tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post2227777125075419286..comments2024-02-18T19:36:43.844+11:00Comments on theatre notes: The Birthday Party revisitedAlison Croggonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-1338833412434113552009-08-09T21:03:17.495+10:002009-08-09T21:03:17.495+10:00Thanks all - especially Carl for his great quotes ...Thanks all - especially Carl for his great quotes from Pinter on Stanley.<br /><br />Laura, maybe read what I wrote again... did I say anywhere that I thought that stages ought to be white bread, or that cross racial casting isn't a necessary idea, or that an Indigenous cast is inappropriate for Pinter? The contrary, rather. It's easy to throw labels around like "anglo, white, middleAlison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-74653556044321253532009-08-09T06:04:33.807+10:002009-08-09T06:04:33.807+10:00one of the darker ironies of all this is a close f...one of the darker ironies of all this is a close friend of pinter - v s naipaul one of the most overestimated of writers for 2 books perhaps 3 but a writer who learnt nothing from other writers as walter benjamin instructed - would have hated meyrick's idea & i wonder why pinter was so close to him<br /><br />beckett, it is easy to understand - an exemplary & humble master & remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-49601172836590894752009-08-08T23:06:27.924+10:002009-08-08T23:06:27.924+10:00We can debate the intentions of the text, director...We can debate the intentions of the text, directorial decisions and the role of critics for days (and so we should). But the point we should be focusing on is how our stages and theatre industry reflect and effect our culture and society in a wider context.<br /><br />As an Italian-Australian female theatre director I am all too aware of how white and Anglo-centric our stages and performing arts Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07175687634389593108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-61536614233969099692009-08-07T20:44:29.634+10:002009-08-07T20:44:29.634+10:00This contribution is a bit late in the day, but I&...This contribution is a bit late in the day, but I've just read (in Michael Billington's book <i>State of the Nation</i>):<br /><br />'Pinter expressed his feeling about the play's meaning in a letter to its first director, Peter Wood, just before rehearsals began:<br /><br />'"We've agreed: the hierarchy, The Establishment, the arbiters, the socio-religious monsters Carl Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15100707975542911421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-29683163606864718362009-08-05T04:08:42.185+10:002009-08-05T04:08:42.185+10:00matthew
the people & their leardership within...matthew<br /><br />the people & their leardership within latin america possess a real & concrete connection between their ancient culture & the contemporary society<br /><br />they are the light of this world at the moment precisely because they posses a memory & they reject with fury a culture of forgetting<br /><br />you may demonise these people's leaders - chavez, morales,remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-40521988339850598922009-08-03T17:35:08.532+10:002009-08-03T17:35:08.532+10:00Wow, remembereringgiap, you want to start celebrat...Wow, remembereringgiap, you want to start celebrating Chavez because he represents the domination of Latin American politics by that continent's indigenous cultures? Morales, too? Sure, but there's plenty about their rule to balk at, especially that of Our Man in Caracas, and you can happily have left-leaning tendencies and say so without compromising your principles. I love how willing Matthewhttp://www.matthewclayfield.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-33433275841495309942009-08-01T08:56:41.822+10:002009-08-01T08:56:41.822+10:00HI RG - it's a complex story, and depends what...HI RG - it's a complex story, and depends what Australia you mean. If you mean Howard's Australia - "One Nation, One People, One Culture", which only acknowledges white official Anglo culture, well, yes. (I fear Rudd's Australia is Howard-Lite, but at least that rhetoric of One Nation has receded.) There are other more recent histories which track continuities and Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-82349349863667431032009-08-01T05:01:59.651+10:002009-08-01T05:01:59.651+10:00alson
my argument is about the specificity of aus...alson<br /><br />my argument is about the specificity of australia's amnesia & its basis, a brutal but formal rejection its ancient culture couple with a negligence towards it that has endured for over 2 centuries<br /><br />you do as you must - a public intellectual is obliged to work aganst the odds, & is in the sense connected to the silence & screams of pinter<br /><br />to remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-43402685764580535952009-07-31T15:28:33.553+10:002009-07-31T15:28:33.553+10:00I saw this show last night after studiously avoidi...I saw this show last night after studiously avoiding all review & comment as I like to make up what passes for, in these days of information saturation, my own mind. <br /><br />Having never seen the play or movie and not having read the text (just "about" the text) I found it a confounding, confusing, discordant and ultimately absorbing couple of hours. I agree that Stanley could andigoldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-51709094019555960072009-07-31T12:25:21.906+10:002009-07-31T12:25:21.906+10:00Well...yes. Without wanting to minimise the proble...Well...yes. Without wanting to minimise the problems, what troubles me about that statement is that it does rather re-erase the many Indigenous artists (and people in many other areas) who are in active contact with their culture, and are working now in contemporary Australian society. They are there, even if it is a struggle. I've been on mailing lists dominated by men, but with a couple of Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-82300539259265557982009-07-31T11:22:55.458+10:002009-07-31T11:22:55.458+10:00what chile has though to contain the terrible even...what chile has though to contain the terrible events that have passed there & threaten to pass there again is they are an ancient culture & it is no accident that today the indigenous cultures of latin america are dominating the political leadership & are showin us 1,,2, 3 many nelson mandelas - they are exemplary - whether it is chavez, or morales or correa , luga, lula. their remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-65969041066869165892009-07-31T10:17:48.598+10:002009-07-31T10:17:48.598+10:00Thanks RG. I guess it's worth pointing out tha...Thanks RG. I guess it's worth pointing out that while Daniel Keene's work has been cross-racially cast for years, both here and in France, he has only twice addressed