Dear Alan, now there’s a clarion call to make the heart beat faster! To be fair to this production, it was indeed “form rubbing against content”, so for the MTC a move away from the stage naturalism that has been the deadliest feature of so much main stage theatre over the past few decades. (I’m not against naturalism per se by any means, it can be incredibly powerful, but like all forms, it all depends on the thought behind it, the execution). But yes, this particular match was infelicitous, and it did no justice either to the play nor to the artists involved, many of whom I respect. I’m totally with you on “raising the bar”. And it does begin with the thought, as you say: what are your true concerns? Why do it at all?

Yes, indeed. Though I will say that Bell did the best Midsummer Night’s Dream a few years ago: very beautiful indeed, hilarious, and full of the uncanny, so the magic actually made sense. So it does happen! And thanks for the good wishes. We’ll see how we travel! And we do hope we’ll be here next year.

I’m sorry I missed that production. More power to them. Just wish there were more exceptions! COME ON MELBOURNE! Let’s be the force we once were, before everything started to look similar, with courageous, stunning, funny, joyous, demanding, challenging, lively & above all LIVING performance. And you official governors of the public purse – start giving to those who try to break the mould rather than sure-fire bets. Don’t think of what artists can do for you, think of what you can do for them.

And we definitely need Witness(es)! On both sides of the proverbial ‘fire curtain’. Great name BTW. We’ll make sure, Alison, that you’re around next year at the very least.

OMG! I am unmasked!!!!

A theatre company, if it will survive, is a wolf-pack. It roams a vast range, feeding on tbe audience-herds that graze there. Its favourites are the old and infirm, or the weakest and youngest, and it depends upon the cunning of the pack-leader to guide it to them. Sometimes, perhaps once in a season, it will trap the herd in a luscious pasture, and feast on them, becoming fat. Then the pack grows slow in tooth and claw – then is the leader most like to be overthrown.

Dear Alison, I was attempting metaphor.
The thing is, a theatre only presenting Art for Art’s sake will:
A. Starve or
B. Turn on its Artistic Director or
C. Both.
Perhaps the wolf-pack must turn to husbandry, feeding, guarding, taming (perhaps caging) its flock to keep it fat.
No, wait – that’s what Disney does.

Food for thought. I don’t type fluently enough to carry this on. Perhaps one day we’ll meet and talk.

Food for thought. I don’t type fluently enough to carry this on. Perhaps one day we’ll meet and talk.
One thing I shoild have mentioned: we saw Abigail’s Party on Saturday. Your review is pitch-perfect. The play is good, the cast were right, but seemed man-handled. Anna’s set? I think it didn’t quite work.

Thanks Matthew! Speculations and metaphors are always welcome here.

Just booked The Bleeding Tree Alison – all ok with discount being applied automatically. I was in Adelaide recently during festival time and caught Patricia Cornelius’ new play In the Club and was wondering if you saw this too. I am an avid fan of her powerful work and style of theatre and this one left me in tears, with mixed emotions of anger and frustration edged with a sense hopelessness and disgust that this is still where we are at. At times it felt like an arrow to the heart – hence the flow of emotions. But to be so moved by theatre is a privilege indeed. Loved it, tears and all.

Sadly I was only in Adelaide for a weekend and missed this one. It’s always hard with interstate festivals, you have to choose which bit to see and end up kicking yourself for what you miss! Looking forward to seeing what she does with Lorca, I must say. See you at The Bleeding Tree!

Hi Sarah – isn’t that often the way? There was a lot of looking back at this festival – Thyestes was another one, which I would have been fascinated to see in the current context (I suspect I would have felt quite differently about it than I did the first time at the Malthouse). I agree, the soundscape was amazing. For me it really did animate those oh-so-familiar images from the trenches, which your eyes tend to skate over.

Hi Alison – yes indeed. I wasn’t a fan of Thyestes at Malthouse (too blokey/violent) but weirdly I enjoyed if much more at Belvoir for reasons I can no longer recall… I actually had to go to the RealTime site to check that we were talking about the same work – my brain is falling out!