After a very pleasant weekend in Melbourne, we get back to the Sydney Arts Journo offices this morning to find blood all over the floor. What on earth happened while we were away?
Walking into the third floor office, we find the window wide open and the humid Sydney wind howling in. I sniff around, remove the old coffee cups and pick up a pile of newspapers that had been gathering at the door. 
And something catches my eye. Page three, Sydney Morning Herald. Saturday. The usual photo of STC solidarity adorns the page with an inset photo of a defiant Colin Moody. What’s happened now?
“Before he joined the Sydney Theatre Company's Actors Company last year, Colin Moody had walked away from a 17-year career in theatre and television and was working at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, ‘cleaning blood off the walls’,” Louise Schwartzkoff reports.
“He may have to take up his mop again after leaving the Actors Company and launching a scathing attack on the STC's outgoing director Robyn Nevin and her successor, Cate Blanchett.”
Ho-hum. It was a bit inevitable wasn’t it. From what a few have told me, Moody is a, well, moody fellow who’s a bit difficult to work with. Theatre Notes called it a ‘great deal of bile’. It certainly smell’s that way.
But why did it make page three news? What debate is the SMH trying to generate? Must have been a slow news day because it’s all very boring really.
And all this was published just one day after the Herald generated some additional advertising revenue by producing a magazine type insert which previewed the arts in 2008. It was all the usual muck, press release journalism that probably ended up being pretty expensive for the advertisers. You could read the thing front-to-back in about ten seconds. And that practice coming out of the Fairfax offices wasn't just constrained to arts journalism.
Schwartzkoff goes on, “Nevin was in New York and unable to comment before the Herald went to press, but the STC's general manager, Rob Brookman, said he had complete confidence in Upton and Blanchett.”
Well, of course he did. That’s his job and it’s hardly news is it?
Surrounding the Moody spray is all this insider said this, insider said that stuff. One source said such and such, another something else.
“One concern was that Nevin,” it goes on, “an actor-turned-director, too often gives directing jobs to actors with little directorial experience, sometimes at the expense of established directors.”
Well, yes. We are all wondering where the opportunities are for director-directors at the company. I think it’s great that Blanchett gets to have another crack at it as she showed some potential earlier this year. And Pamela Rabe should also be competent with her debut. But being actor-directors you can pretty much guarantee it won’t be anything too off-centre or revolutionary.
Overall, the STC 2008 season looks pretty good… literally.
I don’t know what happened between last year and this year, but I have the feeling that there might have been a bit of blood in the STC offices with bullets aimed at the marketing team. But I could be wrong. Unlike last year, the 2008 programme is an extremely impressive bit of graphic design nicely placed with some compelling text. The paper it is printed on and the oil used in the ink is of the highest quality and the photography is beautiful. If you haven’t got a copy, rush down to the STC and get one. It will make a lovely addition to your coffee table.
Unfortunately Andrew Upton looks a bit uncomfortable in the Armani suit which makes him not the only artistic director to look a little uncomfortable with an Armani. But hey, it’ll be worth it all in the end won’t it?
Next year the STC are producing seven, count them, seven Australian plays. An astonishingly promising and wonderful addition to a very interesting season that is probably their most exciting for a very long time.
First cab off the Audi rank is The Vertical Hour by David Hare and directed by the wonderful Dr Julian Meyrick. I have to admit that I’m not sure what the fascination that Sydney has with David Hare and I still haven’t recovered from the sheer boredom of My Zinc Bed when presented at Belvoir in 2002.
Cate Blanchett then gets another stab at directing but this time with Robyn Nevin performing in The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It’s quite a nice play appropriately titled for how the STC hopes sponsors and the public view their programming.
Then the STC and the MTC team up to present Rock ‘n Roll, a Tom Stoppard play which is always going to guarantee a flood of subscriber requests. It stars William Zappa (who is doing some amazing performing at the moment) and is directed by Simon Phillips.
Daniel Keene finally gets a guernsey at the STC after the longest time with his double-bill The Serpent’s Teeth. It will be directed by Pamela Rabe and Tim Maddock.
Then we have The Great by Tony McNamara which follows the life of Catherine the Great of Russia. Apparently, just like Grizzly Adams, she was very fond of bears and horses. It is directed by Peter Evans.
The big mover and shaker of the Sydney theatre scene Nigel Jamieson writes and directs the Actors Company in a production called Gallipoli. It sounds epic and should be a theatrical feast.
The STC then buy-in a show from Brisbane’s La Boite called The Narcissist by Patrick White Playwright’s Award winner Stephen Carleton. It’s a comedy and apparently funny – which is good.
Barrie Kosky and Tom Wright join forces again to present The Women of Troy. The most exciting element of this show is the return of Melita Jurisic to the Sydney stage. The fact that this phenomenal actor ever had to leave and exile herself in Austria is a disgrace. But I for one am delighted to see her back for a bit. But as long as the now well-and-truly overused and predictable phalluses, sperm and piss are left to the side, we could have a good show on our hands.
Stephen Jeffreys makes a return to writing for the STC with his adaption of the original Three-Penny Opera that informed Weill and Brecht’s creation earlier last century. It is a convict version of the story that will hopefully be informed by Watkin Tench and Robert Hughes. The STC will be flying out Max Stafford-Clark from the UK on a Qantas jet to direct.
John Doyle of Roy & HG fame is writing his debut play Pig Iron Pig. Doyle is a writer of great repute and I think that his sojourn into theatre should be very rewarding. It stars Max Cullen.
