GORGE '09 - RADIO ADELAIDE REVIEW

Radio Transcript
by Myk Mykyta

Last week Brink Productions and the Adelaide Festival Centre’s InSpace program gave people an opportunity to experience the process of creating theatre. The show was Gorge ‘09 at the Space Theatre under the direction of Chris Drummond and Daisy Brown, who initiated Gorge twelve years ago.

Three writers – Alirio Zavarce, Matthew Cormack and Nicki Bloom – were commissioned to write a ten-minute play. Each play was then given to two companies to produce in a maximum of forty hours rehearsal with limits on the staging and with a performance time of under twenty minutes and with no contact with the writer or one another.

Each night was devoted to one writer. The writer was introduced; the play was given an unrehearsed reading; the audience asked questions of clarification and then the different companies gave their interpretations. Afterwards the audience had an opportunity to talk to all the artists.

Thursday saw Alirio Zavarce’s Conflict Under an Australian Quilt; a three-hander that explored Australian tacit racism within the framework of a torrid one-night stand. We first saw three actors directed by Daniel Clarke and then three dancers choreographed by Aidan Munn. Each group had an interesting interpretation and the resonances produced a lively discussion.

Matthew Cormack’s Like Brothers in a Bathtub on Friday showed us something of the world of twins in a dream-like play that was filmic and beguiling. The first interpretation was from the group Theimagen and used live actors working with their filmed images, directed by Justin McGuinness, where both the dream and the filmic qualities came through. The other presentation was from a group called Unreasonable Adults who gave us a happening. The only connection with Cormack’s script was the use of some of the dialogue in a computer distorted form. The discussion was not particularly lively as I was the only person game enough to say that the happening bore no relation to the text.

Saturday was a successful finale with Nicki Bloom’s Footsoldiers, an original and provocative power play with echoes of Pinter and Becket. The interpreters were Real Time Collaborators, who focused on the absurdity, and Stone/Castro who looked at the nuances and facets of power and control. The discussion was wide ranging and involved many of the audience.

I found this season of Gorge as interesting as the previous five as I have been a Gorge groupie since the original Theatre Guild season in 1997. I do hope to see another incarnation very soon. If nothing else it showed the writers the value of editing.