| Gertrude the Cry | Skylight Theatre Ensemble |
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Skylight Theatre Ensemble in association with The Blue Room presents Howard Barker’s play about power, sex, death and moral failings, Gertrude the Cry, 20 May – 7 June in the Blue Room Theatre as part of the City of Perth Winter Arts Festival.
This will be the first professional production of Barker’s work in Western Australia and Skylight Theatre Ensemble is both privileged and excited to be introducing a wider Perth audience to this formative work.
Highlighting the sexual nature of the crime at the heart of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Barker turns his unflinching examination of the darkest motivations of human behaviour to the tragic love story of Gertrude and Claudius. In Barker’s own words, “Gertrude is bound to Claudius by an exquisite crime.”
Evocative language, challenging ideas and sly, dark humour create a palimpsest that will confront your perceptions of this familiar text, in a murderous and uncompromising tragedy that resists catharsis or moral enlightenment.
You cannot call it love; for, at your age,
the hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble,
and waits upon the judgement…
Shakespeare's Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 4 line 69
Barker’s plays reject the widely held opinion that an audience should share a single response to the events onstage. Where other playwrights might clarify a scene, Barker seeks to render it more complex, ambiguous, and unstable. Gertrude the Cry is no exception.
For the past two decades, Howard Barker has been a radical and controversial influence in British theatre and is considered widely to be one of the most innovative dramatists of modern times. He writes regularly for European radio and is the author of over thirty plays, three librettos for opera, two works of theory, and five volumes of poetry. His theatrical works play extensively in Europe (in translation), the United States, and Australia.
This West Australian premiere will be directed by Serge Tampalini, whose last Blue Room production was with Theatre Kwong in 2006, presenting his Peking Opera inspired production of The Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Skylight Theatre Ensemble in association with The Blue Room presents
Gertrude the Cry
By Howard Barker
Part of the City of Perth Winter Arts Festival.
Directed by Serge Tampalini
Venue: The Blue Room | 53 James Street Northbridge
Dates: 20 May – 7 June
Bookings: 9227 7005 | www.pacs.org.au
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