important to keep the W illic h : Make up your mind, Marx. Who am 1 condescension. I am indeed, as you have fire of revolution burning Moor, between to kill? You or Schramm. thought fit to remind me often enough, only a uprisings 1 mean? S ch ram m : Pistols it is. 1 am ready. Name the tailor M arx: The revolutionary period we have been place Willich. M arx : But a good one I’m sure. through is finished. Lieb: Schramm — Willich. What is the point ol W e itlin g : I have not been to one university, let W illic h : Rubbish. killing each other when we all have an enemy in alone two. M arx: An unpleasant fact, but true. The next common. M arx : Three. I have been to three universities. revolution will be petit bourgeois in character. W illic h : (laughs scornfully) So the High Priest Get something right, for God's sake! (drinks wine) It will bring the craftsman and the of hot air has his altar boys fight for him! small trader to power and the petty shopkeeper. W e itlin g : And I am not a Doctor of Lieb: It would be wise to leave now Willich. Once this is done — and not before — we can Philosophy, but sir, unlike you I have learned W illic h : Get your hands off me. you toady. about mankind not in a library but through think about the masses. (Liebnecht lets go) And you. Schramm, how do man. I have worked with my fellow man and W illic h : You are a futile theoritician Marx. you feel about dying for the rabbi here? shared his burdens and conditions. 1848 weakened the fabric of European S ch ram m : Dr Marx has more important M arx : Yes, yes I'm sure you have. And laughed authority. Now is the time to strike again and things to do than shoot fools. You are a fly it will with lepers too, no doubt. tear it to shreds. be my pleasure to swat. W e itlin g : I can show you letters written to me M arx: Very well Willich. How do you plan to M arx: Oh leave him Schramm. by workers. execute this striking imagery? W illic h : (to Schramm) Are you old enough? Or W illic h : Listen to this Marx! W illic h : I personally am determined to bring do 1 have to get your mother’s permission before W e itlin g : You would have to overlook their the revolution to the fatherland by the power of 1 kill you? spelling. They have not been to three the guillotine. Lieb: Anyway, duelling is out of the question in universities either. They cannot spell but their M arx: Oh! Madame Guillotine. Cherchez la this country. meaning is clear. They are grateful for my femme. W illic h : Can you keep your courage long efforts. They can see how it is possible to shake Marx begins to sing The Marseillaise. Schramm enough to cross the channel sonny? the fabric of society. They know nothing of an joins in. S ch ram m : 1 shall take the night boat to Antwerp. We shall meet there on the beach. obscure bookworm living in London, who has Willich: I leave the hot air to you. 1 plan to act. Mishkovsky will be my second. never done a day’s work in his life . . . While you sit here Marx, toying with theories, W illic h : Excellent! Well Marx, when I have S c h ra m m : That’s enough! Destiny will pass you by. picked off your pupils, perhaps one day you’ll M arx : No, proceed Weitling. Continue. Finish M arx: Oh it's Destiny now, is it? allow me to shoot the headmaster. Until what you were saying. W illic h : Destiny and nothing less. Weitling W e itlin g : If you had lowered yourself to will lead the oppressed. Weitling and Schapper Antwerp. actually work, Herr Doktor, then you might and Lehmann. We will return to Europe and He bows ironically, clicks his heels and leaves. have learned that there is such a thing as make the revolution a reality. You will be left He meets Jenny outside, pauses, and then moves past her. She is puzzled and half goes after him. brotherly love. It is a real thing, as real as justice farting your theories in a London slum. and solidarity. These three things alone united M arx: Antwerp twerp. working men in 1848 for long enough to glimpse M arx: You are a nincompoop, Willich. An Leib: Why did you take his bait, Schramm? freedom. And freedom glimpsed will be fought idiot. M arx: Der menseh ist ja nur ein blutegel (The for again, and won. Great gains are made by W illc h : What was that? man's a pest) Yes it was stupid. I can see it now: taking great risks, by living dangerously — not M arx : Get him his coat Schramm. I will vomit a scene from Pushkin.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 37 S c h ra m m : (dazed) What? S ch ram m : A duel's nothing dear lady. The Leib: He may pluck you out Schramm. M arx : Your duel with Willich. It reminds me of Herr Doktor has to finish his work. Besides, he Consider that. a scene from Pushkin. The beach at night, the would never leave you ..nd the children. S c h ra m m : I'm not intimidated in a reputation dark tide, the indifferent stars. A Prussian Jen n y: What do you know about it? He leaves got by a buffoon. standing with a smoking pistol in his hand and a me every day for that damned Museum. From Jen n y: Tell him he can't go. You can forbid me dead boy bleeding on the sand. Liebneeht is morning till night he sits there reading while I to not work easily enough. quite right. Schramm. You shouldn't have fight off the debt collectors here. My poor little M arx: The circumstances are somewhat bothered. If one is to die in a duel, let it at least daughter has to sit on the bottom of the stairs different. Schramm is not my wife. His life is his be for woman of surpassing beauty, not a Doctor and tell one man after another that “Mister business. of Philosophy with toils on his backside. Marx ain’t home". Jen n y: Is that what you really believe? That S c h ra m m : But Moor, it is a question of M arx: What a little cockney she is already! other people's lives are not our business? (pause) honour. Je n n y : I can't go out in the day in case one of If that was true why have the secret police of M arx: My young friend, look around this room. them sees me. And even if I could I wouldn't, three countries taken such an interest in us? What do you see? Dust and broken furniture, the street's rife with cholera. Why have we been pushed across Europe to stuff so wretched even the bailiffs despise it. But M arx: Five cases in Gerard Street alone. the point where we are living in this vile street? there is little honour. Je n n y : The only thing left is to sit here and If we don't care about the welfare of people, S ch ram m : But Moor, your honour is you. freeze. why don't we pack up and go home and live in Who cares for furniture? M arx: Yes, where is Lenchen'? Wasn’t she some kind of comfort? M arx : If I had cared what people thought of me getting some coal? M arx: Are you listening to this gentlemen? It is I would have been dead years ago. You're Jen n y: If only we could leave this wretched called female logic. Ha! Ha! Politik ist shon more use alive. place and get away. verruckt gennug, ohne dass die l'aven Enter Jenny Lieb: Where? dazwischen funken. (politics is crazy enough Je n n y : What's the matter with Herr Willich? Jenn y: Somewhere, anywhere. America even. without women too). He just walked past me stiff as his waxed M arx: America! Ha! Ha! Women are such Jen n y: You care so much for “the people" but moustache. comical creatures. It is in their nature to demand nothing for one good friend. M arx : He has just challenged me to a duel. the impossible. S c h ra m m : Please. Frau Marx! I don't mind S c h ra m m : Actually Frau Marx - Lieb: Things will get better Frau Marx, you'll going in the least. I am exercising my free will. It M arx: (silencing Schramm) Yes at ten paces. see. has nothing to do with Hegel's historic Je n n y : You did refuse. Jen n y: Yes, but when.’ We need money and he inevitability. M arx: It seems we are to meet on some beach in won't get a job. M arx: Quite right. Schramm, nothing Europe and shoot out each other’s brains. M arx: I am working already. Besides 1 did apply whatsoever. If Schramm lives. Leibnecht, we Je n n y : Dear God, are you insane! You didn't for a job. You know that. shall have the makings of a philosopher. accept. Lieb: Did you Moor“? What doing? Je n n y : Oh do what you like! Go and get killed. M arx : Well, it is one way of testing the truth of M arx: A ticket collector for the railways. M arx: Ha! Ha! an argument, I suppose. Je n n y : They couldn't read his writing so he S c h ra m m : Well gentlemen. I suppose 1 must Je n n y : You have three children asleep in there didn't get the job. But they will be able to read go and ask Mishkovsky to help me in this and here is a fourth and you tell me you are off mine. business. Goodbye Herr Liebneeht. to a fight a — a duel! M arx: There is no call for female ticket Lieb: 1 won't say goodbye. Aufwiedesehn. S c h ra m m : But Frau Marx, the one who is collectors. You'll be back Schramm, never fear. actually going to - Jen n y: Oh I won't be working for them. S c h ra m m : Perhaps, (to Marx) Herr Doktor. M arx : Quiet Schramm! (to wife) Why should I Lieb: But what will you work at Frau Marx? M arx: Keep a steadv arm Schramm and turn not fight? Honour is at stake. Willich has Jen n y: When this child is torn, I shall take a sideways. insulted me. and through me. you. (to the men) position as a governess. Then we shall have Jenn y: What do you know about it? My wife is, as you know, an aristocrat some food at least. You're very quiet Schramm. Lenchen climbs the stairs with two bags oj coal, gentlemen, and as you know, aristocrats worship M arx: I forbid you to work as a governess. one bigger. honour. Lieb: (to Jenny) He's in Antwerp. That's where M arx: I fought with an aristo when I was at Jen n y: You must be demented Karl. Willich he has agreed to meet Willich. Bonn University. He cut my eyebrow. I wish has been a soldier. He'll kill you! Jenn y: Don't go Schramm. You are so young. now I'd lopped his head off. Well, you shall M arx: Better far to die in honour than live in You have so much to do. redress the balance Schramm. Take that disgrace. Don't you think so, my dear? M arx: I forbid you to work at all! petulant wind bag Willich out of currency. Jenn y: No I don't. Not when you have a wife Pause Goodbye m> to \. and good luck. and children. And what of your work? Is that Jen n y: Very well. We shall continue to starve S c h ra m m : Thank you sir. Goodbye Frau forgotten too because of a fit of mad pride? and Schramm can go off and get killed. (pause) You're joking, aren't you? (to others) Is Marx, (pause) Please, don't be angr\. (pause) S c h ra m m : But Frau Marx, I don't mind. Aren't you going to wish me luck? he joking? Really I don't. Schramm wants to speak. Marx stares him into Jen n y: Oh of course I am Schramm, of course. Jen n y: Don't you? Don't you like life, even a Do come back. submission. little bit? M arx: (to Jenny) It is you who is the aristocrat. Enter Lenchen from the door of the flat. She is S ch ram m : It's not that. It's just that Willich carrying one coat bag. I would hate it thought that Willich had said things about the Herr Doktor. He needs to besmirched the Westphalen family crest. be taught a lesson. L en chen : Well at least you might have opened Je n n y : Crest? Honour? What are you talking Je n n y : But what if he teaches you a lesson the door for me. What are you lot all looking so about. We live in poverty and — and filth and instead? Think about it Schramm. We only get gloomy about'1 you talk about preserving some stupid family one life, you know. S ch ram m : Goodbye Lenchen. crest, something I don't give a farthing about. M arx : If Schramm dies in this escapade, we w ill Len chen : Oh? And where are you off to? You can't mean it. (sits) Oh my God. what will have lost a fine comrade. It will be a regrettable S ch ram m : Antwerp. become of us? loss. Jen n y: To fight a duel Lenchen. M arx: Gentlemen, regardez. The heart of S c h ra m m : Thank you Herr Doktor. Lieb: He'll be back. woman is a marvellous thing. M arx: We should have turned his youthful Len chen : Some people get all the luck. Well S ch ram m : Please Frau Marx, don't cry. The energies to better ends but — there it is. before you go you can bring in the bag of coal Herr Doktor will not be fighting a duel. Lieb: He's not dead yet. Moor. I’ve left on the landing. Jen n y: (sniffling) Not fighting? M arx: You are set on going through with it? S ch ram m : Of course. M arx: Of course I'm not. Do you think I would S c h ra m m : Yes sir. Exit Schramm. forsake my work on Capital to bandy bullets M arx: Then it is only a matter of time before Len chen : Going off to get killed is he? (pause) with that Prussian fool? you are dead. It is well known that Willich is a 1 always thought duelling was for idle buggers. Jenn y: Why did you say you were then? good shot. Enter Schramm with another larger coal bag. M arx: Because Schramm here is fighting the S ch ram m : I must go! It’s not just a question S ch ram m : Here you are. duel and 1 wanted to show him how, if he had a of your honour, Herr Doktor. but tonight L en chen : No, bring it right over here. wife, she would react, (to Schramm) She has Willich showed he is a threat to the revolution. Lieb: Did you carry both of those, Lenchen? shed tears for you. Schramm, that we men could M arx: True. He would like to start shooting L en chen : Both of them, all the way from never show. everybody. Charlotte Street. That wasn't so bad. The worst Jenn y: You’re not getting involved in this S c h ra m m : His kind must be plucked out root part was some bloke who kept trying to put his duel, are you Schramm? and branch. hand up my dress. So I turned around and let

