On the Misconception of Oedipus Program

ON THE MISCONCEPTION OF OEDIPUS 10 - 26 AUGUST

Photo: Lachlan Woods

Malthouse Theatre presents

ON THE MISCONCEPTION OF OEDIPUS Devised by Zoë Atkinson, Matthew Lutton and Tom Wright Text by Tom Wright Directed by Matthew Lutton Set and Costume Design Zoë Atkinson Lighting Design Paul Jackson Composition and Sound Design Kelly Ryall Assistant Director Daniel Lammin Performed by Natasha Herbert Richard Pyros Daniel Schlusser Stage Manager Alice Fleming Design Secondment Casey Corless Sound Secondment Lore Burns BECKETT THEATRE 10 – 26 AUGUST Co-produced with Perth Theatre Company.

Developed in the Engine Room thanks to support from CAL Cultural Fund.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE This is not the famous Oedipus play by Sophocles or Seneca. This is effectively a prequel. It examines the events before these plays begin. This chapter of the myth was never written down. Therefore, we have frequently imagined our own version of events.

The figures trapped onstage are inspired by the characters of Laius and Jocasta (Oedipus’s parents) and Oedipus himself. Of course, they are also the contemporary psychological archetypes of the mother, the father and the child. You can’t explore any of the characters in this myth without wrestling with Freud and psychology.

All of the voices onstage are obsessed with telling their version of events. There is a lot of hubris onstage. They want to record their version of history and, therefore, frequently contradict each other. There is possibly no true version of history.

All the characters have to confront and question “what is fate?” They are all obsessed with analysing themselves and their relationship to fate (if they even believe in it) and they frequently change their mind on the subject.

Each time the characters approach a significant crossroads in their narrative, the theatre language onstage radically shifts. Therefore, the production is divided into three parts and each part invites you to analyse the behaviour of those onstage in a different way.

MATTHEW LUTTON

Photo: Lachlan Woods

ZOË ATKINSON CO-DEVISOR, SET AND COSTUME DESIGN Zoë studied design for performance at The Prague Academy of The Performing Arts (Faculty of Puppetry and Alternative Theatre), The International Institute of Figurative Theatre (Czech Republic), and at the Institute International de la Marionette, France (under designer Josef Svoboda). Zoë’s most recent designs include the costumes for Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (State Opera of SA, Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, West Australian Opera), and the set and costumes for Elektra (West Australian Opera) and Signs of Life (Black Swan State Theatre Company). Other designs include Plainsong, Jandamarra, The Carnivores, The Crucible (Equity Award Best Design), Away, Copenhagen, The Unexpected Man, Uncle Vanya (Black Swan Theatre Company); The Odyssey (Malthouse Theatre/Black Swan, Helpmann Award Best Costume Design); Million Puppet Project Exhibition (UNIMA World Puppetry Congress); Bench, Skin Tight (Perth Theatre Company); Drover’s Wives (Steamworks Arts Productions); Fantastical Adventures of Leonardo da Vinci (KAOS Theatre); Out of the Blue, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Bunyip of Berkley’s Creek (Spare Parts Theatre); Snark – The Way of the Bravest (Carry Grant Players/Maison de la Culture de Nevers et Neivers/ Sydney Festival); Lawn (Splinter Group/Sasha Waltz & Guests/ Stuttgart Tanzplattform, Green Room Award Best Design); The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (London Barbican BITE/Brisbane Powerhouse/Ridiculusmus UK).

ALICE FLEMING STAGE MANAGER Alice recently returned from touring Vienna and London with Back to Back Theatre’s European premiere of Ganesh Versus the Third Reich. She is currently completing a Master’s degree at The University of Melbourne.

Previous Malthouse Theatre credits include The Histrionic, Look Right Through Me and Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl. Other theatre credits include: Spicks & Speck-tacular – The Finale Tour (Token Events); The Gift, Clybourne Park (Melbourne

Theatre Company); A Bird, A Tree, The Moon (Peepshow Inc); Sundowner (KAGE); Do Not Go Gentle... (fortyfivedownstairs).

Alice’s event experience includes Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, WOMADelaide Festival, The Australian Ballet for Target’s Full Year Business Update, Australian Dance Awards, Next Wave Festival’s Sports Club Project, Fringe Festival, Castlemaine Arts Festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties and The Falls Festival. Alice will directly follow this project by joining Back to Back Theatre to premiere Food Court in Philadelphia and Ganesh Versus the Third Reich in Rotterdam.

