| Phaedra’s Love | Corazon de Vaca |
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 ‘Phaedra’s Love’ written by Sarah Kane will be presented by a fresh, brave theatre company - Corazon de Vaca (a Cow’s Heart) - over two weeks in April at PICA.
This is the first time that ‘Phaedra’s Love’ has been performed in Perth.
The production funded by ArtsWA, Centro Dramatico De Aragon (Spain) and the Spanish Consulate could set some folks' heckles up so hard they'll take a month to lie down.
Corazon de Vaca - whose members are from varied artistic and cultural backgrounds and have largely come out of ECU's School of Contemporary Arts - will perform ‘Phaedra’s Love’ from 12 April 2007 until 22 April.
‘Phaedra's Love’ by Sarah Kane is loosely based on the Greek myth ‘Phaedra’ by Euripides – revolves around Phaedra the wife of Theseus who falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus, with tragic and horrifying results.
First performed at the Gate Theatre, London on the 15th of May 1996, Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane is described as "a breath-taking exploration of what it means to be human. Beneath all the horror and beauty of Kane's words lies the human condition, in all its extremes. And her themes resonate just as powerfully today, in a world driven by extremism."
Kane’s play seemingly scouts around for controversy and finds it. Yes. At the same time, in the talented hands of Corazon de Vaca's artistic director, Julián Fuentes Reta, the production is not being mounted for shock value, although it is not for the faint hearted or prim.
The choice of stand up comedian Luke Ryan as the desperately world weary, or Athens weary, Hippolytus guarantees a sardonic delivery, rather than a seriously leaden approach. Tragic entertainment? Again, yes.
Phaedra is played by Caitlin McLoughlin, a graduate from WAAPA in 1996, who has returned to Australia after living in Europe for 6 years; Maitland Schnaars, a Nyungah man who graduated from the Aboriginal theatre course at WAAPA, plays Theseus. And introducing an emerging young actress Mischa Ipp as Phaedra’s daughter Strophe.
Among contemporary playwrights, Sarah Kane is singled out as the most controversial playwright of her generation. Kane offers a vision in which violence, pain, sex, joy and love are raw materials, exposed to the spectator in the same way a surgeon exposes the internal organs. Her play is a scalpel, cutting open our ideas of right and wrong, beauty and horror.
Her plays may have been celebrated internationally, but are rarely staged in Australia.
Kane appeals to the dark, emotional side of the human condition. Corazon de Vaca feels that a re-connection with that beautiful brutality has to be explored.
This is a Greek tragedy.
And it is terribly, horribly funny.
Corazon de Vaca presents
Phaedra’s Love
by Sarah Kane
Venue: PICA Performance Space, Cultural Centre
Dates: 11 - 22 April
Times: Wednesday - Sunday, 8.00pm
Tickets: $25.00 Full • $20.00 PICA Members and Industry Concessions • $15.00 S/P/U
Bookings: PICA on 08 9228 6300
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Saturday, 10 January 2009
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