38 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 him have it. That's why there's a few coals family silver if we have nothing to eat. Lenchen. don't you. missing from that bag. Jen n y: We're only pawning it. M arx: Lenchen — S c h ra m m : Well, that's that then, (pause) Is L en chen : Famous last words. Len chen : No. there anything else I can do before 1 go? Any Jen n y: We will get it back won't we Moor? It's M arx: But why not, woman'? Why? messages? been in my family for so long now. L en chen : Oh — because. She's about to have M arx: Yes, I'll tell you what you can do, M arx: Of course we'll get it back. Lenchen will a baby, that's why. Schramm. Drop this article off to Eisenmann. It take it to her Uncle — M arx: Listen: she's asleep. is an attack on some German simpletons. He Jen n y: Who? L en chen : I don't care. will give you fe 25 in return. Make sure he does. L en chen : My uncle with three balls. M arx: (calls) Jenny, (pause) Jenny, (to Lenchen) S c h ra m m : What shall I do about the money? M arx: Get a good price for it, Lenchen. See? She can’t hear. M arx: Oh keep it. You can give it to me after Genuine silver. Wrenched from the eart by some Lenchen: Anyway where would we go? you get back from Antwerp. ill paid wretches. M arx : Go? What do you mean 'go'0 Where L en ch en : (pause) Better still, tell Eisenmann L en chen : Don't waste your breath. Whoever should we go? We're here. I'll pick up the money tomorrow morning. dug it out's been dead these hundred years. Len chen : Oh terrific. Some other time. Now There's no telling when you'll get back from Je n n y : Yes. get a good price Lenchen. I want now; not like this. Moor. Antwerp, is there? this one born healthy. 1 want to be able to feed it M arx: Lenchen, please. S c h ra m m : No. There's ... no telling. too. Len chen : Tomorrow. When no one else is (pause) Liebnecht? L en chen : I'll do my best. You go and rest here. When we're alone Moor. Lieb: Yes Schramm? now. I'll take it to Uncle in the morning. M arx: We’re hardly ever alone Lenchen. S ch ram m : will you do me a favour? Jen n y: Thank you Lenchen. Good night There's always someone about. Come on. Lieb: Of course, name it ... Moor. You've never worried before. S ch ram m : Will you come with me — at least M arx: Sleep well, my dear. Len chen : No and that's final. as far as Mishkovsky's. To tell you the truth. I'm Exit Jenny into the back room. M arx: (taking her) “No” is the least conclusive damned frightened. M arx: Come Lenchen. Liebnecht left without word in the dictionary, Lenchen. It is used most Jen n y: Why don't you forget the whole thing? finishing the game. by those who fear “yes". Don't be afraid of Lieb: Of course I'll come with you. L en chen : You know I can't play chess. saying “Yes". S c h ra m m : After that. I'll be quite alright. M arx: Never mind. Sit down and 1 will show He kisses her. The lights go out. Street light Goodnight all. you what to do. shines through the window. Exit Schramm. Liebnecht is putting on his coat. Lenchen: 1 should do some clearing up. M arx: You see, the landlord thinks he is saying Jen n y: Liebnecht, tell him to go home and M arx: That can wait. Sit down Lenchen. “no" but for us, he is saying “yes". Liebste! forget the whole thing. Please. (Dearest one). L en chen : Tell him to drop in that article and L en chen : Oh alright. So long as it won't take Len chen : Alright then; come on; quickly. I'll pick up the money tomorrow morning. all night. She dears the table, but leaves on it the silver. M arx : Tell him to keep sideways. The lights flicker. She gets onto the table and reefs up her dress. Lieb: I'll tell him. Good night. M arx: Verdammt! Was ist los? M arx: Liebste, liebste! Exit Liebnecht. Pause. Sound of carriages in (Bloody hell! What s happening?) Lenchen: Ja gut, gut. street. L en chen : It's alright. Just the landlord playing He has sex with her on the table: she lying, he L en ch en : No point giving money to a dead games. I said we'd pay him soon enough. He standing. man, is there? doesn't believe me. 1 can’t blame him; I wouldn’t Len chen : Quickly Moor, quickly. J e n n y : I'm going to bed. Anything to get away either. (Their activities cause the silver to crash to the from that racket. M arx: Move that piece to there. floor. M arx: Be patient, my dear. The middle classes L en chen : This one? Jen n y: (off) What was that? Lenchen? Are you are arriving at the Theatre for their weekly M arx: That's the one! To there, (pause) Now, I there? Moor? purge of pity and terror.. will counter that cunning move with his obliging Lenchen gets up and pulls down her dress. Marx L en ch en : Pity the poor bloody horses having bishop, (he does so) Now. he can attack your stumps back into a chair. to lug them about. That man must weigh a ton. king. Len chen : Won't be a moment, (to Marx) Do M arx : Ja. liebling. You go and rest. Let Lights go down and out briefly, then up again. you think she heard? Franziska rest too. M arx: Gibt's denn keinen trieden hier? Dieser M arx: (referring to the silver) Of course she L en c h e n : (stoking the fire) Franziska? verdammte kerl! Ich werde die alle eines tages heard! Je n n y : That's what he calls the baby. But I dafur zahlen machen! L en chen : No, I mean us. think it's a boy. (Is there no peace! The interfering bastard! I'll Jenn y: (ofl) Moor, are you there? M arx : It will be a girl. make all landlords suffer!) L en chen : I'm coming now Gnadige Frau. L en c h e n : Boy or girl, I don't envy it coming L en chen : Don't worry, I play chess just as She exits into the back room. She is only a into this world. badly in the dark. moment and re-enters. Je n n y : If only we could get away. Lights up. Lenchen: She's started. You'd better get the M arx : It is this world I am working to change. M arx: Ah! Now, where were we? Yes: check! doctor, (pause) Did you hear me? Lenchen. Get out of that if you can. The lights come back on. L en ch en : You'll have to be quick to change it L en chen : I can't M arx: You get the doctor. before tomorrow night. M arx: Of course you can. It's easy. As easy as Jen n y: (off) Lenchen, where is the Moor? Je n n y : Why? pawning the family silver. Interpose your castle. L en chen : He's here Gnadige Frau. He'll look L en ch en : The rent's overdue already and we (he does this for her). There! That was cunning after you while 1 get the doctor. owe money to everyone in the street. of you. Shrewd, Lenchen. Shrewd and cunning. Jenn y: Where is he? Karl. M arx: But we had meat for dinner tonight. (with slyness) But not shrewd enough, (he moves Len chen : Goon, (pause)She needs you Moor. L en chen : That's only because the butcher triumphantly) Aha! Do you give in? (pause)Give Lenchen puts on a ragged shawl and exits from fancies me and I encourage him. I don't know in. Give in woman. the flat. what my old mother would think if she heard 1 Lenchen: I give in. Jen n y: (off) Karl? was showing my ankles for a string of sausages. M arx: What? Without a fight? What on earth The door of the flat slams shut as Lenchen Je n n y : How much do we need by tomorrow are you made of? Last year, when the bailiffs leaves. night. seized all the bedding and sold the baby's cradle, Jen n y: Karl? Please, can you come here? Len chen : Well the money from that did we give in? Marx looks about him and feels trapped. He Eisenmann can pay the rent, but the only food L en chen : I didn't. But you pretended it wasn't runs his Jingers through is hair and exits into the in the house is what's in our stomachs. happening and played chess all by yourself. back room. Jenny has gone to a drawer and taken out a box. M arx: Look. Take hold of your king Lenchen M arx: Ja, Ja, Ja Jennychen, Ich Komnie schon. M arx : But I need some more paper. Every scrap (Yes. Yes. Yennychen. I ’m coming now). is written on. He has guided her hand to the King and held it Jenny puts the box on the table and opens it. there. They look at each other. She tries to take Je n n y : Lenchen. Take this down to the her hand away but he holds it fast. They speak pawnshop in the morning. in hushed tones. END OF ACT 1 L en ch en : I was wondering how long that L en chen : No. Not now Moor. would last, (to Jenny) Your mother would have M arx: You can see how she is. Shes too sick. a fit if she knew. And the child's due anyday. Lenchen, please. M arx: There is no point in clinging to the L en chen : You know how to flatter a girl.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 39 William Shoubridge Dance

