ArtsHub: Dreamers
See article in its original context here by Caroline Tung for ArtsHub.
A winning writer-director partnership will debut a production of an unconventional social more on the Australian stage.
Acclaimed Australian playwright Daniel Keene and director Ariette Taylor will collaborate with designer Adrienne Chisolm to bring a new production ofDreamers to Melbourne arts venue fortyfivedownstairs.
A first for Australian audiences, the play portrays struggles against intolerance, racism and exclusion through its central character Anne, a 60-year-old woman who begins a relationship with a much younger man of a different race.
The original play was performed in French by the Tabula Rasa theatre company.
The Australian premiere will be performed in English, with no specific setting.
Artistic director Mary Lou Jelbart calls this theatre partnership ‘a gift to Australia’, praising Keene’s consistent approach in creating powerful plays.
‘Daniel Keene continues to write plays that are powerfully relevant to contemporary life – his work constantly grows from a powerful sense of social justice that speaks to the heart as well as the head,’ Jelbart said.
The Keene and Taylor production also addresses the problem of isolation, particularly in the lives of older people.
‘It is a view of the underside of Australian life,’ said Keene. ‘In Australia at present debate is discouraged, exclusion is promoted, intolerance is accepted and complexities are ignored or erased.’
Keene and Taylor’s version reflects these ideas through the play’s central figure, who must face ‘an avalanche of prejudice and disapproval’.
‘Theatre is a place for complex social conversations, somewhere to broker understanding and to hopefully generate inspiration and discussion,’ Keene said. ‘We hope that Dreamers contributes to achieving those ends.’
He had previously collaborated with Taylor on the highly successful Keene/Taylor Theatre Project, which presented a total of 47 productions in 17 seasons from 1997 to 2002.
“The collaboration between these two talented artists produced some of the most unforgettable theatre we have ever seen,’ Jelbart said.
The cast will be announced soon.
For ticket bookings call 03 9662 9966 or visit fortyfivedownstairs.com
$35. Early bird tickets on sale now for performance on 9 – 14 November 2014
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caroline Tung is a second-year student at Monash University.