Hate Program

HATE

20 FEBRUARY – 8 MARCH

Malthouse Theatre presents

HATE

By Stephen Sewell

Directed by Marion Potts Set & Costume Design Dayna Morrissey Lighting Design Paul Jackson Sound Design Russell Goldsmith Performed by Ben Geurens Glenda Linscott Grant Piro Sara Wiseman William Zappa Stage Manager Thomas Webster Assistant Stage Manager Tia Clark MERLYN THEATRE 20 FEBRUARY – 8 MARCH

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT In 1988, Australia celebrated the Bicentennial of white settlement, it being two hundred years since Governor Phillip arrived to establish the penal colony at Sydney Cove in the company of 696 convicts and 348 free persons, most of them armed soldiers, bringing the total number of white people landed in what was to become Australia to 1,044, with 48 people dying on the eight month journey from Britain. The Bicentennial was a year-long celebration of nationhood, as well as of protest and reflection on many of the issues facing the country, and as the descendent of an early convict myself, and a pioneer of the Bathurst area, Joseph Sewell, I was especially alert to the ambiguities of what Indigenous people re-named in that year Invasion Day. It was in this spirit that I took up the Bicentennial Commission to write Hate. The play deals with a highly political rural family, the Gleasons, as they struggle with the disasters befalling them as a result, it contends, of a furious, driving anger propelling them all into a vicious cycle of hate. No-one, it seems, is immune, and none can escape. The language is violent, the emotions extreme, and the climax cataclysmic, but lest anyone think it merely a theatrical overstatement, I would refer them to the ‘Joh for PM’ campaign which scuttled whatever chances the Coalition had of winning the 1987 Federal election from Prime Minister Hawke, and the colourful language of which makes the language of Hate seem positively tame.

But, of course, anyone listening to contemporary talk-back radio would be aware of the violent undertone of Australian discourse, which continues to be driven by an angry, visceral rage.

Why, one wonders? Where does the spite and fury come from?

In a world of poverty and war, Australia is the Lucky Country, but

somehow overwhelmed by fears of invasion by foreign boat people, robbed and taxed by communist elites, tricked out of their birthright by lying climate scientists, all of whom should be shot or tied up in chaff bags and dumped out at sea, along with their hero Osama bin Laden. Indeed, the level of viciously violent rhetoric, whipped up by demigogues like John Gleason, the fictional patriarch at the centre of Hate, has never in my lifetime been more poisonous, making the play not only as relevant as it was almost twenty five years ago, but also an important reminder, if we need one, of some of the emotional wellsprings underpinning discourse in this (and not only this) country ready to be exploited by unscrupulous politicians.

And the answer is not, of course, for us all to be nicer to one another, and to show a bit more courtesy (though that wouldn’t hurt) but for the inequalities and injustices that we have allowed to fester in our nation to be properly addressed, starting with that most glaring inequality and injustice, the appalling discrimination and terrible violence still being perpetrated against the Aboriginal people.

Until that problem is decisively and honestly dealt with, Australia will remain the nation of Hate.

Stephen Sewell, 2012

Reproduced with the permission of the Australian Script Centre 2012.

TIA CLARK ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Tia is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Her credits for Malthouse Theatre include Opera XS, A Golem Story and Baal (with Sydney Theatre Company). Other credits include: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Gordon Frost Organisation); Every Breath (Belvoir); The Rake’s Progress (Victorian Opera); Scooby Doo Live 2011 Tour (Entertainment Store Group); The King and I, The Boy From Oz, Sugar (Some Like It Hot), Anything Goes, Kismet, Grey Gardens (The Production Company); The Marriage of Figaro, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Victorian Arts Centre); At The Beach, Behind The Veneer (Buzz Dance Theatre); The Hidden Forest (Spontaneous Insanity); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare WA); The Nutcracker (WA Ballet).

BEN GEURENS MICHAEL GLEASON Ben graduated from NIDA in 2004, and has been performing since the late eighties in various television series including The Man from Snowy River and Neighbours.