Poppy as their creation

By the time this article appears. Poppy Jean Marais declaiming Cocteau’s poetry Raymond Radiguet etc. The trouble is some will have probably been given its return and Jorge Donn flitting about in a of those influences are almost impossible Sydney season and the Company will be diaphanous butterfuly robe, trying to to transmute into a dance term. The winging its way to Brisbane to present the encapsulate the fantasies and obsessions of opening duet for Cocteu as a child and his work there. Doubtless changes for the the French poet. It was all terribly woolly, mother, apart from being a rather flacid better will have been made to it and I’ll rhapsodic and confusing as only Bejart can opener does nothing to illuminate that end up looking a right charlie again, but be. particularly loving but tortured relation­ anyway here goes. Graeme Murphy with Poppy, on the ship. The same goes for the trio involving Strictly speaking this is not the first time other hand, has stringently tried to avoid Cocteau, his precocious novelist lover there has been an attempt made to create a obscurity and gone for direct historical Raymond Radinguet and the Angel of balletic work based on the work and mind reference, specifically in the first half Death. Although this comprises some of of Jean Cocteau. Maurice Bejart created where he spells out all the influences on the most knotty and succinctly conceived L ’Ange Heaurtebrise a few years ago for the young creator, mother, childhood choreography of the whole production, it the Ballet of the Twentieth Century. It had loves, the cabarets, Diaghilev and bursts upon us too suddenly, is totally

40 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 unprepared for and therefore exists in personages (Orpheus, Oedipus, Lancelot, might have come straight from Alwin isolation; audiences are left wandering the Sphinx etc) have a mesmerizing appeal Nikolais Tribe, or those moving laser lights why Cocteau is so fraught about having the in their own right, but rarely do we get a on dancers’ tights from his Tent. Who young man taken from him. glimpse into the closed universe of cares? Creators are always borrowing from I think Murphy has tried to cram too Cocteau’s fantasy the glimpse that could each other and the fact is they were used much into this first part, giving us a help it all to cohere; more to the point, we well and were used constructively. harried and abrupt Cook’s tour of the rarely see Murphy’s authoritative thum b­ Essentially what was most expressive in man’s early life. He then casts us adrift in print on this sprawling section. this phantasmagorical second half was the the luminescent waters of Cocteau’s works In trying so hard to represent Cocteau pith and potency of Murphy’s choreo­ and mind in the second part. The audience fairly, having a peek into every nook and graphy and the focus and conviction of the has to work overtime on programme cranny, Murphy has lost the overview, the company’s dancers. The duets for Oedipus reading and that’s bad. personal interpretation that makes a work and Jocasta were subtly different in live. We don’t discover what Murphy content and from those for Orpheus and The drollery and frivolous elegance of found so exciting about the man, why he Euridice, the first characterised by its the early Cocteau is adequately conveyed wanted to play the lead part, or why he catches and knife-edged balances, while in the cabaret scene, in its jagged and sees him as pertinant to dance and the second twined and twisted in an slightly malevolent group tango and the relevant to modern society. He has his apparently seamless flow. The choreo­ quirky use of body puppets (created by Joe reasons but theatrically, they rarely come graphy dilineated character, it didn’t just Gladwin of the Marionette Theatre). across. Poppy is full of marvellous things, meander along in a monochromatic stream. Although the transvestite aerialist but it is not everywhere marvellous. An Similarly the nude excerpt for the men Barbette didn’t have all that much audience admires the stuff and work that during the extended film sequences wasn’t influence on Cocteau he/she pops up here, has gone into it, but doesn’t quite admire swallowed up by those large images, it was to delightful theatrical effect, portrayed by it. absorbed into them. Robert Olup. A couple of smartarses have said that When it comes to the actual dancers, the Diaghilev and the Ballets Russe had a what Murphy needs is another Diaghilev task of analysis is harder and the far greater effect on Cocteau and I don’t to tell him what is wrong with Poppy and comparisons more invidious. All of them think enough was made of it in Poppy. where it should be changed for greater subdued personality into the whole Diaghilev and his barnstorming troupe audience impact. Well fine, practically all product, some more were more prominent more or less devoured Cocteau for a time of the theatre in Australia and a fair slice than the others, but all were given a and he came out of the association a of it overseas could do with another chance to invest their parts with the breath changed man, more intellectually honest, Diaghilev to give its creations some style of life, all of which shows that Murphy is artistically secure and emotionally stable. and coherence, but there isn’t one around. slowly overcoming his fear of letting a He had, in his own words a “love affair” But I do think though that Murphy could dancer’s individuality show (or at least with the whole world of this company. have consulted a “straight theatre” play­ bringing it out). In Poppy, this association is reduced to wright, or at least a script editor to help Ross Phillip, always a dancer with a one sparse scene showing a bit from him fossick for the pivotal points of the sense of purpose in his dancing, even Fokine’s La Spectre de la Rose and a story and the nodules of theatrically though it is sometimes misplaced, brought rather pointless back stage snippet of the exploitable material. the right touch of weighted, dark allure to opening night debacle of Nijinsky’s La All of this sounds as though I hated the part of Dargelos, the boyhood love of Sacre du Printemps. Sure all those things Poppy, I didn’t, I saw it four times because Cocteau, and a sinewy- emphatic edge to happened and Cocteau was caught up in it I wanted to see it. The collaboration of all Oedipus. Graham Watson, although he all but you wouldn’t think so judging from these talents on such an ambitious work is had to fight the fact that he appeared the evidence in Poppy, Cocteau remains a a signpost in the development of the dance without introduction as Raymond shadowy figure in the background and in this country. Radiguet, built up his part in that dense, Cocteau fancied himself as anything but a Carl Vine’s music, while not being the nervous trio of possession with Cocteau shadowy figure. The Diaghilev puppet was great theatrical revolution that some were and the Angel of Death with a frenetic made to look grotesque which he was not hoping for (and I doubt if anyone can give power that almost went over the top but and Cocteau never considered him so; an us one of those anymore) guides Murphy’s didn’t. ogre he sometimes was, grotesque never. attenuated plotline through some of its Jennifer Barry was ideal as an Angel of Surely there could have been more murkier passages and acts as a constant Death with elegance and hauteur, while choreographic and dramatic force if sonic reassurance during the drier bits. illustrating the fact that Death is insistent, Cocteau could have been included in this George Gittoes’ visuals were consistently powerful and inescapable. scene, perhaps dancing an extended “pas supportive throughout, never degenerating Janet Vernon, so flexible, so confident in de quatre” with Diaghilev, Nijinsky and into an attention grabbing laser beam light her technique, absolutely sprang out of the Karsavina (there was in actual fact quite show. I did think, however, it was far more stage as Jocasta. She’s a dancer of an internal drama between the first three integrated in the second half, where the economy and force and while formerly a in the real Ballets Russe), perhaps there “ballet” takes the audience through the bit faceless and detached, here she was could have been more of Cocteau’s ballet maze of Cocteau’s characters and symbols. human and anguished as the ill-fated Parade here; the impact of the American In fact everything came together more queen of Thebes. One could go on and on, and French “managers” from that ballet effectively here because the audience had but space precludes such rambling. Poppy would have been extremely effective and already accepted the “otherworldly” is a tribute amongst other things to the would have given a hint of Cocteau’s aspect of the man and therefore could close knit quality of all the dancers in the working mind in the first part instead of contain the free flow of idea, thought and company, one senses always that they dumping it all into part two. image. understand and have pride in Poppy as I know all this sounds like carping, or That self-same structureless structure their creation. that I’m angry at not having my interpret­ gave more inspiration to Murphy too, I have laid my subjective strictures upon ation of Cocteau, visualized — I’m not, the gathering from the evidence of more aptly Murphy and his company rather heavily, structure is there, but it needs reap­ conceived choreography and well m ar­ but I have done it knowing that they will praising, to sift through and select what shalled flow of images. But then the work absorb them. I have also done it, judging was of real importance to Cocteau and was being a collaboration, one can’t say for them on a very high standard and in terms in the most dramatically workable. sure whether the music inspired the image, of international quality. The Dance The problems of Act Two are different the image inspired the choreography or Company now is in no position to be only in manner not in kind. Murphy again whatever, all I know is, it held the mothered as a promising group, they are has tried to cram too much in; the plays, attention while at the same time astound­ totally professional and must be judged on the poetry, images from the films, spoken ing one’s sense of time and logic. the same level as any international modern dialogue from same and a seemingly Admittedly there was a bit of “borrow­ dance company. Australia has waited a endless parade of characters from ing” here and there. So those marvellously long time for this event, it’s no time to be Cocteau’s psyche. Admittedly all those stretchy gowns for the nurses in the clinic short-changing things now.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 41 Terry Owen Dance

