Welcome to our January newsletter.
We hope you had a good start to 2008 and are ready for a whole new year
of fantastic theatre. To get you started, you have the chance to
win one of five double passes to
China, Griffin’s first production in the new season. Also in this issue:
New Titles from Currency and its agencies,
awards and nominations and of course the latest on what’s happening
on stage.
New Titles
China
William Yang
Photographer-storyteller William Yang returns to a motherland he
never knew – the Australian-born Chinese a stranger in his homeland
Part social documentary, part personal observation,
China creates a meditative space, a journey of reflection on the meaning of culture and belonging, for performer and audience alike.
‘Yang's
China offers fascinating insights and paradoxes…
China is a polished, wryly observed and typically low-key monologue’
Bryce Hallet, SMH
China opens at the Stables Theatre 19 January. The script,
featuring a large selection of photographs shown in the production, is
available at the theatre at the special price of $12. If you can’t make
it to the show, you can order your copy from our website.
Win one of five double passes to the preview of
China
on Wednesday, 16 January, for details on how to enter the competition, check our SPECIALS section below.
NEW FROM OUR AGENCIES
Nick Hern Books
Free Outgoing
Anupama Chandrasekhar
Just one message. That's all it took for an entire country to burn with moral outrage.
When a well-behaved Indian girl is filmed with a boy in her classroom, the video clip spreads like a virus.
Free Outgoing sets the rampant technology of the modern world against the conservatism of a traditional society.
Premiered at the Royal Court, Britain’s most famous theatre for new writing,
Free Outgoing formed part of their major International Season in 2007.
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
Two Princes
Meredydd Barker
A bittersweet drama about life, love, loss, and sculpture.
In the 12th Century a rebel Prince was hunted to his death by his
brother. Eight hundred years later nothing much has happened to the
little Welsh town of Treianto, and the town council decides to erect a
statue to its Prince. But what did he look like? How was he killed? And
does any of this matter with a juicy grant cheque in the offing?
‘…an exhilarating and richly enjoyable play’
Theatre Wales
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
How to Curse
Ian McHugh
Do you ever get the urge to do purely wicked things, just for the sake of it?
Bruising, charged and spellbound,
How To Curse is Ian
McHugh’s first play. It is a fascinating, alarming portrait of three
young people dangerously near the edge. It premiered at the Bush
Theatre, London in November 2007, the debut production of the new
Artistic Director, Josie Rourke.
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
The Pearlfisher
Iain F. MacLeod
An epic tale of kinship, money and desire.
Summer 1948 in the North West Highlands. Post-war austerity grips
the land, but here the pickings are rich for Traveller people, as they
trade, poach, rustle – and fish for pearls. One day Jess, a girl from
the village, spies Ali the Traveller close up, trawling the river-bed.
Jess takes his pearls – setting in motion a chain of events which will
change both communities for ever.
Half a century later, in the autumn of 2007, the waters have risen, and the story is still being told and re-enacted.
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
Unravelling the Ribbon
Mary Kelly and Maureen White
‘When it comes to breasts, I have none and she has one. What sort of family are we at all?’
Telling the moving story of Rosie, who discovers a lump in her
breast – refracted in the commentary of her 11-year-old daughter –
Unravelling the Ribbon is a startlingly real, immensely moving, and often hilarious play for three women.
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
Oberon Books
The Bee
Hideki Noda (translated by Colin Teevan)
What would you do if your wife and child were being held hostage?
A highly-charged, tragic satire,
The Bee asks what happens when the victim becomes the aggressor, the weak become powerful and the watcher becomes the watched.
Darlinghurst Theatre Company staged the critically acclaimed Australian premiere of
The Bee in December 2007. To order your copy of the play, click here.
Specials
Win one of five double passes to the preview of
China on Wednesday, 16 January.
China
is William Yang’s ninth monologue performance and his wryly humorous
and sensitive perspective, his eye for detail, and his arresting images
come together in an unforgettable theatrical experience.
To
win a double pass,
be amongst the first five subscribers to send an email to
karin@currency.com.au with “China” in the subject line and your contact
details in the email body. Only winners will be notified.
China is showing at the Stables Theatre from 15 January – 9 February. For more information on the production, visit www.griffintheatre.com.au; to order your copy of the script, visit our website.
On Stage
NSW
The Club
by David Williamson will be showing at Glen Street Theatre from 7 February – 23 February.
‘…the pre-eminent chronicler of our times [David Williamson] is rarely on better form than he is in
The Club.’
Sun Herald
To book your tickets go to glenstreet.com.au; to have a look at David Williamson’s plays published by Currency Press, visit our website.
VIC
The hugely successful STC production of Patrick White’s
The Season at Sarsaparilla is currently playing at Melbourne’s Arts Centre Playhouse.
‘This is a stunning production: bold, powerful, funny, moving and wise
... The acting is marvellous ... This is White for the 21st century.’
The Australian
Season ends 16 February. For tickets visit www.mtc.com.au; for more information on Patrick White’s plays published by Currency Press, click here.
As part of the Midsumma Festival 2008, LaMama is staging
Thieving Boy and
Stars in My Hands,
two plays by Timothy Conigrave, dealing with matters that need to be
resolved at the time of death – your own and someone else’s. Carlton
Courthouse, season goes from 19 January – 2 February. For tickets visit
lamama.com.au or call 03 9347 6142.
Currency Press has published
Holding the Man, Tommy Murphy’s award-winning stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s memoir. Click here for more information.
QLD
Joanna Murray-Smith’s deliciously wicked new comedy
The Female of the Species is coming up at the Cremorne Theatre in a QTC production, opening 11 February. To book your tickets go to www.qldtheatreco.com.au.
Currency Press will publish the script in time for the production. To pre-order your copy, go to our website.
WA
Deckchair Theatre will be staging
As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies in the Botanic Garden, Kings Park from 11 January – 9 February. For tickets go to www.deckchairtheatre.com.au;
to order your copy of
As You Like It, visit our website.
Awards
Sydney Theatre Awards nominations
The nominations for the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards in the category New Australian Work are Katherine Thomson’s
King Tide, Ian Wilding’s
October (both published by Currency Press), Michael Gow’s
Toy Symphony and Kate Mulvany’s
The Seed (both will be published by Currency Press in 2008). The winner will be announced on Monday, 21 January.
Congratulations to all nominees!