Sydney director and playwright Brendan Cowell directs a brand-spanking new British play Rabbit by Nina Raine. Lyn Gardner of the Guardian said that Rabbit “is a confident, promising debut which should have Channel 4 executives queuing up to turn it into a TV series”. Hmm… TV Theatre.
To finish off the season is the play that every Fairfax reviewer is dying to see, The War of the Roses, a co-production with the Sydney Festival. Directed by the Germanically influenced Benedict Andrews, this will also be a huge show starring Blanchett and the Actors Company and represents a great leap of faith by the STC on this young director.
It’s a solid season. There’s something for everyone and it has generated some honest excitement. I am still trying to make up my mind about the Wharf2Loud season which has dispensed with last years model and will have to get back to you on that.
Now, if you can excuse me, I have to mop the office.
Monday, 29 October 2007
An actor walked into a bar...
Posted by Nicholas Pickard at 2:35 pm
Labels: General Comment, Sydney Theatre Company
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
What's really weird about this story is how gentle the SMH normally is with their buddies at the STC. Not surprising though - the STC do pay handsomely for their advertorial. (I'm still dry-retching from Bryce's sycophantic 'Nevin's hair is a white halo' rubbish from last year.) I agree - you would think if they were going to upset such a big spender they would have more than a limp sour grapes story written by a rookie.
Perhaps there is a far more interesting story below the surface?? I'd like to think our chums at the Wharf got on the blower to the editor and suggested the cost of theatre advertising was so outrageous they would look elsewhere.
You've got some space for a couple of banner ads, eh, Mr Pickard?
One odd thing, though - Brendan Cowell WROTE a play called "Rabbit", didn't he? So what's he doing directing a play that someone else wrote with the same title?
A good summation of Nevin's final and best season, the culmination of nine years of developing relationships and nurturing local talent. As you say Alison Croggon has already covered the Moody bile and it really doesn't warrant any further space. There is a tiny part of me, however, that would like to be a fly on the wall at the first day of rehearsal for the Melbourne season of "Sarsaparilla" when he has to walk back into the room with Rabe and company, all the people he has just publicly trashed.
Gaz I've already got an ad from the STC up the top... don't know whether they want to pay for it though.
And yes Simbo, Brendan did write a play called Rabbit which was directed by Kate Gaul at the Stables in 2002 I think. Quite coincidental I think... either that or playwrights are starting to get obsessed with pests.
And yes anon, you aren't the only one who would want to be that fly... In regards to the other comment, I am less convinced about the nurturing local talent bit or exactly how affective Nevin has been... but if you want to talk corporate relationships, she is supreme.
Well, I'd call Nick Marchand, Tony MacNamara, Katherine Thompson, Brendan Cowell, Benedict Andrews, Laly Katz, Julian Morrow and yes, Andrew Upton all local talent, wouldn't you?
Well, I'll join in. I might be wrong, but aren't the SMH a sponsor of STC...in the form of advertising, not cash? So STC's hardly a cash cow. But it might raise other issues...maybe someone down at STC can enlighten us?
I'd be interested to read what you think about their Wharf 2 stuff, Nicholas. I have seen a bit (thanks to making an invite list!) in the last two years and been disappointed...Wharf 2 surely should be a place to train exciting directors, not churn through more mediocre to dreadful new writing...
And as for the absent 'director-directors'. Who, exactly? Who are the great talents being ignored? Because I'll go and seek them out...if they're there. But if it's the same old/new names, then no thanks. The problem at STC seems to me to be importing second string internationals, not the bringing in of overseas directors per se.
That's great Anonymous #!. I think the Actor's Company should be renamed Rabe and Co. Maybe they could even do another documentary for the Sydney Film Festival next year. It could start with them all peering out from under someone's doona ... which is, as we all know, how these little cliques inevitably start in the first place.
Anonymous No.2, thanks for your comment.
Just for the purpose that we don't all suffer cultural amnesia let's reflect on the names you mentioned:
Lally Katz:
Melbourne writer who was born in NYC. Was nurtured by St Martins Youth Theatre, PACT Theatre, Arena Theatre Company, her own company Stuck Pigs Squealing, Royal court Theatre, the Storeroom and MIAF - and all well before the STC.
Julian Morrow:
I think Sydney Uni and the ABC might have pipped the STC at the post on that one.
Andrew Upton:
You are right with Upton for sure! The VCA grad and emerging playwright has certainly been nurtured by the STC.
Benedict Andrews:
Yes, he has certainly been nurtured by Nevin from the moment he left Adelaide. I am certainly one of those on the fringes yet to be convinced of his talent which has been expansively invested in by both Belvoir and the STC. One hopes that similar investments be afforded to some other new director-directors.
Tony Mcnamara:
His first play was presented in 1995, well before Nevin was even posted at the QTC.
She did continue the support a number of years later.
Katherine Thompson:
Is also from Richard Wherret's era.
Nick Marchand:
Yes, he got a good leg up after curating the STC Blueprints programme before his transfer to the Griffin.
Brendan Cowell:
Brendan has certainly been nurtured by the STC but not until he slammed his reputation down winning the Patrick White Playwright's Award and then the Griffin Award.
Nurtured by the STC and married by the Blanchett. Andrew Upton's having a lovely 'career', isn't he?
Hmm. Getting a leg up to a state theatre stage is nurturing, whether or not such talents have been nurtured before. Ms Katz wouldn't get a look-in on the state stage in Melbourne, I can assure you of that (I don't think she writes what they call "programmable plays"). In fact, looking at who's on there, I sometimes wonder if Sydney's pinching all our talent. And Benedict "Mr Perspex" Andrews was certainly nurtured. I think he's definitely worth the investment.
Post a Comment