NATASHA HERBERT JOCASTA Natasha most recently appeared at Malthouse Theatre in Happiness and previously in Kitten.

For Melbourne Theatre Company some highlights are The Dream Life Of Butterflies, God of Carnage, The Pillowman, Three Sisters, The Balcony, I’m Not Rappaport and I Hate Hamlet. Other theatre credits include Madeleine for Black Sequins Productions, Small Metal Objects for Back to Back, The Wall for Ranters Theatre, Progress and Melancholy at fortyfivedownstairs, The Country at Belvoir Downstairs, Still Angela, Rapture, Honour, Love Child and Wolf for Playbox Theatre Company, Skylight at Hothouse, and Hamlet at Theatre Up North. Natasha received Green Room nominations for her performances in God of Carnage, Love Child and Honour and was awarded Best Actress in 2001 for her portrayal of Mrs Kay in Portrait of Dora at La Mama.

Natasha’s film credits include X, Lake Mungo, Corroboree and Boytown.

PAUL JACKSON LIGHTING DESIGN Paul works for Melbourne firm The Flaming Beacon and is Associate Artist (Design) at Malthouse Theatre. His design work for performance includes theatre, dance, opera and cabaret with companies as varied as Malthouse Theatre, Playbox Theatre Company, The Australian

Ballet, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, W.A. Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Chamber Made Opera, Melbourne Workers’ Theatre, Victorian Opera, W.A. Opera and many others. Paul has lectured in design at the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, NMIT and Victorian College of the Arts. A founding member of not yet it’s difficult performance group and a Churchill Fellow, Paul has received a number of Victorian Green Room Awards and nominations for design, as well as multiple Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award nominations. He was named in The Bulletin’s Smart 100 for 2004.

DANIEL LAMMIN ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (BESEN FAMILY ARTIST PROGRAM) Daniel is a recent graduate of Directing from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). His directing credits include Howl (NIDA), The Cutting Boys (La Mama) and The Laramie Project (Monash University Student Theatre). He was also Assistant Director on Pains of Youth (NIDA), The Economist (MKA) and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later (Red Stitch). As well as directing, Daniel has worked as a playwright, with a number of works presented at La Mama and the Midsumma Festival. This is his first production with Malthouse Theatre.

MATTHEW LUTTON CO-DEVISOR, DIRECTOR Matthew is an Associate Artist (Direction) for the Malthouse Theatre. Past works for Malthouse include Die Winterreise, The Trial and Tartuffe. For Sydney Theatre Company Matthew has directed The Duel and The Mysteries: Genesis, for Belvoir Street Theatre Tom Holloway’s Love Me Tender, and for Griffin Theatre Company Don’t Say the Words. In 2011, he directed the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s new opera, Make No Noise, for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and in 2012 Richard Strauss’s Elektra for West Australian Opera, Opera Australia and the Perth International Arts Festival.

RICHARD PYROS OEDIPUS For Malthouse Theatre: A View of Concrete, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. For Sydney Theatre Company: Gross und Klein (Big and Small), Money Shots, The White Guard, Before/After, Leviathan, The Comedy of Errors, Oresteia, Vs Macbeth, The Mysteries: Genesis, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Woman in Mind.

For Societas Raffaello Sanzio/Barbican Theatre BITE09: Inferno.

For The Arches Theatre, Glasgow (and Scottish National Tour): Amada. For Hebbel Am Ufer, Berlin: The Crumbtrail. For Societas Raffaello Sanzio: Hey Girl. For Melbourne Festival/ Barbican BITE07/ASSITEJ and international tour: Gilgamesh.

For Arcola Theatre, London: The Miniaturists (At Sea). For Lyric Hammersmith, London: Coyote Canyon. For Camden People’s Theatre, London: Scenes of a Massacre. For Bell Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. For A Poor Theatre: Hamlet. For Melbourne Festival: Remembrance of Things Past. For Wentworth Arts Festival: Romeo & Juliet. Film: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Melbourne Film Fest 07), Noise (Sundance Film Fest 07). TV: Big Bite, Stand Up Australia. Radio: Hamlet (ABC Radio). Positions: Member of the STC Residents, 2009-2012. Awards: Irene Mitchell (VCA).

Training: VCA, and with Philipe Gaulier, Anne Bogart, Di Trevis, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. Proud member of Actors’ Equity since 2003.

