The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

14 THE AGE, Monday 6 September 1982 edited by Anthony Clark MUSK Speculative The Evelyn Krape juggling act INTERVIEW PLAYS BASED on artists' lives pose certain theatrical problems. They demand decisions on how painstakingly "biographical" to be, how accurately to reproduce period details, and how to convey the creative achievements of their subjects. The author, director and cast of "Not Still Lives', a play about the Australian artists Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, have come up with some unusual solutions. They range from a process they call "informed speculation" to an imaginative use of plastic raincoats. "There wasn't really a model for this type of play," says the playwright Suzanne Spunner.

"I didn't want to use absolute historical characters, though 1 found the research very seductive." She researched the artists' lives and works, talked to people who knew them, read whatever they had written. There was very little in the way of personal material such as private correspondence, particularly in the case of Thea Proctor. "With a research background, we wanted the freedom to work out our own hypotheses," Suzanne Spunner says. "We worked by what we call 'informed speculation'." From her research and writing the play was developed in workshops by the two actors, Meredith Rogers and Andrea Lemon, and the director Barbar Ciszewska. They have allowed themselves the freedom to create a scene like the one in which Margaret Preston gives a cookery demonstration on video to put forward her theory of pure color.

"It is in keeping with Preston's own passion for creating domestic examples about her work," says Suzanne Spunner citing Preston's idiosyncratic essay, 'From Eggs to Asbestos'. "We also tried to work with conventional artists' materials, like paper for example. But we decided against that. It was too literal, so we ended up with plastic raincoats and rubber gioves," says Meredith Rogers, who plays Margaret Preston. They decided to avoid any attempt to recreate period details in the play's design.

"It would be wonderful to get period details right in a film, it would be so rich," says Suzanne Spunner. "But unless it can be done perfectly, it obscures what you are trying to do." Period details could be misleading about the innovative qualities of the artists' work, says Meredith Rogers. "We don't want to reproduce what they did. that would be doing them a disservice. We want to remain faithful to the spirit and effects of their work." Meredith Rogers and Barbar Ciszewska worked together on another play which explored a creative woman's life and work.

They devised a production, 'I Am WTiom You Infer, which looked at the poet Emily Dickinson. From this production came the decision to form a company which would work on theatre with women as its centre, both as subjects and creators. The group members had all worked together before. "We didn't need to talk about ideas of theatre or feminism to begin with. which was helpful," Suzanne Spunner says.

"We didn't have to make decisions on those matters in advance, before they were relevant." She emphasises the importance to her that the play is about successful, positive women, working from a position of strength. "1 think we're all a bit sick of that line that 'women have to go mad to create'." Still Lives' is showing at the Iceberg Gallery. 8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne, from Wednesday to Sunday at 8 pm, until 12 September. portrait of two artists STAGE Philippa Hawker For the workshops, Suzanne Spunner brought ideas in which Barbar Ciszewska found a performance style. In turn, ideas arose from the way the performance style worked.

In developing a scene, says Suzanne Spunner, "I'd analyse in terms of language transitions and Barbar would look at spatial and physical transitions. There was a dynamism in that cross, grid- which worked very well." The script and the direction work on constant contrast. "Different kinds of languages are pushed against each other, styles varv from naturalistic to abstract," says Suzanne Spunner. The play concentrates on the 1920s, when both women produced their best work. Both were prominent artists and print makers who had a major influence on the taste of their contemporaries.

They differed strongly in and working styles, but they were friends and worked together. Preston looks at first sight like the more conventional feminist heroine. IJroctor might seem to be more flighty, less substantia, says Suzanne Spunner. "'But we were very anxious not to raise one at the expense of another. "In finding theatrical images for their work, we decided early on that slide or reproductions wouldn't do.

So what we had to find were physical metaphors, using dance or movement. Elizabeth Wilson key in the fridge. But it's not there neither is the milk. So what did she do with the milk? "Poor woman, she's so worn into the ground that everything presents an obstacle. She knows it's not fair, but she just keeps on.

