HOME
COVER STORY
CALENDAR
SHOWTIMES
DINING GUIDE

NEWS
MUSIC
FILM
BOOKS
THEATRE
ART

CLASSIFIEDS
PERSONALS

CONTACT
FEEDBACK
ADVERTISE

BLACK BOX FIRE’S EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

By BRIAN MORTON

Playwright Peter Gruner is quietly stressed, but is determined not to let his actors see it. Which is no surprise perhaps given that his newest play Cast Party is about to open this week after a difficult production period, which included having to replace several of his key actors. Ironically, this is what his script is about, the crisis and stress that bind a group of theatre folk as they work on a production of Macbeth at a fictitious local theatre company.
“The play is about the side of the theatre that the audience never gets to see. It is about the real relationships of the characters; onstage they may be playing mortal enemies, when in reality they may actually be lovers. Actors are often very vain, but success depends on everyone working together. There is a determination to keep going and get the show open, no matter what it costs them. When one of the group dies, every one involved is forced to re-evaluate the things that bind them all together”.
Certainly Gruner can certainly relate to the themes of his play, the birth of any new work of theatre can be stressful; particularly when there has been no chance to see what works in advance of opening night. “It is a risk certainly, but that’s what makes it all fun, seeing what an audience responds to. There is quite a bit of comedy in the play too, so hopefully people will laugh at the right places”.
Black Box Fire’s Emerging Artist Series continued support of local playwrights is commendable. Three of the five plays in the 2009 season are original works by local writers including the play Half-past 8pm by Scott Williams and Cary Ferguson which is about a man waiting for a bus that will take him to meet up with an ex-girlfriend who has been away in England for three years; a girlfriend that he still has feelings for. This production shares the bill with Cast Party for the final week of the series.
Last week saw the world premiere of Matthew Baker’s play A Long Winter, a post apocalyptic tale of five survivors huddled in a bunker after a nuclear attack. This “after the bomb falls” genre, once popular during the Cold War, has fallen on hard times in an era when terrorism and environmental issues now occupy the angst in our collective sub-conscious. Baker’s play starts from the same place, but adds a note of social commentary to the mix.

Page 1/...Page 2

    
Email Story
    
Print Story

.......................

previous theatre stories...

BLACK BOX FIRE’S EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

Bartholomew Fair

WHAT IF