BURNT PIANO at Garrick, Fri 5th - Sat 20th feb
Wed, 3 Feb 2010, 06:52 amGreg Ross1 post in thread
BURNT PIANO at Garrick, Fri 5th - Sat 20th feb
Wed, 3 Feb 2010, 06:52 amGarrick Theatre (Guildford), is staging Justin Fleming’s award-winning 1998 work, BURNT PIANO, a sometimes searing morality play of a mother's loss, a surviving son's burden of guilt and the worlds of youth, old age, life and death. Fleming’s text is full of witty one-liners and poignant moments and is a must-see for fans of Beckett and his masterpiece, WAITING FOR GODOT.
Directed by Alice and Andrew Warwick, Irma McCullen is cast as Karen Idlewild, Dannan Saunders as her son Jonah, Greg Ross as her father Pete Idlewild, Veronica Fourie as Suzanne Beckett and Andrew Warwick as Samuel Beckett.
Season: Friday 5th Feb and finishes on Saturday 20th Feb, (7.30pm for 8.00pm Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with a 2.00pm matinee on Sunday 7th Feb)). Bookings: Ph (08) 9379 9400.
Burnt Piano was written by Fleming in the Nancy Keesing Studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and made available by The Australia Council in 1998 as part of the New Work and Development programme of the Literature Board. The play was the winner of the New York New Dramatists Exchange Award, 2000 and the Banff PlayRites Residency, Canada, 2002.
Comments critics have made about previous productions:
"I enjoyed Burnt Piano very much. It is a work of considerable authority and distinction. The play has real texture and contains an amazingly successful portrait of Beckett." (Harold Pinter, April 4, 2001.)
"Justin Fleming's BURNT PIANO is an enquiring psychological drama played out in the world of ideas while dealing more immediately with a family grappling with tragedy and fate. It is a complex, intelligent and humorous work.......The banter is intoxicating.....Burnt Piano is a very fine play." (Bryce Hallett, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March 1999.)
"See this. A sad but wise and satisfying study of the human condition." (Melbourne Weekly 30 August, 1999)
"While taking you on a journey of the mind, Burnt Piano blazes a path to the heart." (Uta Hagen, HB Playwrights Foundation, New York City, March 3, 2001.
"An ingenious concept for a literary play...A moving tale of a mother's loss and a surviving son's burden of guilt. It brings two worlds - youth and old age, life and death - to a touching proximity." (Globe And Mail, Canada, November 20, 2004)
"Burnt Piano is intriguing and moving, and highly provocative. It is intellectually appealing, emotiaonally moving and cries out to be seen more than once." (Myron Galloway, The Suburban, Montreal.)
"Burnt Piano resonates with wit, intelligent dialogue and an exciting train of thought. It infuses gentle images and symbolism with sharp dialogue and a soundtrack that emphasises the subtle undertones....Well worth seeing a play that can effectively portray all of the above." 
(The Link, Montreal, November 16, 2004)
Greg RossWed, 3 Feb 2010, 06:52 am
Garrick Theatre (Guildford), is staging Justin Fleming’s award-winning 1998 work, BURNT PIANO, a sometimes searing morality play of a mother's loss, a surviving son's burden of guilt and the worlds of youth, old age, life and death. Fleming’s text is full of witty one-liners and poignant moments and is a must-see for fans of Beckett and his masterpiece, WAITING FOR GODOT.
Directed by Alice and Andrew Warwick, Irma McCullen is cast as Karen Idlewild, Dannan Saunders as her son Jonah, Greg Ross as her father Pete Idlewild, Veronica Fourie as Suzanne Beckett and Andrew Warwick as Samuel Beckett.
Season: Friday 5th Feb and finishes on Saturday 20th Feb, (7.30pm for 8.00pm Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with a 2.00pm matinee on Sunday 7th Feb)). Bookings: Ph (08) 9379 9400.
Burnt Piano was written by Fleming in the Nancy Keesing Studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and made available by The Australia Council in 1998 as part of the New Work and Development programme of the Literature Board. The play was the winner of the New York New Dramatists Exchange Award, 2000 and the Banff PlayRites Residency, Canada, 2002.
Comments critics have made about previous productions:
"I enjoyed Burnt Piano very much. It is a work of considerable authority and distinction. The play has real texture and contains an amazingly successful portrait of Beckett." (Harold Pinter, April 4, 2001.)
"Justin Fleming's BURNT PIANO is an enquiring psychological drama played out in the world of ideas while dealing more immediately with a family grappling with tragedy and fate. It is a complex, intelligent and humorous work.......The banter is intoxicating.....Burnt Piano is a very fine play." (Bryce Hallett, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March 1999.)
"See this. A sad but wise and satisfying study of the human condition." (Melbourne Weekly 30 August, 1999)
"While taking you on a journey of the mind, Burnt Piano blazes a path to the heart." (Uta Hagen, HB Playwrights Foundation, New York City, March 3, 2001.
"An ingenious concept for a literary play...A moving tale of a mother's loss and a surviving son's burden of guilt. It brings two worlds - youth and old age, life and death - to a touching proximity." (Globe And Mail, Canada, November 20, 2004)
"Burnt Piano is intriguing and moving, and highly provocative. It is intellectually appealing, emotiaonally moving and cries out to be seen more than once." (Myron Galloway, The Suburban, Montreal.)
"Burnt Piano resonates with wit, intelligent dialogue and an exciting train of thought. It infuses gentle images and symbolism with sharp dialogue and a soundtrack that emphasises the subtle undertones....Well worth seeing a play that can effectively portray all of the above." 
(The Link, Montreal, November 16, 2004)