By: Augusta Supple

Augusta Supple — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 04:22:02 +0000

Dear Bartholomew,
Thank you for writing in – and always gald to hear someone so passionate about work – and the excellence of the artists we have gracing our stages.
I think I was relaying my thoughts at the time – which was over 12 years ago about my thinking about the play and about voice and identity – as a means of expressing how easy it was to accept Simon Stone’s version.
Of course you have a right to your own opinion, but I feel no differently from an Australian voice articulating American place names, as I do an Australian voice naming and locating places anywhere else in the world EG Delphi or Athens or Troy or Denmark… I think Book of Everything was placed in the Netherlands and I didn’t feel there was anything corrupted or lost when an actor sounded like they were from Penrith or the Blue Mountains…
It is because of this production I directed that I asked the very question you did: “why do play in the first place?” and that is why, I have devoted myself to Australian writing and writers since that time. Because my answer was that writers here and now are doing and writing what I want to see and direct – and I should invest in them.
It is a great play – truly wonderful. And the performances are great and design simple.
Tensions have always existed between auter directors and writers.
that is why I choose not to be an auteur director but to serve the writer and the actor.
Whatever the accent – for me at the moment, I am looking more at the choice of play and the themes therein as an indicator of culture – both in theatre and the wider community.

By: Bartholomew

Bartholomew — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:30:46 +0000

You are a writer? You are all about honoring text? How is it possible not to acknowledge that the characters say they are going “on a day trip to New York” but that sound like they are from Penrith? Come on! That is a bloody long day trip! If you watched Angels in America, would it be acceptable if the Jewish Rabbi sounded like he was from the Blue Mountains or if Prior was from Hobart?- It takes you out of the play for goodness sake! Why do you forgive a play set in naturalism for not being naturalistic and what the writer wants being ignored? I should also say- this was a wonderful night in the theatre- Colin Friels was absolutely brilliant to watch and he was so damn honest in everything he did. The show was fantastic- but this is an American play, universal themes yes, but an American play and geographic locations combined with phrases and specific words make this absolutely American. So moments jar and distract when they are spoken in the Australian Accent. You are taken out of the play; you hear the choice and then go back into the play. You sound completely fine with that- I hover in a different world (admittedly a minority) but a world where I believe Australia has world class actors, world class actors that are capable of doing an American accent and we need to do that because when we decide to do an American play we are required to serve the text. Augusta- why not change the references in the play? Why not make “New York”…”Melbourne”….why not make the “Chevy”… the “ford falcon” that is staring us in the face…if your response is “Millers estate wouldn’t allow it” then why do play in the first place? When there are clearly inconsistencies that hit you in the face when it is australianised.
Audiences should be flocking to the play- it is terrific and as I say, watching Freils is watching one of our finest.
I do believe Australian theatre is better than this- I will be thrilled to see Belvoir do August:Osage County in a few years set in America and sounding like a pack of folks from Broken Hill- Or Angels in American- AMERICA!

Comments on: Death of a Salesman | Belvoir

By: Augusta Supple

By: Bartholomew