WA BALLET COMPANY’S WINTER SEASON A quiet low-key programme

other. It’s full of a sort of brittle Gallic charm and sharp edged irritability, and sits very well on the company. Summer Dances is the second Jacqui Carroll work the company has produced — her lovely Night Songs was featured in the Christmas season last year. Summer Dances is a delicious piece of pastoral humour which, like Night Songs, uses the beauty and strengths of the company’s women dancers to considerable effect. Six almost transparent winged lovelies resting in dappled summer shade come to life to Respighi’s The Birds. They quarrel and chat and play and dance for pure summer pleasure. Carroll’s dance vocabulary is full of clean, sharply profiled angularities which Vanessa McIntosh, the company’s undoubted star, makes the most of, and as the work builds in ensembles and short solos, we are given the chance to appreciate each dancer’s affinity with the choreography. With just eight dancers, company director Robin Haig has her work cut out developing a repertoire varied and enter­ taining enough to attract a regular audience for chamber ballet in a town where the visiting star-studded extrava­ ganzas have become the synonym for ballet. There’s a very good prospect that, later this year, more dancers will be added to the company. This expansion will make a more varied repertoire available and — The West Australian Ballet Company’s theatrical presence, but he’ll never make a hopefully — will enable the director to winter season at the University of Western Bournonville dancer. Ronald vanden concentrate more on the important task of Australia’s Octagon Theatre was a quiet, Bergh has a freshness and a clean creating within each season a programme that builds in audience impact and low-key programme of works mixing 19th sparkling style and he is gaining in pleasure from the opening work to the and 20th century choreographers. It’s easy technical strength with each programme. final blackdut. for low-key entertainment to slip into Just before the season, the company had dullness if everything isn’t exactly as it The benefit of two weeks of the best should be, and dullness is what happened Bournonville teaching around: Danish to the three 19th century pieces by August teacher Hans Brenaa was in Perth as a Bournonville. guest of the company (his visit to Australia We haven’t seen much Bournonville was shared by the Queensland Ballet choreography in since Company). But two weeks’ specialist the Scottish Ballet’s beautiful production teaching can’t do more than introduce of La Sylphide a few years ago, starring young dancers to a singular classical style Margot Fonteyn partnered by Ivan Nagy. which they’ve probably never seen before Back in Bournonville’s day, male dancers let alone danced. Bournonville is really didn’t do much more than stand around tough stuff to dance well, and putting supporting the starring ladies in various three of the master’s works into the lifts and poses. He changed all that with repertoire at this early stage is, I think a his own brilliance as a dancer and mistake. choreographer, giving male dancers a lot I’ve no doubts at all about the wisdom of of vigorous, technically complex and show producing Peter Darrell’s Jeux and Jacqui things to do. Carroll’s Summer Dances. They are very it’s only fair to say that the male dancers good pieces indeed, quite dissimilar in in the West Australian company simply mood and structure, but they share a don’t have the powerful classical technique wittiness, a sense of irony, and a musicality required to let the Bournonville choreo­ which make them very much the product graphy live and breathe as it should for the of 20th century dance and likely, therefore audience to appreciate it. Some of the to grab the audience’s imagination. company’s males do have individual The eternal triangle of Jeux, danced strengths: the modern work Jeux gave Paul stylishly by Margaret Rust, Paul Tyers and Tyers an opportunity to prove again his Vanessa McIntosh, tells us about some of Jacqui Carroll in rehearsal considerable strength as a partner and as a the emotional games we play with each Photo: Jo Giordano

42 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 Company. In Brisbane he mounted a production Bournonville dance heritage is uniquely valuable Hans Brenaa’s of La Sylphide, and here in Perth he reproduced and must be kept alive in the current repertoire. Master classes in Dances from William Tell, the pas de deux from In the politest way Brenaa suggested that Flower Festival at Genzano and La Ventana. Bournonville training still produces the best ballet. During a rehearsal break I shared a lunchtime male dancers. I muttered something like, what beer with this courtly, elegant man, now in his about the Russians, and he told me about a late sixties, who has been putting the ten known Danish teacher who fifty years ago in St Terry Owen Bournonville works into company repertoires Petersburg taught Bournonville to the dancers of the Maryinsky Theatre (now the Kirov). The The superstars in classical ballet today are the around the world. Australia is the twentieth Kirov male dancers have their own style now males — Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Vasiliev from country he has visited teaching Bournonville, he but, said Brenaa, the foundation of their Russia, Bujones and Peter Martins from New told me, and he's probably never been busier strength comes in part from the Danish York to name just a few. And without August than he is at this moment. Next year is the technique. And it’s certainly true that Stanley Bournonville they might all just be standing centenary of the master’s death, and Brenaa Williams, who gives arguably the world's best elegantly around lifting and supporting returns to the Royal Danish Ballet this August class for male dancers in his studio in New York superstar ladies. to help them put on their first new Bournonville City Ballet company’s School of American Bournonville, who died in 1879, had a long production in some years — Kermesse in Ballet, is himself a product of the Royal Danish and illustrious career as choreographer, dancer, Bruges. Before that he will be working in Ballet school. ballet master and teacher with the Royal Danish London with Fonteyn and Nureyev on a On 15 August this year, sixty years ago to the Ballet. At a time when the role of the male Bournonville BBC television feature. day that he arrived as a child at the Royal dancer was fading into that of a porteur. Returning to work with the Royal Danish Danish Ballet school, Hans Brenaa begins Bournonville, himself a brilliant dancer, created Ballet will be something of a triumph for Brenaa, rehearsal in Copenhagen on the first of the 1979 many roles which showed off his powerful who joined the Royal school as a child and who Bournonville productions: the company plans to jumps and beautiful turns. was part of the company as corps member, renew their Bournonville repertoire to include Hans Brenaa, the world’s foremost authority premier danseur, teacher and producer until he all ten known works. If we’re lucky, we’ll see Mr on the Bournonville choreography and left, aged forty two, to work and teach outside. Brenaa again in Australia in 1980 — hes technique, paid his first visit to Australia earlier The company’s repertoire has increasingly been promised the Queensland Ballet Company a this year as guest of the Queensland Ballet given over to modern works but, as Brenaa sees production of The Whims of Cupid. Company and the West Australian Ballet it, Danish people are realising that their

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 43 David Gyger Opera

Figaro a happy medium.

George Ogilvie’s production of Mozart’s ically is at his best toward the end, when Gregory Yurisich’s Masetto: one had no for the Australian Opera, expressing the terror-cum-arrogance of the doubt from the moment he set foot on the which opened in Melbourne early in May, proud sinner who refuses point blank to stage that he was just exactly what Masetto is an almost aggressively play-it-safe repent even in the face of proximate death is supposed to be, a rather dim but realisation of the work. and judgment. thoroughly honest, hard-working man of On the one hand, it will raise few Nance Grant was in magnificent vocal the earth. Even those who understand not hackles; on the other, it is not exactly form as Donna Anna, and Margreta a single word of Italian could hardly have scintillating, will prompt few if any Elkins was in fine form all round as Donna failed to get his acting message; and he patrons to wax eloquent about its virtues. Elvira. Clifford Grant was a good Com- sang very well to boot. It is an understandably conservative mendatore and Jennifer Bermingham a The Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra, approach in the aftermath of two rather thoroughly acceptable Zerlina. Henri under Carlo Felice Cillario, turned in a more daring productions of the piece, by Wilden was a fair Don Ottavio who did not most acceptable reading of the score. If in 1967 and John Bell in invest the role with any particular vocal or they are still not the professional equal of 1974. dramatic interest. their Sydney opposite number, their Its most positive virtue, perhaps, is that Ronald Maconaghie’s Leporello is too overall standard on the strength of this it can reasonably safely be predicted to last similar to his Figaro to be thorougly performance could be deemed to have a good many years in the repertory for the convincing: Leporello must be at the same risen markedly since I last saw them a year very reason that it is so neutral in its time more worldly wise and more easily ago. approach. At its second Melbourne per­ corruptible than Figaro, and yet retain a The Adelaide production of Mozart’s formance, the one I saw, it was nicely sung significant streak of self-righteousness that Marriage o f Figaro I saw the night after and played without at any stage even manifests itself at each new successive the AO Don Giovannni was generally looking like taking fire. outrage committed by Don Giovanni. He excellent. Yes, it fell down in some details John Pringle’s interpretation of the title must seem to be an ordinary, basically (but what Figaro doesn’t), but it had far role has come a very long way since his well-meaning man in contrast to the more than enough positive points to make performances in the Bell production four flamboyant excesses of his master, if the good such defects. years ago, but he still lacks a measure of opera is to achieve anything like its One of its more interesting features, one the flamboyance-cum-bastardry that must maximum impact in performance. that could hardly escape the notice of characterise the ideal Don. He sings the Perversely, perhaps, I found the most patrons who were thoroughly acquainted role well, but not memorably; histrion­ convincing performance of the night with the opera beforehand, was the lack of

John Pringle (Don Giovanni) and Clifford Grant (The Commandant) in the AO’s Don Giovanni. Photo: William Moseley.

44 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 disparity between the ages of Susanna in the Boston version becomes the (equivalent of Oscar the page boy, sung by (Eilene Hannan) and the Countess proprietress of a speakeasy, and the a woman anyhow in the original versions); Almaviva (Carolyn Vaughan). Being visual­ famous scene at midnight beside a gallows and Joan Richards was a pleasingly lyrical ly of the same vintage, they were a good is moved to the crypt of a church. Amelia. deal more credibly rivals for the attentions Much of this makes perfect sense, but Very brief mention should also be made, of the Count than in most productions. not ali; and there were several places finally, of the first complete performance This was a moderately off-beat aspect of where the text being sung was at of Vincent Plush’s Australian Folksongs, a a production which was full of surprises — considerable odds with the situations most promising music theatre event, at the all pleasant. Another was the marvellous arising from the switch of venue. And it York Theatre of Sydney’s Seymour Centre visual coup of having Marcellina (Ruth was more than a trifle comical for the on May 12. This is an expanded and Gurner) and Bartolo (Keith Hempton) dying tenor to sing a paean of praise for refined version of a work first performed in played skinny as rakes instead of portly to the fair city of Chicago which any fool mid-1977, and shows considerable promise obese. Patsy Hemingway’s Cherubino, knows is the traditional home of American both in its unusual use of unusual while being very different from the boy as gangsterism (even this production itself instruments and its flair for theatrical seen in John Copley’s very fine current AO made a good deal of visual capital of the impact. production, was very fine indeed. Mafia image, by having the conspirators i still find “The Shearer’s Dream” the Among the central characters, only Tom sauntering around in Mafia-gangland most thoroughly successful of its sections, McDonnell’s Count Almaviva was a major style). with its neat evocation of the ethos of the disappointment: he seemed somehow ill at Musically, this Masked Ball was a good half-bonkers bushman, its marvellous ease in the part, both vocally and deal stronger than the previous Canberra translation of the famous waltz from dramatically, never for a moment con­ productions I have seen: conductor John Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier into a vinced me he was a nobleman and a force Curro extracted some very good playing drunken tune for brass band and its to be reckoned with in the developing indeed from his orchestra and the amateur quasi-sentimental vignette of the boiling of drama. chorus sang well, and the general standard a cup of billy tea on a small portable gas Roger Howell’s Figaro, on the other of the solo singing was acceptable if not cooker. hand, was a considerable achievement, one scintillating. Plush’s own Seymour Group, a newly that can be mentioned in the same breath Kayrooz made some very pleasing formed ensemble dedicated to the prop­ as Ronald Maconaghie’s for the AO: seven sounds, though displaying an unfortunate agation of contemporary music, provided years to settle in and mature, as tendency to beat time with his whole body excellent instrumental backing for this Maconaghie has had in the Copley and sometimes having lapses of accuracy performance; and Lyndon Terracini was a production, Howell could clearly develop in the pitch department. Neville Wilkie magnificent actor/singer for the various into a formidable exponent of the role. Of was a good Ranto vocally, but must sections of the work which required him to course, he did not get across every nuance loosen up immensely in the acting impersonate in quick succession an Irish of the recitative, but he sang pleasingly department to be credible dramatically. gold-digger, an Aboriginal stockman and and established the basic essence of the Fran Bosly was rather nice as Angela a tortured convict, as well as the tipsy character right from the start — his was a Giambastiani, secretary to the mayor shearer described above. consistent, good-humored, thoroughly credible performance. I must conclude by emphasising that I found the work of the SA director, Adrian Slack, as commendable on this occasion as it had been disappointing when he tackled Don Giovanni for State Opera late last year. He went in a good deal less for the visual slapstick than Copley, but things never even threatened to die on their feet as had seemed imminent quite often during his Don Giovanni. it was a restrained, contemplative Figaro which allowed the music full rein: the ensembles in particular were excellent, the orchestral playing under Myer Fredman consistently a good deal better than it had been for Don Giovanni. The production of Verdi’s A Masked Ball presented by Canberra Opera early in May was an unfortunate example of a daringly off-beat experiment which came to grief because it was not thought through locically enough. Developing an idea of Alan Light, who produced the piece for the Innisfail Opera Festival last December, the Canberra producer, Keith Richards, set the action in Chicago in 1926. (The piece was originally set in Stockholm in 1792, but Verdi himself was forced by the censors to move it to colonial Boston before it was ever staged in the first place in 1858; so the whole question of time and place is considerably more debatable in connection with A Masked Ball than most operas). The leading tenor — played on this occasion by Yusef Kayrooz — becomes Richard J Hale, Mayor of Chicago, instead of Riccardo, Count of Warwick in the Boston version or King Gustavus III in the Swedish version. The fortune-teller Ulrica

