Two Brothers by Hannie Rayson, directed by Simon Phillips. MTC at the Arts
Centre Playhouse.
Herald Sun instapundit Andrew Bolt seems to have taken his micro-appearance
in Two Brothers as the columnist Andrew Blot rather personally. Frothing
with self-righteousness and demonstrating his usual uncertain grasp of the
difference between fact and fiction, he branded Hannie Rayson's play a "smug
vomit of hate".
Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
The Ham Funeral by Patrick White, Journal of a Plague Year by Tom Wright.
Directed by Michael Kantor, Malthouse Theatre.
As Michael Kantor's first presentation as Malthouse artistic director, this
double bill is a provocative signal of intention. It offers an
alternative means of imagining Australian theatre, outside the narrowly
nationalistic or topical concerns which have dominated the Playbox aesthetic
since the early 1990s. And although I don't feel it's an unqualified
artistic success, I left feeling more hopeful about Melbourne theatre than I
have for many years.
For a long time, mainstream plays in Melbourne have been presented under
various aegises: as bearers of social issues, education, political
commentary or, perhaps least offensively, as mere entertainment. As for
theatre itself, it has sometimes seemed to be the Art That Dares Not Tell
Its Name, a shameful embarrassment that has had to be decently cloaked in
more palatable imperatives.
So it's a relief to be offered works that place themselves unapologetically
in the culture and history of theatre itself. The paradoxical effect of
this is to make theatre immediately less parochial in its concerns, to
engage its tentacular ability to grasp social, literary and philosophical
concerns and to thrust them onto the vulgar carnality of the stage. It's an
aesthetic that is far from apolitical, but this is a politics which doesn't
earnestly explore "issues", in order to coax from them a masochistically
satisfying (but temporary) inflammation of the liberal conscience. Rather,
it's a politics which begins by attempting to address some of the
complexities of existence.
Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
All the best
Alison
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
|