"Doing this one-woman show has been the hardest thing I have had to do. My parents have been away, my child has been sick. And of course, when you are working alone there is no one to take over at rehearsals so that 3'ou can just sit down for a while." But none of these domestic pressures siip through once she is working. She reiishes the exuberance and theatrical style of the Fo plays and, in rehearsal, it shows. There she is climbing her way up a pyramid of tables (the image of the obstacles in the way of working women), and heaving the tables down again.

Then, working in a pair of roll-ed-up corduroys, pink bedroom slippers and with a nappy pin stuck in her jumper, she is for all the world. Everymum, doting and clucking as she cleans the bottom of Luigi junior. The baby may be represented by no more than a crumpled orange pillow but it takes only another moiher's eye to see she knows what she's about. That is, until it ail becomes too much and the pillow yes the baby goes distractedly into the nappy bin. The season for 'Female Parts in Melbourne follows a successful season at the Nimrod in Sydney (although without Evelyn Krape).

The plays are being presented simultaneously in Brisbane. "What's this? Six punches going, six punches returning? Who put these punches in my ticket?" Evelyn Krape as the weary, addled working mother of 'Female Parts' is tormented by a travelcard. THE WAY women juggle roles to survive usually escapes the notice of outsiders. But when the Italian writers Dario Fo and Franco Rame wrote the four satirical solo one-act piays that comprise 'Female Parts', they blew things wide open. Focusing on four very different women, the distinguished writing pair put the spotlight on what society was dealing up for women "and how they were responding.

The result: four plays said to be full of humor and wry prodding at the ironies and absurdities of the female predicament. Certainly they are a natural vehicle for the comic acting talents of the Melbourne actress Evelyn Krape, who will tackle all four as a one-woman show opening at the Universal Theatre on 14 September. "There is a whole range of conflicts and contradictions in each of the female characters," says the woman who won Victoria's top actress award in 1977. "Perhaps that's what makes them so interesting. You can say 'Oh yes, that's recognisable' or 'Yes, I understand that' But you can never really predict now tney are going to react.

No, they aren't breast-beating plays, but they are plays that make you laugh. Each of the women has her own sense of humor." In the first you have the good-natured but put-upon mother struggling to get herself to a thankless factory job each day. In 'A Woman. Alone', a housewife is locked up in her home like a battery hen. The third, "Die Same Old Story', sees a mother warning her daughter against making her mistakes.

while 'Medea' takes its cue from the Euripidean tragedy: children are a voke nung bv societv on women's necks to "make them easier to milk and At rehearsals in Hawthorn last week Evelyn Krape admitted she does her own juggling act to keep working with a two-year-old son at home. That morning she had run the gauntlet of getting him reaay and nad only had time to grab a sliced mutton sandwich which she devoured ravenouslv as she talked. "I suppose I feel a bit like the woman in 'Waking Up'." she said. "There she is battling to get out of the house and to her job on time. She has to get the babv up and dressed She has to dress herself She loses the key, she loses the milk, she loses her travelcard, she loses the baby The first half of the play she is trying to work out what she did with the key.

"She reconstructs her steps the night before: when she came home she had the milk she had her shopping bag there Well, she must have put the only so long mmlr ililk 1111 -r i Kenneth Hince Excellence from Trio di Milano THE SECOND Melbourne: concert from the Trio1' di Milano, held at Dallas Brooks Hall on Saturday, was an affair of unqualified excellence. This held true even though. the music itself was reasonably lightweight. None of the three works was nearly as deep as it was broad. The programme began with a major piano trio of Haydn, substantially no -more than a violin sonata but probably the best of the evening.

It took next to no time for the three musicians to establish the authority of their playing. worked with an outstandingiy'fine ensemble, beautifully balanced and proportioned, yielding -just slightly to the reserved classical tone of Stefanato's violin. An early major piano trio of Beethoven, prolix and meandering music, asked for and received much the same classical formality in the playing. The musicians adjusted their style with perfect ease to the scented romanticism of Chopin's minor Piano Trio, music written before the composer's 20th birthday. New to me, it proved to be music of considerable charm and elegance.