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 45 Elizabeth Riddell Film

Sydney Film Festival Prowler distinguished by intellectual comment

The Bannisters live in a “good” street in Sydney. The period is the sixties, not that it matters much except that Mrs Bannister’s security is in that period not threatened by 25TH unsanctified cohabitation or soft or hard drugs. Mr Bannister has a good job, upper executive type; Mrs Bannister wears linen dresses with ANNIVERSARY patent leather belts, a back-combed hairdo and has bridge afternoons; Felicity works with nice people. OF THE The film opens with Felicity sobbing and shrieking, telling her parents that a man came in SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL the window and got into her bed. Police and a doctor are summoned, Felicity refuses a physical SYDNEY examination, retreats into a sullen mood, lets her FILM FESTIVAL ¡954 dressing gown flop open to reveal her breasts, writes a letter to her fiancee in Foreign Affairs to break off the engagement. The knife with which the prowler threatened her cannot be found. Felicity changes, in the course of her behavior unsettling her parents and the neighbors. The only totally satisfied person is the discarded fiancee, John Galbraith, who is glad to be rid of her and can offer the engagement ring, which she has placed unobtrusively in the glove-box of his Aston Martin (about to be sold because he has got a Rome posting) to somebody more suitable to a career diplomat. A great deal of The Night the Prowler's success depends on the understanding of the actors, who have been carefully chosen to 2Ä/1« 19». interpret social attitudes as well as characters, SYD'ÆY _ RLV and I do not mean by this that they are t f s m t & i m i x m 2 stereotypes. A White story, like a White play, requires not just aptitude. Ruth Cracknell as Mrs Bannister, John Frawley as Mr Bannister, John Derum as John Galbraith, and above all Kerry Walker as Felicity Bannister are exactly right. The smaller parts are equally well cast. \ r The audience is led into supposing that what It has under consideration is a satirical comedy, with roles stopping just short of parody. Mrs What distinguishes The Night the Prowler, of the same title, published in a collection of Bannister especially is first seen as a comic snob which opened the 25th Sydney Film Festival, Patrick White’s short fiction, The Cockatoos, and climber who will never make the Black and from the general run of Australian films — makes the point better. White Committee although she would never, on though perhaps “general run” is too grand a Patrick White wrote the filmscript, his first, the other hand, be at home in Moonee Ponds. term for what is still only a trickle — is its and he has stuck very closely to the original plot But soon the climate changes, becomes crisper, intellectual content, the evidence that a mind and amazingly close to the original dialogue frostier, then ice-cold, until it thaws for Felicity. has been working behind the speeches and the which comes off the screen as authentically as it The director is Jim Sharman, whose skill with action. Emotion and instinct have been does off the page. The characters use words Patrick White material was earlier demonstrated dominating factors in the Australian output so defensively, more often to hide rather than when he revived Season at Sarsaparilla. He far, with not much appeal to reason. The Last express their thoughts or emotions. Mr and Mrs deserves a special award for having chosen Wave attempted to pose questions but switched Bannister, the astonished and appalled parents Kerry Walker for the lead; it must have been one to melodrama before they could be answered. of Felicity, continue in this vein for the entire of the trickier decisions of his relatively short The Night the Prowler stays with its proposition film Felicity’s breaking out into plain speech for theatrical life. The film was produced by of self-discovery, in a cool and often funny way. which no translation is needed is a painful Anthony Buckley with interesting music by Which is not to say that I don’t think the story process, for the audience as well as for her. , the whole production

46 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 admirably designed by Luciana Arrighi. The money came from the NSW Film Corporation and private investors. The candidate short films for the Greater Union Awards were filtered down to twelve, four in each category of Documentary, General and Fiction. For curious or dedicated (or both) types of viewers this worked out at 273 minutes viewing from 10 a.m. until 4.45 with ten minutes off for morning coffee and sixty six minutes for lunch. The winners were announced after the day’s screenings and the 1978 Reuben Mamoulian Award, much coveted, just before The Night the Prowler. I am happy to say, and have witnesses to prove it, that I early nominated the Mamoulian winner as the best local short film, but had no expectation that anybody would agree with me. The film is All In the Same Boat, directed and scripted by Debby Kingsland and produced by Robin Hughes for Film Australia; photographed by Dean Semler; edited by Colin Waddy; sponsored by the Department of Health, which wants to promote discussion within counselling groups dealing with the abuse of everyday drugs, ie the ones you buy at the supermarket or greengrocers. But never mind all that. This is an entertaining film, with the immediacy of a Ruth Cracknell (Doris Bannister), Kerry Walker (Felicity) and John Frawley (Humphrey television interview. The non-professional Bannister) in The Night The Prowler. protagonists probably rapped on and meandered about their Hills Hoists and kitchen tables for Maidens has some good bits when it sticks to Council and directed and scripted by Dinah van hours, but the finished project is beautifully the photo album, but it wafts off into trance, as Dugteren is too long and also crippled by boring controlled and edited and will set your teeth on does Secret Storm (a mixed group). Bruce Petty’s narration. Malbangka Country has warmth and edge while calling forth unaccustomed waves of film for the Australia Council, The Magic Arts, appeal, and the interest of a foreign (Central sympathy and almost positive love for those is pretty fo look at and sometimes funny but Australia) land and people. But the photography husbands and wives and mothers and fathers suffers from an unexpected cuteness. Sonia is routine and sparse glimpses of Aboriginal life who are all in the same boat. Hofmann’s Letter to a Friend, with misshapen and character actually make it to the screen. The films, apart from the above in which the flowers and birds, is art deco. The most interesting of the films in the fiction children were safely out of their mothers’ To return to chronology and category, Birth category is Stevel Jodrell’s forty-minute The wombs, tended to emphasise the pleasures and at Home, produced, scripted and directed by Bucks ' Party, as reviewed in TA by Terry Owen pains of motherhood. It was impossible to avoid Barbara Chobocky, is an honest attempt at in the April issue. The three films that won the feeling that one was being hit over the head reality but the narration failed to interest. Garry $1000 each from Greater Union were Maidens, with a foetus. Greenwood produced by Capricorn for the Craft Garry Green wood and The Bucks ’ Party.

a n n McDo n a l d Marian COLLEGE OF DANCING — -Q theatre (Est. 1926) Street Theatre GHOSTS Ballet (R.A.D.) Examinations and Restaurant by HENRIK IBSEN in all grades, pre-preliminary 498-3166 June 28 - July 2 —Bankstown Town Hall to solo seal. J M Barrie’s Sparkling Comedy July 5 - 9 —Marsden Auditorium, Full-time day classes also WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS Parramatta. Classes and Private Tuition Directed by Alastair Duncan WHAT IF YOU DIED Ballroom, Latin American, Tues. to Sat. 8.15 — Dinner from 6.30 TOMORROW Old Time, Social, Theatrical, Modern, Jazz and Classical. Sunday at 4.30 by DAVID WILLIAMSON LICENSED RESTAURANT & FOYER BARS Aug 2 - 20 —Penrith The Greenwood Hall Complex Aug 23 - 26 —Bankstown Town Hall 196 Road, Opening July 26th Aug 30 - Sep 3 —Marsden Auditorium, Burwood. N.S.W . 2134 Comedy...... Mystery Parramatta. Phone 74 6362 (A.H. 428 1694) CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Jack Weinstock & Willie Gilbert THE Q THEATRE Bookings 498-3166 and Agencies PO BOX 10, PENRITH 2750. Tel: (047) 21 -5735 2 Marian Street, Killara 2071

