Hi all -
Theatre Notes is back as the theatre picks up again after the Christmas
break -
Dumbshow by Joe Penhall, directed by Peter Evans. Melbourne Theatre Company
@ the Fairfax, Victorian Arts Centre, until February 18.
Joe Penhall is that very British phenomenon, the straight-talking celeb.
Asked what he thought the problems of British theatre were, he responded:
"Too much mediocrity in the West End. It's like watching BBC1. They're just
milking the tits of a giant, wobbling, quivering fucking middle-brow cash
cow if you ask me."
Ironically enough, without the profanity (I am a courteous and restrained
individual) that was more or less my sentiment at the end of Penhall's
Dumbshow , a play about the mutual parasitic relationship between celebrity
and tabloid journalism. It's a classic issue-based play, setting up a
confrontation with enough moral ambivalence to keep the audience teetering
to and fro in their sympathies, without reaching so far into the heart of
things that it confronts anything too visceral. Middle-brow indeed.
My first, not very interesting, thought about Dumbshow was to wonder why a
story about the grubby hypocrisy of British tabloid newspaper journalists
would be of interest to Melbourne theatre goers. Australian tabloids have
got nothing on the excesses of Fleet Street, nor can we match the trashy
glitz of British celebrity; and the issues as presented here have little to
do with us. But then, I will follow the stories about decaying 19th century
Russian bourgeoisie or 12th century English kings with breathless interest,
without the question of irrelevance entering my head. The real question is,
I think, one of sentimentality.
Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Blogosphere alerts
It's all happening in the theatre blogosphere. First of all, my estimable
colleague Chris Boyd has kicked off his own theatre review blog, The Morning
After: Performing Arts in Australia , with a couple of reviews of Cheek by
Jowl and Robert Lepage at the Sydney Festival, so do check it out.
And the question of the theatre audience is the topic du jour in the US,
where the blogsters are all arguing hammer and tongs.
Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Plus a quote from Richard Foreman to get the cerebral juices flowing -
Best wishes
Alison
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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