The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 50

The FESTIVAL of SYDNEY A literary family lets loose By JENNIE CURTIN mHE Australian literary world has had its fair share of Women paint a rosy future By CATHARINE LUMBY talented family teams over the years: Katharine Susan nah Prichard and her playwright son, Ric Throssell poet Oodgeroo Noon-uccal (formerly Kath Walker) and her son, Vivian: novelist Jessica Anderson and scriptwriter daughter, Laura Jones. But the family headed by Dorothy Hewett, playwright, poet and novelist, has taken the concept a step further and virtually fills the household with writers. Dorothy, at 67, has nine published plays, five collections of poetry, a novel and an autobiography behind her. Her husband, Merv Lilley (who bestows the title "head of the family" on Dorothy), is thrice-published, including a joint book of poetry with Dorothy and Git Away Back, his collection of bush yarns, poems and philosophies. Her son, Tom Flood, is the author of Oceana Fine (his first novel) which won the Vogel Award in 1988 and both the Miles Franklin Award and the Victorian Premier's Prize for fiction this year.

And her daughter Kate Lilley, with a PhD in English, is an accomplished poet widely published in journals and magazines and winner of awards including the Henry Lawson Award. In January, at the Sydney Writers Festival, the four will join forces for the first time for a public reading, appropriately titled "All in the The impetus for the joint effort came from Tom, who was partly inspired by memories of past performances by Dorothy and Merv (his stepfather), particularly one at the Belvoir Street Theatre about five years ago. I liked what happened in between the reading of the words," he said. "There was a bit of sniping, general family talk. The audience liked it a lot.

It was kind of like sitting around Tom Flood, Dorothy Hewett, Kate Lilley. eight, under the rather grand pseudonym "Man of the Kate was another early starter first published in a journal at the age of 14 and Rosie, the youngest of Dorothy's five children (three by Les Flood and two by Merv), wrote a play when she was nine which was performed in Sydney by the Australian Theatre of Young People. Tom, on the other hand, started only five years ago when he was 30. He had played in bands and written songs before deciding to give prose "a The "bash" produced five or six short stories, one of which was published, then the award-winning Oceana Fine. The family didn't see a word of that until it was finished but then "worked it over pretty accord ORE than any other female artist, Susan Nor-rie symbolises the enormous ground which was broken by women artists in the '70s and '80s.

Indeed, she can take credit for shifting some of the earth herself. Commercially successful, intellectually astute and open-minded in her investigations of female identity, Nor-rie is the fruit of the more overtly political work produced by women artists in the '70s. It is entirely fitting, then, that she is represented in the first all-female print portfolio of Australian artists. The portfolio goes on exhibition at David Jones from January 8 in conjunction with the Festival of Sydney. Profits from sales of the portfolio will go to the NSW Cancer Council.

Ten women artists Marion Borgelt, Helen Eager, Kerrie Lester, Mary Macqueen, Banduk Marika, Mandy Martin, Susan Norrie, Ada Bird Petyarre, Ann Thomson and Margaret Wilson have donated an original artwork which will form the basis of the portfolio. The birth-dates of the women involved span six decades. Two of them are Aboriginal. The photographer commissioned to take portraits of the artists Anne Zahalka is a woman. The critic who wrote the catalogue- Pat Gilmour is a woman.

And so are three of the printers who helped with the edition. Yet there is absolutely nothing token about any aspect of the work. Like Norrie's art, this is a project which could only have been produced in the closing decade of the 20th century. The rich, stylistic diversity of the prints is proof of the fact that women artists have broken through many of the stereotypes imposed by both their male peers and by early feminism itself. The work ranges from the ritualised dots of Central Desert art to the quirkiness of post-Pop figuration.

Every major graphic technique is represented etching, colour aquatint, crayon and wash lithography, linocut, woodcut and screenprinting. The most experienced contributor to the portfolio is Mary Macqueen, whose simple, crayon marks convey the artist's enchantment with the line. Helen Eager's contribution is a homage to her longstanding obsession chairs and their absent owners. Mandy Martin continues her interest in the bleakness of the industrial landscape. Margaret Wilson's austerity captures the heat and clarity of northern Queensland.

Banduk Marika has assumed the responsibility for perpetuating the images once handed down by the males of her group. Ada Bird Petyarre's ochre and white dots on a black background conjure up the mesmeric oscillation of op-art surfaces. Ann Thomson focuses on the world under the sea. Marion Borgelt's abstract organic imagery conveys the depth and richness of the physical world. Kerrie Lester works with satire and woodcut.

And the most sophisticated of all the artists, Susan Norrie, gives us back the banality of traditional feminine taste in a seductive form. Repeated images of the word sugar-aquatinted in dried blood-red, are glossily trapped between layers of ink. Outdoor movies revive memories and some oldies A literary family Merv Lilley, the kitchen table with a couple of. writers." Kate describes it as a bit of repartee between two "old hams" and Dorothy doesn't disagree. She and Merv have been reading poetry since the '60s, when the fashion first hit the cafes, coffee shops and pubs.

