Seventeen was first produced in 2015 at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney with a subsequent production at the Lyric Hammersmith in the UK. This new production by the Melbourne Theatre company is directed by recently appointed Head of Acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Matt Edgerton, and features in the cast many of Australia’s most prominent theatre actors including Pamela Rabe, Richard Piper and Robert Menzies. The timeless playground setting exists as an isolated pocket of naturalism situated within a theatrical void. This island is the location of the single night’s action, though the disparate age of the characters versus the actors serves as a temporal blur where one moment in time resonates with a lifetime of experience. The playground intends to trigger nostalgia in the audience, reflecting on the past and possible futures. Over the course of 90 minutes the playground revolves imperceptibly a full 360 degrees, signifying at once the single night and the cycle of a lifetime.
NTRO Output Category
- Original Creative Work : Design / architectural Work
Place
Melbourne, AustraliaVenue
Sumner Theatre, Southbank TheatreNTRO Publisher
Melbourne Theatre CompanyMedium
Design for Live PerformanceResearch Statement
Seventeen was first produced in 2015 at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney with a subsequent production at the Lyric Hammersmith in the UK. This new production by the Melbourne Theatre company is directed by recently appointed Head of Acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Matt Edgerton, and features in the cast many of Australia’s most prominent theatre actors including Pamela Rabe, Richard Piper and Robert Menzies.
The timeless playground setting exists as an isolated pocket of naturalism situated within a theatrical void. This island is the location of the single night’s action, though the disparate age of the characters versus the actors serves as a temporal blur where one moment in time resonates with a lifetime of experience. The playground intends to trigger nostalgia in the audience, reflecting on the past and possible futures. Over the course of 90 minutes the playground revolves imperceptibly a full 360 degrees, signifying at once the single night and the cycle of a lifetime.
The excellence of this work is evidenced by:
• The producing company, Melbourne Theatre Company, is the state theatre company of Victoria and a member of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, receiving both federal and state arts funding.
• The production received a broad range of critical reviews from major national publications, notably from the The Guardian by Tim Byrne Limelight magazine by Patricia Maunder, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald by Cameron Woodhead, The Saturday Paper by Robert Reid and Time Out by Ashleigh Hastings.Size or Duration of Work
I hr 35 min running time, 38 performancesAffiliation
Christina Smith, University of Melbourne
