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2012
March Les Liaisons Dangereuses
By Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos, directed by Sam Strong
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2011
August Uncle Vanya Astrov
By Anton Chekov, directed by Andrew Upton
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2010 & 2011
November - January Uncle Vanya Astrov
By Anton Chekov, directed by Andrew Upton
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2009August-October God of Carnage By Yasmin Reza, directed by Peter Evans Melbourne Theatre Company At Playhouse
2007
October-November Riflemind John
By Andrew Upton, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffmann
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2006
February-March Hedda Gabler Judge Brack
By Henrick Ibsen, directed by Robyn Nevin
Sydney Theatre Company
New York
2004
Hedda Gabler Judge Brack
By Henrick Ibsen, directed by Robyn Nevin
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2003
October The Real Thing Henry (charming, pedantic playwright, idealistic, romantic)
By Tom Stoppard
Sydney Theatre Company
At Wharf 1
2000
August The White Devil Duke of Brachiano (brooding, lusty dangerous thinker, doomed lover)
By John Webster adapted by Gale Edwards
Sydney Theatre Company
At the Theatre Royal
1999 February Show and Tell By Malouf and Peter Carey Theatre of Image At International House, Sydney University
1996
The Alchemist Cpt. Face/Lungs/Jeremy
By Neil Armfield Company B
At the Belvoir Theatre
1995
August The Blind Giant is Dancing Allen Fitzgerald (self-hating, passionate, political activist)
By Stephen Sewell Company B
At the Belvoir Theatre
1994
January-February That Eye, The Sky Henry
By Richard Roxburg
Burning House at the Old Sandstone Church, Darlinghurst, Sydney Arts Festival
June Arcadia Bernard Nightingale (dashing, flash, egocentric academic)
By Tom Stoppard
Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
1993
March Egmont (Theatre Music)
By Goethe adapted by Gordon Williams
At the Sydney Opera House
The Popular Mechanicals
By Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor
Company B
Much Ado About Nothing Benedict
by William Shakepeare
Melbourne Theatre Company
At The Russell Street Theatre
Three
Sydney Theatre Company
1991
The Taming Of The Shrew Petruchio (swaggering, surly, charistamatic outsider&tamer/husband)
by William Shakepeare
State Theatre Company of South Australia
1990
February The Secret Rapture Irwin (committed, sensitive fiance, ultimately doomed)
By David Hare Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
1989 Ring Around The Moon Hugo/Fredric By Jean Anouilh State Theatre Company of South Australia
Julius Caesar Brutus
by William Shakepeare
State Theatre Company of South Australia
1988
October Don’s Party Mal (argumentative, married flirt, obsessed with his packet size)
By David WilliamsonKinselas Productions at the Sydney Opera House
1987
February Stand Up Shakespeare Hamlet (playing Gertrude) and Henry part IV and part I(Hotspur)
by William Shakespeare Sydney Theatre Company
At the Big Rehearsal Room, The Wharf
Les Liasions Dangereuses Le Viscomte de Valmont (doomed, pleasure loving dilletante)
By Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
At the Seymour Centre Nimrod Theatre Company
Sidney Theatre Critics' Circle Best Actor Nomination
1986
April The Madras House Phillip Madras
By Harley Granville-Barker Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Oberon (capricious, jealous and smouldering King of the Faries)
By William Shakepeare
Nimrod Theatre Company
1985
Private Lives
Stage Theatre of South Australia
1984
May The Perfectionist Erik Larson (laid back, gentle, flirtatious, middle-class Danish Marxist)
By David Williamson Sydney Theatre Company
American Premier Season at The Dock Street Theatre, Charleston
1983
March The Way Of The World Petulant Follower of Mrs Millam
By William Congreve Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
May Gossip From The Forest Lt Gen. Groener and French
By Thomas Keneally Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
August The Cherry Orchard Trofimov (Pyetya) a Student
By Anton Chekov Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
1982
January You Can’t Take It With You 1st Man
By M Hart & G.S. Kaufman. Sydney Theatre Company
The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
March A Map Of The World Paul
By David Hare Sydney Theatre Company
World Premier at The Adelaide Festival of Arts
And The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
June Macbeth Seyton
By William Shakespeare Sydney Theatre Company
The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
July The Perfectionist Erik Larson
By David Williamson Sydney Theatre Company
World Premier Season at The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
November As You Desire Me The Three Young Men
By Luigi Pirandello Sydney Theatre Company
At The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House |
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Directed by: Sam Strong
March 31 - June 9, 2012 @ Wharf 1
Unaware of the impending revolution that breathlessly waits to devour the French aristocracy in all its decadence, the Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont plot an elaborate game of revenge, seduction, humiliation and cruelty. It is a salon amusement that soon escalates into a brutal battle between former lovers. Sex and love are the weapons of choice and these combatants will stoop to the lowest levels of deviousness in order to win. Their crossfire is indiscriminate, making casualties of friends and foes alike.
