It’s the first show of the month which means a visit from Theatre Network Australia (TNA) and, of course, a chat with the TNA member of the month.
For July that member is award winning director and actor, Susie Dee. Together with multi award winning playwright Patricia Cornelius, they are about to head overseas to the Venice Biennale with two of Patricia’s remarkable plays, Shit and Love. Chris will talk with Susie about working with Patricia, and what this international recognition means for the status of Australian playwriting.
Since the 1961 release of Kenneth Cook’s novel Wake in Fright, this terrifying story of one man’s descent into madness in the gothic outback town of Bundanyabba has made its way to the big screen in the classic 1971 film, the small screen in the 2017 mini-series and now onto stage at the Malthouse. It’s been regarded as what might be the most unexpected adaptation of the work yet. What’s so unexpected about it? Chris will ask writer/director Declan Greene to find out.
Meanwhile, there’s more horror at the Northcote Town Hall this week, and again, it’s created in an unexpected way. The Cabin is a horror story for adults written by primary school aged children. How does that work, I hear you ask? Chris dropped in on rehearsals to ask that very question to the project’s creator, JOF, who tells us how he worked with 200 kids in Australia and in England to pull this idea together.
To music next, and what a huge line up this year’s Leaps and Bounds Festival has! There’s more than Chris could possibly do justice to in just one interview, so he’ll just meet one of the many acts that will be warming up the winter in the City of Yarra. Loretta Miller is one of the three voices that make up The Dusty Millers, and she’ll be on the line to tell Chris what it is that makes this singing trio not so dusty after all.
Music remains the theme for the end of this week’s show and the next band describe themselves as a ukulele wielding duo who sing songs they wrote in the back of a van while on tour, mostly to amuse themselves. They seem to have ended up amusing a whole lot of other people though, either through their popular YouTube channel, or with their live performances. They’re Sam Lohs and Rosie Burgess, and they’ll be live in the studio to tell us how they got together and maybe even sing Chris a song.
That’s all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes, with Chris Thompson, right here on Vision Australia Radio.
