Creative roles for women hard to find in Australian theatre

Summary article as published in Crikey

Crikey’s anonymous tipster who last week expressed dismay at the lack of women programmed in Sydney’s Company B theatre season for 2010 was certainly not alone. A wave of dissent in the blogosphere has descended on the theatre, in what one commentator has called a “public relations disaster”.

Yesterday it reached page three of the Sydney Morning Herald with Neil Armfield having to defend his final season launch as artistic director saying, ”When it comes down to planning each season, you just have to go with the best ideas, the best projects that are out there. I had interviews with half a dozen women directors, and we actually offered three women gigs for next year, and only one of them was taken up …”.

But it’s not just Company B that’s on notice — it’s the entire performing arts industry.

In The Age, the Melbourne Theatre Company was also questioned about its gender balance yesterday. The MTC’s response was a little bit more extraordinary saying it was not the MTC’s responsibility to provide gender equality when it was a problem for the whole theatrical industry.

”It is unreasonable to expect one level of the industry to compensate for the shortcomings of another,” MTC chairman Derek Young told The Age’s Robin Usher.

It’s hardly surprising that this issue has blown up in the face of some of the country’s leading arts companies and all it took was a couple of young female bloggers in Sydney to bring it to the attention of the major metropolitan news outlets.

A young director, Joanna Erskine gave her opinion saying “… I struggle to understand how such a prominent and successful and LOVED company such as Company B Belvoir, has openly produced such a female-less season. I don’t mean actors, I mean females in integral creative roles — as playwright and director.”

And then a blog run by seven writers based in Sydney (and mostly women) opined that “… in nearly every instance female students greatly outnumber men. So what happens to them? At what point in the process are they being passed over? Do they give up when the going gets tough? Are they perhaps less committed than their male counterparts? Or do they side-step more readily into admin and support roles?”

And then there was the anonymous rant on Crikey that said: “Even hardened members of the theatre community well used to the boys’ club of the Sydney theatre scene were taken aback at the launch of the much anticipated swansong from outgoing artistic director Neil Armfield at Belvoir on Monday night.”

Another young director in Sydney, August Supple put the issue plainly by pointing that, “If you look at Belvoir as a place of equality —  let’s look a little further,” and pointed readers to the Contact Us section of their website.

As Supple shows, the “creatives” in the company are all men and the women are all in positions of education, promotion and admin.

If you look at theatre company websites throughout the country the story is the same with a few exceptions (most notably in Western Australia where the artistic directors for Black Swan and Perth Theatre Company are both women).

Accusations of a “boys’ club” are extreme, but when you have the MTC saying that it is “unreasonable” for them to employ more women because that’s what everyone else is doing you start to feel like you’re in a time warp. And now heads are turning towards the film, television and music industries.

The arts need to address the problem head on and look at why women aren’t pursuing creative careers within the industry because the new found citizen journalists are starting to notice not much has changed in nearly thirty years. And for an industry that should know better, excuses are starting to run dry.

Back In The Spotlight

As published in the Sun Herald


It’s an interesting situation to interview an actor not long after who you’ve given them a ho-hum review. The review was for the Bell Shakespeare's Pericles. The actor was Marcus Graham.

Graham's eyes light up when he's introduced to me and he gives me a genuine smile as we sit on the balcony of the Sydney Theatre Company's headquarters, where he is rehearsing their latest production, Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage.

But he is frank. “That weekend we opened [Pericles] there were some scathing reviews in Sydney. I’ve never been so beaten up in my life – but on the Monday after those reviews came out we sold $30,000 worth of tickets. Over 600 tickets in one day.

“Are people listening to reviewers?” he asks rhetorically.

“It put a wind back in my sails because you’ve got to get back up every night and do it.”

This tale gives some insight into a tenacious actor who has survived 20 years of working inf ilm, television and theatre and has only just returned to live in Sydney after coming out of a "very dark period".

He doesn’t elaborate on what the darkness was but it was enough to make him spend the last couple of years away from it all in the Blue Mountains, returning only six months ago to set up again in Kings Cross.

He has returned with a vengeance and seems be enjoying his new-found fame with interesting roles on both stage and screen that included appearing in Underbelly, the film Three Blind Mice and Pericles.

“I used to live in the Cross years ago and it’s very social and very interesting. And because I did Underbelly people come up to me and say: ‘I did time with the guy you played’. From a human standpoint, it’s great.”

His latest production re-unites him with director Gale Edwards in the newest hit from French playwright Reza, a play that has had different productions in Brisbane, Melbourne and now Sydney just in this year.

“It’s like the world’s favourite play at the moment … it’s such a wonderful representation of life as we know it … the ruthless nature of business, of humanity,” he explains.

Graham plays a corporate lawyer who works with a drug manufacturer that has put out a product that, while making millions of dollars for the company, is also making a lot of people sick.

He’s also the father of a boy who has had a fight with another young kid in the playground of the local school. The fight brings together two sets of parents from different socio-economic backgrounds to try to sort out the issue.

“It’s a lot about responsibility,” he explains. “Who’s to blame, who hit who and who will take responsibility.

"It then gets into semantics. Instead of he hit my son with a stick you say he hit my son, furnished with a stick. Because that’s what we’ve become [with] the fear of litigation. The protection we need to give ourselves because we might be f--ked over by someone else is paramount.”

The play becomes a comedy of errors as the two sets of parents (played by Graham, Sacha Horler, Russell Dystra and Helen Thomson) become more and more childish as the night wears on.

God of Carnage premiered in 2006 and has already had hit seasons on Broadway and the West End.

“It’s beautifully constructed and beautifully written – it’s such a joy to work on something that’s so wonderfully written,” he says. “There’s something really simple about theatre.

"You rehearse a show, put it on, people pay fifty bucks at the door - whatever – sit down, you tell them a story and that’s it.”

“There’s something really uncomplicated and honourable about that.”


God of Carnage opens on the 8 October and runs until 14 November at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Tickets: $30 - $85. Bookings 02 9250 1777 or sydneytheatre.com.au.

Review: A Streetcar Named Desire

I filed my review for A Streetcar Named Desire on the night of the premiere live from the foyer.

It was published on the Sydney Morning Herald website and can be found HERE.

There's something to be said for filing for immediate publication. Maybe with our new media capabilities, it might be long-lost theatre reviewing practice that could get resurrected.

Review: Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen

As published in the Sun Herald.


Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 29 August
Tickets $30-50
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


The days when children were seen and not heard died about the same time as the baby boomers started to have their first offspring.