Ben’s film credits include Monkey Puzzle and Body Melt. His recent television credits include Mr. and Mrs. Murder, Magazine Wars – Paper Giants 2, Movie Extra’s The Jesters and he has appeared as a guest in Packed to the Rafters, Home and Away, All Saints, Blue Heelers, McLeod’s Daughters, Underbelly Badness and Australia on Trial – Massacre at Myall Creek. Ben’s stage roles include the Melbourne Theatre Company productions of Entertaining Mr Sloane, The History Boys and The Glass Soldier. For the Sydney Theatre Company he performed in The Great and for Griffin Theatre Company in productions of This

is Our Youth and Shining City. He most recently appeared in The Pride at Red Stitch.

RUSSELL GOLDSMITH SOUND DESIGN Russell is an award-winning Sound Designer, Composer, Producer and Audio System Designer.

His work for Malthouse Theatre includes Blood Wedding, The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself, A Woman in Berlin, Happy Days, Optimism, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Sleeping Beauty, Exit the King, It Just Stopped, The Frail Man. Other recent theatre credits include: Persona (Fraught Outfit); The Other Place, His Girl Friday, The Golden Dragon, Don Parties On, The Swimming Club (Melbourne Theatre Company); Total Football (Ridiculusmus - The Barbican London/ Edinburgh Festival/National Theatre of Wales/Belfast Festival); The Nest (The Hayloft Project); Exit the King (Broadway production).

Other recent projects include A Packet of Seeds, a radio documentary for the BBC London, Cassandra is a Waitress for ABC Radio National and the ABC Radio adaptation of A Woman in Berlin, which was shortlisted for the Prix Italia, and won a bronze medal at the New York Festival Radio Awards.

Russell’s theatrical work has been recognised both locally and internationally. His sound design for Exit the King won the 2007 Sydney Theatre Award and was nominated for Best Sound Design at both the 2008 Green Room Awards in Melbourne and the 2009 Tony Awards in New York.

PAUL JACKSON LIGHTING DESIGN Paul is an Associate Artist (Design) at Malthouse

Theatre. He has designed lighting for The Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, West Australian Ballet, Victorian Opera, West Australian Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Playbox, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir, Ballet Lab, Lucy Guerin, World of Wearable Art New Zealand, La Mama, not yet it’s difficult performance group, Chamber Made Opera, and many others. Paul’s work has featured in festivals in Asia and Europe and he has lectured in design at the University of Melbourne, RMIT University and Victorian College of the Arts. Paul has received a number of Green Room Awards and nominations for design, as well as receiving the 2012 Helpmann Award for lighting design. He was named in The Bulletin’s Smart 100 for 2004 and was the Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellow for 2007.

GLENDA LINSCOTT ELOISE GLEASON Glenda is an actress with extensive experience in film, television, theatre and radio. She is best known to audiences for her role as Rita Connors, the bikie chick in Prisoner, for which she won a Penguin Award for Best Actress, and also as Dr Imogen “Tootsie” Soames in Murder Call. In 2012, she appeared in Underbelly Files: Infiltration, Winners and Losers, and Neighbours. On stage, she has worked for many companies around Australia and has played lead roles in Australian national tours. Theatre highlights include: Bad Blood Blues (The Loft at Chapel); Cogito (La Mama), Secret Bridesmaid’s Business (Mixed Company); Shirley Valentine and Daylight Saving (Hit Productions); Steaming (Gary Penny Productions); Terence Rattigan Double Bill (Jon Nicholls Productions), Angels in America and Women of Troy (Sydney Theatre Company); Communicating Doors, Crimes of the

Heart and Dinner with Friends (Marian Street Theatre); Speaking in Tongues, Season of Shorts, Pushin’ up Daisies (Griffin Theatre Company); and Shadow Passion (Chapel off Chapel). Glenda was nominated for a Best Actress Green Room Award in 2012 for her performance in Bad Blood Blues.

DAYNA MORRISSEY SET & COSTUME DESIGN Dayna graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2007 with a Postgraduate Diploma in theatre design. She is currently working as a freelance production designer and scenic artist for theatre and film. Recent designs include Persona (Fraught Outfit/Theatre Works), Speaking in Tongues (Griffin Theatre Company), Beyond The Neck, The City and Faces in the Crowd (Red Stitch), The Lost Story of the Magdalen Asylum and Devine (Peepshow Inc.). Other company appointments include Monash University Honors Ensemble, St Martins Youth Arts Centre and FOG Theatre. Dayna has received three Green Room Award nominations for her set designs for Devine (Peepshow Inc.), The City (Red Stitch) and White with Wire Wheels (Union House Theatre). Dayna’s design for Persona will appear in Malthouse Theatre’s 2013 season and at Belvoir later this year.

