Mainstage explorations
Ms TN was intending to be at this morning's launch of the Melbourne Theatre Company's Lawler Studio Season, an event I was anticipating with lively curiosity, but my plans were derailed by an early-morning phone call from my editor. So instead of venturing out into the pleasant sleet and hail of a Melbourne winter morning, I spent the day at home writing furiously to a 4pm deadline. Such are the travails of a theatre writer.
Luckily, the wonders of email mean that it all landed in my inbox, sans champagne and croissants but with all the right spelling. And this season of three new plays, curated by MTC associate director Aidan Fennessy, looks very interesting indeed. In fact, it opens the MTC programming right up.
It kicks off on July 22 with Savage River by Steve Rodgers (last seen at the MTC with Ray's Tempest). This is a co-production with Sydney's Griffin Theatre and the Tasmanian Theatre Company, and will be directed by associate director Peter Evans. Next is The Colours, a one-man show written and performed by Peter Houghton and directed by Anne Browning (coincidentally, Houghton's Malthouse play A Commercial Farce opens tomorrow night). Lastly is a Stuck Pigs Squealing production, Lally Katz's Apocalypse Bear Trilogy, opening on October 8. This will be Luke Mullins's directorial debut, as he returns to Melbourne after a year as a member of the STC's Actors Company. Mullins is co-directing with Brian Lipson and both will be starring with Katherine Tonkin.
The MTC has also scrambled together funding for a three-year program of playreadings and workshops for emerging playwrights, which will begin later this year. You can find more details on the Lawler Studio Season here.
Which reminds me that, what with this and that (there's been a lot of this and that about lately), I have neglected to mention the announcement of the STC's new ensemble, The Residents, last week. The Residents replaces the Actors Company with a full-time ensemble of younger actors, who will work in the engine room of the company, presenting main stage works but also working on developmental projects such as Rough Drafts - rehearsing and presenting a play in a week - and plays for the educational program. They include a bunch of very talented performers, including Melbourne actor Richard Pyros, whose performance of Hamlet for A Poor Theatre (film and play) was a knockout. Watch out for The Residents' debut later this year with The Mysteries.
11 comments:
I might fly down for the first weekend of the festival just to see Lally revisit the Apocalypse Bear (originally from the original Melburnalia). (I'd do what I did last year, and fly down three weekends in a row, but I'm going to be in New York for the latter two, so won't.) The Fag from Zagreb, in which the bear first raised his apocalyptic head, was far and away the best play in that first portmanteau, and there's a lot Lally will be able to do with the bear and what he represents. (Interested to see what Luke can do as director, too.)
Also, I'm pleased to note that, along with Pyros and the rest, Cameron Goodall is one of The Residents. Cam was the standout performer in the similarly standout Highway Rock 'n' Roll Disaster last year and I look forward to seeing what he can do. (He also once played me in a play. Another story.)
...after which 'apocalypse bear' may finally become part of Australian vernacular, and not just a theatre in-joke. I hope it will be a massive hit, if just for that reason.
Apocalypse Bear first appeared in Lally Katz's contribution to Melburnalia in 2007. It was, ah, one of those concepts that demanded lots of punctuation: ...!
actually wasn't it first in the Lally Katz and the Terrible Mysteries of the volcano?
Its certainly on youtube, directed by Nick Verso.
Yeah I think it was in Lally Katz and The Terrible Mysteries of The Volcano - that was developed at MTC and then a Season at Theatreworks. They got all that money to do it.
Ha. In which case, I am claiming to know more than I do. Typical.
Hey Matthew,
Does that mean that the parts of the trilogy are likely to be on different nights? It's not clear from the MTC website and I'm keen to fly down for a look too (but less so for 3 flights!).
I saw Luke Mullins and Brian Lipson in 'The Duel' on the weekend and loved it. 'The Eisteddfod was also excellent.
All on the one night Christine - three short plays.
Thanks, Louise.
That third anonymous was me.
I remember bears and eerie Freudian dolls in Volcano, but not an Apocalypse Bear. Though given the holes in my memory, that doesn't mean it wasn't there...
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