Cast featuring: Caroline Brazier - Kirsten Black Swan State Theatre Company & Lucy Goleby - Peggy Damon Lockwood - Phillip Queensland Theatre Company Greg McNeill - Chief present Steven Rooke - Sandy Director: Wesley Enoch Gasp! By Ben Elton Set & Costume Designer: Christina Smith 25 October – 9 November 2014 Imagine a world in which the air we breathe is Lighting Designer: just another commodity like food and fuel. Trent Suidgeest Something that can be bought and sold according to market forces. How much do you Sound Designer: think you’d have to breathe? Tony Brumpton This was the darkly comic premise on which Projection Designers: Ben Elton based his first play, the hilarious and optikal bloc critically acclaimed satirical comedy Gasping. Design Associate: Penny Challen The play was first produced in 1990 in London’s West End. It starred Hugh Laurie and Directorial Associate: ran for a triumphant year and a half. Now Ben Daniel Evans Elton has revisited his original play and re- imagined it for a new century and a new Duration: 2 hr 10min country. This major rewrite relocates the story (including interval) to an Australia grown giddy on the resources Warning: Coarse Language boom. It’s now called Gasp! And it’s as relevant and as hil‘air’ious as ever. Venue: Heath Ledger Centre State Theatre Centre of WA Ben Elton has written fourteen bestselling books including Popcorn and Inconceivable, some of TV’s most popular comedy series (Blackadder, The Tickets: Young Ones) as well as West End plays and the hit musical We Will Rock Tickets $27.90 - $79.90 You. ticketek.com.au “[Elton’s] ... career spans a remarkable and successful body of work across Ticketek outlets a range of genres.” The Age or 1300 795 012 Groups 8+ 1300 364 001 “Take a dash of writer extraordinaire, Ben Elton; add a splash of multi award- [*A service/delivery fee also applies] winning director, Wesley Enoch; and stir in our own Damon Lockwood, fresh from triumphs in Edinburgh and New York; and we have a cocktail that Touring to Brisbane: literally fizzes with laughter and energy. Gasp! is a smart comedy that will 17 November - 7 December provoke thought and laughter.” Kate Cherry, Artistic Director of Black Swan Playhouse QPAC State Theatre Company Associate Partner Media Enquiries: Irene Jarzabek, Publicist, Black Swan State Theatre Company Tel: +61 8 9430 8134 mob +61 419 192 140 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Web: www.bsstc.com.au A co-production with Queensland Theatre Company. ABOUT BEN ELTON Ben Elton was a central figure in the alternative comedy scene in Britain in the 1980s, and his success has continued as he branched out into stage, novel writing, and musicals. Ben Elton is one of the most successful and long term comedic writers and performers in the world. Benjamin Charles Elton was born on the 3rd of May 1959 in Catford, London. His family are extremely academic, including university professors and historians. He is the youngest of four children. He attended Stillness Junior School, and then Godalming Grammar School where he joined the amateur dramatics society and wrote his first play. Although he wanted to become a stagehand at a local theatre, he decided to pursue dramatic arts more academically, and studied drama at Manchester University from 1977 to 1980. It was here that he encountered Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. He began his career in standup comedy soon after graduating from university. He also began writing comedy, and quickly became one of the central figures in the alternative British comedy scene of the 1980s. He also became a successful comedic novelist, placing political messages within his earlier novels and more recently, social critiques. Elton has won several awards, including the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain Gold Dagger Award for fiction for his novel Popcorn, WH Smith's People Choice Fiction Award for his novel High Society, the TMA Barclays Theatre Award for best new play and the Olivier Award for best comedy for the stage play Popcorn. Ben Elton was also made a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2007. Ben Elton is married to Sophie Gare, and Australian saxophonist. Elton recently received dual citizenship with Australia, and he and his wife split their time between Australia and London. They have three children. His works for television include: Alfresco (1982-1983), The Young Ones (1984), Happy Families (1985), Filty, Rich and Catflap (1986), BlackAdder II (1987), BlackAdder the Third (1988), BlackAdder Goes Forth (1990), The Man From Auntie (1990, 1994), The Thin Blue Line (1996), The Ben Elton Show (1998), Blessed (2005), Get a Grip (2007). His works for radio includes Teenage Kicks. His writing for the screen includes Stark (1993), Maybe Baby. His fiction writing includes Stark (1989), Gridlock (1991), This Other Eden (1993), Popcorn (1996), Blast from the Past (1998), Inconceivable (1999), Dead Famous (2001), High Society (2002), Past Mortem (2004), The First Casualty (2005), Chart Throb (2006), Blind Faith (2007). His musical theatre credits include The Beautiful Game (2003) and We Will Rock You (2003). His theatre credits include Gasping (1990), Silly Cow (1991), Popcorn (1996) and Blast From the Past (1998). Source: http://www.illiterarty.com/biography-ben-elton WRITER’S NOTE FROM BEN ELTON Gasping was my first professional play and like most of my work with the exception of the odd Holocaust novel, it’s a comedy. A comedy which imagines a world where the air we breathe has to be harvested, mined and marketed just like food and fuel and all the other finite natural resources’ of our planet. Because let’s face it, the fact that air remains the one single necessity of life which is still free, and consumed equally by rich and poor alike is just a bit of luck really. If somebody could sell it they would. Now living in Australia as I do, in the midst of an on-going national debate about our own precious and finite resources, I couldn’t help but be struck by how much of my 25 year old play was even more relevant today than it was when it was written. And also what glorious tragi - comic theatrical potential there was in the attitudes and excesses of those characters that control the nations’ natural wealth. I’m therefore hugely grateful and excited that Black Swan has offered me the chance to re-think and, partially, rewrite much of my original play for a new century and a new country. For new influences and new inspirations. It’s a rare and real privilege for a playwright to be presented with such an opportunity. Black Swan is a ground breaking and innovative Theatre Company, which, under the inspired guidance of Kate Cherry, has developed an international reputation. It’s also my local theatre and I cannot wait to be a part of the team. REVIEWS OF GASPING by Ben Elton Ben Elton's debut play - originally seen at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, starring Hugh Laurie (House, MD) and Bernard Hill (Captain Smith in Titanic) - is a brilliantly funny satire on big business, the media, and product exploitation. Lockheart Industries are making serious money, but Sir Chiffley Lockheart is looking for the buzz given by a new way to make money where no money existed before. Philip, his pushy workaholic executive, suggests selling "designer air" - Perrier for the nostrils - as a privatised alternative to polluted urban fug. The marketing phenomenon of the decade has arrived and millions are quickly made! However, producing the designer air has unintended consequences, needing the kind of corporate maneuvers that would make the CEO of Enron proud. The world divides into the "haves" and the "have nots": But when the world starts Gasping, and only the biggest suckers survive... Reviews of the London Haymarket Production "A sharp-witted satire on the heartlessness of market forces... extremely funny. [it] never, unlike the world's population, runs out of puff. " Independent "A poisonously funny morality play. a remarkable debut." Sunday Times “A brilliantly funny piece of stage magic.” Today “As barbed as, and much funnier than, Serious Money, the sharpest futuristic comedy since Henceforward, and the best Green comedy since the Good Life was young.’ Financial Times “Sheer Jacques Tati’esque…a traditional morality play…one Ben Johnson would have recognised.” International Herald Tribune BIOGRAPHIES: CAROLINE BRAZIER KIRSTEN Black Swan: Gasp! marks the debut for Caroline with the company. Other Theatre: Sydney Theatre Company: Don’s Party. Melbourne Theatre Company: Enlightenment, Ray’s Tempest and Two Brothers. Bell Shakespeare: Anthony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice. Brisbane Powerhouse: The True Story of Butterfish. B Sharp: Bang La Mama: Europe. Darlinghurst Theatre: Whale Music. Melbourne Festival: A Moment on the Lips. Ensemble Theatre: Liberty Equality Fraternity. Tamarama Rock Surfers: The Removalists. Critical Stages: I Want to Sleep. Film: Rogue. TV: Rake (Seasons 1, 2 and 3), Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Terra Nova, Wild Boys, Dripping in Chocolate, Packed to the Rafters, 30 Seconds, City Homicide, Parralax, White Collar Blue, Young Lions, Water Rats and Walt Disney’s television series Legend of the Seeker. Awards: Sydney Theatre Award and Glug for Best Actress. Training: NIDA Graduate 1998. LUCY GOLEBY PEGGY Black Swan: Gasp! marks the debut for Lucy with the company. Other Theatre: La Boite: Pale Blue Dot. Mad March Hare Theatre: A Moment on the Lips. Short Film: AFTRS: Exercise, Death Sentence. Training: NIDA Graduate 2013. DAMON LOCKWOOD PHILLIP Black Swan: Director: Midsummer (a play with songs), including north west and south west tours. Assistant Director The Importance of Being Earnest, The White Divers of Broome.