GRANT PIRO RAYMOND GLEASON Grant began his extensive career with a twelve month stint in the popular TV soap opera Sons and Daughters. He has since appeared in countless television programs, including Winners and Losers, City Homicide, The Elephant Princess, Sea Patrol, Crashburn, Rainshadow,

Wildside, SeaChange and Correlli to name a few. Grant earned an AFI nomination in 1995 for his role in Janus. Some of his film appearances include The Condemned, Darkness Falls, The Outsider, Crocodile Dundee in LA, Miracle Down Under, Bad Boy Bubby, and Mr. Accident. Grant is currently appearing in the comedy feature film about cricket, Save Your Legs! and has just finished filming an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Grant has most recently been seen on stage in Melbourne Theatre Company’s productions of His Girl Friday, The Drowsy Chaperone, Realism and The 39 Steps, in the David Atkins directed capital city tour of Hairspray and The Production Company’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Grant won a Green Room Award in 2005 for his role in The Producers and also in 1999 for The Merry Widow.

MARION POTTS DIRECTOR Marion is Malthouse Theatre’s Artistic Director.

She has worked with many of the country’s finest theatre companies and was most recently Bell Shakespeare’s Associate Artistic Director, creating its development arm Mind’s Eye. Marion was Resident Director for Sydney Theatre Company from 1995-1999. She curated the 2003 National Playwrights’ Conference, was a chairperson of World Interplay and a member of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council.

Marion received the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2006. For Malthouse Theatre, Marion has directed Wild Surmise, Blood Wedding, Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl and its return season at the Southbank Centre in London, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Sappho...in 9 fragments, Venus & Adonis (with Bell Shakespeare). Other theatre directing credits include: King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew,

Hamlet, Othello (Bell Shakespeare); The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Playgrounds, Volpone, Don Juan, Life After George, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Crucible, Navigating, Del Del, Closer, The Herbal Bed, What Is The Matter With Mary Jane?, Pygmalion, Where Are We Now?, The CafÊ Latte Kid, The Blessing, Two Weeks With The Queen (Sydney Theatre Company); Grace (Melbourne Theatre Company); Equus, The Torrents, Gary’s House, A Number, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? (State Theatre Company of South Australia); Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset (Queensland Theatre Company).

STEPHEN SEWELL PLAYWRIGHT Stephen has been writing for theatre for over thirty years, and has received every prestigious prize in the country. His plays, The Blind Giant is Dancing, Hate and Myth, Propaganda and Disaster are regarded as landmarks in Australian theatre, as is his screenplay of the terrifying The Boys. In addition to his writing for theatre and film, Stephen is also a novelist, with his new novel, The Captive coming out a little later in the year. Stephen is currently Head of Writing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

THOMAS WEBSTER STAGE MANAGER Thomas graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2005. His Stage Management and Production Management credits include: And All Things Return to Nature Tomorrow and Aviary - Suite of the Bird (BalletLab); Barassi the Stage Show (Jager Productions); Good Evening

(Token); Meow Meow’s Australian Tour (Live Nation); St Kilda Festival; Atheneaum Theatre; Melbourne International Comedy Festival; Melbourne Opera Company; Australian Shakespeare Company. Thomas has toured comedy acts around Australia, including: Jason Byrne, Jennifer Coolidge, Alan Davies and Julia Morris. This is Thomas’ first production with Malthouse Theatre.

SARA WISEMAN CELIA Sara most recently performed in A Place to Call Home (Network Seven) to air this year. Recent feature films include Fatal Honeymoon, Love Birds, Rest For the Wicked, The Insatiable Moon and Matariki. Recent television includes The Almighty Johnsons (South Pacific Pictures), Crownies (ABC) and What Really Happened: The Women’s Vote (Eyeworks). Theatre credits include: The Vagina Monologues, The Reindeer Monologues and Killer Joe (Royale Productions), This is How it Goes, Under Milkwood, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Silo Theatre), Proof (A Lethal Set Production), Ladies Night, Collected Stories, Cabaret, Amy’s View and Death of a Salesman (Auckland Theatre Company). Other films and television include: Sione’s Wedding, Jinx Sister, Outrageous Fortune, Maddigan’s Quest, Mercy Peak, Jacksons Wharf (South Pacific Pictures) and The Cult (Great Southern Television). Awards include: 2012 NZ Film Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama (What Really Happened: The Women’s Vote), 2011 NZ TV Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film (Matariki) and 2000 NZ Film Award for Best Performance in a short film (Letters About the Weather). Sara has also received four nominations for Best Actress for Mercy Peak and one nomination for Best Actress for Jinx Sister.