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 47 Roger Covell Records

The Restoration of Boris

noblewoman, Marina. At the same time he Woyzeck, probably the most extraordinary omitted the St. Basil scene and replaced it drama of early nineteenth century Europe, with a scene set in the forest at Kromy. survived its author’s death with an This Kromy scene now ended the opera anthology of unnumbered scenes which with the words of the Simpleton musing strongly suggest that some of them at least sadly on the fate of Russia, no matter who could be subjected to a kind of open form happened to be ruling it. The effect of this rearrangement. Alban Berg’s Wozzeck change was quite profound. It removed the made a selection from these brief scenes; emphasis from the personal fate of the and this opera, too, has something of a monarch and replaced it with a sense of suggestion of cinematic technique to it, the tragic fate of Mother Russia itself. The with the orchestral interludes acting as new recording gives us all the scenes of lengthy dissolves. Britten’s The Turn of both versions. As the Simpleton’s final the Screw deploys its fifteen short scenes in song was also originally in the St Basil a manner that seems even more closely scene this part of the score is omitted to related to film; and here the interludes avoid duplication and the Simpleton is bring with them an inevitable suggestion heard foretelling the woes of Russia in his of quick cross-cutting. usual place at the end of the final scene. A It will probably be apparent by now that listener who knows the history of I think Mussorgsky’s Boris is to be Mussorgsky’s revisions of the opera could preferred to anyone else’s version of the construct either of his two main sequences same score. Critical comments based on an The tangled history of Mussorgsky’s from this recording with a little stylus­ inspection of Mussorgsky’s scoring have Boris Godunov has been full of false starts hopping. made much of the composer’s alleged and disappointments. Most opera houses Boris seems to have possessed from the miscalculations of balance. But some of give the opera in the revision of Rimsky- beginning some properties of what Stock­ these comments are certainly based on the Korsakov, who radically revised the hausen calls open form, its themes are not assumption that Mussorgsky was trying to composer’s scoring and altered many of necessarily consecutive. They do not sound like Rimsky and failing. I am not his harmonies and dynamic markings. present the progress of a single action or of the only listener to find a definite and More recently, some major Soviet theatres two related actions but pick out vivid consistent character in Mussorgsky’s have adopted the practice of using incidents and ceremonies which make scoring which seems inseparable, after Shostakovich’s scoring, which does not their connections in our mind rather than even short acquaintance, from the alter other aspects of the musical material. explicitly on the stage. This is not as novel authentic sound world of the piece. The first recording to leave the composer’s and Russian as it first appears. I believe There have been three main stages in scoring, harmonies, dynamics and other that Mussorgsky, like all the other the restoration of Mussorgsky’s Boris. The musical intentions untouched has just Russian composers of his generation, was first of them occurred in 1928 when appeared. It is the work of Polish choruses very influenced by the dramaturgy of the Oxford University Press in conjunction and largely Polish cast under the direction French theatre, as exemplified in the with the Russian State Music Publishers of Jerzy Semkow, with the Finnish bass major works of Berlioz. French opera has produced the vocal and full scores of the Martti Talvela in the title role with the always tended to present dramatic narra­ work in an edition by the Soviet music­ Russo-Swedish tenor, Nicolai Gedda, as tive in discontinuous form. Its ceremonies, ologist Pavel Lamm. David Lloyd- the pretender, Dimitri [HMV Angel SLS vignettes and diversions have always been Jones produced an English version of the 1000; 4 discs\ Few people, then, up to now far more important than they are in Italian vocal score in 1968 and, more recently, has have seen the opera in the theatre or heard opera. We know that Berlioz was a revised and amplified Lamm’s researches it an recordings in the form in which the powerful influence on the thinking of the in relation to the score as a whole. The composer noted it down. young Russian school of whom third decisive step will prove to be, I am This suggests that its original form was Mussorgsky was a member in the middle sure, EMI’s decision to record a composite inept or drastically unsatisfactory, requir­ of the nineteenth century and that version of the two sequences of scenes ing the remedial help of a Rimsky in order Mussorgsky played through the scores of devised by the composer. The recording’s to make its way in the operatic world. This, the French master with joy and admira­ characteristics are not ideal for bringing no doubt, was Rimsky’s sincere view, as tion. At the same time there is no doubt out the incised economy of Mussorgsky’s there can be no question that his motive in that Mussorgsky’s transitions tend to be score. Nor are the Polish choruses as revising the opera was one of friendly more abrupt and his ceremonies less resonant or decisivie as their Russian helpfulness. On the other hand, decorative. Even the longer scenes turn out counterparts can be. Jerzy Semkow is a Mussorgsky’s final version of his own to be an accumulation of short episodes flexible conductor, lacking a complete opera held the stage in Moscow reasonably presented in a way that has some affinities feeling for the clanging strength of some of well during his lifetime. The new recording with the technique of film. the scenes but making up for this in his makes available to us the elements of the The other composer of opera who obvious determination to see that every­ two schemes or sequences of the opera habitually works in this way is the body, not excepting the singer of the title which Mussorgsky prepared. The first one Moravian musician Janacek, who was, role, sings the music faithfully and without ended with the death of Boris and included significantly, also a Slav. Indeed, Janacek resorting to free variations on it in the an important scene in front of the carried on and even developed further tradition inaugurated by Chaliapin. The Cathedral of St Basil. Mussorgsky’s interest in using the Finnish bass Martti Talvela is in tune with After complaints from the theatre characteristic pitch patterns of speech as the essentially troubled nature of Boris management that the work lacked any one of the bases of operatic conversation. from his very first appearance. Gedda is a conventional love interest Mussorgsky The pungency of Janacek’s scoring also particularly fine Dimitri and the Polish added two scenes, historically accurate to resembles the absence of cushioning in the soloists and orchestra help endow this some extent, in which the pretender, way Mussorgsky handles his orchestral historic recording with the high musical Dimitri, expresses his love for a Polish resourses in Boris. Georg Buchner’s standard it deserves.

48 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 John McCallum Books

The importance of theorising Artaud and After, Ronald Hayman. OUP, $5.95 into two periods — before Artaud and after Peter Brook is not so much a theorist as a Artaud at Rodez, Charles Marowitz. Marion Artaud.” researcher. In these days of discussion about the Boyars, $4.50. To Anglo-Saxons, Artaud’s concern with self problems of subsidy it is well to look at the The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht, John Willett. consciousness, nothingness and being is difficult million dollars Brook received from the Ford Eyre Methuen, $8.90. Conference of the Birds, John Heilpern. Faber to come to terms with. He wanted to integrate Foundation and others to set up the and Faber, $18.50. the ontological and the personal — to see the International Centre of Theatre Research in The Measures Taken and other Lehrstucke, world as a metaphor for his own private pain Paris. He gathered a group of actors from all Bertolt Brecht. Eyre Methuen, $3.75. and to understand his pain in terms of a general over the world and worked with them behind The Mother, Bertolt Brecht. Eyre Methuen, closed doors for three years, only occasionally $4.50. idea of the problem of being. His writing is Mr Puntilla and his man Matti, Bertolt Brecht. confusing and intentionally ambiguous, but performing publicly — in Persepolis for the now Eyre Methuen. $4.50. often very provocative. Whatever the famous Orghast, using a sound-language devised philosophical implications of his life and work by Ted Hughes, before audiences of convicts or they have a theatrical implication in Grotowski’s the deaf; and finally in Africa. work in trying to abolish the gap between John Heilpern’s Conference of the Birds impulse and expression for his actors — to make describes a trip through Northern Africa the impulse to act and the action one, so that undertaken by Brook and his actors, to explore “the body vanishes, burns and the spectator sees the nature of performance and discover “a form only a series of visible impulses.” of theatre created from the seed”. Brook’s Ronald Hayman’s Artaud and After is an company performed for Nomads and Saharan interesting introduction to these and other issues, villagers, their performances were an attempt to and achieves one of the most important goals of find a fundamental, ideal theatrical relationship such critical, expository writing — it drives one with their audiences — naive and natural, where into the arms of Artaud himself for expansion if “the doctor and spectator become partners” and not clarification. both are transformed by what takes place. They On the way there is Charles Marowitz’ performed spontaneously, drawing on the work Artaud at Rodez, a loose episodic play showing they had done in Paris, but also on the feelings Artaud at the last of the many lunatic asylums of what must have been the most untutored where he was a patient. He is attended by Dr audiences any Western company has had to Ferdiere, a man of science and would-be writer, face. Most of the performances were failures, envious of Artaud’s artistic success. Almost as and after this Brook left to establish his own, At the Playwrights’ Conference in Canberra interesting as the play is the background more conventional theatre in Paris. But this recently, Dorothy Hewett said that people material — a series of interviews with the real record shows the work to have been one of the working in the theatre in Australia did not Dr Ferdiere, Roger Blin and Arthur Adamov, most exciting theatrical venture this century. “theorise” enough. There is a cult of “doing” with short pieces by Artaud’s sister and the Finally, from Eyre Methuen, we have three (evident even at such a talk-fest as the doctor. To see Artaud the centre of a nasty volumes of plays by Brecht. The Measures Playwrights’ Conference), which panders to controversy about his treatment at Rodez after Taken and other Lehrstucke contains four short what Max Harris calls the revival of the his death is sad. That we had such madmen — plays, some of them designed for schools, all of philistine-chic in Australia. People often quote hoping, with Alec Hope “if still from the deserts them written in 1929-30, when Brecht began to approvingly Mark Twain’s flip remark, “Those the prophets come”. concentrate more austerely on a social and who can, do, and those who can’t, teach” — a A theorist in an opposing camp was Bertolt political issues and their personal implications. remark which makes as much sense inverted, Brecht, although Peter Brook has pointed out The Mother, which John Willett thinks is “in and which ignores the significant number of that Marat/Sade triumphantly brings the two some ways his most perfect work”, shows the people who can’t but do. There is an idea, a together in one play; with Marat and Brecht developing revolutionary consciousness of a symptom of the general Australian horror of the wanting to change the world by potential action woman who moves from hostility for her son’s intellect, that if you stop to talk about what you and Sade and Artaud wanting to “change cause to activism. Mr Puntilla and his man are doing, people might think you can’t actually human nature by making it truer to itself’. A re­ Matti is a later work, with Brecht’s best comic do it, that your approach is ... Academic (gasp!). issue of John Willett’s standard English work on character, Puntilla, who is selfish and A theorist who has had enormous influence, Brecht is welcome. It is as useful and as clear as unpleasant when sober, but warm and friendly but who did very little to implement his ideas seems possible in any work on any theorist of the when drunk. successfully, is Antonin Artaud. For all his lack theatre. It demonstrates, if such demonstrations It is impossible to do justice to the material in of practical success (although he seems to have are needed, that there is still, for any theatre these books in such a short article. All of them, been a fine actor) he has had influence on such production, a great deal to be got from a study of in one way or another, reveal something about practitioners in the theatre as Jean Louis Brecht’s work. the relationship between the actor and the Barrault, Roger Blin, Jean Genet, Eugene Unlike Artaud he was perhaps more audience — a relationship hardly explored at all Ionesco, Peter Brook, Charles Marowitz, Jerzy successful practically than theoretically — at in this country. Artaud’s sense of total Grotowski, Julia Beech and Judith Malina, least there is the often stated complaint that his involvement, Brecht’s more intellectual, Joseph Chailon and Jean Claude Van Itallie, as plays succeed in spite of, rather than because of educative approach and Brook’s search for well as R D Laing, Pierre Boulez and Michel his theory. In some ways Australian theatre is creative partnership between the two all have Foucault in other areas. It has been said that still stuck in the style and approach against something to teach us. A greater seriousness in “the course of all recent serious theatre in which both Brecht and Artaud were in their that search might add weight to our enthusiasm Europe and the Americas can be said to divide different ways reacting. for just getting up and doing it.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 49 THEATRE OPERA DANCE