Now their grandchildren are in their teens and this new generation will not only be heard but will be heard loudly.

The brazenly titled Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen, from the Belgian group Ontroerend Goed, proves that what seems like teenage anarchy is quite simply ritual – a ritual we have all experienced. Maybe it’s a ritual we wish we could have over again.

Entering the space to the sound of the 13 performers who are hidden behind the walls screaming and banging memories come flooding back of mad bus rides home in the back seat and playground antics.

To the guitar riffs of the Velvet Underground, the teenagers enter the stage in a frenzy of pubescent energy, filling the space with youthful celebration.

With balloons, plastic bags, bottles of water, cups, string, roller skates and other everyday props, a scene is created that may seem chaotic but is orchestrated with absolute precision by director Alexander Devriendt. What the group shows is less about what happens but is more about flourishes in mood and tone as you have moments of love, affection, playfulness, naivety, strength, leadership, loneliness and belonging.

A bell then goes off, the teenagers retreat and the scene is once again played out and your eyes are drawn to any action on stage you may have missed earlier.

Then it is re-interpreted again in a multitude of parades, giving you the time to appreciate how you can see in each young face the child being left behind and the adult coming into focus. Ultimately, however, you start to see a reflection of yourself in days gone past.

But this isn’t just teenage kicks. In a scene more Radiohead than Jose Gonzalez, the ensemble dive deep into the fear of drugs, violence and addiction. It’s a fear for ourselves, for them and, by default, our community. The play then returns to the youthful abandon it began with.

Ignore the Board of Studies and their tired syllabus because this is the type of theatre that every student and teacher in Sydney should be made to go and see.

For those in their teens, as much as for those who are older, it is a delicate and beautiful offering that captures the spring awakening of the next generation and reminds us what it was like to be young.

Joel Edgerton: object of desire

Joel Edgerton puts down much of his success, as one of Australia's most respected actors of his generation, to the one time he had to wear a dress.

"My trajectory was a combination of luck. I mean, I back myself but I had a few moments of luck," he says on the sunny deck of the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf Restaurant. "I was cast as a woman in my graduating show, called The Poet, the Women and Frocks, and Alan Wilson, who was an agent at the time, took me on because he was impressed by me in that play.

"I don't think I would have stood out as much if I wasn't wearing a dress."

Fifteen years later, Edgerton, 35, couldn't find himself in a more different role as he takes on the part Marlon Brando made famous: Stanley Kowalski in the classic Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Directed by Norwegian star of the stage and screen Liv Ullmann and co-starring Cate Blanchett, Streetcar is this year's big-ticket item for Sydney's theatre scene.

But Edgerton, in his laconic way, is unfazed by the media hype surrounding the role of Stanley, which has been played by some of the greatest West End and Broadway stars since it premiered in 1947.

The rest of my article on Joel Edgerton can be found HERE.

Review: Poor Boy

Poor Boy
Sydney Theatre
Until 1 August
Tickets $30-80
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 5/10


Basing a play around the songwriting beauty of Tim Finn in his Split Enz days is as much inspiring as it is daunting.

Playwright Matt Cameron has taken the challenge in an attempt to dramatise both the famous and not-so-famous ballads that will be familiar to an entire generation of Australians and New Zealanders who remember the musical glory days of the '80s.

With a stereotypical Australian family setting, we are greeted by a backyard under a vast sky. There’s a clothes line, unruly weeds, a swing and a two-storey fibro-like house.

Sol (Greg Stone) and Viv (Linda Cropper) are the parents of Jeremy (Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke) a seven-year-old who has just been hit by a car at zebra crossing. On waking, he denies they are his family and seeks out the moribund home of Ruth (Sarah Pierse) who seven years previously lost her son Danny (Matthew Newton) in a horrific car accident.

In a world where The Sixth Sense meets Birth, Jeremy comes from the other side, reincarnated as the character of Danny and scaring the life out of Ruth, her son Miles (Matt Dyktynski) and her grieving daughter-in-law Clare (Abi Tucker).

Jeremy knows the ins and outs of the family’s history – where they went for family holidays, what the name of his favourite zebra mask was and the intimate life Danny had with Clare.

It’s a fantastical premise to frame Finn's beautiful songs but that’s about as far as it goes.

Fitting a set design, characters and a plot line onto an array of songs written nearly 30 years ago creates a world that lacks believability. This is particularly apparent during scenes between the two mothers, where little time is afforded to the angst Viv faces in letting her seven-year-old boy go to another family.

But if you are a fan of Finn and Split Enz, this will be an interesting expedition. Under the musical direction of Ian McDonald, the songs are much more raw than their recorded variations and have been theatrically ramped up, softening their more folksy tones.

It’s when the actors gather together in chorus, belting out the tunes that you can see why the idea to frame them into a play came about. But the direction and design seek a nostalgia that has no anchor and dramatically it never manages to reach the height of Finn’s wonderful score.

Review: The Wonderful World of Dissocia

The Wonderful World of Dissocia
Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 23 May
Tickets $30-$75
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


The world of Dissocia, created by Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson, is like that little corner of your brain that fantasises and yearns to break out of routine and rediscover your inner child.

Lisa (Justine Clark) has lost an hour after a series of flights across the Atlantic and the only way she can get it back is to search for it in Dissocia - a little-known Wizard of Oz-type land where nearly everything is a cliché.

It’s a world which celebrates eccentricity, as we find insecurity guards (why guard something that is secure), a horny scape-goat and a singing polar bear.

The clichés get rammed home a bit too much but let your imagination go and you’ll find yourself entering a wonderful playground which sets you up for the opposing second half which I won’t give away.

Besides the wonderfully extravagant performances from a great ensemble, the creative collaboration behind the production is the true revelation.

Director Marion Potts, along with designers Nick Schlieper, Tess Schofield and Alice Babidge have created a world that not only transports you with the colour and light of the set but also brings you bursting into its beautiful and unexpected dreamlike end.

Review: Concussion

As published in the Sun-Herald

Concussion
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 4 April
Tickets $25-$45
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


Like a Coen Brothers film, Melbourne-based Ross Mueller play presents us with a handful of characters with no apparent connection. Over the course of 90 minutes, Mueller cleverly brings them together, shifting between reality, fiction and the dark recesses of memory in a play of suspense and black humour.

Caesar (Terry Serio) is the city's last honest cop, who’s suffering concussion after a late night run-in with someone.

Word on the street (and in chat rooms) is that he beat up a homeless veteran. But Julia (Rachel Gordon), his lover and doctor and Katerina (Belinda McClory), his legal rep, tell him it isn’t so.