the question of race directly - once in a short piece called Custody, about deaths in custody, which is about two white police officers, and once in The Words, a piece commissioned in France specifically for two actors, one Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-58103646462797615872009-07-31T04:13:34.118+10:002009-07-31T04:13:34.118+10:00there are very few artists really capable of liste...there are very few artists really capable of listening to the heart of a country in the way pinter did - jeannie lewis has sung australia & has in moments sung from whatever heart it has left, daniel keene writes from the heart of the forgotten because in the great tragoidia it is the citizen paradoxically who envies the slave,,, who envies the song of the slave, in form but ultimately it isremembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-48688549179595563812009-07-31T04:12:43.924+10:002009-07-31T04:12:43.924+10:00australia's amnesia is very specific & is ...australia's amnesia is very specific & is historically determined. in brief, a jail for victims of imperialism, an undistinguished puppet to that empire allowing generations to be bled dry & to unintentionally create a matriarchal society where men are either weaklings or victims - essentially a puppet state of a often utterly stupid imperialism. a labor party with a history of remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-43107605958469484192009-07-30T17:52:47.088+10:002009-07-30T17:52:47.088+10:00Yes, I acknowledge that I could have said more. Al...Yes, I acknowledge that I could have said more. All the same, I just can't read the casting the way Julian seems to wish. The text just gets in the way...<br /><br />I'm glad to hear that the season has booked well. Whatever the reservations I have about the production - and they stand - it's great that people are flocking to see playwrights like Pinter and Beckett, ad I hope it leadsAlison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-48301611415660430312009-07-30T16:47:58.303+10:002009-07-30T16:47:58.303+10:00Alison I think you possibly did brush over the cro...Alison I think you possibly did brush over the cross-racial casting in your original review. If you look at the Comments on your extended post from July 13 they are predominantly about the cross-racial casting and I think that it is the most significant aspect of this production of The Birthday Party. David Mence appropriately focused on this aspect in his review on his White Whale blog and I bigdognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-22991483503777354122009-07-30T15:53:38.024+10:002009-07-30T15:53:38.024+10:00The second time recently that The Age reports news...The second time recently that The Age reports news from Theatre Notes :pJanahttp://guerrillasemiotics.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-18897073536992480012009-07-30T13:20:50.449+10:002009-07-30T13:20:50.449+10:00and now the article in the age!, I hope this conti...and now the article in the age!, I hope this continues to stir controversy and debate. This is very entertaing and insightful. So much more so than the play itself which I saw and was woefully disapointed in.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-12146077098178577552009-07-30T12:29:53.180+10:002009-07-30T12:29:53.180+10:00As a Pom living in Australia and working in the in...As a Pom living in Australia and working in the industry I find all this discussion of race based casting very nineteen nineties! Thats not to belittle it or to suggest that Australia is behind the times (perish the thought!) but it is something that countries all around the world have struggled with for some time and to the best of my knowledge none of them have come up with a successful Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-40684979325688599122009-07-30T12:16:05.443+10:002009-07-30T12:16:05.443+10:00...Nielsen is one of my favourites. I first read h......Nielsen is one of my favourites. I first read him when I was a child and had no idea until I grew up that he was actually Australian, which maybe says too much. That's when I first read Oodgeroo too, under the name Kath. Randolph Stow, Francis Webb, Judith Wright - yes, all great, tragic, uncompromising elegists, "a doubtful song that has a dying fall". Not something that has Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-3250165338795142962009-07-30T11:16:58.727+10:002009-07-30T11:16:58.727+10:00Hallowed ground? A high priestess yet again? This ...Hallowed ground? A high priestess yet again? This is getting a bit ecclesiastical for my liking...<br />those robes just don't sit well on me.<br /><br />Well, I did invite Julian to post his essay on this blog, where it would have had exactly as much prominence as any review. Ie, it wouldn't have been "just a comment". I have done such things before, in the spirit of dialogue. Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-4537271009944972662009-07-30T11:11:36.341+10:002009-07-30T11:11:36.341+10:00Geoffrey asks "...and would be be obtuse of m...Geoffrey asks "...and would be be obtuse of me to note that Dr Meyerick did not choose to enter this conversation...". Not obtuse. Just irrelevant. As much as some of you would like to think of these grounds as hallowed, Croggon's page is not the only potential forum for comment. However once she has written a "review" - it's out there, unchanging, locked in, fixed. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-39620790854735981152009-07-30T11:01:17.910+10:002009-07-30T11:01:17.910+10:00& that like wittgenstein some of the wisest po...& that like wittgenstein some of the wisest poets from her interior & since colonisation have passed over much in silence<br /><br />what is called ' a shame job' in transliteration<br /><br />nut i think too of kath & her son dennis who have sung too their story<br /><br />& is it not odd that that in contemporary poetry - a quite mad mad man, bruce beaver stands heads remembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-49393410345229194072009-07-30T10:47:42.422+10:002009-07-30T10:47:42.422+10:00i do not find it all odd for example that perhaps...i do not find it all odd for example that perhaps australia's greatest poet was a blind workingman, john shaw nielsenremembereringgiapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-64427628516506620432009-07-30T10:09:27.888+10:002009-07-30T10:09:27.888+10:00Thanks too for your comments, Gilligan and Jana. G...Thanks too for your comments, Gilligan and Jana. Gilligan, I'm not shocked that Julian replied: as I said at the beginning, he has every right to. And I am glad it is finally public, so the questions he raised can be discussed. It was actually quite valuable for me to think about the play a little further, which Julian's questioning prompted me to do. And whether he is correct or not Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.com