MALTHOUSE ACKNOWLEDGES THE LAND AND SONGLINES OF THE BOON WURRUNG AND WURUNDJERI PEOPLES OF THE KULIN NATION.
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WRITER’S NOTE Anna K is an interrogation of how women in public roles are attacked by hostile voices intent on silencing them. In high profile positions women are exposed to significantly more negative criticism than men in the same positions, and furthermore endure violently sexualised online comments and messages intended to intimidate and shame them. The gendered nature of these not only act as a force to destroy women at the top of their game, but are also dire warnings to other women seeking to occupy similarly high profile roles in the media, politics and other spaces.
Indeed, Anna Karenina’s passionate expression is portrayed as a force for destruction in her response to gendered societal shaming. I wanted to investigate how we still do this to women, but to look towards a sisterhood for a different narrative conclusion.
This malicious, often anonymous, and unrelenting online backlash is aimed to undermine women’s professional voices, yet do so by also attacking their person, looks, gender and private lives. The experience of this online abuse can lead to catastrophic mental anguish and harm while insidiously threatening the presence of women’s voices overall. When women act outside the gendered roles of the domestic, or in a manner that threatens the patriarchal model, the violence of these attacks increases, threatening sexual assaults and calling for self-harm.
As a born and bred Melbournian, it is a great thrill for Malthouse to be producing my work at this truly iconic theatre, in the city I was raised.
While Anna K is inspired by Tolstoy, I am instead interested in a feminist interrogation. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina focusses on Levin’s need to warn against the passions of women (his Anna Karenina) as he argues a woman’s domesticity in service of husband and children is the life which brings a woman contentment (Kitty).
With Carissa Licciardello and Matthew Lutton, I have worked alongside a brilliant director/dramaturg team who have not only nurtured the script through various iterations, but have assembled an incredibly talented and exceptional cast of Australian actors to tell this story.
Suzie Miller / Writer
DIRECTOR’S NOTE Anna Karenina left behind her husband, child and polite society in pursuit of an intoxicating love affair—and she suffered for it. In Anna K, Suzie Miller’s startling provocation is that what Tolstoy’s heroine did then is still one of the great social taboos now. In an age where women can ostensibly ‘have it all’, it is still a shock when a woman puts her own desires ahead of her obligations as a wife, her duties as a mother, and her public image as a ‘good’, trustworthy woman. It is even more shocking to see a woman as a desiring being—the subject, not simply object, of desire—and particularly, as in Anna K, one who desires a younger man. Just as Anna Karenina did, our Anna swiftly finds that her pursuit of selfrealisation, of her authentic desires— of the truth at all costs—inspires shock, disbelief and derision. Many voices from many different quarters criticise and condemn Anna, but at the root of their judgements are the same core ideas about women who disrupt our expectations of their sexuality and behaviour. The world that waits outside Anna’s window and permeates her room through the internet—would rather she give herself up, erase herself, in service to her husband, child and society; and if she won’t do that, to be so small and quiet that she annihilates herself.
And beyond the window, the train beckons. Staging this work has been about finding the full expression of Anna’s inner world, her psychological and emotional reality, and the force of the outer world as it bears down on her. The voices that condemn Anna are many and varied, but we’ve sought to find a way to draw these together into what she experiences as a larger force, with one core way of seeing women at its root. Our team has really enjoyed exploring the complexities of Anna’s story in the rehearsal room. We hope you find similar fascination in your encounter with the play. Carissa Licciardello / Director
CAST & CREATIVE
SUZIE MILLER WRITER
LOUISA MIGNONE CAST
CARISSA LICCIARDELLO DIRECTOR
CALLAN COLLEY CAST
CAROLINE CRAIG CAST
ANNA CORDINGLEY SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
PAUL JACKSON LIGHTING DESIGNER
JOE PARADISE LUI SOUND DESIGNER & COMPOSER
LYNDIE LI WAN PO STAGE MANAGER
COINTHA WALKEDEN ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
ADDITIONAL CREATIVES MALITH WIJAYAWARDHANA BESEN PLACEMENT (DIRECTING) GRACE FERGUSON BESEN PLACEMENT (COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN)
HARRIE HOGAN BESEN PLACEMENT (LIGHTING DESIGN) JENNY LE VCA STAGE MANAGEMENT INTERN
JING-XUAN CHAN VOICE ARTIST BRIGID GALLACHER VOICE ARTIST
© Malthouse Theatre, the artists, designers, photographers, collaborators and contributors. All rights reserved, 2022. Campaign Photography / Kristian Gehradte. Printed on 100% recycled paper.
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