Throw in Caesar’s young son, Julia’s jilted ex husband and Katerina’s lover and the stage is set for a plot that twists, turns and unsettles with questions over what is the truth and who is making it up.

Directed by Brett Adam, Concussion is a wonderful and rare collaboration between Griffin Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company (the last being in 1994). Such a partnership needs to happen more often.

But despite the quality and skill of this new Australian play, the overall effect of it is diminished by Mueller trying to be that little too clever - adding in a conceit where the characters show an obvious awareness they are in a play.

It’s a shame because the plot, performances and design are tight enough to keep audiences guessing in a play that is yet another feather in the cap of excellent new Australian works.

Review: Travesties

As published in the Sun-Herald.

Travesties
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Until 25 April
Tickets $30-$85
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 7/10


There’s no plot to speak of, it copies the comic genius of Oscar Wilde and is set in the rather colourless world of Zurich – but Travesties, by revered British playwright Tom Stoppard, is a gregarious and witty romp that fictionalises an accidental meeting of Lenin, Irish writer James Joyce and avant-garde artist Tristan Tzara, according to British diplomat Henry Carr.

Be warned: it you don’t know much about these historical figures or aren’t familiar with Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, then Travesties is a bit like having your head banged by a very large book for a couple of hours.

First produced in 1974, this early play of Stoppard has his intellectual genius on show as he bounces around ideas on the importance of art in civilised society.

Expertly directed by Richard Cottrell and with an extraordinary costume and set design from Julie Lynch and Michael Scott-Mitchell, this production is fresh and entertaining with a wonderful cast, especially Jonathan Biggins as the bumbling Carr.

All About Theatre

When was it? How long? It seems a lifetime ago. Lloyd always said that in the Theatre a lifetime was a season, and a season a lifetime.


And so the new year begins. As the final embers of the Sydney Festival slowly burn from our memory our theatres begin their programmes in earnest.

The coming few months has some treats worth looking at. From the alternative to the mainstages - from the underground to the spectacular - there's a little of something for everyone.

One such event which is quickly becoming a highlight in my calendar is the wonderful Imperial Panda Festival. It made such an impression last year that the City of Sydney has honoured its potential and thrown it a few grand. It was also the recipient of two nominations at the inaugural Sydney Music Art and Culture (SMAC) Awards.

It's a festival which is starting to capture an underground urban grit by profiling diverse, erratic and fearless performers. Using alternative spaces and galleries around the inner city, it attracts a young and hip crowd quite happy to plonk themselves on a milk crate with a plastic cup of cheap wine in their hand.

This year they open the festival with the premiere season of Kittenbone Bridge, a new play by Nick Coyle, which was first developed as part of the Wharf2Loud PUSH programme in 07.

There's a host of other new shows from groups including the Brown Council and Suitcase Royale. And of course the ever popular Erotic Fan Fiction evening returns - for those who last year experienced the perverse writing of Brendan Cowell and his account of the Australian Cricket team knocking it about in the sub-tropical heat of India will know what I mean. You can check out the Panda website HERE.

Griffin Theatre launched their 09 season a month ago and it contains some real gems. The highlight would have to be the show which opens this evening - Holiday from Ranters Theatre. I caught the premiere of it in Melbourne last year (thanks to the ever kind Alison Croggon who took me along) and I can't recommend it enough.

Holiday is a theatre experience which creeps up on you with a writing style which rarely graces the stages of Sydney. It is poignant, clever, funny and brutally relevant. And - it isn't verbatim theatre - hooray!

Speaking of which, surely 2009 must mark the end of verbatim theatre. Haven't we had enough already? I already have SBS at home, I don't need it my theatre as well do I?

I loved Damien Miller's The Modern International Dead which opened at the Griffin last year. In fact I loved it so much I think it represents the high note of locally produced verbatim theatre and now there is absolutely no reason to do it anymore. 

The rest of Griffin's programme for the year appears to be a well placed collection of local stories from around the country which I am really looking forward to. Their programme can be found HERE.

Even though Performance Space go into 09 with a new director and a new vision, the first few months of programming are part of the gradual handover from previous Director Fiona Winning. 

P Space kick off the year with a dance solo from the indefatigable Ros Warby and her show Monumental. Just have a quick look at the creative titles of her collaborators (Lighting Projection & Set Design, Music, Cinematography, Film Editor, Costume Designer, Costume Design Consultant, Black Hat, White Cap, Sound Design)  and you start to get a sense of where this show might be going.

Following on from the dance solo is the always brilliant Quick and Dirty extravaganza as part of the Mardi Gras Festival. It hasn't suffered from the move from Cleveland Street to Carriageworks (apart from the ever-restrictive, ever-suffocating, ever-ridiculous enforcement of the outside drinking policy - for the love of God, when are we going to get that sorted???).

Performance, puppetry and installation creators My Patricia Darling, dance force Splintergroup and young performers Team MESS also make a big appearance over the Summer/Autumn.

The mainstages also have a diverse array of productions premiering over the coming few months. Of particular interest is Baghdad Wedding which opens next week at Company B coming after a relatively modest opening at the wonderful SOHO Theatre in London, the new Marion Potts production of Venus and Adonis from Bell Shakespeare and STC, Travesties also at the STC and the new co-production between Griffin and the STC of Concussion. 

The independent sector is also getting into the swing of things. The Old Fitz kicks off its year with Cherry Smoke, a show from the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe and which is coincidentally also premiering in New York at the same time.  

Downstairs at Belvoir Street Theatre is their anti-Putin Russian play Ladybird which I profiled in depth last week. B Sharp will be launching the rest of their season in a few weeks. The New Theatre (who have finally, finally, finally got a new website) have also begun their year with a heavy Mardi Gras theme as usual. Last night they opened with the Tony Award winning play Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg. This is then followed by a production of the Herbal Bed and then the infamously funny Cosi by Louis Nowra. 

Amazingly, the TAP Gallery is still pumping away as one of the quieter and more alternative spaces. They have a pretty outrageous Mardi Gras show on at the moment called Vixen Noir in Sweet Deliverance: the perverted sunshine tour which follows the life of a sex goddess. There's even a warning to go with it - 18+, Sexual Content, Coarse Language and Nudity (thank god Mardi Gras is only once a year).

This is then followed up by another Mardi Gras show with a title of such originality, it'll take your breath away... Hard On. I don't need to explain it any further - but if you want to know more, go to the website. 