Hugo Weaving and Pamela Rabe will play the charismatic duo who manipulate with the precision and discipline of master puppeteers, deriving a pleasure from their spite that can only be surpassed by the pleasure of watching the deliciously wicked pair in action.
The sexual politics at work in this gripping drama are as relevant now as when Laclos wrote the novel in 1782 and when Christopher Hampton adapted it for the stage in 1985. Avoiding the lavish clichés often associated with the period, this new production directed by Griffin Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Sam Strong, will acid-wash a familiar story, stripping it back to its essential layers in the intimacy of the Wharf 1 Theatre.
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Playwright: Anton Checkov
Adapted by: Andrew Upton
Directed by: Tamás Ascher
09nov10 - 01jan11 @ The Warf
4-27aug11 @ Kennedy Center
John Bell Cate Blanchett Richard Roxburgh Hugo Weaving On a dilapidated, remote farm Uncle Vanya and his niece Sonya have worked slavishly to sustain an estate in decline. And so it has been for years. Now Professor Serebryakov and his beautiful young wife, Yelena, have returned to visit. Adding to the chaos and disruption are the constant visits of the charismatic Astrov. Lunch is no longer served at lunch time - now it is procrastinated until dusk - work is forgotten and the long, cool nights have become sleepless. From this hotbed of disarray grow three consuming love affairs, each of which is destined to wither in disappointment before it has reached bloom. It is in this climate of frustration and hopelessness that the Professor chooses to unveil his shocking plan to sell the estate. Faced with an uncertain future, Vanya is provoked into an act of violence which is as humiliatingly unsuccessful as his attempts at romance. Gliding effortlessly between comedy and tragedy, this treasured classic from Anton Chekhov lays bare the fruitlessness of human endeavour with exceptional warmth, humour and insight. |
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August 29 - October 3, 2009 @ Playhouse
Natasha Herbert Geoff Morrell Pamela Rabe Hugo Weaving The other day in the neighbourhood park, little Ferdinand whacked his playmate Bruno with a stick, breaking two teeth. So it is important that the parents of the boys set the right example and sit down to discuss the matter calmly and reasonably. After all, nothing will be gained by behaving like children... Human nature, red in tooth and claw. Yasmina Reza, the writer who drew maximum laughs from Minimalist art in Art, uses her corrosive wit to strip away the thin veneer of civilization. |
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Sydney Theatre Company
Playwright: Andrew Upton
Directed by: Philip Seymour Hoffmann
05oct07 - 18nov07 @ Wharf 1
John (the band's frontman) .... Hugo Weaving Susie Porter ... Cindy Susan Prior ... Lynn Marton Csokas ... Phil Steve Rodgers ... Moon Jeremy Sims ... Sam Ewen Leslie ... Lee
John (Hugo Weaving) was once the frontman in one of the world’s biggest bans, Riflemind.
Now John and his wife Lynn are safe from the world in their walled country house. Money and anonymity, however, won’t protect them from themselves or their past.
