PMDPRODUCTIONS2010SEASON

2010 brings with it a great sense of opportunity for PMD. Our third full year of programming in our intimate Chapel Off Chapel Loft space is reason enough to be excited with the progress we’ve made.

This year PMD presents to you a new ensemble consisting of seven professional actors and directors seeking to fulfil their creative appetites. The pieces we have chosen for 2010 all focus in one way or another on deconstruction, either emotionally, physically, of language or memory. All offer limited prescriptive instruction to the actor; all demand creative vision.

For PMD, 2010 is about taking risks: emerging from behind what is safe and presenting something bold.

We begin with the perfect example of this new direction: Tom Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s

Macbeth. Starting with a language-game from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations,

Stoppard challenges us to learn a new language and explore the ways in which

words can be used.

Second we are proud to present our first Australian premiere Generous, by Michael Healey. The playwright

combines a variety of styles and stories to present an irreverent and compelling view into Canadian politics after 15 years

of what he describes as “one party rule”. Generous is about the power of altruism and how quickly one can talk one’s way into - and out of - trouble.

Third we tackle the seldom performed and often misunderstood Crave by Sarah Kane. In Crave we see her at the height of her powers, breaking free from the naturalistic structures dominant in British theatre of the 1990s. Kane dissolves notions of time, place and even character with a poetic examination of love in which, at the time, she had “lost faith”.

We conclude the year with another Australian premiere, Liz Lochhead’s Blood and Ice which charts the decline of Mary Shelley, infamous author of Frankenstein. Here words take on a new role of tormentor as Shelley creates the famous monster that comes to symbolise fear of the unknown. Prominent Scottish playwright Lochhead has recently reworked her troubling play in this definitive, disturbing version.

It is my hope that season 2010 will provoke a varied and passionate response from all who see it. Almost certainly not every piece will be universally praised, nor should it be. We want to challenge ourselves and our audiences to experience something new and in doing so, stimulate debate.

With four challenging plays including two Australian premieres, 2010 looks like a big year. I hope you’ll join us.

Paul Knox - Artistic Director, PMD Productions.

For PMD, 2010 is about taking risks:

emerging from behind what is safe

and presenting something bold.

THE 2010 PMD ENSEMBLE

PICTURED (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT)JENNIFER INNES, JAMES COOK, LUKE LENNOX, EOIN O’CONNELL, PAUL KNOX, KELLIE TORI, BRENDA MCKINTY

TOM STOPPARD’S

DOGG’S HAMLET, CAHOOT’S MACBETHBY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH DOMINIE PTY. LTD.DIRECTED BY PAUL KNOXWITH JENNIFER INNES

CAST INCLUDESJAMES COOKLUKE LENNOX EOIN O’CONNELLKELLIE TORI

MARCH 11 - MARCH 27THE LOFTCHAPEL OFF CHAPEL

The comma that divides Dogg’s Hamlet and Cahoot’s Macbeth serves both to separate them and to show their relationship. One could not exist without the other and together they form a piece of theatre that makes a statement greater than the sum of its parts.

Beginning with a language-game from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Stoppard discards our familiar English in favour of ‘Dogg’, a language that is caught more than learned. From there we attack Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet with irreverence, language and actors thrown about the stage with reckless abandon.

Cahoot’s Macbeth was written as a tribute to Pavel Kohout, banned theatre maker and dissident in 1970s Soviet Czechoslovakia.

An early example of Stoppard’s life-long advocacy for human rights, Cahoot’s Macbeth takes our language-game into dangerous territory, daring to defy authority and showing how language can be used to oppress or to liberate, depending on who’s in control.

“HILARIOUS... CUTS SHAKESPEARE TO THE

QUICK”THE NEW YORK TIMES

“WITH HIS SENSE OF THE ABSURD AND HIS INSPIRED

UNDERSTANDING OF SHAKESPEARE,

[STOPPARD] SHARES A SENSE OF HOW THEATRE

- BEING MADE FUN OF - MIGHT BE THE THING AN AUTHORITARIAN REGIME

WAS MOST AFRAID OF”THE GUARDIAN

TOM STOPPARD’S

DOGG’S HAMLET, CAHOOT’S MACBETH

PHOTO YOLENE DABRETEAUPICTURED KELLIE TORI, LUKE LENNOX AND JAMES COOK

MICHAEL HEALEY’S

GENEROUSBY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH GARY GODDARD AGENCYDIRECTED BY PAUL KNOX

CAST INCLUDESJAMES COOKJENNIFER INNESLUKE LENNOXBRENDA MCKINTYEOIN O’CONNELL

AUSTRALIAN PREMIEREJUNE 3 - JUNE 19THE LOFTCHAPEL OFF CHAPEL

What happens when someone is overwhelmed with the desire to help?