The Seymour Centre has a programme a little less ... a little less ... well, a little less something as they premiere Gutenberg! The Musical, another musical with an exclamation mark. I believe it is some type of a spoof, but I rarely understand in-house musical theatre community jokes.

But after Gutenberg! is a return season of The Beauty Queen of Leenane from the master director Maeliosa Stafford. 

So there's your next couple of months sorted. 

Anything else of interest, let me know.

 

Sydney Theatre Award winners announced

At a rather stuffy hall somewhere in Paddington, the winners of the 2008 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced. They are below. Details of the judging panel can be found HERE.


BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION: The Women of Troy (Sydney Theatre Company)

BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION: My Name is Rachel Corrie (Bareboards Productions and B Sharp) Producer Ben Jobberns collected the award.

BEST DIRECTION: Barrie Kosky (The Women of Troy)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE: Robyn Nevin (The Women of Troy)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE: Trevor Jamieson (Ngapartji Ngapartji)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Yael Stone (The Kid)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Christopher Stollery (Killer Joe)

BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK: Damien Millar (The Modern International Dead)

BEST NEWCOMER: Yael Stone (The Kid + Frankenstein)

BEST SET DESIGN: Alexandra Sommer and Bradley Clark (All the Blood and All the Water)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Tess Schofield (The Great)

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN: Nick Schlieper (The Serpent's Teeth)

BEST SCORE OR SOUND DESIGN: David Gilfillan (The Women of Troy)

BEST PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL: Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical (Back Row Productions, Specific Films, Alan Scott, John Frost and Chugg Entertainment)

JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Michelle Doake (The Hatpin)

JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Tony Sheldon (Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical)

BEST CABARET PRODUCTION: The Kransky Sisters (Sydney Opera House Studio)

BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN: Just Macbeth (Bell Shakespeare)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Nancye Hayes and Toni Lamond

Has SAJ gone on strike?

Sorry everyone. SAJ lost his mojo there for a while and found himself in a land far, far away. One reader woke me from my slight slumber this afternoon with a message with enough profanities to sink a small ship.

I've started and stopped and started and stopped reviews on The Pig Iron People, A View of Concrete and the Importance of Being Earnest so many times it isn't funny. Is this what they call writers block? That blank look at the screen and nothing remotely passing through the fingers to the keyboard.
Or maybe my brain decided to stay on holiday even after I physically returned two months ago.

Despite the delay, I thought that I would have a quick look around the traps at a few things I missed in recent headlines.

The Sydney Festival launched two weeks ago (on the worst possible day for a publicist - the election of Barack Obama as US President-Elect) but it seems that the programme is resonating with the public quite well.

La Clique, of course, has already sold out and I heard through the grapevine that the Sydney Theatre Company's The War of the Roses was doing much better than anticipated. In fact their publicist was able to confirm that the epic production starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Menzies "broke the one day sales record for Sydney Theatre Company, selling 1814 tickets on Monday 10 November. It even surpassed "the previous record that was set last year by The 25th Annual Puttnam County Spelling Bee when 1285 tickets sold in one day."

There has also been a overwhelming number of launches which I have to look at closely including Company B, Bell Shakespeare and the Seymour Centre. Last week Griffin also launched their '09 season with an interesting twist - the starting time for their shows will all now be 7pm breaking the long-standing convention of an 8pm start.

In other news, I should draw your attention to the fact that our Rudd Labor Government has this nauseating tendency to have a war on everything (fuel, groceries, unemployment, drugs, homelessness, whalers, pokies, doping in sport etc etc etc blah blah blah).

But now his Government has turned its attention to our little world with some type of war on artists through its instruction to the Australia Council of the Arts to create some protocols for artists to work under. It fits in comfortably with their other new policy of censoring the internet.

If you haven't checked out the draft of the artists protocols on the Australia Council website, I advise you to saunter over and check them out. They're a hell of a read. Interestingly, the draft protocols will only apply to "recipients of government funding". So for those outside the funding loop, eat your heart out.

The nine page document has the simple aim helping "artists and arts organisations
understand existing laws that impact on any work they might do with children." It goes through the usual standards/requirements of police checks, parental permission, restrictions on nudity and sexualisation.

At the end of the draft document, there is a 'draft funding agreement clause' which, if you apply for funding you will no doubt have to sign when you submit your application. In its present form it says something along the lines of the following;

You agree that if you will be employing people under the age of 18 in this Project, with or without financial compensation, that you will comply with the Australia Council’s Protocols for working with children in art as well as any relevant laws as they exist in the state or territory in which you will be working. This may include obtaining background checks, permits and parental consents. If you fail to do so, we may immediately terminate our agreement with you and require you to return the funding provided to you under this Agreement.  

What is interesting about this paragraph is the term "with or without financial compensation" and it appears that it may have caused a minor headache for the staff at the Australia Council.

In quite an astonishing article, David Marr revealed that the Arts Law Centre of Australia, while doing some research into how artists can legally work with children, came along this fine bit of legislation;

Employment of children when they are naked or when any other person is naked is specifically prohibited.

Bang.

So, as Marr puts it, "Bill Henson has broken the law. So has every artist in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia who in the past few years painted or photographed a naked child ... The laws of those states forbid the employment of naked children anywhere and any time. That includes on the stage, in films and in artists' studios. They must not be naked and most of those states do not allow them to work where anyone else is naked either."

You have just two weeks to respond to the Australia Council's draft protocols ... which in light of the Arts Law Centre's revelation would seem a bit of a futile process ... unless of course we start advocating for even more unpaid work in the arts industry.

In other news, Crikey writer Alex Mitchell has revealed today that Edmund Capon will be leaving the Art Gallery of New South Wales after 30 years at the helm. Before this story gets too out of hand, my understanding is that the rumour is absolute rubbish.

The Sydney Morning Herald has already swooped but there is nothing in the article. It's just the same old rumour doing the circuit again.

More later and those reviews a little bit sooner than that.

Watch out for the pouts

There is a big buzz going around the circles of actors and agents in Sydney as the Sydney Theatre Company starts auditioning for performers to take part in the new Residents group - which formally takes over from the Actors Company next year.

Coinciding with the auditions this week, Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett also happen to be 'throwing open the doors of The Wharf' for one and all to see.

Starting at 10am on Saturday, take just one guess as to the demographic who will be front and centre and dolled up to the nines during the open day.

It's only a hunch, but I reckon there is enough excitement, energy and chatter to expect that aspiring young actors will be out in force down at the Wharf this weekend hoping to rub shoulders with the newly appointed ADs.