Fame and its attendant luxuries are addictive. Addictions almost ruined both their lives. Well away from that life they are now safe. Unhappy, silent, fragile, but safe. Until the pressure of a comeback tour bears down upon John. And the band simply can not work without him. Crunch time. A weekend of music-making is planned at John and Lynn’s estate.
As soon as the band turns up – plus their associated spouses, lovers and hangers-on – it’s a rock’n’roll circus. Riflemind captures, with delicacy, precision and a beguiling black humour, a series of relationships languishing in the backwaters of co-dependent love, greed and need. Despite, or because of, their apparent affluence, social privilege, preposterous egos, septic past and rock-god lifestyle, each of them struggles to find redemption.
Over this weekend they will open old wounds, lose their way, play great music and, perhaps, stumble into a more certain future.
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 Sydney Theatre Company
Playwright: Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Andrew Upton
Directed by: Robyn Nevin
27jul04 - 26nov04 @ Wharf 1
01mar06 - 26mar06 @ Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY)
Cate Blanchett .... Hedda Gabler Annie Byron .... Berte Justine Clarke .... Thea Elvsted Julie Hamilton .... Aunt Julia Hugo Weaving .... Judge Brack Anthony Weigh .... Tesman Aden Young .... Ejlert Lovborg
Imperious and spoiled, Hedda Gabler stands out as one of Ibsen’s most compelling and conflicted characters—an aristocratic woman aching to be free of her middle-class husband yet terrified of scandal. As portrayed by Cate Blanchett ( The Aviator, Elizabeth), an actress blessed with innate grace and an extraordinary dramatic range, Hedda moves through her days perpetually on edge, as volatile as she is vulnerable. Just home from a six-month honeymoon, Hedda struggles to come to terms with a marriage to a man she finds numbingly dull and the possible pregnancy that threatens to seize hold of her body and future. She quickly realizes that the roots of convention run deep and, out of boredom as much as anything else, begins to indulge in hateful games, manipulating the fates of all who enter her orbit. Aided and abetted by her predatory confidant Judge Brack, played by a pitch-perfect Hugo Weaving ( The Matrix, Lord of the Rings), she eventually goes too far, setting in motion a string of riveting, ultimately tragic events.
Helpmann Award nomination for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play
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Sydney Theatre Company
Playwright: Tom Stoppard
Directed by: Robyn Nevin
oct2003 @ Wharf 1
Hugo Weaving .... Henry Angie Milliken .... Annie Heather Mitchell .... Charlotte Andrew Tighe .... Max Alexander Jenkins .... Billy Jaime Mears .... Debbie Joshua Rosenthal ... Brodie
The Real Thing is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 1982. It examines the nature of love, and makes extensive use of 'play within a play', also known as a metaplay.
The play focuses on the relationship between Henry (a playwright and considered stand-in for Stoppard) and Annie, an actress who is part of a committee to free Brodie, a Scottish soldier imprisoned for burning a memorial wreath during a protest.
"I feel reckless, extravagant, famous, in love, and I'm next week's castaway on Desert Island Discs"
*************
"I'm supposed to be one of your intellectual playwrights. I'm going to look a total prick, aren't I, announcing that while I was telling Jean-Paul Sartre and the post-war French existentialists where they had got it wrong, I was spending the whole time listening to the Crystals singing 'Da Doo Ron Ron'."
*************
"Actors are so sensitive. They feel neglected if one isn't constantly checking up on them"
*************
"I told her once that lots of women were only good for fetching drinks, and she became quite unreasonable"
Blithely, knowing what he is doing, holding his empty glass towards Charlotte.
"Is there any more of that?"
*************
In response to the vegetables Annie has brought over instead of flowers .
"So original. I'll get a vase"
Annie: "It's supposed to be crudités"
Henry: "Crudités! Perfect title for a pornographic revue"
*************
On managing sex with a sleeping Annie: "You were totally zonked. Only your reflexes were working…I thought I'd try it without you talking"
*************
"I don't know how to write love. I try to write it properly, and it just comes out embarrassing. It's either childish or it's rude. And the rude bits are absolutely juvenile."