A.C.T. instrumentalist. Sydney metropolitan, South MUSIC HALL THEATRE RESTAURANT Coast and Riverina areas. (909-8222) Bob Sillman — ventriloquist, puppeteer and Crushed by Desire, written and directed by THE BARD’S THEATRE RESTAURANT magician. Riverina and Sydney metropolitan Michael Boddy (continuing). (47-6244) areas. MUSIC LOFT THEATRE (977-6585) Command Performance. Thursdays to Saturdays Bennelong Players — North Coast area from Encore, a musical revue starring the Toppano (continuing). July 31. family and Lee Young, (continuing). Gerry Atkinson — International folk singer. CANBERRA OPERA (47-0249) NEW THEATRE (519-3403) Opera in the Schools Series North, Whole West, Outer Riverina and South Coast. Friday the Thirteenth, by Kevin Morgan. The Puppet Master by Tchaikovsky. Producer, Director, John Armstrong (continuing Nina Cooke; Design, Ron Butters. AUSTRALIAN OPERA (26-2976) throughout July). Touring schools. Madam Butterfly. Puccini (in Italian). 1, 4, 7 NIMROD THEATRE (699 5003) CANBERRA THEATRE (49-7600) July. Marriage of Figaro. Mozart (in English). 3, 6, 8 Henry IV, by William Shakespeare. Director, Dick Emery Concert Show Richard Wherrett; with John Bell, Frank 1 July. (mat), 15 (eve), 21, 24 July. Norma. Bellini (in Italian). 5, 8 (eve), 11, 14, 17, Wilson, Alex Hay and Peter Carroll. JIGSAW COMPANY (47-0781) 20, 26, 29 (mat) July. Throughout July. In repertory: Act Now, Crumpet and Co., The Don Gioranni. Mozart (in Italian). 19, 22 (eve), NO. 86 THEATRE RESTAURANT Empty House, Prometheus in schools and 25, 27, 29 (eve), 31 July. (439-8533) various other locations. AUSTRALIAN THEATRE FOR YOUNG Al Capone’s Birthday Party by Pat Garvey. PLAYHOUSE (49-7600) PEOPLE (699-9322) Director, Pat Garvey; choreography, Keith Canberra Philharmonic Society Saturday morning workshops for teenagers at Little; sets, Doug Anderson; costumes, Ray Sound of Music by Rogers and Hammerstein. NIDA; Youth Performing Group rehearsals of Wilson, (continuing) Conductor, Keith Hegelson; Producer, Eileen Alice in Wonderland for adults, at the Parade OLD TOTE THEATRE COMPANY Gray. 5-8,11-15 July. Theatre. (663-6122) Canberra Opera Parade Theatre: Da, by Hugh Leonard. Albert Herring by Britten and Crozier. DANCE COMPANY (NSW) (358-4600) Drama Theatre: Poppy. July 1-8. Director, Peter Collingwood; with Maggie Conductor, Christopher Lyndon Gee; Director, Kirkpatrick, Max Meldrum, Alan Tobin, Tom Ken Healey; Design, James Ridewood (courtesy ENSEMBLE THEATRE (929-8877) Farley, Tom Burlinson, Des Rolphe, Jessica of Old Tote). 19, 21,22, 26, 28, 29 July. Spokesong by Stewart Parker. Director, Don Noad, Claire Crowther. To July 11. Reid; music by Jimmie Kennedy (continuing). THEATRE 3 (47-4222) PARIS THEATRE (61-9193) Canberra Repertory FRANK STRAIN’S BULL 'N BUSH The Paris Company in Pandora’s Cross, by The Department by David Williamson. THEATRE RESTAURANT (31-4627) Dorothy Hewett, with composer Ralph Tyrrell, Closes 1 July. Magic of Yesterday with Noel Brophy, Keith and lighting designer, David Read. Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. Director, Bowell, Julie Fullerton, Neil Bryant and Alan Throughout July. Ross McGregor. 13-15 July, then Wednesday to Norman. Director, Frank Strain; choreographer, Saturday till 5 August. George Carden. OSCAR’S HOLLYWOOD PALACE THEATRE RESTAURANT, Sans Souci. TIVOLI THEATRE RESTAURANT GENESIAN THEATRE (827 3023) (529-4455) (49-1411) Sunshine Boys, by Neil Simon. Director, Coralie Fasten Your Seat Belts by Don Battye and Peter Vaudeville Capers. Fridays and Saturdays Butler. From July 1. Pinne. Director, Jon Ewing (continuing. (continuing). HER MAJESTY’S (212-3411) Q THEATRE, Penrith (047-21-5735) For entries contact Marguerite Wells on 41-3192 Barry Humphries in Isn't It Pathetic at his Age. Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen. Director, Kevin To July 15. Jackson. Parramatta July 5-9. NEW SOUTH WALES JANE STREET THEATRE (663-3815) RIVERINA TRUCKING COMPANY, Wagga. Mother Courage, by Bertolt Brecht. Director, (069-25-2052) Aubrey Mellor. To July 15. Rocky Horror Show. Director, Terry O’Connell. ACTORS COMPANY (660-2503) As You Like It, by William Shakespeare. From 21 July-5 Aug. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Director, Aubrey Mellor. From July 26. Christie in Love by Howard Brenton. Late night Director, Rodney Delaney; with Betty Cheal performances. and Di O'Connor. To July 15. KIRK GALLERY, Surry Hills (698-1798) Five Sided Theatre: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Director, SEYMOUR CENTRE (692-0555) Lovers by Brian Friel. Director, designer, Julie Michael Rplfe; starring Di O’Connor, Shirley Bartholomew's Fair by Ben Jonson. Director, Stafford; Producer, Stephin Hargreave. Cameron, John Stone, David Kentish. From Neil Arnfield — Sydney University Dramatic From 10 August (bookings from 1 August) July 21st. Society. From July 20. MARIAN STREET THEATRE (498-3166) ARTS COUNCIL OF NEW SOUTH WALES SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (20588) What Every Woman Knows, by James Barrie. (31-6611) Exhibition Hall: Tapestry, Paintings and Director, Alastair Duncan. To July 22. The Grand Adventure, a musical comedy Graphics Exhibition by noted New York artist, Catch Me If You Can by Jack Weinstock and marionette show created and directed by Phillip Pierre Clerk. Willie Gilbert. Director, Alastair Duncan. Edmiston. New South Wales country tour to From July 26. THEATRE ROYAL (2316111) August 15. An Evening with Quentin Crisp. Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer; with Sydney MARIONETTE THEATRE OF AUSTRALIA July 5-22. Conabere and Shane Porteous. New South (357-1200) Wales country tour to August 1. Whacko the Diddle-Ol devised by Richard WHITE HORSE HOTEL, Newtown (51-1302) Moose Malone, a country rock group. New Bradshaw and Steve Hansen, Alexander Done to Death by Peter Stevens. Director, South Wales country tour to July 29. Theatre, Monash University, Melbourne — 2-16 Foveaux Kirby; with Peter Fisher, Grant Mike McClelland, folk singer. New South Wales July. Dodwell, Julie Kirby, Graeme Richards, May country tour July 1-15. Roos and Hands, devised by Richard Bradshaw Howlett and Sian Pugh. To mid-July. Schools Tours: Wayne Roland Brown, multi­ — Japanese tour. From July 22. For entries contact Su Paterson on 357-1200.

