Alison's Festival Diary #6
Good Samaritans, written and directed by Richard Maxwell, New York City
Players at the Malthouse. Berggasse 19 - The Apartments of Sigmund Freud ,
written and designed by Brian Lipson, directed by Susie Dee, Grant Street
Theatre.
Over the past three weeks, Melbourne's self-designation as Australia's
"cultural capital" has felt like more than an advertising slogan. It's had
the air of a mini-metropolis: interesting things have been going on, and
people have been discussing them with passion and vim and, sometimes,
vehement disagreement.
Hey, something was happening here. And Melburnians were interested: all the
theatres were packed, the queues outside the Art Centre stretched past the
gallery, and the Arts Centre forecourt spilled over with people eating and
drinking. Even the drab environs of the Flinders St Station concourse was
infested with culture vultures.
More than a few people I've spoken to have dubbed this festival the best
yet. I'm with them on that. Bouquets to MIAF Artistic Director Kristy
Edmunds for putting together a program of such depth and range. Now I'm
wondering if the excitement the festival generated will have knock-on
effects. There is already a sense that Melbourne's theatre scene is
shifting, with a lively, less parochial and increasingly confident
independent theatre scene underlined by the massive changes at the
Malthouse, which are attracting a younger and bigger audiences. It could be
that Dame Culture is emerging from her long and disenchanted sleep. Fingers
crossed.
But to the report on my final week of MIAF, which gave me two experiences
which were at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum: they couldn't have
been more different in aesthetic, philosophy or performance. And yet both of
them left me with that indefinable lightness of being that I associate with
excellent theatre: a sense that I have been prickled alive.
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
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