This group will certainly not be taking part in any of the 'self-guided' tours, but will be taking poll position with obligatory 'look at moi' poses at any event that Blanchett and Upton will be in attendance. It's guaranteed that the hair will be out, the clothes carefully selected and the lippy shining as the aspirants strut their stuff.

It's quite an interesting programme if you are into the behind the scenes thing. There'll be group devised workshops, talks and forums by local stars of the Sydney stage and even a shuttle bus service from Wynyard - so they must be expecting a big crowd. (But they are screening that rather underwhelming film again).

The gaggle of interest in the auditions, however, could give the STC a little bit more than they bargained for.

Review: The Narcissist

The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton
Sydney Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House


It is too simple to think of the narcissist as someone in love with himself. One can detest oneself intimately and still be a narcissist.

The diaries of Kenneth Tynan


The narcissist suffers from too much inner dialogue. The eye of one's consciousness is forever looking at one's own action ... The narcissist is not self absorbed, as much as one self absorbed in studying the other. The narcissist is the scientist and the experiment in one ... It is not love of the self but dread of the world outside the self which is the seed of narcissism.

Norman Mailer on Henry Miller


A play entitled 'The Narcissist' has the potential to be a fascinating study and commentary on our self-absorbed urban society. Even as a comedy, it could get its hands dirty and throw around seeds of thoughts and ideas that lift the lid on material possession, self-interest and the quest for solitude.

But The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton does none of that, avoids the big questions and delivers up a Brisbane based comedy that is far too light to really impress.

Political spinner Xavier (Sandro Colarelli) is trying to get a local candidate elected in a sudden bi-election somewhere in Brisbane. As a gay man he is prepared to forego a lot of his values for a clear political purpose and climbing what Mark Latham might have called the 'ladder of opportunity'.

In fact, the play makes the broad assumption that Xavier really has no values and is only interested in material and social gain. His apartment, where all the action plays out is decked out in a type of Andy Warhol series of prints with Xavier as the key subject. It is probably more vanity than narcissism, but in this play that doesn't really matter.

His friends are suitably selfish as well, providing a type of situation comedy feel to the play. Bronwyn (Andrea Moor) is the slightly alcoholic older single female handbag who comes in and out of the apartment and usually heads straight to the bar to pour herself another vodka and something.

Xavier's flatmate is the younger hetero, but effeminate, Satchel (Jonathan Brand) whose aspiration is to get onto the television programme that is king of all vanity, Big Brother.

To provide even more situation comedy, Xavier and Andrea set up a challenge for themselves - to 'bag a man' before New Year's Eve and to prove that they both still have it and are not getting too far beyond their middle age years.

Then in walks Jesse (James Stewart) an old flame of Xavier's from his university days. Xavier might have had a bit of luck for the challenge if not for the fact that Jesse is now getting married to Y'landah (Judy Hainsworth) who we are introduced to as an ultra-conservative Liberal Party voting Christian who is a compulsive truth-teller.

For some reason which I still can't work out, Jesse and Y'landah re-enter Xavier's life. Polar opposite people who have nothing in common and who have no ties or responsibilities. Add to the mix that Y'landah screams every time she hears the word brown (or anything associated with the colour brown) or gags when she hears anything to do with anal sex and you have a rather perplexing set of realities with which to frame the comedy.

By the second half not much changes apart from the fact that Y'landah isn't a compulsive truth-teller but is rather a compulsive liar who has made up her condition regarding the colour brown as well as her anal sex reflexes.

The central problem of the play is that the characters are under-developed to the point none of them can be a narcissist. There are elements of vanity, but if you want narcissism you would be better heading off to the local library and picking up a copy of Moliere's The Miser.

The central problem of the comedy is that the reality of the situations and the characters is far too thin to utilise that integral part of any comedy - the element of surprise.

All the performances are extremely able with not a single bad note from a very capable ensemble - and director Ian Lawson and designers Greg Clarke, Carolyn Emerson and Guy Webster do a great job transferring the play from Brisbane to the difficult space of the Drama Theatre.

But it is the conceit of play that is the problem and when you come to think of it, Mark Latham would be a far more interesting (and probably hilarious) subject matter for a real play about narcissism.



Until 4 October 2008
Tickets $28-$77
Bookings(02) 9250 7111
www.sydneyoperahouse.com

STC opens the gates

The atmosphere at Monday night's Sydney Theatre Company 2009 season launch shows how quickly Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett are changing the energy of the place.

With hordes of young actors, independent theatre artists, professional performers and a smattering of celebrity it was one of the most lively and convivial evenings I have had at the Wharf for ages.

There was a great sense of excitement in the air, with even a sense of relief, that a new administration and a new direction was taking over. The Artistic Directors made the deliberate point that they want to open the place up, making it more the SYDNEY Theatre Company than its previous incarnation.

There was such a great cross section of people there from all across the industry that you got the sense that Upton and Blanchett are really blowing away the cobwebs. They even had Youth Group playing at the end of the night. Everytime someone said to me 'they're a bit loud aren't they?' I was filled with just a little glee.

The evening started with a short speech from the AD's followed by Jonathan Wikipedia Biggins dryly comparing short speeches from the cast and crew of each of the shows lined up for next year.

It's an unusual season and not what I was expecting at all. But it does go hand in hand with a certain approachability and lightness that Upton and Blanchett are trying to introduce into the theatre company.

They have divided up the season into what they have branded 'Main Stage', 'Next Stage' and 'Back Stage'. It sounds almost as good as a flirtatious night out on Oxford Street but the new STC version is all about opening up communication channels and bringing emerging and burgeoning artists together with those that are established.

Kicking off the season is David Williamson's The Removalists. This will definitely give the box office a good old kick along with subscribers who love their dose of Williamson and those HSC students studying it next year. Directed by one of my favourite directors currently around on the local circuit, Wayne Blair, it will appeal to a wide range of punters.

This is then followed by Travesties, a UK import from Tom Stoppard who wrote the play in the early 1970's, reviving it and re-writing it in 1993. I can hear the collective sigh of relief from many of you saying 'Well, thank god it isn't another David Hare piece'. The play, which looks at 'revolutionary artists', has had a solid amount of re-mounts to justify a new STC version which will be directed by Mr Ralph Cotterill.

The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Scottish playwright and director at the National Theatre of Scotland, Anthony Neilson, is another UK import and is the type of programming that wouldn't be far removed from a Fergus Linehan Sydney Festival event. First produced at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004, this is fantasy theatre at its best. And if director Marion Potts can pull of a new version it should be one of the picks of the season.

