After Dinner - Andrew Bovell

I hate when you read something and it starts and it’s interesting and it progressing, until it gets to the peak and then it’s all downhill from there. That’s how I felt about the play I read this week. The characters were built up really well, we got to know the free spirited Paula, the emotion Misha and the controlling Dympie. And the male character to, the shy Gordon and the overly confident Stephan. They we’re written so well and I could see a conflict beginning. But when we got into Act 2, I just didn’t enjoy the play quite as much anymore.

The play is based around five people and their various issues. They’re all at a restaurant waiting for a band to begin playing for their Friday night out. We find out that Paula and Dympie are good friends and they invite their other friend Micha to dinner to help her get out of the house after her husband has just passed away. Gordon is there to meet up with his work friends as he himself is getting over his marriage break-up. As the night progresses the girls get themselves into a fight and Misha completely breaks down and lets loose, which doesn’t impress the uptight Dympie at all. Gordon shows his emotions leaving him with people assuming he’s gay, and Stephan voices his intimate problems.

The play is a dark comedy, which I understand, and for the most part there were humorous situations. There were parts which made you cringe a little, parts that made you laugh. The characters were developed well and the closing statement by Gordon wrapped the play up in a bow. But for me it wasn’t the best comedy play that I’ve ever read.

 I thought this play might fit into our season because of the broken families and I thought the play would change scenarios and situations, but it didn’t so it just wouldn’t be the best fit for our season. 

Julia

Desire - Alex Broun

Wow! There is so much about this play that I think is perfect for our theme: Australian relationships.  It is set in the 1990’s but I think it could be changed to now very easily.  Even better than that as far as logistics and money goes, the play is free to produce (as are most of Alex Broun’s works). 

This play is all about sex, desire and finding oneself, and is set predominantly in Sydney’s nightlife scene.  The main issue with producing this is the required stage space- but with further research I’m sure I can find a way to have it performed at Griffin Theatre.

By moving the bar from Kinsela’s to The Ivy (or of course to avoid legal reason something that reminds others of The Ivy) the audience can draw more meaning from Gerald’s monologue in Scene Four.  That said, I think there is enough controversy going around at the moment about people being rejected at the door that everyone will just understand it without reference to The Ivy – at them moment there is a Facebook group going around against discrimination at the door of bars, pubs and clubs of Sydney.  But discrimination is only just touched on, for the most part Desire is about sex, love, drugs and manipulation. 

Sounds good right?

Well at first I was a sceptic, but then as I read on and a started to envision Desire in our two venues I started to get excited.  I thought to myself, this both perfectly fits into our theme but is also different enough to give the season that extra bit of zing.

While reading Desire I started to think about the target audience.  Do we want all the plays open to everyone or do we want specific plays for specific people.  If we choose Desire as one of our plays, I think we would be leaning more towards the latter.  Which you know I think is a good thing.  That is the beauty of Australian plays, they tell so many different stories, and f course some are going to resonate more with some than others.  In all seriousness Desire would have to be a MA play (is that what you call it in the theatre?) because there are a few themes that may be too much for younger audience members.

Alex’s Blurb:

Sydney. Summer. In the nightclubs, bars and cafes of the harbour city four young people are searching. But what for ? Sex. Love. Friendship. DESIRE follows the lives of four young adults - Lara, Kate, Gerald and Patrick - caught in a web of interlocking friendships, relationships and romance. A quartet striving for some substance in an image obsessed world. When it broke Box Office records at the Crossroads Theatre in 1994 - The Sydney Morning Herald said DESIRE "hums with an inner city pulse of traffic, caffeine and designer drugs." The Telegraph Mirror described the play as "slick and fast moving" and "an accurate reflection of where it's at", while the Australian National Playwright's Centre said DESIRE has the "makings of a cult theatre classic." When was the last time you saw a play that explored the way you feel ? DESIRE is that play. Sex, love or friendship - what do you want? 

Alice x.

