Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan was murdered at a gay ‘beat’ in the 1970s. His death was instrumental in South Australia’s decriminalisation of male homosexual acts.
Set among three grieving sets of parents on summer holidays, a summary of the play would make Away seem like a tragedy. It is actually a tenderhearted look at Australia.
Australian dramatist David Williamson’s new book is a mash up of memoir and autobiography, which casts himself as a former ‘plunderer’ of other’s lives.
Set at a long, beery election night party, David Williamson’s classic play is laced with unfinished sexual encounters, fist fights and drunken accusations. It feels remarkably fresh today.
Peter Carroll and Mandela Mathia in The Cherry Orchard, Belvoir St Theatre.
Belvoir/Brett Boardman
When the future is clearly changing but we can’t focus on tomorrow, should we just keep dancing? Pamela Rabe anchors the absurdity of The Cherry Orchard.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ acerbic, hilarious play is set on an old American plantation, but Wesley Enoch brings an Australian sensibility.
Then national theatre critic of The Australian, Katharine Brisbane and her husband, drama academic, the late Dr Philip Parsons, two years after they founded Currency Press in 1971, with their children Nick, now chair of Currency Press, and Harriet, this year replacing Katharine as Director of Currency House.
Currency House
Ex theatre critic for The Australian and founder of Currency Press and Currency House, Katharine Brisbane, now 89, has issued a call to arms for the arts to be taken seriously.
Ian Wilkes leads a Galup evening tour.
Daniel Grant
Artists Ian Wilkes and Poppy van Oorde-Grainger invite audiences to walk where the first contact between Noongar and white settlers at Lake Monger took place.
With travel bans and conservative limits on theatre capacities, this year’s Ten Days is a smaller affair than usual, placing community arts at its heart.