Andrew Bovells' When The Rain Stops Falling quickly follows and is a work, as the title suggests, that delves into the world of the environment. Loosely based on the fantastic Tim Flannery history The Future Eaters, this is a direct import by Brink Productions that first premiered at the Adelaide Festival earlier this year.

My esteemed colleague at The Guardian Lyn Gardner called the next production as the most "blissfully funny and touching evening I've had in the theatre for ages". Elling which started off as a cult book in Norway to then become a film and then a play seems to have that quality of simple quirky story telling. It will be Pamela Rabe's second occasion as director.

Martin Crimp is featured next and many people I know are big fans of this UK playwright. His latest play The City will have its Australian premiere after a very successful opening earlier this year at the Royal Court. Directed by Benedict Andrews this is the other side of the coin to his earlier work The Country and confronts the ever present angst of urban life.

Poor Boy, a co-production with the Melbourne Theatre Company, follows next and sounds like it could be an interesting night, especially those that are fans of Tim Finn. Aimed at your 30-45 year old demographic (as much of this season is) it features original songs and lyrics by Finn which are framed by playwright Matt Cameron and director Simon Phillips.

Tommy Murphy's Saturn's Return makes a mainstage comeback after a first successful run at Wharf 2 (and playing now). I have heard very mixed reports on the play from a wide variety of people whose judgement I value but obviously Blanchett and Upton think it deserves another crack. It will be directed by everyone's favourite David Berthold.

The next production seems to be the one that many are chattering about as Blanchett opens the company up further and flies Liv Ullmann to direct Tennessee Williams' masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. There was a very strange comment in an article by Joyce Morgan yesterday that said 'Blanchett is confident Ullmann's production, which will tour North America, will shake off the shackles of the famous film that so often overshadows the original play'. I have no idea why you would bog yourself down in trying to shake off those (rather quite excellent) shackles but here's hoping that Joel Edgerton doesn't try to do a Marlon Brando. This should be a good meaty show.

French playwright Yasmina Reza is then up in what is a big return for Gale Edwards as director. God of Carnnage is Reza's 2006 play which first premiered in Switzerland but wasn't produced in English until last year. Reza is a very popular playwright in Europe and I saw much of her work at the National Theatre of Slovenia while I was living there. Always interesting and always amusing and always with that typical French insight, starring Jeremy Sims I am quietly looking forward to this show.

The Wharf Revue is next. No need to elaborate.

The Mysteries: Genesis is then next and marks the start of the new Actors Company, herein known as The Residents. From the little information provided about what the Residents will be it appears to be a much better and fluid version of the first. Indeed, it will hopefully be more in the spirit of what an 'ensemble' really is - a pool of people you draw from on a project by project basis. Performed at CarriageWorks and directed by Matthew Lutton, Andrew Upton and Tom Wright this look like being quite an epic production. As a big supporter of Lutton and Wright, this appears (on paper) as suitably ambitious.

The final show is literally an unknown and has already provoked an angry response from some grumpy STC subscriber in the Herald today;

Sydney Theatre Company's star-struck obsession with famous names has hit a new low in its season next year.

Subscribers are being asked to put down money sight unseen for an untitled play (sorry, "project", which sounds so much more Hollywood). No cast is announced, not even excellent regulars such as Peter Carroll or Pamela Rabe. There are no clues to what it is about, not even whether it is a comedy, drama or musical.

We are supposed to pay, more than a year in advance, solely on the name of a Hollywood film director, Steven Soderbergh, with no theatre credentials.

Sydney theatre-lovers are entitled to more than a blatant excuse for others to rub shoulders with the rich and famous.

Peter Deegan, Erskineville

Maybe the STC should have asked Peter from Erskineville to come to the launch on Monday, because if that is anything to go by, next year's season appears to be populated by a healthy mix of the new, the established with just a little celeb shenanigans.

And besides we've seen Peter Carroll and Pamela Rabe all year. It's good to have a bit of a break.

STC is getting down and dirty

I have received two really interesting press releases from the Sydney Theatre Company in as many weeks.

From their first release, the company is taking the bold step and putting on late night live music down at their Dickson Street home. It is billed as "a new regular series of free post-show gigs".

It's good that this sort of stuff is starting to happen in our performance spaces around the city and it is great that the STC is taking the lead. I just wish it was more regular and more widespread.

The first gig was last weekend and showcased Justine Clarke and The Kents who performed "a distilled blend of 60s jazz, pop and bossa".

There will be another gig in a month's time, so contact the STC if you want more info.

The second release which they sent out today really cheered my soul - and thank god finally, finally, finally someone is putting this film on!

I paste the release for you below.

STCinema
presents

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Saturday 28 June at 1.30pm
Sydney Theatre
All tickets $10

STCinema returns in June when Sydney Theatre and Bell Shakespeare co-present Poor Theatre’s acclaimed cinematic adaptation of Hamlet.

Filmed in the back streets of Melbourne, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark played to sell-out crowds at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival and earlier this year Malthouse Theatre hosted a season of encore screenings.

Directly following the screening at Sydney Theatre, there will be a panel discussion featuring Marion Potts (currently directing Bell Shakespeare’s interpretation of Hamlet), Oscar Redding, the director of Poor Theatre’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and actor/director Jeremy Sims, who took on both the title role and the role of director in Pork Chop Productions’ memorable theatre production.

STCinema’s screening of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark follows successful screenings last year of Riflemind-related films curated by Andrew Upton and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sydney Theatre’s Australian premiere screening of I’m Not There.


Venue Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Date Saturday 28 June 2008 at 1:30pm
Cost All tickets $10

Bookings (02) 9520 1999 or sydneytheatre.org.au


If you can recall Theatre Notes raved about this film which is a pretty good impetus.


Image: Beth Buckanan (Ophelia) & Richard Pyros (Hamlet)

While the cat's away, huh?!

Well, haven't you all been having a whale of a time while I've been away. Very nicely thank you very much. Well, bad news. He's back!

Can I recommend that you all go and investigate the South Coast and Southern Highlands of this beautiful state. The beaches are so clean, the water is so warm, the bushland is slowly rolling itself over into autumn colours, the crowds are non-existent and the sunsets and thunder storms take your breath away (especially when it's washed down by a glass of wine and a piece of cheese from some obscure little town).

To tell you the truth, I was absolutely ecstatic to come back to see so much activity on the blog. If only I could generate that type of response while I was actually blogging... Says a lot about what I am doing! (Or not doing as the case may be).