Bran Nue Dae - Jimmy Chi

Almost as soon as I started reading Bran Nue Dae I knew that it wasn’t right for our season.  The play/ musical is conceptually beautiful however; it requires a stage that Griffin Theatre cannot cater for.  That said there is a certain quality to Bran Nue Dae which is gripping.  And now that we have decided that we will discuss two different venues it is possible that could be part of at least one season.  The language used in Bran Nue Dae is humorous and light, and is a crucial element to the play.  Now I know that sounds funny, the text is important to the play, of course it is, but what I’m trying to say is that the way the characters speak is important, how they say it, what they say.  It is a coming of age / coming home stories that but with Aboriginal protagonists.  So that brings me to the play Julia has done Stolen, which we have chosen to be the Indigenous Australian play -then again that is not to say we can’t use more than one, but that Bran Nue Dae definitely does not make the cut.  Another thing that I should mention is that Bran Nue Dae is a musical, which I must admit is what drew me to it first.  I thought this is different, and there might just be a place for it in the season.  But really when you think about it, it may be far too left field.  So I guess it’s time I give you the low down on this play.

Bran Nue Dae is a 1990 musical set in Broome, WA.  It portrays stories and issues relating to Indigenous Australians.  I was written by Jimmy Chi and his band Knuckles, and was the first Aboriginal musical. 

The story goes a little like this:

“In the Summer of 1969 a young man is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome - fishing, hanging out with his mates and his girl. However his mother returns him to the religious mission for further schooling. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away from the mission on a journey that ultimately leads him back home.”(IMDB)

For some silly reason I can't find any pictures from theatre productions of Bran Nue Dae so the 2009 film adaption will have to do.

Alice x.

The Floating World- John Romeril

First off I’d like to thank Emma for getting me onto this play, I really enjoyed it and it opened my eyes to a theme that seems to be running through most of my chosen plays.

So far I have studied, Away, Summer of the Aliens, Cosi and with the exception of The Removalists all the plays have alluded to a war or some kind of global conflict.  Now it is my guess that not everyone knew about this play, whether I’m right or wrong I am glad I found it and am sure it will fit well into the season (can’t find any recent productions or any photos of anything other than the cover).  I think it is about time that we pulled The Floating World out dusted it off and aired it out.

For those of you that don’t know the play it is set in 1974 on board a Cherry Blossom cruise ship travelling from Melbourne to Yokohama, Japan.  On board this ship is Les Harding a POW from World War Two.  As the cruise draws closer to Japan suppressed memories begin to bubble to the surface for Les.  This results in his rather bizarre behaviour and plotting to do harm to the Japanese people once they arrive. 

A great deal of the play provides insight into the psyche of an Australian POW and the lasting affect that being a POW can have- in this case leading to hallucinations and attempted violence.

Before reading the play I thought the obvious, that the floating world referred to the cruise ship- which it could still do.  However, after some investigation I found out that the floating world is a term used by the Japanese to describe (in the simplest form) a pleasure seeking lifestyle.

The play in meant to be an ironic comment on Australian xenophobia, which yes it is.  Les discriminates against all Asian people, lumping them all into the category of “Japs”.  That said, I can understand that even after thirty years it is hard to forget the horrors of a POW camp. 

The Floating World also touches upon the issues of a changing society/world.  Class, economics and politics are all questioned throughout the play.

To finish off this little foray into the world of Romeril I would like to note that my Grandpa was a POW working on the Thai/Burma railway and that reading this play really highlighted how absolutely horrible it must’ve been for him (because what Romeril wrote isn’t too far off the mark).  And just so you know he is now 92 and very much alive and kicking!

Alice x.

Stolen – Jane Harrison

This play this week was a really different read to plays I’ve been reading for this course. I know I’ve been reading and blogging on Australian plays but for some reason it was only this week that it dawned on me to read an Aboriginal play. I feel like a dirty white person. Of course if our theme is Australian plays through the years, it’s so important to tell an Aboriginal story, and the play ‘Stolen’ is a play about a huge moment in Australian history, that I’m sure most people would rather forget. It brings to the front the horrible and unforgivable way the government stole children from Aboriginal families and the effects that changed these children’s lives forever.

There are five characters in the play, which also double up and play various roles. Each child has a story their own, how they were taken from their families and put into a children’s home. Each character has their own journey, one girl is adopted by a caring white family, another girl is abused and hurt, another girl falls pregnant and is in search of her children. There are two young boys, one is searching for home and a sense of belonging and the other is a naughty boy who acts out in fear. We are shown through the characters lives, jumping from their adult lives, to their childhood to their adolescent lives. At each stage of their lives we’re shown their frustrations and the confusion of being taken away, and treat terribly.

