theatre notes comments

p.s. it didn't make sense that the professor c...

2012-05-30T07:48:01.583+10:00

p.s. it didn't make sense that the professor character was in love with Diane but also arranged for her sacking. The part where she described the lead up to his hand under her jumper in that descriptive speech was another cringeworthy part that didn't 'fit' with her character - why recite that supposedly tender story when she was angry? Were we supposed to wonder if her daughter

Here's what I thought... The sets were okay/a...

2012-05-29T22:58:45.552+10:00

Here's what I thought...

The sets were okay/average for MTC. I liked the snow falling through the windows and the lighting at the end as the sun rose..but that's about it.

I thought the main character/Dianne was the most realistic - though I am not sure Noni is well cast for the role. I felt she seemed depressed and plodding. She seemed more like a school teacher

I'd be astonished if it didn't come back.

2012-05-29T08:53:49.417+10:00

I'd be astonished if it didn't come back.

Yep. Finally got around to writing a review. Time ...

2012-05-28T18:42:43.173+10:00

Yep. Finally got around to writing a review. Time to start up the Persona Return Season committee, methinks.

So glad you saw it, Philip! Yes, remarkable.

2012-05-25T08:33:34.515+10:00

So glad you saw it, Philip! Yes, remarkable.

I'm delighted to read your response, Alison. W...

2012-05-24T19:05:15.298+10:00

I'm delighted to read your response, Alison. We saw the preview and thought it was, from beginning to end, subtle, incisive and layered with theatre, the kind of play that took terrible risks in taking a masterwork and auteur's vision and... incredibly, creating a new, finished work quite as stunning as his own. The balance between feeling, estrangement and the, as you say, grotesquely

I got the literary reference Chris but failed to s...

2012-05-24T17:35:22.831+10:00

I got the literary reference Chris but failed to see how it applies, given you find the play so "bad" (and presented this as a matter of fact rather than faith).

Alison, Yes, I've read Clive Hamilton too. You might "get" the polarization argument but don't seem to see that it extends to the play's reception, and that you're part of it. On one level,

Hi Cameron - one of the things that is very clear ...

2012-05-24T16:37:06.409+10:00

Hi Cameron - one of the things that is very clear in the discussion is that anyone familiar with the arguments of climate denialism - as opposed to scepticism, which is frankly quite a different thing - can't but notice how they underpin all the so-called claims to science in the play. At the beginning of the play Diane is touting those arguments - the Maldives sea level argument is a

Oh Cameron, I'm beginning to think you have no...

2012-05-24T16:06:40.521+10:00

Oh Cameron, I'm beginning to think you have no actual concept of individual differences. Either that or I'm too much of a chameleon.

And, man, of anyone I know, surely you would have picked up on my paraphrase of Blake: his take on Milton's treatment of Satan in Paradise Lost.

Chris, it's naive to think that one's poli...

2012-05-24T15:26:53.626+10:00

Chris, it's naive to think that one's politics don't have a role in deciding whether one hated the play. Your own accusation of facetiousness (and utterly presumptuous speculation re Bean's own ignorance) has a decidedly political component: "The seriousness of the issues bandied about is so constantly undermined by the jokiness of the writing, I wondered if Bean might be a

Ok, but it's not really a "banal" fa...

2012-05-23T15:12:19.742+10:00

Ok, but it's not really a "banal" fact, is it? To engage with this idea is incredible, impossible and creates a myriad of responses from people everywhere. People spend their lives responding to this, others become incredibly frightened if they think about it, some try to find a way out, (like the Russian trans-humanist theorist I went to hear the other day who was speaking about

Er...what? I didn't at any point say that we s...

2012-05-23T13:00:46.150+10:00

Er...what? I didn't at any point say that we shouldn't care what happens to us or our planet. Personally speaking, I care deeply. It's merely a banal fact that the planet will carry on without us as happily as it has carried on without dinosaurs or mammoths. And one day it will plunge into the sun, and that will be the end of that. To me, that seems to focus things rather sharply on

hey tiger, I have barely an idea of what you'r...