What's clear is that the coverage of the flagship theatre company of NSW on SAJ is deemed by you lot as too much. Ok - fair point indeed. I do try and cover everything in the independent sector however - whether it be the newest show at the stables to the latest underground arts festivals.

It was also good to get some diverse opinions on Kate Gaul's Twelfth Night. The night before I left on my little holiday I actually spoke to a number of people who shared the view of Marcellous who was not as 'enthusiastic' about the production as I was. He is certainly not alone. Some of the comments about Twelfth Night did smell of people who posted with a vested interest, but that's one of the freedoms of a blog I suppose. For your interest, my full-text review is now up.

The flagship theatre company debate got even more dirty and one anonymous comment made the interesting observation that "at least one good thing about the author of this blog being away is that we don't have to keep reading about the Sydney Theatre Company. It's almost like it was before he started this thing: invisible." This was followed by another anonymous comment that it is "somewhat childish" for this blog "to proudly display in the SAJ masthead a critical comment from the STC general manager, and then write sycophantic pieces about the incoming duo".

In my defence, I would say that I have actually never defended the appointment of the 'incoming duo' and their appointment as AD's of the STC. In fact, if you read all of things I have written, I have pretty much avoided commenting on it as I am reserving my judgement on the creative aspect of their positions until we get some evidence. What I have done recently is highlight the financial problems that the STC has and illustrated a clear correlation between that and their appointment. It doesn't take Einstein to see that the appointment is first and foremost a financial decision, not creative.

I imagine that the 'sycophantic' piece anonymous refers to is my defence of Blanchett as head of Kevin Rudd's 2020. It should be pointed out that 2020 is not affiliated with the STC in any way. It should also be pointed out that I am the only commentator who has defended the appointment after a gaggle of commentators from Fairfax and News Ltd questioned not only her intelligence but said that it was a consolation prize after not winning an Oscar. Sounds like it's more a case of the usual commentators having a crack at the arts. Talk about the usual sycophantic suspects.

But the point has been taken about the extent of coverage. If it's invisibility you want, it's invisibility you shall receive.

Which brings me to something that will be going down this week. After Arts NSW delivered its funding announcements after the Minister signed off on them four months late this year, many individuals mid-way through their projects and small-to-medium organisations are absolutely pissed off at the decisions.

It seems as though the cuts by our state government are now having a real impact on the sector. The big institutions have been pretty much protected but many of the smaller players now find themselves with huge cuts.

To make matters worse, the small to medium sector players all went off to Adelaide this week to attend the Performing Arts Market. It was here that they got to mingle with the oh-so-happy arts workers in the other states who are still riding on substantially better funding. Apparently the smiles from ear to ear of the Victorians arriving in Adelaide added a fair amount of salt to the wound.

The Herald is sniffing around and should publish something by the end of this week. By which time the lobbying will begin. I will post more as it comes to hand, but I want to emphasise that this needs an all-industry reaction. This state government stinks to high heaven.

Image: Fitzroy Falls, NSW

Review: The Vertical Hour

The Vertical Hour
By David Hair
Sydney Theatre Company

Full text version of review in today's The Daily Telegraph


David Hare has become a British institution through his scripts that take big picture politics and slam them face down into a domestic situation.

His latest play, The Vertical Hour, is no different and brings the politics of the American invasion of Iraq to a deserted part of Shropshire in west England.

Philip (Christopher Stollery) an expat Brit living in the US has brought his fiancé Nadia (Victoria Longley) an ex-foreign correspondent and now academic at Yale, across the Atlantic to visit his father Oliver (Pip Miller) in Shrewsbury.

Oliver’s inquisitive nature and Nadia’s American confidence establishes a meeting of personalities that is at once tense and strained. Oliver represents the stereotype of British sensibility who despairs at what the Americans are doing in their global politics.

When explaining to Nadia why he was so against George W Bush’s invasion into Iraq he puts it plainly – “I knew who the surgeon was going to be, so I had a fair idea what the operation would look like.”

But the debate of politics gets murkier as it is revealed that Nadia’s association with the Bush administration includes her role as an academic adviser prior to the invasion. It is this event that makes her unpopular professionally and socially.

Through showing us the characters and personalities that lead every day lives within extraordinary events playwright Hare humbles us and asks the question of his audience – what would you do if you were in this situation?

It’s a humbling question, but not quite enough to really keep you engaged for the length of the play. Potentially, Iraq and the problems around it could have been investigated more thoroughly and exposed ideas and themes that you don’t find in a feature article in a newspaper or in a documentary.

Julian Meyrick’s direction is considered, deliberate and clever with performances from a cast that deliver powerful performances. It is, however, the script that can’t travel the full length and doesn’t reach the explosive emotional finale. The stakes in this setting are just not high enough.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Until March 22 $56-77
02 9250 1777
www.sydneyoperahouse.com

No wonder they're crawling all over...

Just in case you missed the Sydney Theatre Company "documentary", In the Company of Actors, you will be delighted to know that the ABC are airing it tonight at 8.30pm.

The blurb on the website explains;

In raw and intimate detail the documentary takes the audience behind the curtains to observe the actors immersed in the creative process. We discover that presenting a seemingly effortless performance is a complex, detailed, technical and exhaustive process, with the director Robyn Nevin, writer Andrew Upton, and their teams of artists and technicians working 18-hour days. As we enter their world, we feel and understand their deeply ingrained love of theatre and their passion for telling stories.

Oh, I nearly forgot... there is also the review I wrote when I first saw it at the premiere last year HERE.

So get your mates together, get comfortable on the couch with your red wine and popcorn and sit down for the big event. You could even do a Eurovision type thing and even dress up. The possibilities are endless!

Response to Lee Lewis' article as published in Platform Papers

Below is an article as first published in this quarters Platform Papers from Currency House.


Picture the scenario. Unhappy with the dominance of White performers on our stages, a local theatre director writes a Master’s dissertation about the racial make-up of actors cast in major roles in Sydney’s major theatres. The editorial board of Currency House are much taken by the paper and invite the author to rework it as a contribution to their series of quarterly essays on the performing arts, Platform Papers. They hope that it will generate some discussion and perhaps offer some solutions for the future.

Quickly it becomes one of the most hotly debated cultural issues in years. From the moment theatre critic Bryce Hallett writes the first of two extended pieces on the essay in the Sydney Morning Herald (30 June-1 July & 2 July), the discussion catapults itself onto the front pages of major newspapers; national radio stations hold talkback forums; arts websites go crazy; the author, Lee Lewis, is interviewed on television … and the new medium of the blogosphere goes into meltdown.