Jane Harrison has written this play beautifully. The care she has taken with each child to depict their story and also the care she has taken to uphold the Aboriginal culture, and the dreamtime stories that make the children feel safe. As well as keeping the Aboriginal culture alive, she hasn’t totally disgraced white people, she has a caring white family for the youngest girl, which illustrates the good that they thought they were doing.

This play would be a fantastic inclusion for our production. As I mentioned it’s part of Australia’s history, and these are the stories that define Australia and the culture that our society has created and built. This was bleak time in Australia’s history, although it’s important that we show the good the bad and the horrible to our audiences, to show the real culture and development of our country. 

5 'Children' in the Children's home with their suitcases

Julia!

Cosi – Louis Nowra

Cosi is yet another semi autobiographical piece by Louis Nowra.  Did I mention that last time? That Summer of the Aliens was semi autobiographical?  Well it was.  There are quite a few similarities in the two plays (and yes for good reason).  For starters the main character is yet again Lewis, but now it is 1970 and he is a university graduate.  Nowra mostly maintains his style of play writing, however, I was sad to read that he did not include the Narrator voice in Cosi.  The reason behind this we cannot know, although I do speculate that perhaps the narrator in Summer of the Aliens was this older Lewis, but then again probably not.  Not having a narrator does not take away from the theatricality of the play.  What seems to be a theme in these two plays is that they are in fact plays.  In Summer of the Aliens the narrator is used as a tool to remind the audience of the theatre, whereas in Cosi, Nowra uses the idea of a play within a play to get the very same message across.  In fact there are quite a few jibs at the theatre within the play.
Cosi is set amidst the chaos of the Vietnam War (1970) and takes place in a theatre that is part of a mental institution.  Lewis is working as a play director there for money.  Throughout his time there Lewis forms relationships with the patients and begins to learn more about himself and life.
Cosi, like all of the plays I have read so far has a quite basic set.  For me, this excites me.  I think that there is so much that can be done with a blank canvass. 
Summer of the Aliens and Cosi depend upon the time in which they were depicted in order to give the plays more meaning.  Therefore, there are not too many changes that could be made. 
Before today I had never read Cosi, I had heard of it because of Standard English HSC, but it never occurred to me to read it.  So I am glad this project came along and gave me a reason.
I know I am meant to be discovering Australian plays that are virtually unheard of, but for me this running simplicity is engaging and I would like to explore it further.

Alice x.

Summer of the Aliens – Louis Nowra

I’d forgotten what an exciting play this was to read.  That said, it is hard to describe this play.  Although I have to say it really is a true blue Aussie classic.  My favourite element of Australian plays such as Summer of the Aliens and Away is the honestly.  There is an effortlessness to them that makes them so beautiful.  Through the play you get a very real sense of what it would’ve been like living in an Australian housing estate in the 1960’s.  The crass beauty of Lewis’ situation and the way he conducts himself around it is quite striking.  But first for those who do not know the story of Summer of the Aliens:  Set in a Melbourne housing estate during 1962 in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis*.  That the entirety of the play takes place during the crisis we are able to determine that the actions take place within a 2 week period.  What interests me most is the way that the crisis is both part of and ineffectual of the lives of those around the housing estate.  But anyway I’m getting off track. The play. Well… Lewis is a teenager “growing up in a Melbourne housing commission suburb.  He is preoccupied with flying saucers…” Summer of the Aliens is a vivid and amusing evocation of a family and a neighbourhood whose increasingly strange behaviour Lewis is forced to interpret in the only way he can – the aliens must be amongst us.”  That said it is just as much a coming of age story as Lewis is on the cusp of adulthood.  Summer of the Aliens also comments on the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual abuse- especially within a housing commission suburb.  I would actually really like to use this play as part of my season- I believe it is lost gem of Australian theatre.

*The Cuban Missile Crisis was a stand off between the Soviet Union (and Cuba) and the United States in October 1962 as part of The Cold War.  The Soviets and Cubans were building bases in Cuba for a number of nuclear weapons (to be used against the US).  The whole world feared the start of a new war, their fears were eased after 2 weeks of tension.

Alice x.