NEWTOWN HONEY @ la mama

by Curly What the hell is going on.com? How much of our theatre is truly related to what is really going on in Australia today? Not just news headlines but what goes on with our lives. When was the last time you saw a new Australian work? When was the last time you thought about seeing one? A friend of mine was in one, two years ago. I saw one, a year ago. Browsing the Dramatists Playwright catalogue will do your head in. Apart from all those by the big guns; Romeril, Williamson, Sewell, Murray Smith, there’s not much else. So how come we don’t do in this country a majority of Australian work? What the hell is going on? Even amateur companies are really not interested. Maybe as Australians, we as audience are too scared to see our own social situations. We would be asked to look at our own identity and our own understanding and belief of our culture. It’s not good enough to do classics from Shakespeare to Chekhov, or modern English and American plays, nor plays from war torn countries, set in Australia or echoing Australia. Isn’t it time the majority of our theatres professional, co-op and amateur played Australian plays? As I understand it the Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne) has dropped their all Australian content. If we had more Oz content our theatres could be possibly full and plentiful like the English and American theatres Where did our Australian Theatre Renaissance of the 70’s go? That should have been a platform for our theatre future. Somehow we have a fear in Oz theatre, to do things only that are known and famous- obviously this is a sign of our times where ego is prevalent. See our television full of overseas content, see the reality shows, the reality medical dramas this is a true indication of our culture- we are literally dying to see ourselves. Or are we too cool for theatre?