The State Theatre Company of SA unveiled its 2015 program in the way in which it wishes to be seen. Not a bit like the conventional season program launch, this event was delivered with a glamor of carefully considered production values. A darkened stage arrayed with a hanging garden of spot-lit costumes, a large video screen backdrop, a grand piano illuminated OP and a lectern on prompt.
The aesthetic spoke of mystery and expectation.
And so it was.
But first, General Manager and patriarch Rob Brookman was to triumph the immense successes of the past season of the State Theatre Company - sellout shows, a quarter of million in sheer profit and an exciting future in discarding the 42 years of government statutory authority to burst forth as a free entity in brand new premises which were to be announced at the launch but now cannot.
Now, here's Geordie to do the 2015 program reveal.
Therein, top actors Nathan O'Keefe and Kate Cheel entered to occupy their own spot-lit spots and, as Geordie offered teasers on each show, they performed extracts of the script before, if the theatre-wise audience did not recognise the style, Geordie announced the name of the play itself and then stars of said shows extrapolated on their roles and the characters of the plays on the big video screen.
This was altogether stylish and effective - a classy, no-expenses-spared unveiling from a company riding high on its success.
The forthcoming season was very well received. It is a ripper of a season with luscious treats for everyone.
It bursts forth with a thrill of little-performed Beckett as the STC's Adelaide Festival 2015 star turn.
The ‘Beckett Triptych’ consists of Footfalls, Eh Joe & Krapp's Last Tape performed in the STC Scenic Workshop and starring Peter Carroll, Pamela Rabe and Paul Blackwell and directed by Geordie Brookman, Nescha Jelk and Corey McMahon.
The Ray Lawler classic, ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’ will hit the Playhouse in April and an ambitious all-the-family co-production of Masquerade, a Kate Mulvany adaptation of Kit Williams's book, will come to Her Majesty's before touring in May.
Harold Pinter's ‘Betrayal’ and Ben Jonson's ‘Volpone’ (or The Fox) follow and then Angela Betzien's crime thriller play, ‘Mortido’, will have its world premiere in the Dunstan Playhouse in October.
‘The Popular Mechanicals’, as originally directed by Geoffrey Rush and written by Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor with William Shakespeare will amuse and close the season in The Space in November.
But, there's more on the program – ‘This is Where We Live’, a State Ed co-production with Hothouse, a State Extra return of Miriam Margolyes in ‘The Importance of Being Miriam’ and a State Umbrella presentation of ‘Madame, the Story of Joseph Farrugia’, otherwise known as Madame Josephine of the Crazy Horse. This, a co-production with Vitalstatistix and Torque Show productions with Farrugia in interview with Ross Ganf.
New fundraising initiatives and a different form of State Friends were announced, and commissioned plays under the Jill Blewett umbrella. Six shows would tour and STC would feature in hosting the four-day National Play Festival 2015.
Watch this space to see how the season unfolds.
Samela Harris