*************
"I love love. I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn't one's lover. Only two kinds of presence in the world. There's you and there's them. I love you so"
*************
"It's classy stuff, Webster. I love all that Jacobean sex and violence"
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Knocking some literary sense into Annie: "There's something scary about stupidity made coherent. I can deal with idiots, and I can deal with sensible argument but I don't know how to deal with you. Where's my cricket bat?"
*************
"I don't think writers are sacred but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead"
*************
"It's no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst. Is that romantic? Well, good. Everything should be romantic. Love, work, music, literature, virginity, loss of virginity…"
*************
"You can't put things back. They won't go back. Talk to me. I'm your chap. I know about this. We start off like one of those caterpillars designed for a particular leaf. The exclusive voracity of love. And then not."
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Sydney Theatre Company
Playwright: John Webster
Adapted by: Gale Edwards
Directed by: Gale Edwards
August 2000 @ Theatre Royal
Hugo Weaving .... Brachiano Angie Milliken .... Vittoria Jeremy Sims .... Flamineo Philip Quast .... Francisco John Gaden ... Monticelso Jeanette Cronin/ Heather Mitchell .... Isabella William Zappa ... Ludovico Bruce Spence ... Camillo Paula Arundell .... Zanche the Maid Julia Blake Brian Green Matthew Newton
The White Devil (1612) is a revenge tragedy by the English playwright John Webster. This play is concerned with the murky depths of Italian politics. It is actually based on real events, though the plot apparently differs quite widely from the true history of the famous courtesan Vittoria Corombona.
The story begins with the banishment of Lodovico, for his crimes in the city of Rome; he rails against others, whose crimes are greater, yet who retain the privilege of living in the city (notable Paulo Giodano Ursini (Duke of Brachiano), protector of Vittoria though husband of Isabella). Isabella's brother is the powerful Francisco de Medicis, Duke of Florence discovers his relationship with Vittoria and insults him; Brachiano's response is to divorce the innocent Isabella. He then proceeds to arrange the murders of Isabella and Camillo, Vittoria's husband.
As various parties begin to try to exact their revenge and Vittoria is put on trial for the murder of Camillo, the bloodthirstiness of the play mounts - poison, stabbing, strangling, shooting. All in all, it is an excellent example of a revenge tragedy, though the plot takes second place to the poetry of individual scenes.
[on meeting Vittoria at Camillo's]:"Let me into your bosom, happy lady, pour out, instead of eloquence, my vows: loose me not, madam, for, if you forego me, I am lost eternally"
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"I'll seat you above law, and above scandal…you shall to me at once be dukedom, health, wife, children, friends, and all"
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[To Isabella]: "Because your brother is the corpulent Duke...I scorn him like a shaved Polack! All his reverend wit lies in his wardrobe...your brother, the great Duke first made this match...accuresed be the priest that sang the wedding mass, and even my issue! Your hand I'll kiss; this is the latest ceremony of my love. Henceforth I'll ne'er lie with thee: and this divorce shall be as truly kept as if the judge had doomed it. Fare you well: our sleeps are severed"
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[to Cardinal Monticeslo]: "cowardly dogs bark loudest: sirrah priest, I'll talk with you hereafter...the sword you frame of such an excellent temper I'll sheathe in your own bowels"
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[to Vittoria] : " Thou hast lead me, like an heathen sacrfice, with music and with fatal yokes of flowers to my eternal ruin. Woman to man is either a god or a wolf"
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"your art to save fails as oft as a great man's friends...how miserable a thing it is to die 'mongst women howling"
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Company B
Playwright: Ben Jonson
Directed by: Neil Armfield
Belvoir Theatre
Geoffrey Rush .... Subtle Hugo Weaving .... Face/Lungs/Jeremy Gillian Jones .... Doll Common Max Cullen .... Sir Epicure Mammon
The Alchemist is a play in five acts by Ben Jonson. It was first staged in 1610, probably at the Globe Theatre. Of his plays, this is most commonly considered the best, though some prefer Volpone or Bartholomew Fair.
