Winter hibernations
by Jane
Apologies for the silence around here. I’ve been in a state of hibernation the past few weeks and Adelaide’s also been quiet on the theatre front which, of course, doesn’t help matters much for this blog. I saw a handful of shows in the Cabaret Festival, but I find that genre has its own particular challenges when it comes to reviewing, and with a confluence of factors I never quite got around to writing about any. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on at the moment – both blog and non-blog related, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the habit of posting on here a bit more.
Some links from me: A few reviews of Next Wave have been posted on RealTime – the Day Pass and an overview of a few works. A piece in the current Adelaide Review on the lack of rehearsal space in Adelaide. From way back when, the audio of the panel on criticism I did at the AFC, from which I quite possibly disagree with everything I said. Saying things out loud and having to rethink over that really forces you to question your thoughts.
A quick note: Actors’ Equity in the UK has sent a letter to 43 subsidised theatre companies questioning their lack of employment of female actors. I think this is exactly the sort of action which needs to be happening across the sector: change is entirely an action of people drawing things to attention and making questions heard. I don’t, however, agree, with playwright Stella Duffy saying we need to avoid male-dominated plays [UPDATE: Her full argument is here, and much broader than the Guardian’s summary]. Perhaps there is something to be said about making more of an effort to see plays where women take a central role, but the fact I want to see more women represented in theatre doesn’t take away from the fact that their are many brilliant plays which are male dominated. Looking at theatre seasons in Australia this year, there is more than a little deja vu in London critic Matt Truman’s tweet: “If Equity’s gender campaign leads to book-balancing productions of Top Girls & Daisy Pulls It Off etc it will have failed massively.”
And to just join every feminist on the internet this week, some words from Nora Ephron:
Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.
No Plain Jane 
Guardian piece much shorter and rather less nuanced than my actual argument, suggested here : http://stelladuffy.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/being-ignored-and-the-suggestion-of-a-monstrous-regime/
My apologies, Stella. Should have done some more research. I think the equation that you’re suggesting even there, though, becomes significantly harder for people who live in small cities like me compared to places like London. If I don’t like the programming that’s happening I can’t really choose to go elsewhere unless I get on a plane, and for anyone out of the theatre capitals (in Aus, Melb and Syd) I suspect it’s much the same.
yes, that’s a very good point, and one that hadn’t occurred to me, sorry.
I grew up in a small town in NZ and we went to anything we could, anything the am-dram societies put on (no professional theatre), and got bus trips to theatres in other towns when my Mum had saved enough money! So I do appreciate the problem and that voting with our wallets isn’t available to all.
That said, if the big centres don’t pay attention to gender imbalance, what hope is there for women/disabled/non-white people to see themselves on stage when work does come to smaller-pop places?
thank you for responding.
On your last point, of course, and certainly is an argument I’ve heard here – how can we program more female playwrights if they’re not being programmed in London or New York? But I think small places are actually uniquely positioned to be real instigators of the change (at least in the women-in-theatre debate, because as you point out in your blog it’s the one example where there is a lack of representation of a group which isn’t even a minority), because there is no larger industry for companies to hide in. Our one big theatre company here certainly knows I’m keeping an eye on their programming and won’t be afraid to call them out again.
As a female actress about to move from Adelaide to London, I’m hoping the move will result in more stage work!
Jane,
What a shame! Top Girls a play that I think is one of the most important seminal feminist text of the contemporary stage, you (using the words of Matt Truman) dismiss as a cynical book-balancing production.
Catherine – more than happy to be proven wrong. But when no less than two companies which were accused of sexism in the balance of their 2011 seasons program the same work – the same work which Truman, a critic on the other side of the planet, pulls out as an example – mouths start to talk. Mine is certainly not the only one; and I in fact waited for others to make the point before I did, even if they may not be as public. It’s your and Jenny Kemp’s responsibility to prove to us the worth of staging these texts now; and until they are on stage they will – as every production is – be subject to the rumour mill.