Construction of the Human Heart

The Blue Room, Gossips’ Feast Productions & the Australian Opera Studio present

Construction of the Human Heart
by Ross Mueller             
                    
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).  The play is an engrossing theatrical rendering of insoluble grief and our artful, yet fragile, human attempts to deal with it. The season previews Tuesday 24 July at the Australian Opera Studio located in the heart of Midland for five performances and continues at the Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge from 31 July to 18 August, 2007.  

At the heart of the play is a couple, simply called “Her” (Renee 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, or 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

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.

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. Their debut production of Construction of the Human Heart is theatre at its most thoughtful and compelling and features the critically acclaimed creative team from last year’s sold-out production of David Mamet’s Oleanna.

Performance times, venues and dates:
Special School’s Price: Students $10 for groups of 10+ teachers complimentary
                                                Construction of the Human Heart runs 65 mins (no interval)
Australian Opera Studio, 276 Great Eastern Hwy, Midland
Previews:  Tues 24 July & Wed 25 July, @ 8pm Tickets All tickets $15           
Season:    Thursday 26 July, Fri 27 July & Sat 28 July @ 8pm
Tickets:      Full $25; Conc $18; AOS members $15
Bookings: Ph 9250 4688

The Blue Room Theatre, 53 James St, Northbridge
Season:    Tues 31 July – Sat 4 August, Mon 6 – Sat 11 August, Mon 13 – Sat 18 August
Time:        Mon 6.30pm, Tues - Sat 8pm
Tickets:       Full $25; Conc $18; Blue Room Members $18 / $15
Bookings:  Ph 9227 7005 or www.pacs.org.au
Media enquiries & interviews please contact Irene Jarzabek Publicity
email: handzon@iinet.net.au or mob 0419 192 140