The play is set in contemporary 17th century London, and concerns the adventures of three low characters, Subtle, Face, and Dol Common, who have set up a fraudulent alchemical workshop in order to swindle gullible townspeople.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that The Alchemist was one of the most perfectly constructed plots he knew, the others being Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.
[Recommending Doll's 'skills' to Mammon]:She'll mount you up, like quick-silver, Over the helm, and circulate like oil"
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[Instructing Doll on how to entertain the Don]:"He shall be brought here, fettered With thy fair looks, before he sees thee; and thrown In a down bed, as dark as any dungeon; Where thou shall keep him waking with they drum ~ Thy drum, my Doll, thy drum ~ till he be tame"
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[On Dame Pliant]: "She is a delicate dabchick! I must have her"
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[About Drugger, behind his back]: "A miserable rogue, and lives with cheese, And has the worms. That was the cause indeed Why he came now. He dealt with me in private To get a medicine for 'em"
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Company B
Playwright: Stephen Sewell
Directed by: Neil Armfield
Belvoir Street Theatre
Hugo Weaving .... Allen Fitzgerald Cate Blanchett .... Rose Draper Catherine McClements .... Louise Fitzgerald Peter Carroll .... Doug Fitzgerald Russell Keifel .... Michael Wells Kerry Walker .... Eileen Fitzgerald Jason Clarke .... Bruce Fitzgerald Jacek Koman .... Ramon Ralph Cotterill .... Graham White/Sir Leslie Harris Steve Rodgers .... Bruce Lang Gillian Jones .... Janice Lang/Diane/Jane
Allen, a social economist, is a man of idealistic and principled origins and a committed worker for the left -- but he has familial poison running in his veins. As his struggle with the leader of his party's dominant right faction drifts helplessly from the political to the personal, Allen becomes increasingly controlled by the cold and unyielding anger passed on to him by his steelworker father. This is distinctive Sewell territory, where individual lives are equally at the mercy of powerful external forces as they are of scarcely understood drives within.
Louise: "Are normal people turning into cockroaches?" Allen: "I'm absolutely certain I'm turning into a cockroach"
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"I didn't realise we were talking about the utility of emotions"
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On the sexually-loaded first conversation with Rose: "Do I pay for this by the half hour, or what?"
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To Louise: "You don't know how alone I am"
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To Rose: "You seem to ooze this air of mysterious sensuality like a fucking squid's ink or some damn thing"
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"You've convinced me love doesn't exist: it's just the selfish rape of another"
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"We're the corpses of hope"
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"I know what I've become"
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[To his brother, on visiting a brothel, owned by a political rival]: "I wanted to feel everything that stinking deal meant. I wanted that horror, that degradation, because if I was going to do it, I wanted it all. I'm lost, Bruce. Get out before I burn you"
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"The world is a perfect reflection of the human heart"
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Sydney Theatre Company
Playwright: Tom Stoppard
Directed by: Gale Edwards
Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
Linda Cropper .... Hannah Jarvis Hugo Weaving .... Bernard Nightingale Paul Goddard .... Valentine n/a .... Septimus Hodge n/a .... Thomasina n/a .... Chloe n/a .... Lady Croom n/a .... Ezra Chater n/a .... Gus/Augustus n/a .... Jellaby n/a .... Richard Noakes n/a .... Captain Brice
Arcadia is set in an English country house, Sidley Park, with the action switching between characters in 1809 and 1989. It takes an acid look at academic research by juxtaposing the interpretations of modern historians with the clues they interpret, which we see being left by the inhabitants of the earlier time. Arcadia explores the nature of evidence and truth in the context of modern ideas of mathematics and physics. The play questions the power of modernity and mocks the motives behind postmodernity, climaxing in one character's spirited soliloquy defending the beauty and wholeness of Aristotle's universe.