KELLY RYALL COMPOSITION AND SOUND DESIGN Kelly’s recent works include: The School For Wives, Macbeth and Julius Caesar (Bell Shakespeare), On The Production Of Monsters, Return To Earth, Dead Man’s Cell Phone and God Of Carnage (Melbourne Theatre Company), Disappearing Acts (World Theatre Festival), The Boys (Griffin/Sydney Festival), And No More Shall We Part (Griffin), Die Winterreise (Thin Ice, Malthouse Theatre), Sundowner (KAGE), Expectation (Arts House), The Trial (Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Thin Ice),

Love Me Tender (Company B, Griffin Theatre Company and Thin Ice), The Harry Harlow Project and The Man With The September Face (Full Tilt), One Night The Moon (Malthouse Theatre), Pieces for Small Spaces (Lucy Guerin Inc), Red Sky Morning (Red Stitch), Savage River (Griffin Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Tasmanian Theatre Company), Thom Pain (B Sharp), Mr Freezy (Arena Theatre Company), Chocolate Monkey, Space Monkey and Love Monkey (The Amazing Business), Chapters from the Pandemic, Detest, Wretch and Save for Crying (Angus Cerini/Doubletap) and Mercury Fur (little death/Griffin Theatre Company). Kelly has received three Green Room Awards, a Melbourne International Arts Festival Award and a Melbourne Fringe Award.

DANIEL SCHLUSSER LAIUS Daniel is a director, dramaturg and performer.

He most recently performed in Persona (Fraught Outfit), as Hamlet in Ophelia doesn’t live here anymore (Daniel Schlusser Ensemble/Chamber Made Opera/Bell Shakespeare Mind’s Eye), and as Krogstad in The Dollhouse (Daniel Schlusser Ensemble at fortyfivedownstairs). He is an Associate Artist of The Rabble and has performed the roles of Bernarda Alba in Cageling and Herod in Salome for that company. Previous performances include the solos Kill Hamlet (La Mama, The Universal Theatre, and Griffin Theatre) and Camus’ The Fall (Stork Hotel/Melbourne Writer’s Festival).

Daniel has a Master of Arts in Theatre Directing from the Victorian College of the Arts and most recently directed The Histrionic (Malthouse Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company). He is Artistic Director of the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, with whom he is currently working on an adaptation of The Master and Margarita in association with Theatre Works.

TOM WRIGHT CO-DEVISOR, WRITER Tom is the Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company. He started as a member of Barrie Kosky’s Gilgul in the early 90’s, then with Michael Kantor’s Mene Mene in the late 90’s. He has worked as an actor and director at the Melbourne Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, Playbox, La Mama, Company B, Anthill, Gilgul, Mene Mene, Bell Shakespeare Company, Chunky Move, Black Swan Theatre, Chamber Made Opera and the Adelaide, Sydney, Edinburgh, Perth and Melbourne Festivals. He has written a number of plays or adaptations, including A Journal of the Plague Year, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Ubu, This Is a True Story, Lorilei, Medea, Babes in the Wood, Puntila and His Man Matti, Tense Dave, The Odyssey, The Lost Echo, Criminology (with Lally Katz), Tales From the Vienna Woods, The Women of Troy, The War of the Roses, The Duel, Baal, Optimism, Oresteia and The Histrionic. The radio version of his play Lorilei won the Gold Drama Award (British Radio Academy) and BBC Radio Drama Award, 2007. His adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The Lost Echo, won five Helpmann awards in 2007, including Best Play. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s History Plays, The War of the Roses, won six Helpmanns in 2009.

PERTH THEATRE COMPANY is a resident company of the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. Under the Artistic Direction of Melissa Cantwell, Perth Theatre Company presents smart, fearless theatre and supports the work of emerging West Australian artists. Recent work includes critically outstanding productions of The Ugly One (starring Gemma Ward), Tender Napalm, Blackbird and It’s Dark Outside. The company is the proud producer of the international, multi-award winning production The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer.

Perth Theatre Company is proud to be co-producer of On the Misconception of Oedipus to be performed in the Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia from 5-15 September 2012.

PTC TEAM Artistic Director Melissa Cantwell, General Manger Nic Clark, Operations Manager Sarah Weber, Membership & Marketing Coordinator Kate Hancock, Administration Officer Liam Mangan, Production Manager (On the Misconception of Oedipus) James Nerva, Finance Officer Suzanne Fielding, Public Relations Grant Capriotti & Lauren Elliott Muse Bureau, US Agent Laura Colby Elsie Management. perththeatre.com.au

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

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