Black Swan State Theatre Company launched their 25th season last night revealing a intriguing line up of classic, contemporary and new works.
One of the highlights of the company’s 2016 season is a production of Tony Kushner’s ‘Angel’s in America: Part 1 – Millennium Approaches’.
Artistic Director Kate Cherry shared that she had attended the first reading of the play many years ago. Cherry said her goal is to present a version that is less of a spectacle than the Broadway production, focusing more on the humanity within the story.
Set in 1985 ‘Angel’s in America’ follows Prior Walter, a young man who receives an AIDS diagnosis and is abandoned by his lover.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has won Best Play at the Tony Awards on two occasions.
The show was launched with a surprise performance from the Gay and Lesbian Singers of Western Australia who performed Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colours’
Another well known story in the program is ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ which will see Director Matthew Lutton returning to WA.
The new production is a fresh adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic novel.
Set in 1900 the story is about a group of school girls and their teachers who head out for a picnic but four members of their group mysteriously disappear.
The most ambitious production on the schedule is a cross cultural take on Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. BSSTC will team up with The National Theatre of China for a unique combination of Chinese and indigenous Australian cultures.
Dr Wang Xiaoying will direct the show, which is based on an old Chinese fable, with a cast of actors from both China and Australia.
The company has also gained the rights to stage a show that has recently been a success both off-Broadway and at The Edinburgh Fringe. ‘Clinton: The Musical’ is bound to be a lot of fun.
Described as “an outrageous musical” from Australian brothers Paul Hodge and Michael Hodge, the show features two versions of the former President, one an intelligent statesman, the other a randy troublemaker.
Adam Mitchell is set to direct the show and Claudia Alessi has signed up to be the choreographer.
An updated classic in on the menu with Justin Fleming’s new version of Moliere’s seventeenth century satire ‘Tartuffe’. Actress Jenny Davis had the crowd at the launch in hysterics with her recollection of her performance in the play at her all girls high school. Now 50 years later she shared her excitement in performing the play a second time.
The company has also show it’s commitment to support new work and early career actors. In June the company will premiere a new work by local writer Nathaniel Moncrieff. ‘A Perfect Specimen’ focuses on the true life tale of Julia Pastrana, a bearded lady in an 19th century freak show.
Moncrieff developed the script as part of the compay’s new writer’s group. The author explained that last year’s group leader Damon Lockwood had asked each playwright to present three concepts. The writers in the group voted which one they liked the most and that is what the playwright worked on for the rest of the year.
“It’s a play I’d wanted to write for years,” Moncrieff said at the launch, “Every since I chanced upon the story… the story was so rich in dramatic and thematic potential that I plagued by the fear that I was not yet an instilled enough writer to do Julia’s story justice. If it wasn;t for the emerging writer’s group and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, I would have continued to buckle under the weight of that fear.”
The company also has a double bill of ‘Girl Shut Your Mouth’ by writer Gita Bezard which will be directed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Will O’Mahony will direct his script ‘Tonsils + Tweezers’. The double bill will be presented as part of Fringe World 2016 and featuring The Bridging Company, a cast of actors recently graduated from the WA Academy of Performing Arts.
As the company launched it’s 25th season noting it’s longstanding commitment to indigenous story telling. The company also acknowledged the contribution of former chair Janet Holmes a Court.
Head to the company’s site for all the dates of performances in 2015Â
Graeme Watson, images Robert Frith