In 1809, daughter of the house Thomasina Coverly, a very precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics well ahead of her time, studies with her tutor, Septimus Hodge, a contemporary of Byron's who has offended some visitors to the house over a matter of criticism. In 1989, two academics converge on the house: Hannah Jarvis, historian, who is investigating the hermit who lived on the grounds, and Bernard Nightingale, a professor of literature who arrives to unearth a secret chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by the research of resident and biologist Valentine Coverly, the truth about what happened in 1809 is gradually revealed.
[on Valentine] "Yes. I met him. Brideshead Regurgitated"
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"The Byron gang are going to get their dicks caught in their zip…if we collaborate"
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"A pencilled superscription. Listen and kiss my cycle-clips!...Christ, what do you want?"
Hannah: "Proof"
"Proof? Proof? You'd have to be there, you silly bitch!"
*************
Valentine: "Are you talking about Lord Byron, the poet?"
"No you fucking idiot, we're talking about Lord Byron the chartered accountant"
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[On his impending academic article coming]:"That comes later and in the recognized tone - very dry, very modest, absolutely gloat-free and yet unmistakably 'eat your heart out, you dozy bastards'. But first it's Media Don [university lecturer], book early to avoid disappointment"
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"Darling--"
Hannah: "Don't call me darling"
"Dickhead then"
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[To Valentine, a scientist]: "Quarks, quasars - big bangs, black holes - who gives a shit? How did you people con us out of all that status? All that money? And why are you so pleased with yourselves?"
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[To Hannah, after the nasty Art vs Science lynching]: "I'm sorry about that…it's no fun when it's not among pros, is it?"
*************
"I spotted something between her legs that made me think of you"[followed by a sharp, stinging slap from Hannah]
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Burning House
Playwright: Richard Roxburgh and Justin Monjo from Tim Winton's novel
Directed by: Richard Roxburg
David Wenham .... Ort Rachel Szalay .... Alice Hugo Weaving .... Henry Warburton Susan Prior .... Tegwyn Steve Rodgers .... Fat Cherry
It is the funny and moving story of young Ort Flack trying to come to terms with getting older, his father's near fatal car accident, a strange cloud that hangs over their Western Australia home, and a tormented stranger who might just be there for wicked purposes... Adapted (with Justin Monjo) from Tim Winton's novel. The play was nominated for Best Play by the Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle, the New South Wales Literary Board, and The Adelaide Festival Board, in 1995.
"Her name was Bobo Sax…she wasn't nice. She had the looks of a man and she smelt like a Labrador…she used to lie in her mud hut in the dark... the smell of her…"
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[To himself] "I hide and you see. I run and you follow. To the ends of this earth, to the limits of the pit of myself, you will see me and know me."
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"I'm weak…you don't like weak men"
Alice "All men are weak"
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"I've got my own surviving to do"
Alice: "It's not survival we worry about, Henry. It'shealing"
"Isn't it the same thing?...Death is a healing too, you know"
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Sydney Theatre Company
Directed by: Michael Gow
Hugo Weaving ... Character unknown Judi Farr Alex Harding |
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State Theatre Company of South Australia
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Roger Hodgman
Pamela Rabe .... Katherina Hugo Weaving .... Petruchio Peter Cummins .... Baptista Alison Whyte .... Bianca Paul English .... Lucentio Jacek Koman .... Tranio Bob Hornery .... Gremio Philip Holder .... Hortensio Alex Menglet .... Grumio John Murphy .... Curtis
Prior to the first act, an Induction (sometimes omitted) frames the play as a "kind of history" played in front of a drunkard named Christopher Sly. Sly has been kicked out of an alehouse for refusing to pay for his alcohol, and a Lord, come newly from hunting, finds him lying asleep outside and decides to fool Sly into thinking that he himself is a lord. Sly is lumbered up to a classy apartment, and slipped into bed. When he awakes, he is told that he is a great lord who has lost his memory of his real identity, and that his ale-house rambles were no more than a dream. A young man, dressed in woman's attire, is brought him and presented to him as his wife. Though offered a choice of entertainments, Sly prefers that this wife immediately join him for some play in bed. However, Sly