But it was the playing rather than the music which made -this such an attractive concert Not once across 11 movements was there the sign of a flaw in this expert, disciplined lund finely burnished ensemble -nor, for that matter, an error, of taste or of style. It was group playing of the highest calibre. CONCERTS A JAZZ programme with the Storyville All Stars and New Harlem has been put together for a Jazz Band Ball on 22 September at the Moonee Valley Racing Club. Also appearing will be the vocalist Beverley Sheehan with Graham Coyle on piano. CABARET Peter Weiniger muddle-headed, tizzy4)londe complete with leather jacket and roller skates who mouths almost incomprehensible jargon through her nasal passages.

Less amusing is the country woman sequence which is over-long and cliched, while the faded dance hall queen character, although a familiar hn some wistful moments. The Forfeit Fondue is a shop-front establishment in Glenhuntly Road, Glenhuntly, with a pleasantly casual style and Ms Andrewartha uses the space well, by moving out from the tiny stage and out among the tables to develop an easy rapport with her audience. v. Sweeney Agonistes and servant downhill. But it becomes hilarious melodrama of Una Wertmuilerian extravagance through the redeeming flaw of Karen Black's outrageous performance, which casts a lurid glow right across the film.

In her running-riot progress through The Grass is Singing Black signals Mary's increasing nuttiness by holding her breath, or frowning, or staggering down the yellow dust road, or by going more crosseyed than usual. At some glorious points she does afi four simultaneously. She is also quite good at heavy, breathing, screaming and seething. John Thaw is more under control. He mutters away in a good imitation of Tony Greig's accent and looks permanently, anguished (Sweeney Agonistes John Kani has a few good moments when his performance shifts- between, or of hatred and dignity and humility.

Most of the other actors are, whatever their, roles, funny in an anw)airrep way. The significance' of the "title escapes me. the grass sang, I did not hear it But there -iff" a mountain that sort of grunts and grumbles. Neil Jillett is on holidays; but some reviews of films he saw before their commercial release will appear over the next- few wetktk SOLO SHOWS are a risky proposition for even the most accomplished performers. When eager young performers with a few good ideas attempt them, they tend to lack the staying power to sustain an entire programme.

Janet Andrewartha is a bright and versatile performer whose one-woman show, 'Singing in the Raid' at the Forfeit Fondue Theatre Restaurant reflects these shortcomings. She has a strong voice and a flair for comedy, so that when she's good she's very good, but at times her material lets her down. Of the three comic characters around which she constructs her act the last, a zany Rat Libera-tionist, is the most successful and original creation. It is sharp parody in which she depicts a A Black tour de farce FILMS Neil Jillett loathing for a black servant, Moses (Kani). Raeburn's sometimes atmospheric (plenty of vultures shown doing their symbolic thing) but usually clumsy direction opens holes in the tale's credibility.

For instance, the Turners are too poor to insulate the ceiling of the shack they call home, but manage to build a brick shop- and stock it with goods. And there is a sketchily unconvincing explanation of why Mary, with her city ways and ear of the bush, would marry a farmer and of why Dick does not spot that she really belongs in what used to be called a funny farm. "The Grass is Singing' could have been just another dreary, unimaginative film about two emotionally and intellectually siunted people going boringiy John Thaw and John Kani, right, in 'The Grass Is Singing': AN INTERNATIONAL concoction, 'The Grass is Singing', which was the most splendidly ludicrous glory of last year's Melbourne Film Festival, has returned. It has found (most surprisingly. 1 must say) a berth at the -Brighton Bay.

This film has a British director and writer, Michael Raeburn. Its finance and technical crew are Swedish. It was shot in Zimbabwe, and its star is Karen Black, an American. Its other lead is the British actor John Thaw, best known as the tough cop in the TV series "The Sweeney'. There is also an underdeveloped role for the great South African actor John Kani, who in 197(5 toured Australia with the late Winston Ntshona in two nlavs thev had written with Athol Fugard! The film is based on a novel by Doris Lessing.

The setting is ambiguously in the resion of back country South Africa and colonial Rhodesia, and the time is the early 1960s (in the novel it is the 1930s). The Grass is Singing opens with the discovery of the murdered Mary Turner (Black) on the steps of a lonely farmhouse. Then the film goes into flashback to tell how she came to such a gory pass through her marriage to a bumbling, impoverished farmer, Dick (Thaw), and her lust and Also available in the popular soft pack 20s The taste you'll feel good about. The mild, international cigarette. 18, 5,82.