Review: Architektin, by Robyn Archer

So. Went to a play last night, Architektin, by Robyn Archer, part of the State Theatre Co. season. The play attempts to explore the life of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, the first woman Austrian architect, communist and activist in the Nazi resistance. You can read more about her extraordinary life in Wikipedia. Her story is one worth retelling.

Unfortunately, this play is a dud. At times (mostly) it felt more like an extended lecture on her life, committing that most cardinal of theatrical sins, having the characters declaim and explain to the audience, rather than having the story unfold and reveal through dialogue and action.

There is also a strong element of feminist breast-beating, with one ludicrous scene having the central character declaiming about the need for better kitchen design to free up a woman’s time. Maybe she really did say that (and at the time it was no doubt a powerful argument) but Robyn should pull her head out of the 1970’s and realise that we have moved on now. We don’t need that kind of feminist polemic now. [Although, Margarete's main claim to fame as architect seems to rest on her "Frankfurt Kitchen" design, forerunner of today's modern built-in kitchen. But it should have been expressed so much better in the play. Instead we got a mini lecture.]

The horrible script and dodgy direction were not helped by the set, which looked promising but mainly consisted of a very large two-part table on wheels, which was moved around the stage endlessly to mark scene changes and indicate train journeys. This rapidly became irritating, and mainly served to delay the action (extending the total running time to an excruciating 3 hours).

Then there was the bizarre little musical interlude signifying … what? I’m guessing that Robyn Archer just couldn’t resist having a bit of cabaret. Apparently this scene introduced a character who was not seen again until almost the end, so that I was left wondering who the hell she was. Another failure of script and direction.

Should I mention the acting? Best not. This was a preview, although it’s very hard to imagine they’ll get the many problems sorted by Tuesday’s official opening night. The standout was Ksenja Logos in the lead role as the young Margarete, who worked hard to make something of the script.

Recommended? No. Unless they can cut it by an hour and get some new actors by Tuesday.

KRudd endorses intelligent design! OMG! OMG!

According to the Australian yesterday, Prime Minister Popinjay said

he “could not believe the creation of the Universe was a random event.” Speaking on Brisbane radio, he said “So I think there is an intelligent mind at work. … For me it is ultimately the order of the cosmos, or what I would describe as the Creation. You can’t simply have creation as simply being a random event because it is so inherently ordered.”

Happily he also added that this was his opinion, and he respected the right of others not to believe. Still, when I hear someone in his position express this sort of view, it scares me. it’s always good to know that your leaders have a world-view beyond their tedious policy making. But how will this impact on future policy decisions? Abortion? Euthanasia? Public housing? Education?

And I’d love the chance to debate this with him. For example, if the world is inherently ordered, then why don’t we all look the same? Why are some blessed with good health from birth and others (e.g. Kevin) born with a heart defect? Or bad teeth? Because the world is not ordered, it’s random.

Wordle love

I’m loving this new service that someone shared, http://wordle.net You can create beautiful word clouds from any piece of text (or from web pages & blogs of course). Here’s an example from the blurb to the play reviewed in my last post (click to see large):

Actually, that’s much more interesting than the play itself!!

Theatre eats itself

Went to a play last Saturday [ and if it seems like I only just blogged that, well ... that just shows how lazy I am at blogging : that was LAST MONTH!!! ]

Anyway, the play was Attempts on her life, by Martin Crimp. Here’s the blurb:

Imagine you’re trying to speak to a woman called Anne. You leave messages on her machine, but in vain. It’s as if she’s disappeared. Where? With whom? To do what? Who else is leaving her messages? Is she alive or dead? Is she Anne, Annie, or Anya? The more unreachable she is, the more you wonder who she really is.

If she could disappear so inexplicably, then perhaps she’s not the person you thought she was. You begin to fantasise. She’s with a casual lover in a foreign hotel. She’s a terrorist on the run. She’s a psychotic artist turning her attempted suicide into an artwork. She’s the wife of a right-wing anarchist maniac. She’s a luxury sports car. The “attempts on her life” are attempts to define her.

What the … ? In the event, this seemed to be the result of a group work-shopping a script, where someone transcribed the conversation and printed it as a script. Ho-hum. While there were a few good lines, and laughs, we had a few [two, I think] it was all very insy-winsy, and up itself. And rather incomprehensible.

Except that, by the end, yes, they had sort of pieced together a story of a woman’s life. A little hysterically, and a not very interesting story, but still … not without effect.

Before play we went to a pub … um, you know, that one in Gilbert street … which was cheapish, tasty and with excellent, cheerful competent services. What’s the world coming to?