A minority government is on the verge of collapse; a ruthless oil executive tells the truth to a reporter; an effusive young law clerk engages in an excruciating post-coital chat with an ageing judge; and a spectacular battle wages over a bucket of fried chicken. Through four interconnected stories, Michael Healey questions the idea of the selfless act. Politically charged, sharply written and hilarious, Generous is a tour-de-force from one of Canada’s most successful playwrights.

Known world-wide for his hit The Drawer Boy, Michael Healey’s

second full length play Generous is enjoying a return season at London’s Finborough Theatre and premieres in Australia with PMD.

“HEALEY’S DIALOGUE CRACKLES WITH BOTH

HUMOUR AND TENSION”WHATSONSTAGE

“GENEROUS LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE... [IT] IS A GOOD

PLAY ABOUT POLITICS AND AN EVEN BETTER PLAY

ABOUT LOVE”NATIONAL POST

MICHAEL HEALEY’S

GENEROUS

PHOTO YOLENE DABRETEAUPICTURED EOIN O’CONNELL AND JENNIFER INNES

SARAH KANE’S

CRAVEBY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH CASAROTTO AND RAMSAY ASSOCIATES, LTD.DIRECTED BY PAUL KNOXWITH KELLIE TORI

CAST INCLUDESJAMES COOKJENNIFER INNESBRENDA MCKINTY

AUGUST 19 - SEPTEMBER 4THE LOFTCHAPEL OFF CHAPEL

The fourth work of Sarah Kane’s short but spectacular career, Crave dismantles ordinary ideas of time, place, character and relationship, presenting instead a poetic stream of blind emotion.

Because of the critical furore from Kane’s earlier work, Crave was first presented under a pseudonym. It didn’t take long for the play’s true author to be revealed and deserved critical acclaim soon followed.

Crave premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in1998. A previous version was given as a staged reading to fill a gap in a rehearsed reading season. Kane said of Crave “I think of it more as text for performance than as a play and I

wanted to find out how good a poet I could be while still writing something dramatic”.

Crave is exciting, dangerous theatre stripped bare and represents a challenge for audiences and actors alike.

“THE LILT OF A LULLABY RUNS THROUGH CRAVE...”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

“SHE WAS HER WORK... SHE WAS SO NAKED, AND

HER WORK WAS EVIDENTLY SO NAKED.

SHE HAD NO PROTECTIVE SKINS AT ALL”

HAROLD PINTER ON KANE

SARAH KANE’S

CRAVE

PHOTO YOLENE DABRETEAUPICTURED JENNIFER INNES, JAMES COOK,

BRENDA MCKINTY AND PAUL KNOX

LIZ LOCHHEAD’S

BLOOD AND ICEBY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH DOMINIE PTY. LTD.

CAST INCLUDESLUKE LENNOXEOIN O’CONNELLKELLIE TORI

AUSTRALIAN PREMIEREOCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 13THE LOFTCHAPEL OFF CHAPEL

Summer 1816. A house party on the shores of Lake Geneva. Mary Shelley and her lover Percy, along with Mary’s half-sister Claire and the infamous Lord Byron, take part in a challenge to see who can write the most horrifying story. Mary creates one of the most celebrated Gothic novels of all time, but how did this monstrous horror flow from the pen of a 21-year-old English woman?

First staged in 1984 and recently revised by the playwright, Liz Lochhead tells the story of Frankenstein’s creation as if set in a ghostly nursery. Using flashbacks and the rich poetic language for which she has become admired, Lochhead weaves a spider’s web of connections between Mary’s own

tragic life and that of her literary monster.

Recently rewritten for Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, PMD is proud to present the Australian premiere of Blood and Ice in what Lochhead considers its definitive form.

“THE PLAY IS A ROLLERCOASTER OF

EVENTS AND EMOTIONS”THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

“WRITTEN WITH A RECKLESS EMOTIONAL

AND INTELLECTUAL COURAGE THAT MADE

THE HAIRS ON THE NECK PRICKLE AND TINGLE”

THE SCOTSMAN

LIZ LOCHHEAD’S

BLOOD AND ICE

PHOTO YOLENE DABRETEAUPICTURED KELLIE TORI

Subscribe to PMD’s 2010 season to receive valuable discounts - come to all four, see one for free!

To book phone 8290 7000 or go online to www.chapeloffchapel.com.au.

Group bookings of 10+ receive the concession rate.

Special deals available for school groups, contact the Chapel Off Chapel box office for details.

PMDPRODUCTIONSThe Loft, Chapel Off Chapel

12 Little Chapel Street, WindsorP: 8290 7000

www.chapeloffchapel.com.auwww.pmd-productions.com.au

A STIMULATING PACKAGE!

Book For Full Price Discount Concession Price Discount1 Show $30.00 N/A $25.00 N/A

2 Shows $50.00 $10.00 $45.00 $5.00

3 Shows $69.00 $21.00 $60.00 $15.00

All 4 Shows $90.00 $30.00 $75.00 $25.00

With thanks to our partners: