Cirrus@Austlit

Back in Brisbane to co-direct We Get It at the Powerhouse (15-25 June), with their own company Elbow Room, Emily Tomlins and Marcel Dorney talk about their time at the University of Queensland, how they met and why they enjoy working together.

'Crippled king. Fierce warrior. Cunning psychopath. For four centuries, Shakespeare’s Richard III has been regarded as the greatest villain in world drama; a bottled spider, loved and loathed for spinning a web of lies and violence around the monarchy.

'In 2012, Richard’s resting place was finally uncovered: an unmarked, unremarkable, shallow grave beneath a supermarket car park - too small for the remains or the myth. But Richard - the crooked shadow, the symbol of unchecked ambition - is larger than any one person, living or dead.

'This year, he’s getting the royal treatment.

'The Tragedy of King Richard III is an excavation of the play, the man and ourselves. Bigger than history, bigger than Shakespeare, this is a story of rampant revenge with some hard questions for us all: What are our dreams of power? Have we created a civilisation that corrupts those who rule it? Or do we need their corruption - to let us off the hook?

'Armed with some of Queensland’s most intrepid theatre makers, this promises to be a fast and furious blood-soaked battle royale, where nobody’s getting out clean - or alive.' (Production summary)

'‘In the end, my dear, you will understand your greatest role – or, rather, why it is that you can never play it.’

'For thousands of years, they’ve haunted our stages. From our childhood, they’ve stalked through our dreams, tears in their eyes and blood on their teeth. Beautiful, monstrous, they challenge and taunt us to explore the limits of experience; they dare us to walk in their footsteps, to speak in their voices.

'Now that sexism is a thing of the past and we’re all equal, it’s time to take a fond look back at the great heroines of classic theatre. And what better way to celebrate their legacy than by pitching them against one another in a viciously entertaining battle royale? How can that be wrong?

'Elbow Room turn gender anxiety on its head in a witty and playful evening that promises to ask only one serious question: have there ever been women in theatre?' (Production summary)

An exploration of the life and work of Samuel R. Delaney, partly biographical and partly through his novel Babel 17.

'Brakey is in love with his neighbour, Agnes. He watches her, following her on her nightly spear fishing trips, trying to understand her withdrawn behaviour and troubled home life. He gets his first real insight into how deep Agnes' pain runs on the night of a terrifying incident.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/cockleshell/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

'You live at the remote edge of a civilisation in economic free-fall, about to destroy itself in a nuclear war.

(Like anyone, you'd rather not think about that.)

You live in one of the most corrupt cities on the planet, under a state government elected by a minority who mostly live elsewhere.

Again, you'd rather be having fun. Maybe making some noise.

Except the government has significantly expanded the powers of the police to stop you.

Also, all the computers are owned by corporations, and all the phones are tied to the wall.

It's 1979.

Love you, Brisbane.' (Publisher's blurb)

'The phenomenon of dancing mania has left a mysterious trail through history - entire communities infected with a spontaneous urge to dance until they literally drop. It's suicide with a backbeat, but what's behind these lethal outbreaks? The devil's drumming or religious ecstasy? Neurological decay or otherworldly arrival? A riot of motion and mayhem that spans from medieval rites to modern day marathons of mass movement, "The Plague Dances" is a dance of death with a contagious undercurrent.'

Source: http://www.malthousetheatre.com.au/ (Sighted 27/04/2012).

'"Charcoal Creek" is a chilling, moving and ultimately revealing story about the extraordinary power of ignorance and fear.

Newcomers to Charcoal Creek, Edward and Charlotte are newlyweds and recently arrived from England. Brigid, the wife of local dairy farmer Tom is having nightmares - premonitions of something terrible - and wants her new neighbours gone. Each of their lives will be irrevocably changed by the events of one terrifying night...

In the late 19th century, the Illawarra played host to one of the first incidents of violent resistance by white Australians to new arrivals at a place called Charcoal Creek, now known as Unanderra. Inspired by this historical footnote, this new work by one of Australia's most exciting playwrights examines how a community can descend into prejudice and hatred, and how ordinary people can allow terrible things to happen.' Source: http://merrigong.com.au/ (Sighted 12/09/2012).

'Someone's hacked into an important US Government computer system - but who? And why?

'As Shannon, Robert and his Mum play cat and mouse with an American government agent, some big questions get asked. Can you ever really own an idea? Can the immense power and reach of global corporations ever be a match for personal integrity and the strength of friendship?'

Source: Illawarra Performing Arts Centre website, http://www.ipac.org.au/
Sighted: 01/05/2008

Described by the author and director, Marcel Dorney as a 'wicked black comedy' the play was written during his current Playwright Residency (2006) at Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney. New Royal is played out in a world of unlimited credit, bizarre sex and impeccable design. In explaining his decision to write a comedy (his first) Dorney notes : "'Joe Orton said that accepting people to be irredeemably bad is what makes them incredibly funny." Up until recently, I'd never cracked the first part of the equation. Then I spent some time in Sydney...' (Metro Arts media release)

The story concerns Hera, Gold Coast girl, aspiring designer, and one of the most charismatic and resourceful heroines on any stage anywhere, who gatecrashes the opening of her hometown's new Centre for Excellence in Science and the Arts out of genuine curiosity. She doesn't intend to strike an unlikely rapport with Lachlan Vaunt, recent inheritor of a vast media empire, nor to become involved in a bizarre and lucrative arrangement. The moment the couple hit Sydney, however, Hera meets the twisted, flamboyant architect Pritikin, and begins to learn a game - as played by a new global elite - where the most important relationship is, as always, the one between Form and Function.