WILLIAM ZAPPA JOHN GLEASON William trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and worked in England as an actor and director before coming to Australia in 1976. His credits include: Antony & Cleopatra, Dance of Death and The Government Inspector (Bell Shakespeare); Loot, Old Times, Les Parents Terribles, Saint Joan, The Threepenny Opera, The Gift of the Gorgon, Siren, The Country Wife and The Seagull (Sydney Theatre Company); Skylight, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Translations (Melbourne Theatre Company); Scenes from an Execution, The Frogs, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Belvoir), Les Liaison Dangereuses, Much Ado About Nothing, Benefactors, Peter Pan, Richard III (State Theatre Company of South Australia). Commercial theatre credits include Scrooge The Musical, 42nd Street, The King and I, and Les Miserables.

William has appeared in the films A Heartbeat Away, Dead Europe, Bootmen, Head On, Amy, The Phantom, The Zone, My Entire Life, Crush, Quigley Down Under, Celia and Mad Max II and on television in Rake, Devil’s Dust, Crownies, Grass Roots, Big Sky, Water Rats, Correlli, GP, Rafferty’s Rules, Mission Impossible, House Rules, The Shiralee and Women of the Sun. He has been awarded numerous times, including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. William is also a writer and his latest play The Greening of Grace was recently performed at the Darlinghurst Theatre, Sydney.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Simon Westcott (Chair), John Daley (Deputy Chair), Frankie Airey, Michele Levine, Ian McRae, Sarah Morgan, Thea Snow, Sigrid Thornton, Kerri Turner, Leonard Vary.

Artistic Director Marion Potts Executive Producer Jo Porter Associate Artist (Design) Paul Jackson Associate Artist (Direction) Matthew Lutton Associate Artist (Writing) Van Badham Company Managers Lucy Birkinshaw

Nina Bonacci Associate Producer Josh Wright Administrator Narda Shanley Finance Manager Mario Agostinoni Finance Administrator Liz White Finance Assistant Connie Stella Marketing and Communications Manager Lisa Scicluna Digital Strategy & Marketing Coordinator Carl Nilsson-Polias Development Manager Jaclyn Birtchnell Philanthropy Manager Nicole Punte Development and Marketing Assistant Hiroki Kobayashi Media Manager Maria O’Dwyer Ticketing Manager Emma Howard Ticketing Assistant Lauren White Youth and Education Program Clare Watson Executive Assistant Emily Fiori Audience Development Consultant Jason Tamiru Building Manager Peter Mandersloot Bar Manager Cherry Rivers Front of House Managers Tristan Watson

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(lifetime recognition) FRONT OF HOUSE/BAR STAFF Leeor Adar, Matt Adair, Claire Beynon, Jacqui Brown, Ben Carollo, Mimi Catterns, Kathryn Delaney, Tom Dent, Carla Di Stefano, Alice Dixon, Graham Downey, Tanja George, Christian Grant, Josh Green, Kate Gregory, Simon Jeanes, Bridie McCarthy, Ian Michael, Anna Nalpantidis, Daniel Newell, Ruby Nolan, Syrie Payne, Kliment Poposki, Beck Rafferty, Claire Richardson, Sanne Rodenstein, Kathryn Joy, Phoebe Taylor, Jade Thomson, Lee Threadgold BOX OFFICE STAFF Jo Bassilios, Liz Bastian, Paul Buckley, Mark Byrne, Dan Giovannoni, Kate Gregory, Suzie Hardgrave, Michelle Hines, Ian Michael, Fiona Wiseman, Liz White Malthouse Theatre would like to acknowledge the people of the Kulin nation on whose land this work is being presented.

Vale Marc Psaila, our Company Manager, much loved and greatly missed.

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