is convinced to divert his attention to a comedy which some players have ready for him (he mistakenly identifies it as a 'comonty'), and this comedy is that story of Kate the Shrew that follows. The "Shrew" is Katherina Minola, the eldest daughter of Baptista Minola, a merchant in Padua. Her temper is extremely volatile and no man can control her. She ties her sister to a chair in one scene, demanding to know which of her suitors she likes best and strikes her sister when she cannot answer. In another scene she attacks a music tutor with his own lute. Her younger sister, Bianca Minola, is docile, beautiful, and much sought after by the noble men of the town. She is often remarked as "the ideal woman". Baptista has sworn not to allow his younger daughter to marry before Katharina is wed. Bianca has several suitors, and two of them agree that they will work together to marry off Katharina so that they will be free to compete for Bianca. One suitor, Gremio, is old and grey, and the other, Hortensio, is feisty and young. The plot becomes considerably more complex when two strangers, Petruchio and Lucentio, arrive in town. Lucentio, the son of the wealthy merchant Vincentio of Pisa, falls in love with Bianca, while Petruchio seems interested only in money. When Baptista mentions that Bianca needs a tutor, both Gremio and Hortensio compete to find one for her in order to curry Baptista's favor. Gremio comes across Lucentio, who pretends to be a man of letters in order to woo Bianca. Hortensio disguises himself as a musician and convinces Petruchio to present him to Baptista as a music tutor. Thus, Lucentio and Hortensio, pretending to be teachers, woo Bianca behind her father's back. Meanwhile, Petruchio is told by the suitors about the large dowry that would come with marrying Katharina. He attempts to woo the violent Katharina, calling her "Kate". In a scene he talks to Katherina and proves to the audience that he will not back down and is her intellectual equal. He quickly settles on the dowry, marries her and takes her home against her will. Once there, he begins his "taming" of his new wife - he keeps her from sleeping, invents reasons why she cannot eat, and buys her beautiful clothes only to rip them up. When Kate, profoundly shaken by her experiences, is told that they are to return to Padua for Bianca's wedding, she is only too happy to comply. By the time they arrive, Kate's taming is complete and she no longer resists Petruchio. She demonstrates her complete subordination to his will by agreeing that she will regard the moon as the sun, or the sun as the moon, if he demands her to do so. Bianca is to be married to Lucentio (following a complex subplot involving Lucentio's servant masquerading as his master during his stint as a tutor). Hortensio has married a rich widow. During the banquet, Petruchio brags that his wife, formerly untamable, is now completely obedient. Baptista, Hortensio, and Lucentio are incredulous and the latter two believe that their wives are more obedient. Petruchio proposes a wager in which each will send a servant to call for their wives, and whichever wife comes most obediently will have won the wager for her husband. Baptista, not believing that his shrewish Katharina has been tamed, offers an enormous second dowry in addition to the wager. Kate is the only one who responds, winning for Petruchio a second dowry. At the end of the play, after the other two wives have been summoned as well, Kate gives a monologue explaining that wives should always obey their husbands and lords.
"I come to wive it wealthily in Padua/if wealthily then happily in Padua"
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Katherina: "Asses are made to bear, and so are you"
Petruchio: "Women are made to bear, and so are you"
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To Katherina: "I swear I'll cuff you if you strike again"
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"I am he born to tame you, Kate,/And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate/Conformable as other household Kates"
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"I will be master of what is mine own./She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,/My household-stuff, my field, my barn,/My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything"
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"Why, there's a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate"
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Kinselas Productions
Playwright: David Williamson
Directed by: Graham Blundell
Sidney Opera House!
Steve Bisely .... Cooley Brandon Burke Gia Carides .... Susan Nicholas Eadie .... Don Peter Fisher Deborah Kennedy Julie Nihill .... Kath Lynda Stoner Geraldine Turner Hugo Weaving .... Mal Bill Young
On election night 1969, Don and Kath give a party to watch the results. As the tide turns against Labor, the bawdy good cheer palls and the faded ideals and disappointed hopes of the characters begin to show. Williamson's first long-running commercial success.
