New Theatre 2001 Programme

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Charles Dickens' Hard Times

Hard Times is Dickens' shortest novel and considered by many to be his most savage. It's his reaction against modern industrialisation, an indictment of economic rationalisation, and charts the birth of the trade union movement in Britain in the 19th Century through the strike in the manufacturing industry.

Past Productions

Once in a while the odd thing happens. A Comedy about Benjamin Britten & WH Auden. 16 Jan - 3 Feb 2001

Annual Mardi Gras Show! The Man in the Moon is a Miss. Director/Musical Director George Tobay, Choreographer Jane Miscovic and Writer Cameron Sharp. 14 Feb - 17 Mar 2001 (except parade weekend 3/4 March)

David Williamson's The Club Directed by Richard Cotter, with Dmitri Psiropoulos, Victor Kline, Kim Knuckey, Thomas van Donkelaar, Bruce Menzies and Tank. Set design by Tom Bannerman and lighting design by Ole Borch. 14th April to 19 May 2001

1 June-7 July 2001 The Diary of Anne Frankby Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman. Pete Nettell directs this Australian premiere, with a cast of Jessica Turner, Melissa Martin, John Grinston, Rosie Lalevich, David Scott, Collin Jennings, Alice Livingstone, Andrew Mead, Fiona Harris and Michael Briggs; composer Sarah de Jong and cellist Michell Outram.

12-14 July 2001 Cries by Clem Gorman. The story concerns a mature woman who discovers that breaking the glass ceiling in her corporate career entails an undesired side effect - her alienation from her daughter who has disappeared in the drug underworld. Thricia Youlden plays the central role (and a variety of other players (including a priest and latin lover) employing ad specatore techniques together with the use of a video camera and a convention borrowed from the Japanese Bunraku puppet tradition.

Cast in this fierce, funny and confronting piece are Peter Barry, Ivan Clarke, Lexi Freiman, Kath Gordon, Mary Rose Johnson, Melissa Martin, Jill McKay, Nick Pelornis and Tank Sade. Crew: A/Director: Kate Wilson, Production Manager:Anna Reader, A/Production Manager:Sewart Luke, Stage Manager:Leah McLennan, Sound Design/Music Director: Peter Neville Jo Lewis, Lighting Design:Ole Birch.

4x2 Season

1. Search & Destroy by Howard Korder Tue 5 - Sat 15 September 2001Search & Destroy is a fast, energetic American play about a young man's search for identity in the face of insurmountable circumstances. Furiously paced with sharp dialogue and surprising turns, this is a comic thriller that is ultra-modern in its form and content, deeply contemporary and a goldmind for character actors.
2. "The Body Ophelia" by Catherine Fargher Tue 19 - Sat 29 September 2001Body Ophelia explores the unchartered territory of one of Shakespeare's most enigmatic characters. The image of her drowning remains one of the most iconic in Shakespeare's writing and has inspired male and female writers and artists for centuries. In Hamlet, Ophelia is almost "spoken about" more than she speaks. Body Ophelia explores the psyche of Ophelia off stage, the time and space between her silence and her madness. The piece builds on the poetic and lyrical multi voices of Ophelia and juxtaposes them with the crude musings of two Gossips about the death of Di. It explores the traditional notion of "Hysteria" by contrasting case studies of Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer with the interior monologue of Ophelia.
3. Les Liasons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton Tue 3 - Sat 13 October 2001Based on the scandalous novel by Choderlos de Laclos first published in 1782, we see a pair of aristorcrats plotting sexual intrigue to achieve the seduction of a young convent girl for their own amusement. They are ruthlessly and competitively devoted to their tasks, with calm detachment and mannered decadence, exploiting all others for their own ends - each challenging the other to greater heights of notoriety. Let the games begin!
4. World Premiere: Pandora's Garden by Cameron Sharp."There's just all these secrets, a whole past, we can't share... all this risky emotional stuff I'm not sure he'll cope with." Pandora's garden is a play centered around a 16 year old boy, Jarod's, running away from Dubbo. He hitchhikes to Sydney to find his estranged uncle Chris with whom he identifies. He hopes chris will allow his gay identity to be acknowledged, something he could never even hope to share with his dominating mother, Tammy. Jarod precipitates Chris's own struggle to cope with past and present relationships that lie within a proverbial pandora's box. The play is well written and acted and turns what could otherwise be a cliche situation into a well developed garden of characters and emotions that made us all laugh, cry and feel at home. The show received the thumbs up from all the members of our group. Review courtesy of Tony.

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