No reviews this week - I'm taking it a bit easy, due to recent ill health.
But a couple of big shows coming up for next week's blog - Malthouse
artistic director's Michael Kantor's ambitious double bill of Patrick
White's The Hamm Funeral and Tom Wright's adaptation of Daniel Defoe's
Journal of a Plague Year , with an exciting ensemble cast (featuring Robert
Menzies, Dan Spielman and Julie Forsythe). This is the first taste of what
the revamped Malthouse Theatre might be like. And show No. 2 is Hannie
Rayson's play, Two Brothers , opening this week at the Melbourne Theatre
Company with Gary McDonald and Nicholas Eadie. Today it was pre-emptively
branded a "vomit of smug hate" by that well known arts connoisseur Andrew
Bolt - exciting times indeed. Full TN reports next week.

And also some news - I have been asked to be a member of the Malthouse
Theatre's (formerly Playbox) Artistic Counsel for 2005 (no, no spelling
mistake - the emphasis is on the verb). This is a 10-member advisory panel
coordinated by the Malthouse dramaturge Maryanne Lynch that is drawn from
Melbourne's artistic community - both practising artists and commentators.
Members will attend Malthouse shows and then proffer their full and frank
opinions at the end of each season. These responses will then be folded
into the Malthouse's artistic report to the Australia Council as part of its
self assessment.

This is right up my alley, and I see no conflict of interest with my work on
the blog, which from the start has been about initiating and participating
in a conversation with the theatre and theatre practitioners. After Michael
Kantor directed my play Lenz for the 1996 Melbourne Arts Festival, when he
and I had a very serious artistic disagreement, he can be in no doubt that I
don't pull my punches in my responses; and I think the creation of the
Artistic Counsel, and its brief, is an excellent sign of a desire for open
and honest dialogue. In my view, this can only be good; though the jury
will be out on the impact and success of the changes at the Malthouse for at
least a year.

All the best

Alison


Alison Croggon

Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com