50 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 VICTORIA Just Between Ourselves by Alan Ayckbourn. QUEENSLAND From 18 July. Atheneum Theatre: Electro by Sophocles. Translated by Frank Hauser and Nick Enright. ARTS THEATRE (36-2344) ALEXANDER THEATRE (543 2828) King Lear by William Shakespeare. Adapted by Director, Frank Hanser; designer, Anne Fraser; Nude With Violin by Noel Coward. Director, with Jennifer Hagan, Dennis Olsen, David Marion Gould; designer, Ian Thomson. David Williamson, directed by Peter Oyston. Starring Reg Evans as Lear and Joe Bolza as the Downer, Michael Edgar, John Stanton, Irene 29 June - 29 July. Inescort, Sandy Gore and company. To 22 July. Fool. CAMERATA (36-6561) The Playboy of the Western World by J M Avalon Theatre. ARENA CHILDRENS THEATRE (24-9667) Synge. From 25 July. Plays-in-Performance: Lower primary, Story- A Handful of Friends by David Williamson. OLYMPIC POOL (94-1810) Director, Gary O’Neil. To 8 July. theatre primary, Legends Alive. Touring metropolitan and country schools. Holiday on Ice, The Family Show Supreme. HER MAJESTY’S (221-2777) CAT-CALL: Tutorship scheme for schools July 7-30. The Australian Ballet: Swan Lake. (pupils and staff) PALAIS THEATRE (662-3620) 28 July - 5 Aug. BOW-TIE: Theatre-in-education programme. Stars o f World Ballet, Director, Robert LA BOITE (36-1622) 1. Whizzy the Wizard, prep to grade 2 Helpmann. July 7-12. The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt 2. Crew four fruit cake, grades 2-6 PILGRIM PUPPET THEATRE (818-6650) Brecht. Director, Fred Wessely. To July 15. 3. Truck-a-luck, grades 5-6 Alice In Wonderland Adapted by Burt Cooper; 4. Shake, Rattle and Roll, ages 10-14. The Father We Loved on a Beach by the Sea by director, Robert Akins. Steve Sewell. Director, Jeremy Ridgman. SCAT: Suitcase Activity Theatre (one Opens 21 July. actor/teacher drama experiences) PRINCESS THEATRE (662-2911) Saturday matinees, every Sat. for all ages. by Mozart. Director, Robin Lovejoy; REGENT CINEMA (ring 221-2777) Conductor, Richard Divall; Lighting Designer, AUSTRALIAN PERFORMING GROUP Gala Closing Night — Film and variety. Sue Nattrass. (347-7153) RIALTO, West End. (44-3274) Front Theatre: Comedian Chris Langham. To TIKKI AND JOHN’S THEATRE LOUNGE Rocky Horror Show Director, Bryan Nason; July 8. (663-1754) designer, Fiona Reilly; with Michael McCaffrey, Every Night, Every Night, written and directed Old Time Music Hall: John & Tikki Newman, Mark Hembrow, Candy Raymond, Ric Herbert, by Ray Mooney. 9 July - 5 Aug. Myrtle Roberts and Vic Gordon. Brian Blain. Back Theatre: Programme of independent films, : Terry Norris, Brian QUEENSLAND ARTS COUNCIL July 4-9. Also during July, the APG “Night- Hannan, Berrie Cameron-Alien, Alan Easter. The Thoughts of Chairman A If — Warren shift” team will tour NSW and Queensland. VICTORIAN ARTS COUNCIL Mitchell. On tour till 16 July. COMEDY THEATRE (529-4355) Chris Langham at Twelfth Night Theatre. Love Thy Neighbour with Jack Smethurst and Victoria State Opera: . 10-22 July. Nina Baden-Semper. To 22 July. Musical Director, Richard Divall; producer, Mike McLellan in concert at Her Majesty’s. Isn’t It Pathetic At His Age Barry Humphries. Robin Lovejoy; designer, Jennie Tate; features 16 July then touring. From 24 July. Halina Nieckarz, Ian Cousins, Graeme Wall, The Hutter Family, Australian Folk Songs. Russell Smith, Pauline Ashleigh, Barry Purcell, FOIBLES THEATRE RESTAURANT Touring from 17 July. Peter Cox. Touring July, August. (347-2397) QUEENSLAND THEATRE COMPANY Whimsey A nostalgic look at the mid-70’s Five Funny Folk Tales from the Brothers (221-5177) original comic revue, with Rod Quantock, Mary Grimm — adapted and directed by Don Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh. Director, Kenneally, Geoff Brooks, Stephen Blackburn Mackay; features Paul Karo. July, August. Australian Dance Theatre in an evening of Fun Joe McCollum; Designer, Fiona Reilly; with and Neville Stern. Wed. to Sat. Ballet. Artistic Director, Jonathon Taylor. Gaye Poole and Alan Wilson. To 8 July. New Acts, Mon. nights. Touring July, August. TWELFTH NIGHT (52-7843) FLYING TRAPEZE CAFE (41-3727) On tour in New South Wales — Sleuth by The Puppet People: Spring. To 29 July. The Slim Whittle Show featuring the Tam worth Anthony Shaffer. Director, Don Mackay; For entries contact Don Batchelor on 269-3018. Hot Shots. features Sydney Conabere and Shane Porteous. HER MAJESTY’S Touring July, August. SOUTH AUSTRALIA A Chorus Line (continuing). VICTORIAN STATE OPERA (41 5061) HOOPLA PRODUCTIONS (63-7643) Idomeneo, Princess Theatre (above). Schools Playbox Theatre: Let Me In, by Ted Neilsen programme, touring metropolitan and country ACT (223-8610) areas. Another Almost Free Season at the Balcony (continuing). Theatre: Upstairs: The Everest Hotel, by Snoo Wilson. MAJOR AMATEUR COMPANIES: Please Adelaide Theatre Group Thursdays to Saturdays at 11.00 pm and Fridays contact these theatres in the evenings for details Turning Points written and directed by Helen 6.00 pm, pre-dinner. From 22 June. of current productions. Cunningham. 5-8 July. LAST LAUGH THEATRE RESTAURANT HEIDELBERG REPERTORY (49-2262) Lunchtime Play: (419-6226) MALVERN THEATRE COMPANY (2110020) Hancock's Last Half Hour by Heathcote With the Busby Berkleys, Peaches La Creme, PUMPKIN THEATRE, Richmond (42-8237) Williams. Director, David Allen. 10-22 July. and the Stuffed Puppets. 1812 THEATRE, Ferntree Gully (796-8624) Triad Stage Alliance LA MAMA (350-4593, 347-6085) For entries contact Les Cartwright on Dragon King written and directed by John Linguistic Leprosies. A new Australian play by 781-1777. Strachan. 12-15 July. Graham Parker. Thursdays - Sundays until July . TA SM A N IA AUDS Noah’s Nuclear Niche. Written and directed by 9. Foxhole. A new Australian play by Craig Collie. Anthony Thorogood. 19-26 July. SALAMANCA THEATRE COMPANY Director, Martyn Brown. Opening Thursday 13 Doll City by Tony Strachan. Director, Linda (23-5259) July at 8.30 pm. Thursdays - Sundays until 30 Bates. 26 June - 19 July. (Tasmanian Theatre in Education) Globe july. I ’ll Be In On That by Anne Harvey Lateshows: Cinderella written and directed by Christine Little Brother, Little Sister by David Campton. Krapp’s Last Tape and Play by Samuel Beckett. On tour in Tasmania. Johnston. Lunchtime, 24-30 July. Director, Rex Jones. 11.30 pm from 13-30 July. Sunday Playreadings, 4.00, 9, 16, 22, 30 July. TASMANIAN PUPPET THEATRE (23-7996) MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY ADELAIDE DANCE THEATRE (212-2084) The Golden Nugget Show written and directed (654-4000) Country tour during July. by Peter Wilson. On tour, West and North West Russell Street Theatre: Departmental by Coast, 1-21 July. Devonport Town Hall, 7, 8 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN THEATRE Mervyn Rutherford. Director, Bruce Myles; July. Princess Theatre, Launceston, 13-15 July. COMPANY (51-5151) designer, Marie Menzel; with Lloyd Space: The Les Darcy Show by Jack Hibberd. Cunnington, Simon Chilvers, Gary Day and THEATRE ROYAL (34-6266) Director, Ron Blair. To July 15. Rod Williams. To July 8. As We Are Beverley Dunn’s one-woman show. 7, 8 July. For entries contact Chris Johns on 223-8610. Workshop production of a new play 10-15 July.

THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978 51 Thoughts of Chairman A lf Warren Mitchell. 25 - 29 July. For entries contact the editorial office (049)67-4470. Australia's magazine of the performing arts WESTERN AUSTRALIA Theaire Australia CIVIC THEATRE RESTAURANT (72-1595) Laughter Unlimited. Director, Brian Smith. HOLE IN THE WALL (381-2403) Ui/iaf Hole in the Pocket Workshop: Moby Dick Rehearsed by Orson Welles. Director, Damien Jamieson. 28 June - 1 July. Geography of a Horse Dreamer by Sam Shepard. Director, Steven Amos. 5-8 July. The Knack by Anne Jelicoe. Director, John Gill. 12 July - 12 Aug. NATIONAL THEATRE, PLAYHOUSE (325-3500) A Happy and Holy Occasion by John h / h a t O'Donoghue. Director, Stephen Barry. 28 June - 22 July. The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley. Director, Edgar Metcalfe. 26 July - 19 August. The Greenroom: Hancock’s Last Half Hour by Heathcote THESPIA’S PRIZE Williams. Director, Stephen Barry. PERTH ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE CROSSWORD Australian Ballet: . 7-8 July. Swan Lake. 12-15 July. CLUES THE REGAL (381 1557) The Harry Secombe Show. 3-15 July. D ow n WA BALLET COMPANY (380-2440) Next Month No season 1. Low life characters of an Indian play?(7) 2. What the theatre has that cinema doesn’t WA OPERA COMPANY (322-4766) State theatres (1,4,4) On tour: 3. Ring master of German music drama? (6) Sid the Serpent Who Couldn t Sing by Malcolm Play script: M arx 4. What if he died tomorrow? (5, 10) Fox. 5. Is Shakespeare's Ephesus one of these? (8) The Telephone by Manotti Acts II & III 6. For Krapp’s tape (5) For entries contact Joan Ambrose on 299-6639. 7. What a bad review does to a show (5, 2) International: Japan 14. Stealing the limelight (9) 15. Beatrice’s burden (8) Reviews: Opera, Theatre, Ballet, 17. Julia’s friend (6) 18. Beseech diplomatically (7) Film, and lots more. 20. Fixings for stars (3, 3) 22. Where Ubu Roi ends and The Tempest begins (1,4) SUBSCRIPTION RATES A cro ss 4. Those who wait in the wings to (dis) robe you (8) 8. Shortened theatrical greeting gives first class A ustralia: flower (6) $18.00 Post Free for twelve issues 9. State of not being amused (8) 10. Mozart’s Juan (8) Give a gift subscription — and SAVE! 11. Death comes___ the______with a little pin $32.00 for two subscriptions. Bores through his castle wall and farewell King. Richard II (2, 4) 12. A female rodent tamed in Shakespeare (3, 4) 13. Being unequally a member of the union (2, 6) O verseas: 16. Fortune’s device when flown (8) 19. Such rage is unmanly (8) Surface mail A$25.00 21. But that’s all one, our play is done B y a ir And we’ll strive to _____ you every day , New Guinea A$45.00 (Twelfth Night) (6) 23. The ten per cents of the theatre industry (8) U.K., U.S.A., Germany, Greece, Italy A$50.00 24. Juliet, we gather, didn’t wear them (8) All other countries A$70.00 25. Pointed classical poet (6) THE PERFORMING ARTS 26. Lines should not be left thus on stage (8) BOOKSHOP Bank drafts in Australian currency should be forwarded to Theatre Publications Ltd., 80 232 Castlereagh Street, Elizabeth Street, Mayfield, N.S.W. 2304, A year’s free subscription to TA for the first Sydney. 2000. Australia. correct entry. (If you already subscribe, 12 free Telephone: Patrick Carr issues from when it expires.) [02] 2331658 Send answers to: Thespia, 80 Elizabeth Street, Mayfield NSW 2304.

52 THEATRE AUSTRALIA JULY 1978