'Multi award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius has created a dynamic new Australian play — Savages — which takes a tough look at masculinity and misogyny amongst a pack of ordinary young men.
'Premiering at fortyfivedownstairs, Savages is a cautionary tale about a group of men who don’t really know themselves or what they can become.
'Four friends embark on the holiday of a life time – but their excitement is soured by anger, bitterness and the disappointment of their own lives … as the pack forms, the dark side of mateship takes over.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Produced by fortyfive downstairs in August 2013. Supported by Arts Victoria, Sunraysia Foundation, Hartline Foundation, Besen Family Foundation and Yarra Trams.
Produced by Darlinghurst Theatre Company, 1 April to 1 May 2016.
Director: Tim Roseman.
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