"The Liberals are going to get it up the arse"
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To Jody: "It's one thing to vote Liberal but another thing to admit it. I think you're quite courageous"
*************
"G'day shithead. Where's that bitch of a wife of yours?"
Mack: "I've left her"
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To Kerry: "You know of course that I would like to have an affair with you, so I'll be frank and just say that. How does that appeal to you?"
Kerry: "I'm afraid it doesn't"
"Well that's…er…very frank of you"
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"My wife. She's the bitch in the hostile stupor over there in the corner"
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"I didn't come here to have aspersions cast on my masculinity. I came here to admire Susan at close range"
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"Look you! If you want to contribute to this debate, contribute! If not, piss off!"
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Winding up Cooley: "He looks rather beautiful when he's angry, don't you think? You can see why we found him irresistible"
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"Put a hand on a woman's bum you get crippled. Isn't that just too middle class?"
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To best friend Don: "Look. I don't want you to take this as an insult, fella ~ and what I say I say as a friend ~ but you are a weak turd"
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State Theatre of South Australia
Playwright: Noel Coward
More info needed
The story is about a high-society couple named Amanda and Elyot. They have divorced and are now remarried to the gullible Victor and the insecure Sybil. The problem is Amanda and Elyot can't live without each other and yet, they can't really live with each other. They have murderous fights and rageful fits, which living amongst the rich, they feel entitled to. Not to mention they both have some pleasure in outwitting each other. Some might call it a sick addiction, they call it love. The play opens at a beautiful hotel in France. Both Amanda and Victor, and Elyot and Sybil are honeymooning there. The drama starts when Amanda and Elyot see one another on the patio and decide to run away together. The attraction has returned and their fascination with their new spouses has worn off. They sneak off to Amanda's flat in Paris. Peace prevails for a short time until they are back to "tearing each other's heads off." At the climax of their fight, their jaded lovers, Sybil and Victor, walk in.
Amanda and Elyot proceed to then work at recovering the trust of their present spouses. This leads Sybil and Victor into a treacherous fight. They are defending their "lovers." Somehow, in the midst of their fight, Amanda and Elyot forgive one another and slowly sneak out the door.
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Sidney Theatre Company
Playwright: David Williamson
Directed by: Rodney Fisher
1982: World Premiere Season at The Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House
1984: American Premiere Season at The Dock Street Theatre, Charleston
Robyn Nevin .... Barbara Peter Carroll .... Stuart Hugo Weaving .... Erik Diana Davidson .... Shirley Noel Ferrier .... Jack
Williamson's continuing examination of modern marriage follows a pair of academics (Barbara and Stuart) from Denmark to Sydney as they blunder along the rival paths of career and parenthood.
Hugo plays Erik Larson, a laid back, gentle, flirtitious, middle-class Danish Marxist hired by Barbara as a childminder.
"The teacher has power over the student, the parent power over the child, the husband has power over the wife ~ everywhere people are told what they must do…any society which results in everyone having to do what they're told isn't very nice"
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"I read him about the jolly swagman and the billabong, which is quite a strong political statement, by the way…this guy takes a sheep because he's hungry and the police drown him"
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"If everyone is making love they forget about injustice and the class struggle and revolution…to put it real flatly, to have sex for fun in a world full of poverty and need is not such a smart thing"
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To Stuart: "When Barbara is here I play romantic tunes on the piano and, yeah, eyes across a crowded room and all that crazy stuff - which is all pretty nice for sure…but then again it's not so honest for someone with my beliefs, right. So I'm sorry or whatever"
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To Stuart: "Let's say I have eyes, let's say I can see. Stuart you must let her out of her chains"
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To Barbara: "You think I am going to fall out of love when I see the first wrinkle or something, because if that's your method of thinking then I don't think you really know Erik Larsen"
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