Such is the energy of the debate that Currency House arranges public forums in Parramatta (4 August) and Melbourne (15 August) to quench the thirst of the many people who have long been desperate to see the issue of cross-racial casting ventilated in public discussion. Both events attracted considerable attendances and I believe NIDA is hoping to host a public forum on the issue early in 2008.

Even John Golder, who edits Platform Papers and who originally commissioned the essay, seems taken aback by the strength of the public reaction. ‘We aim to be stimulating; we aim to be provocative; we aim to ruffle a few feathers; we aim to lob a few hand grenades, but I don’t think we’ve ever done it quite as successfully as with this essay’, he says, introducing Lee Lewis at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre.

However, despite the furore surrounding the essay, for all the hand grenades that were thrown, and for all the optimism that the outcry might lead to change, the very institutions that Lewis believes are (perhaps unconsciously) complicit in creating ‘White-centric theatre’ have been silent.

Journalists attempt to get comments, opinions or reactions from the companies, but to no avail. One notable exception is Company B Artistic Director, Neil Armfield, who tells Bryce Hallett that he agrees ‘in principle’ with what Lewis has said, but refutes the suggestion that theatre directors have been ‘silently complicit in realising a future for Australia of whiteness and exclusion’. It is Company B’s policy, he said, to ‘actively embrace diversity and […] to challenge assumptions about colour and race’(Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July). Hallett himself noted that ‘it [was] often the case that the metropolitan arts festivals throw into stark relief how overwhelmingly white the Australian theatre is’.

Despite the silence of the Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare, elsewhere the debate continued to resonate, in the industry, amongst the public, and in the media. On 20 July, on his ABC-RN program, ‘Australia Talks’, Paul Barclay was joined by Julie Rigg and Lee Lewis, and the director and two of the multi-racial cast of the new Australian movie, Lucky Miles, to discuss the question ‘Are we seeing enough racial diversity on our stages and screens?’. The RN hotline was inundated with callers who agreed with Lee’s position and believed that Australia’s entertainment industry is too White. And then only nine days later Virginia Trioli interviews Lee on ABC-TV’s Sunday Arts.

What distinguishes the current debate about theatre from those in the past—in particular, the debate sparked by Richard Wherrett’s Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture, in which he urged the need for less Australian theatre and more international works and classics—is the role that the new media have played in fanning its flames. Blogging theatre-lovers in the burgeoning Web 2.0 community—on Ming-Zhu Hii’s Melbourne blog, Mink Tails, Alison Croggon’s theatre notes, Matthew Clayfield’s Esoteric Rabbit and my own Sydney Arts Journo — have taken the established theatre companies by surprise and ensured that the debate happens, with or without them.

Ming-Zhu Hii was probably the first of many to endorse the essay: ‘If you have any care for the theatre in Australia, read this paper. If you have anything to do with the theatre in Australia, read this paper. If you've ever cast a play or a film or television show, read this paper. If you've ever seen a play and wondered about racial casting choices, read this paper.’ (Minktails, 17 July)

Others were quick to lend her their support. ‘On the face of it’, wrote DPK (Sydney Arts Journo, 13 July), ‘Lewis’ argument is self-evidently true: the faces you see on the mainstage are not the faces you see in the street. And while talent rather than skin tone should always be the key determinant when it comes to casting, one would expect the stage to roughly reflect the diversity of the broader community unless you believe that whites are proportionally more blessed with the ability to act.’ And Alison Croggon (Sydney Arts Journo, 14 July) lent further support, when she asked, ‘When was the last time you saw, for example, a Middle-Eastern actor—and we have more than a few, some with enviable depths of experience—who wasn't playing an Iraqi refugee?’

Some readers, non-White actors, provided personal examples of the racial exclusions they had experienced. For example, Nicole vented her frustration on Mink Tails: ‘I CANNOT STAND being sent only “Asian” or “multi-cultural” roles, although I am seriously grateful for the work I have received, they are the only briefs I am getting. I am starting to refuse doing free work that is derogatory or requires me to put on an accent, I'm shit at them.’ (Minktails, 2 August)

Some saw the problem in broader terms. Gaz (Sydney Arts Journo, 6 July), for instance, suggested that the ‘bigger problem’ lay with the main-stage programming of the ‘big companies’: ‘Often because themes of race are actually quite common, but in the “oh-so-predictable” sense that they are often critiques of white middle-class life.’

Many others defended the major companies, Ironicsmile taking gleeful delight in reminding Lewis that her current employer, the STC—she was directing Love-Lies-Bleeding at Sydney’s Wharf 1—had on the previous evening ‘won two acting Helpmanns […] for an Indigenous actor playing a non-racially-specific role and a Greek actor playing a non-racial or gender-specific role’ (Sydney Arts Journo, 7 August).

But the essay’s defenders were quick to retort. ‘Elements of this debate’, wrote Geoffrey (Sydney Arts Journo, 13 July), ‘smack of small-town tokenism—not to mention generous lashings of condescension.’ Indeed, this condescension was responsible for some needless personal attacks on Lewis and her credentials. One anonymous voice (Sydney Arts Journo, 17 August) said ‘Perhaps she feels John Bell, Neil Armfield, Robyn Nevin and Simon Phillips are all neophytes who have much to learn from her [...] Somehow I don't think they'll be ringing for advice.’ To Chris (Sydney Arts Journo, 16 July) it seemed ‘like a form of self-annihilation to come out and say this stuff. I wonder what the company's [sic] think of this and who'll be giving her a job next year? Very brave or very dumb ...’

Ming-Zhu Hii leapt quickly to Lewis’s defence (Sydney Arts Journo, 16 July), asking Chris, ‘Are you inferring that perhaps she might have done better by the advancement of her career in staying silent, and not writing all of that pesky, controversial material?’

Perhaps what really concerned the blog population was less the issue of cross-racial casting and more the fact that someone in the theatre industry had dared express an honest and well thought through opinion that threatened such a famously protective industry.

But perhaps not everyone who had ever worked in that industry, even at the STC, would necessarily have dismissed the debate. ‘I noted in reading the programme for Love-Lies-Bleeding’, wrote another anonymous blogger (Sydney Arts Journo, 18 July) ‘that Ms Lewis is currently the recipient of a fellowship in Richard Wherrett’s name. I am sure that Richard would be smiling down on this marvellous debate.’