25 May 1995 - State Of Play

Original
Corrected

Line Above	{LINE ABOVE}
Current Line	{CURRENT LINE} Remove Insert line below Insert line above Duplicate this line Move line up Move line down
Line below	{LINE BELOW}

木き 25 5月がつ 1995 - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995)
Page 27 - State Of Play

RACHEL HILL talks to playwright Nick Enright about the role of the

writers in theatre, about the revelation of self which

sometimes is visible only to the author,

how new social attitudes are becoming more influential,

and how to enjoy other works, in spite of never switching right off.

ICR Enright would love
to know what it's like to
walk into a theatre and
not know anyone or any
thing about a production.

■ thing about a production.
Dut he can't because he's a com
mitted participant.

As one of Australia's most suc
cessful playwrights, his mind is
constantly ticking over and he al
ways carries some sense of re
sponsibility towards an event and
its performers.

Occasionally when he goes to
see a solo singer, a dance or the
opera he takes time out to sit

back and relax.

Work aside, he gets a great deal
of enjoyment from evenings at the
theatre and defined the ideal
night out as one where he was
completely relaxed and taken into
a play.

"I like to be caught up emotion
ally in a piece of work instead of
assessing it clinically." Enright

said.

"I suppose, to me, a good night
would be one where my heart
goes straight out into a story and
1 become completely caught up in

it."

But when all is said and done it
doesn't take much to impress En
right, it just takes something
good.

He sees many plays that go on
before they're ready, and gets an
noyed when he sees new work
that hasn't been fully thought
through.

"Maybe we're not rigorous
enough with ourselves about the
processes of working on material
because we don't have a try-out
system in this country," he sug
gested.

"In other societies, and certain
ly in commercial play produc
tions, there is a period of pre
views, where the play is refined
and often rewritten.

"Generally in Australia, a play
rarely gets more than a couple of
previews where only small
changes can be made. With open
ing night only a week away actors
can hardly by expected to take on
a huge amount of new material,"

he said.

The audience played an essen
tial role in testing any new work
and told Enright much more than
he could ever know about it.

Indeed, the first moment an au

dience met a play, he too saw it

for the first time.

Continuing his association with
NIDA, where he taught acting and
was the head of the acting course
from 1983-8-1, and various other
drama schools, Enright saw a
great deal of fringe and student

theatre.

He envisaged Australian theatre
going in many directions, and
said this sectionalising was a
healthy thing.

In addition to a continuing
mainstream of traditional play
writing, there was also growth in
what he described as physically
based theatre, which used acrobat
ics, gymnastics or dance.

While much of this was dance
related, it was not strictly dance
and often included narrative.

"It's not linear in a realistic
way. It would deal with a dramat
ic situation and tell a story in the

way dance often does but it
doesn't tell it in the traditional
form that we're used to," he said.

Special-interest theatre, by
groups with particular political or
social beliefs, was also evolving as
a new trend. This arena also in
cluded equity-based work and gay
and women's theatre.

In time the mainstream theatre
was becoming more aware of
these approaches, techniques and

concerns.

This diversity, and the opportu
nity for different voices to be
heard, was vital if the theatre
were to survive.

"People say, to survive, the the

atre must reflect the diversity of
the society. And although there
have always been variant voices
in the theatre, 10 to IS years ago
the productions were mostly re
flective of middle class, white,
male values. But 1 think that is
fragmenting," he said.

The change was also due to var
ious training institutions, which
were encouraging people from
non-English speaking backgrounds
into theatre. Women were also be
coming increasingly prominent as
directors and decision-makers.

He had had a "very good run
and mostly a very good response
from the press" but he cited him

sell" one of the lucky ones. Like
most dramatists, his work came
from his concerns, preoccupa
tions, inhibitions and failings, and
if people thought it was worth do
ing they did it.

"You don't find your niche. You
just write, and if you're lucky
people do the plays, it's as simple
as that," he said.

"You can't conceptualise your
self and you can't be responsible
for your own position within the

spectrum.

"It's a thing I wish critics
understood. Critics write as
though you're in control of that,
as though you place yourself and

market yourself in a particular

way which is not true."

Due to the relatively small
amount or work being produced at
one time, the country's leading
writers were being "castigated for
not being iO other writers and for
not covering all other bases".

It seems safe to assume that be
cause most of his plays do get put
on, they speak to someone and
connect with an audience.

Enright said he appreciated the
appetite actors showed for his
plays and the ease with which di
rectors cast the parts.

"I think they feel that whatever
is right or wrong with the plays,
that I provide them with material
that is interesting. I try and give
the character a journev so thai

she or he is different at the end of

the piece," he said.

That said, he conceded there
was nothing new about his latest
production Good Works.

Although its concerns had been
explored elsewhere, it was a very
personal play and probably the
closest he had ever come to writ
ing directly from of his own expe

rience.

"To sit down and write a story,
and then realise how much you
draw on yourself, is a bit frighten
ing." he said.

This realisation recently be
come apparent when he sat 'in on
the production in New Zealand. It
revealed more about Enright than

he had wished.

"I'm aware of what's being re
vealed but the audience isn't. The
really personal stuff is subliminal
and subterranean because the ac
tion itself is fiction and none of it
actually happened," he said.

Good Works is set in a large
Australian country town, not un
like Maitland, in NSW, \yhere En
right grew up.

It's also set among the Catholic,
professional middle-class, which is
Enright's family background, and
part of the time-frame coincides
with his life.

Enright came to writing
through the back door. He had
been working in the theatre since
he was 16 and had, in various
ways, collaborated on pieces in
street-, community- and education
theatre.

And although there were times
when lie got stuck on projects, he
was constantly drawn back by the
playful sense of freedom that writ
ing allowed him.

"It's a perpetual negotiation be
tween craft and subconscious." he
said.

"The craft is organising the ma
terial in one way. because the the
atre operates according to certain
restrictions ... while the imagina
tion works in ways you can't
quite understand.

"Someone once said there are
only five tunes, well there aren't
many plots either. It's the treat
ment and personalisation of them
that makes it interesting." he

said.

Good Works, directed by Ross
McGregor and starring Angela
Punch-McGregor and Victoria
Longley, is presented by Eureka
Theatre and will be performed
at The Street Theatre until
June 3.

Download Citation

Additional Categories (0)

Article text

Word position

Line position

Paragraphs

Zones

Tables

Illustrations

Metadata

Cite

Download Citation

Buy

Download

Share

Print

Tags (0) Help

Lists (0) Help

Appears in these lists:

Notes (0) Help

Article Categories Help

Original Category

Additional Categories (0)