tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post4289695116481440198..comments2024-01-20T16:46:43.636+11:00Comments on Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary: Private LivesGeorge Khuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220918958933755405noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-19993550897400252152012-10-25T16:31:20.662+11:002012-10-25T16:31:20.662+11:00Oh, and presumably you mean "Angela's Kit...Oh, and presumably you mean "Angela's Kitchen", not "Angela's Ashes". Angela's Ashes is irish...That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-4172678821235827662012-10-25T16:25:50.358+11:002012-10-25T16:25:50.358+11:00Love to have a chat some time - As you may have no...Love to have a chat some time - As you may have noticed from my blog, I'm from Canberra (and pretty much have a Belvoir subscription as my excuse to get up to Sydney occasionally!). My next visit will be in January with Peter Pan - I'll send a private email closer to the date.<br /><br />I will note, though, your'e unnecessarily bashing the STC by suggesting they're not promoting local writing - 8 of their shows next year are new Australian writing.<br /><br />I think that our cultural enterprises can have multiple centres, and local writing isn't the only one (you obviously agree, otherwise you wouldn't review non-Australian plays!).<br /><br />I'd note that Steppenwolf Theatre Company's current season has five shows, only one of which is new writing (although three of the other are recent American drama, with a new production of Pinter's "The Birthday Party" making up the 5). And I'd agree that part of the flaws of Australian theatre companies is that too few new plays get that crucial second production (it'd be wonderful to see what, for instance, the Melbourne Theatre Company did with a "Neghbourhood Watch" with, say, Jane Menalaus or Sandy Gore). But that's different from demanding constant new writing.That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-72888172818242533532012-10-25T12:18:37.384+11:002012-10-25T12:18:37.384+11:00Dear That Guy,
Great input, thanks.
It is an idea ... Dear That Guy,<br />Great input, thanks.<br />It is an idea of mine that new Australian work and the development of that, of Australian playwrights, needs to be at the centre of the interest for an Australian company. As it is for the National Theatre In London and, say the Steppenwolf company in Chicago. Black Swan in Perth seem to be able to be adventurous with their work choices.<br />I do get annoyed when persistently, the Companies, insist that that British play, American play etc be done in an Australian accent because it is an Australian story. I look forward to the solution to the vocal choices to ANGELS IN AMERICA next year! Having America in the title may be persuasive to the honesty about the sound. I bet, if they do the play in an American range of dialects the play will still be pertinent to us as an Australian story. It is a great play. As is DEATH OF A SALESMAN. <br />I reckon that PRIVATE LIVES and SEX WITH STRANGERS, for instance, are a cultural expression of a particular time and place - and in both instances they were not Australia - and just because they were spoken in an Australian multi-cultural range of dialects does not make the play Australian. I just want more cultural expressions more authentically drawn from my, our, everyday experience.<br />I long for a Sewell to speak to me about me and my culture. Revive him, Upstairs. Any of the plays I mentioned late in my blog on PRIVATE LIVES I would pay to see. And there are other Australian classics besides THE SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL.. that would attract an audience - cast it with the interesting commercial actors and the audience will come.<br /> It was a relief to hear Mr Meadows talk about a vitally contentious contemporary subject amidst a romance with his BETWEEN TWO WAVES. Both things I felt were coming from Mr Meadows authentically. Authentically Australian Not just with an authentic Aussie sound.<br />NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH, ANGELA'S ASHES, are two Australian plays that found an audience. The theatre needs an element of risk. I reckon FOOD would have filled the Upstairs this year. What was it, "Build it and they will come'?<br />To have non-writers, actor trained and or director trained, engaged in adapting old and other works from other origins seems to ignore the economic needs of writers to be able to do what they want to do. By asking the writer to adapt, is, perhaps, maybe, a way to develop the Australian writer's work as well. The auteur director, coming from the contemporary practice of writer/director of film, I guess, is denying the creative living to the writer. And so, logically preventing the means for a playwright to have the circumstances to write new work for the theatre. <br />As to your last point,in paying the artists at Belvoir, at last, a living, someone has to pay - why is it the writer, so consistently? Do the auteur/writer/directors employed at Belvoir get a double fee or just the one?<br />The writer, for me, is at the centre of our cultural enterprise. No writers, no stories, no history. Thank God for Euripides and Sophocles - both writers. Thank God for Katherine Brisbane and Currency Press, by the way, for creating our literary history with their publications - now there is real risk and investment in Australia, that one wished Belvoir and the STC could emulate.<br /><br />By the way CORRANDERK has had a season already this year.<br /><br />Thanks for your input. Shall we have a coffee and chat? I just love your passion and perspicacity.<br /><br />Kevin Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00267609975862930264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-39228763632337539202012-10-25T06:54:45.159+11:002012-10-25T06:54:45.159+11:00The other thing to discuss is your point about ori...The other thing to discuss is your point about original work (which seems to be one of your other common pet peeves with Belvoir). Frankly, that seems to be a case of Belvoir accepting what they do well and what they do not do well (and where an appropriate setting for original work is). The original works I've seen in the current upstairs season ("Buried City", "Baby Teeth" and "Every Breath") have had much lower audiences than the, for lack of a better word, "un-original" works. In the case of "Every Breath", they also drew reviews which were, frankly, personally abusive in several places. <br /><br />So it makes sense that a company reflects what its audience wants. The Downstairs season, which is mostly original works, seems to be of the right size to suit the audience that new Australian writing is capable of drawing (similar to the smaller auditorium at the Stables, in fact). <br /><br />I notice that in the 2013 season, only two original works are programmed for upstairs ("Forget me Not", by the established Tom Holloway, and "Corranderk" - both are co-productions, presumably to mitigate for risk). Downstairs has mostly new work, with one revival ("The Cake Man") of an australian classic. None of the non-original works are Australian plays - Three out of copyright works (although with Tommy Murphy dramaturging "Peter Pan", Simon Stone adapting "Miss Julie", I suspect some latitude in the adaptation will take place), and three-four in- copyright works (depending on whether you think Angels in America is one play or two - the estates of Tennessee Williams, Tony Kushner and Ingmar Bergman should therefore be keeping an eye out for contract violations).<br /><br />I suspect some of the movement away from original works may have to do with Belvoir restructuring out of a co-op structure towards paying genuine award wages a few years ago - when you're paying people appropriate amounts, theatre gets logically more expensive, and the more expensive, the less risky you can afford to be.That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-72700844033371335032012-10-24T23:11:49.038+11:002012-10-24T23:11:49.038+11:00 To That Guy,
Thanks for the information.
A god... To That Guy,<br /> Thanks for the information. <br /> A god deal for those published and performed authors, alive an dead. And, of course,their estates.<br />Kevin J.<br />Kevin Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00267609975862930264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-1562841297056673832012-10-24T15:40:16.219+11:002012-10-24T15:40:16.219+11:00You state, with a fair degree of certainty, that t...You state, with a fair degree of certainty, that the plays of Noel Coward are out of copyright. I don't believe they are - my understanding of copyright law is that any work that was published in the lifetime of the author who died before 1 January 1957, is out of copyright, and any work that was published in the lifetime of the author who died after 31 December 1956, will be out of copyright 70 years after the author's death.<br /><br />Noel Coward died in 1973. So his work should not be out of copyright until 2043.That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-38651906816725560102012-10-24T01:22:28.488+11:002012-10-24T01:22:28.488+11:00Kevin- what a fascinating link you propose:Coward ...Kevin- what a fascinating link you propose:Coward to Beckett. Reading your essay brought to mind vivid memories of the routine relapses into full-throated mutual bawling-out that are as much a part of the relationship of Amanda and Eliott as sexual attraction. They fall to their arguing as the two tramps fall to their stories and routines. The difference is -perhaps - that Coward's pair don't define their situation as one of dependency on an unknowable power-figure.They think that they themselves, just in themselves, have all that they need to secure perfect happiness. <br />I was looking forward to this production....I suppose I felt sure that Toby Schmitz- with his comic instincts and relish of words and <br />their explosive potential - would bring Coward's wit to life in a way that would pay tribute and give it a shake.<br />Alas,I watched most of the time<br /> with sinking spirits.The initial worry was hearing actors talk of going down'to bathe'...you know, SWIM. Two or three times we heard about this desire 'to bathe',and we pictured them dipping their toes into the Mediterranean or the hotel pool; but as they spoke with broad Aussie vowels , it didn't come across as a believable plan. Soon they were longing for times when they felt 'gay',or admiring ...I don't know... someone's oh-so-'gay' air as he bade everyone good night, and I began to wish that they were not dressed in today's little black dresses and twelve inch heels. Before long our fabulous lovers were throwing themselves into blasts of air guitar and drum whacking to the loud sounds of Phil Collins' droning tune 'In the Air Tonight' , and we were just so far from anything like the easy wit and cheeky insousiance of Noel and Gertie.<br />The action was played out against a set that suggested the latest in post-GFC new hospital wards. <br />Would it have been beneath everyone to play the thing in a manner more true to Coward's personality? A few days ago I heard on the radio his rendition of 'Let's fall in Love'-with Cole Porter's lyrics embellished with the performer's own gossipy,brilliantly rhyming bon mots - and at a time when i really didn't want to stop and listen , I did just that: here was something just too clever and delightful to pass up. In his own way he was OUTRAGEOUS, following in a tradition not long beforehand established with languid moves and verbal rallies by Oscar Wilde. <br />My feeling is that Belvoir's first crack at Coward would have been more fun had Ralph Myers encouraged Toby and the other actors to embrace the elements of style and attitude that a little familiarity with Coward's music and drama suggest.Perhaps there is a little of Coward in each of his characters: and if so, they need to seem as if at any moment, they would be more than capable of flourishes of great wit, acts of great compassion and marvellous musical comedy routines.Johnnoreply@blogger.com