"We were part of all that, even though we were a lot older than everyone else, so we've had a lot of years of it," Dorothy said. Merv describes himself as a reciter, rather than a reader. Kate has childhood recollections of him always reciting ballads and Dorothy claims he knows more poems or bits of poems than anyone in the world. Born in the bush, Merv started writing in the Central Queensland Herald when he was just seven or Thunderbirds and fought to the death in a guano conveyor high above perilous canyons. It was some lurid old B-Grade shocker whose title escapes me and, it should be said, compared most unfavourably with the films offering in this season.

In fact, it's probably a bit unkind to describe the quartet as medium to low-grade todge since they are all locally made in the main by American companies in the late 50s and early '60s at a time when the local film industry had been ringbarked into submission. One is, in fact, a beauty. Charles Chauvel's wartime epic, The Rats OJ Tobruk. starring Chips Rafferty and Peter Finch. On The Beach.

Stanley Kramer's rendition of the Neville Shute novel, is the best of the others while Jon Cleary's Jlie Sundowners and Ray Lawler's Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll both suffer fatal damage from the casting of British and American actors in roles that honestly could only be played credibly by Australians. This was, of course, a time when cultural cringe was at its peak and it's unfair to dismiss the films out of hand simply because of changed values now prevailing if, in fact, they are. Each of the features is accompanied by newsreels and cartoons, lending some flavour to the occasion Picture by MICHELE MOSSOP ing to Tom, and prompted a lot of rewriting. Literary criticism has been another family trait. They all read each other's works and don't hold back on saying just what they feel, although Kate admits that the children were usually "more The opening nights of her mother's new plays were sometimes difficult when, as they gathered at home afterwards, it was time for honest reaction.

But the no-holds-barred approach didn't suit Merv. He chose a safer path and kept quiet. "A good rule in a literary family is to say nothing," he said. The All In The Family reading will be held in the Glass House Cafe in the State Library on Wednesday. January 23.

from 6 to 8 pm. Wed, Jan 9: The Rats Of Tobruk (1944), directed by Charles Chauvel starring Chips, Finchie, Grant Taylor and Pauline Garrick. Wed, Ian 16: Tlie Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll (1959), directed by Leslie Norman (retitled for US release as Summer Of Passion), and starring Angela Lansbury, Anne Baxter, Ernest Borgnine and John Mills. Wed, Jan 23: On The Beach (1959), directed by Stanley Kramer and featuring Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire. This last film, a holocaust number shot mainly in Melbourne, prompted the oft-repeated quote from Ms Gardner: "I can't think of a better place to go to shoot a film about the end of the world." A balmy January night on Sydney Harbour would doubtless have her revise her opinion.

A Nostalgia plus with (from left) Grant Taylor, Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty in Rats of Robruk (1944). By DOUG ANDERSON BTS rather nice to think of people shunning the cavernous interior of Australia's grrjtest monument to culture and enjoying themselves outdoors with a load of medium- to low-grade todge. The Opera House forecourt on a warm summer's night can be one of the most magical places in the world, the brilliant set design provided by the city backdrop far more enticing than anything a stage designer could concoct. And in a tradition that harks back to pleasure domes as humble as the Opera House is grand, a season of outdoor movies is to be screened, free, each Wednesday in January. If you saw Cinema Paradiso you ill recall the balmy romantic feeling of an open-air seaside screening as will anyone who has memories of tropical climes will remember with affection the bare earth floors, hessian walls and deckchairs that made a trip to the pictures so pleasurable.

I recollect (with diminished accuracy but strong sensations of affection), some extremely toxic nights of escapism at the Popondetta Picture Show in New Guinea. Barefoot, with a fag, a stubby of SP lager and a dangerously spicey meat pie from the local bakery, we cheered along with the locals as Victor Mature and Richard Egan fanged about in red 10s SMH Festival of and harking back to a time when such things were a mandatory component of any bill at the suburban picture shows which flourished in Sydney. Admission is free and the show kicks off when the sun has slipped away at 8.30 pm. Most will conclude at about 10.30 pm as the afternoon's warmth starts to fade from the massive walls and paving slabs of the forecourt. The principal sponsors are the Big Australian, BHP, BOSE and the Sydney Opera House Trust.

Bring a cushion, a packet of Jaffas, if you can find some, and tune out the roar of trains on the Bridge for maximum enjoyment as the nostalgia unfolds. The program is as follows: Wed, Jan 2: Fred Zinneman's The Sundowners (1960), with Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov, Robert Mitchum and Chips. 20, 1990 Sydney Supplement, Thursday, December.