| New Directions – Season 2009: a provoking, challenging, funny and entertaining look
at identity, intimacy and the games people play, featuring contemporary works from
Australia, Mexico and Poland.
www.newtheatre.org.au/
The season started with a bang last Wednesday, with the World Premiere of "Horrific
Acts for Charity" by Australia’s Ben Ellis, a satirical take on altruism and do-gooding
that generated much post-show discussion in the foyer. This week it’s a Double Bill:
the Australian Premiere of "On Insomnia and Midnight" by Mexican playwright Edgar
Chïas in tandem with the Sydney Premiere of Victor and Sass by Cairns-based writer
Kathleen Cantarella.
The Polish connection runs strongly through the season: the Australian Premiere of
A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians (Week Three, 5 – 8 August) is a wild
journey through contemporary Poland by young literary star Dorota Mas這wska;
and Week Four (12 – 15 August) features the Sydney Premiere of Mrs Petrov’s Shoe by
Polish/Australian writer No螔le Janaczewska, an insightful study of how the ideal of
multiculturalism has played out in Australian society.
Below is some information on these two award-winning playwrights.
Dorota Mas這wska, born 1983 in the Polish village of
Wejcherowo, wrote a book at age 19 called Snow
White and Russian Red, depicting an urban periphery
of cynical Polish teenagers from the housing projects
who search for meaning and identity, and she wrote
it in their own vernacular. The book won instant
acclaim and notoriety, winning the prestigious 2003
Polityka Passport in the literature category for "her
personal take on Polish reality and creative use of
common language". The book is now being filmed by
noted director Jan Jakub Kolski. Her second novel,
The Queen's Peacock, 2005, won Poland's highest
literary award, the NIKE.
A controversial choice over
seven other finalists, including Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska, the young
Mas這wska has been both praised and attacked since her debut four years ago. The
title in Polish, Paw Krolowej, is a play on words that also translates as The Queen's
Puke. Described as a prose-poem as well as a rap song, it scathingly satirizes mediamakers
and pop stars, as well as the author's own success. Theatrical adaptations of
both books have been performed widely in Poland. In 2006 Mas這wska's debut play,
A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians, was commissioned and staged by the
TR Warszawa theatre. Mas這wska has pursued cultural studies at Warsaw University,
and currently collaborates with several magazines. (Source: Polish Cultural Institute, NY)
No螔le Janaczewska is a multi-award winning Sydneybased
writer whose plays, performance texts, libretti,
spoken word, poetry, essays, radio scripts, gallery and
on-line explorations have been performed, broadcast
and published throughout Australia and overseas. The
recipient of 4 AWGIE Awards for radio writing across
drama and non-fiction, her play Songket, produced by
the Griffin Theatre Company/Sydney Opera House to a
sell-out season, won the 2002 Griffin Playwriting Award
and the 2001 Playbox-Asialink Playwriting Competition.
Recent works include: Eyewitness Blues for the BBC, The
Hannah First Collection, 1919—1949 (Shanghai Zendai
Museum of Modern Art), Disappearance (The Border
Project), There’s Something About Eels … and Pitch
both for ABC Radio National in 2008, Taishō Chick (Art Gallery of NSW), Fearless N
(Theatre Kantanka/Sydney Olympic Park), the Movie Extra Award-winning Duet With
A Dictionary (Short & Sweet 2008, Movie Extra 2008), Unrequited (Adelaide Festival
Centre OzAsia Festival), This Territory (ATYP/Powerhouse Youth Theatre/Sydney
Opera House) and Mrs Petrov’s Shoe, winner of the 2006 Queensland Premier’s
Literary Award. No螔le is a member of the 7-ON playwrights’ group whose inaugural
project The Seven Needs was part of the Griffin Theatre Company’s 2007 season.
Week Three: 5 - 8 August
A COUPLE OF POOR, POLISH-SPEAKING ROMANIANS
by Dorota Mas這wska (Poland) – Australian premiere
Translated by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett.
Directed by Alice Livingstone.
Meet Dzina and Parcha. They're the hitchhikers from hell. She's a pregnant, gluesniffing
wacko. He's an intimidating motor-mouthed hoon. But all is not as it first seems.
Hunter S Thompson meets the Sex Pistols … a feverish mix of hippie and punk, vulgarity
and poetry, the modern and the post-modern … an exciting work that screams of the now -
- Alex Sierz.
CAST: Mairead Berne, John Keightley, Pete Nettell, Neil Phipps, Sandy Velini
and Cheryl Ward.
Week Four: 12 - 15 August
MRS PETROV’S SHOE
by No螔le Janaczewska (Australia) – Sydney premiere.
Directed by Mackenzie Steele.
Anna Lubansky shoots to prominence with her first novel and her multicultural star is shining brightly in the literary firmament—until the real fiction is uncovered.
Mrs Petrov's Shoe is as much about cultural identity as it is about literary scandal and it is
very funny. – Melbourne Stage Online.
CAST: Will Carter, Lindsey Chapman, Sonia de Domeneghi, Will Edwards, Jeneffa Soldatic and Paul Treacy.
NEW DIRECTIONS – SEASON 2009
22 July – 15 August
Wednesday – Friday @ 8pm, Saturday @ 2pm and 8pm
Tickets: $22 Bookings: 1300 306 776 / www.mca-tix.com.au
How to get there?
New Theatre
542 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
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