2012-05-23T12:09:03.807+10:00

hey tiger, I have barely an idea of what you're on about, but I think that's your point, that the world is very big and I'm very small and there is a lot of bad stuff happening, but to be honest I knew that already.

I certainly don't deny there is a bee problem in the Euro zone, and thanks everyone for the info. The bee thing just felt weird being in the global warming

Hope you're right, tiger. The other possibilit...

2012-05-23T08:04:20.994+10:00

Hope you're right, tiger. The other possibility is that the increasing crisis triggers destructive panic reflexes that only amplify the situation (xenophobia, extreme politics, conflict, war) and thus we save the planet through human extinction. I mean, whatever happens to us, the planet won't care. Things like the plethora of fundamentalist belief, the irrational attacks on science etc

Richard, in relation to the bee hive. I don't...

2012-05-23T06:30:38.265+10:00

Richard, in relation to the bee hive. I don't know too much about that, but can tell you that various things regarding the european honey bee is causing great consternation. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is leading to the collapse of bee colonies (hives). The effects are great when you consider the role honey bees play in food production/agriculture. Many plants require insect

Richard, yes optimism is the nature of the game. ...

2012-05-23T06:10:44.742+10:00

Richard, yes optimism is the nature of the game. For whether it's the way Audi (and the German economy for that matter) are approaching it, or whether you look around and see how much better our lives are becoming (through less air pollution for instance), the future is absolutely bright I think.

If you look at Japan, and the way (I think almost all) their nuclear plants have

Their literature also champions a bee hive they ha...

2012-05-22T20:38:05.984+10:00

Their literature also champions a bee hive they have developed near their plant. Which just seems a bit weird?

Hi tiger, seems like you've got a handle on it...

2012-05-22T20:36:22.422+10:00

Hi tiger, seems like you've got a handle on it all - really optimistic and positive

All I will say is that public money makes up about 9% of MTC revenue so I doubt they are in danger of "soaking up" too much public money. Victoria does not have a state theatre company. Ironically, German theatres don't need Audi sponsership because they are state theatres, quite well

As a PS: quite aside from the question of death th...

2012-05-22T18:04:56.543+10:00

As a PS: quite aside from the question of death threats, the level of abuse directed at climate scientists for simply doing their job is way unacceptable. Or do you think if they're not being threatened with death, it's all ok?

Hi Jordan - I wish I could! If you contact the MTC...

2012-05-22T16:52:59.014+10:00

Hi Jordan - I wish I could! If you contact the MTC, they might be able to help you. Or perhaps a more musically literate reader could step in...

Let's be clear: the harassment of climate scie...

2012-05-22T16:41:42.548+10:00

Let's be clear: the harassment of climate scientists at ANU during the six month period covered by the FOI request (which postdated by a year or so the movement of scientists to more secure premises after some aggressive anti-climate science visitors caused them to fear for their safety) included lots of harassment, but seems not to have included emailed death threats.

However, in

Great review. I really enjoyed this show. Maybe yo...

2012-05-22T16:27:41.827+10:00

Great review. I really enjoyed this show. Maybe you can help me, Sylvia (Alison Bell) played a piece on the piano...what was that song called?

Allison - “Just one point: @ Anon on the harassmen...

2012-05-22T15:44:05.733+10:00

Allison - “Just one point: @ Anon on the harassment of climate scientists: if you click the link handily provided you can read some of the emails.”

Sorry Allison, but that comment is misleading.

The media scandal of the last year have (wrongly) alleged “death threats”. Your original post above *explicitly* referred to “death threats”.

And yet when the Anon

Hey Richard, my point can be more generally seen i...

2012-05-21T15:54:06.890+10:00

Hey Richard, my point can be more generally seen in light of much new technology - not just in the automotive field. The case is that those with money are generally able to afford new technologies, which once they reach certain production levels become cheaper. Within the automotive industry you see this in everything from airbags to abs braking systems. In solar pv systems for the domestic

Probably worth remarking here that, even if The He...

2012-05-21T15:49:01.077+10:00

Probably worth remarking here that, even if The Heretic was perhaps an opportunistic and certainly somewhat in-your-face marketing push, Audi is a major sponsor of the STC.