Arts Radar in association with B Sharp presents the world premiere of

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

By Robert Couch Adapted from the novella by Nikolai Leskov

Preview: Thursday 2 July

Opening night: Friday 3 July

Season: 4 – 26 July, 2009

Director: Joseph Couch

Production Designer: Esther Couch

Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson

Sound Designer: Stefan Gregory

Producers: Katherine Armstrong-Smith and Sam Hawker

With: Alice Parkinson, Conrad Coleby, Don Reid, Edwina Ritchard, Amy Kersey and Jason Langley

Katerina: Most of my sins were done out of kindness, to please others. Well, I believe they were.

A new Australian work takes the final spot in the B Sharp 2009 March - July Season, and it is the result of a collaboration between three members of the same family – Robert, Joseph and Esther Couch. Robert’s adaptation of Russian writer Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mstensk is opening at Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre on 3 July and follows hot on the heels of the opera (Opera Australia) and film (Andrzej Wadja) versions of the same story that played in Sydney this year. In the dead of a bitterly cold night, a wealthy merchant is urgently called to work, leaving his restless and beautiful young wife unattended. Lonely and bored, Katerina seeks out the womanising new farmhand to entertain her, and the night escalates into a wild frenzy of lust and obsession. What follows is a murderous tale, filled to the brim with betrayal and deception. Whilst it uses a classical text, Lady Macbeth of Mstensk is a contemporary exploration of one woman’s experience of the extremes of obsession and the power of love’s force. Director Joseph Couch (Faustus, Pan, Knives in Hens) says, “Nikolai Leskov’s novella has an almost perfect dramatic structure. He has created potent characters and situations, but avoided psychologising. Reading it is like visiting an exotic, dark, bewitching fairy tale. The main role is a fantastic female part, one of the best. It's like Medea, Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, and Miss Julie all in one. It's the sort of material which we are more familiar with in films, but I am excited about it as a genuinely exciting narrative for the stage.” The original, opera version was Shostakovich’s second. Just days after Russian dictator Joseph Stalin attended a performance, a newspaper article titled “Chaos instead of music” was published, the opera was banned for almost thirty years and Stalin began a ruthless campaign to disenfranchise the arts in Russia. The B Sharp production has been written by Joseph Couch’s father, Robert, and the set and costumes are being designed by Joseph’s sister Esther Couch. For Joseph and Robert, this is not their first collaboration, having brought the acclaimed season of Faustus to the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre in 2002. This is the first time Esther has collaborated with either her father or brother, however, with a background in high fashion, the intimate Downstairs theatre is looking to be transformed into a texturally rich and opulent world of mystery and style. The cast includes Alice Parkinson (Wolverine, Where the Wild Things Are, The Strip, Taming of the Shrew), and Conrad Coleby (Home and Away, Headland, All Saints) as the tumultuous lovers Katarina and Sergei. Stage and screen veteran Don Reid (Moulin Rouge, All Saints, The Birthday Party, The Seagull), Edwina Ritchard (The Cut, The Strip, McLeod’s Daughters), Amy Kersey (Our Country’s Good, An Oak Tree, Macbeth) and Jason Langley (Monty Pythons Spamelot, Best of the British) will join them. The B Sharp 2009 August – December Season is being launched on Monday 15 June at Belvoir St Theatre. To attend, please contact Siobhan Robertson on (02) 8396 6242 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK

SEASON INFORMATION

PREVIEW: Thursday 2 July
OPENING NIGHT: Friday 3 July
SEASON DATES: 2 – 26 July

PLAYS: Tues 7pm, Wed-Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.15pm
WHERE: Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
TICKETS: $29/$23 (Preview $20, Cheap Tues Pay-what-you-can, min. $10)
BOOKINGS: 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au