$15 Preview Tickets - Construction of the Human Heart

The Blue Room, Gossips’ Feast Productions & Australian Opera Studio
present
“Construction of the Human Heart”

PREVIEWS ALL TICKETS $15
TUES 24^TH JULY & WED 25^TH JULY
at the Australian Opera Studio, Midland

Construction of the Human Heart
by Ross Mueller

Season: 24 July – 18 August, 2007

Direction: Marcelle Schmitz
Featuring Renée McIntosh & Andrew Hale
Set & Costume Design: Bryan Woltjen
Lighting Design: Lucy Birkinshaw
Sound Design: Steve Hearne
Photography: Jon Green

The newly formed Gossips’ Feast Productions presents the West Australian premiere of Construction of the Human Heart by one of Australia’s most adventurous and promising playwrights, Ross Mueller (The Ghost Writer, No Man’s Island).

Construction of the Human Heart engages comedy and tragedy - grief, loss and the conventions of story telling in theatre.

The play is an engrossing theatrical rendering of insoluble grief and our artful, yet fragile, human attempts to deal with it.

At the heart of the play is a couple, simply called “Her” (Renée McIntosh) and "Him” (Andrew Hale), reading from a playscript. The audience may feel they have walked into a play reading. As the story unfolds we discover that the characters are writers, and are reading their own work.

After having recently suffered the loss of their young son Tom, the work is a desperate attempt to heal and reconstruct their hearts. Through writing about him, they are effectively keeping Tom alive, and he becomes their rescue-rope as their relationship flounders in an unmitigated sense of loss.

The play reminds us that words construct our reality: they can be a life-line, but they can also be a means of denial.  We watch professional wordsmiths try to articulate experiences that are unspeakable. What is left, beyond the words, is both theatrical and real at the same time: two people trying to construct a reality that makes their life worth living, that makes it possible for them to face the day.

"One of the pleasures of Mueller’s play certainly is its wit, but this is a work of real emotional power, a genuinely moving reflection on the power of the human mind to render the unspeakable in words and on the ultimate inability of words to deal with the deepest of grief.” The Sunday Age

“Mueller is surely one of the most intelligent, formally adventurous and emotionally brave playwrights now writing in this country." Theatre Notes 

“This is, in fact, a story of grief and grieving, but it is fine-woven into cool linen like a shroud. It’s wistful rather than tragic, a bruise not a cut…the bleeding is internal. Construction of the Human Heart is about grown-ups for grown-ups, but it is formally adventurous in a way that mainstage drama – or what passes for mainstage drama in Melbourne- rarely is.” Herald Sun

"Mueller's script is a rich, rewarding example of the possibilities of play writing" The Age

"This play may sound maudlin and unnecessarily complicated, but on stage it becomes a deeply moving meditation on the transformative powers of art.” The Australian

The season previews Tuesday 24 July at the Australian Opera Studio located in the heart of Midland for five performances (Tues & Wed ONLY - ALL TICKETS $15) and continues at the Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge from 31 July to 18 August, 2007

The Playwright - Ross Mueller:
Ross Mueller is a Melbourne based writer who also writes for radio and children’s literature. Construction of the Human Heart has had five Green Room nominations (2005/06), was shortlisted for the New York New Dramatists Award (2006), nominated for The Melbourne Prize for Best Writing (2007) and most recently, nominated for Best Stage Play at this year’s prestigious AWGIE Awards.

Ross has been an affiliate of the Melbourne Theatre Company and in 2002 was the Australian representative at the International Residency of the Royal Court Theatre in London. His play The Ghost Writer was produced earlier this year at Melbourne Theatre Company.

The Director - Marcelle Schmitz
Gossips’ Feast Productions under the direction of Marcelle Schmitz - twice winner of the Equity/Guild Awards for Best Direction (Below and Zastrozzi, the Master of Discipline) and Best Actor Award (Redemption) aims  to bring the very best of world theatre to a growing audience base in Midland and surrounding Eastern suburbs and Hills communities.

Construction of the Human Heart is theatre at its most thoughtful and compelling.
A must-see production.

Australian Opera Studio
276 Great Eastern Hwy, Midland
(cnr Padbury Tce opp. Midland Gate S/centre)
PREVIEWS:  Tues 24 July & Wed 25 July  ALL TICKETS $15
SEASON:  Thursday 26 July, Fri 27 July & Sat 28 July
TICKETS: $25 Full $18 Concession  BOOKINGS: 9250 4688
All shows at 8pm

Blue Room Theatre
53 James Street, Northbridge
SEASON: Tues 31 July – Sat 4 August, Mon 6 – Sat 11 August, Mon 13 – Sat 18 August
TICKETS: $25 Full $18 Concession BOOKINGS: 9227 7005  www.pacs.org.au
All shows at 8pm *Except Mondays @ 6.30pm

Special School’s Price:  Students $10 for groups of 10+ teachers complimentary
Construction of the Human Heart runs 65 mins (no interval)