THE
UK PREMIERE OF AUSTRALIAN PLAYWRIGHT RAIMONDO CORTESE’S PROVOCATIVE
DUOLOGUES
PRESS
NIGHT:
SUNDAY, 23
JULY 2006 AT 8.00PM
Finborough
Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office
0870 4000 838 www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sunday, 23 July &
Monday, 24 July; Sunday, 30 July & Monday, 31, July;
Sunday, 6 August &
Monday, 7 August 2006
Jacaranda
Theatre returns to the Finborough Theatre with the UK premiere
of a selection of Raimondo Cortese’s Roulette series.
These raw, gritty, witty duologues have a dark edge of black humour
and menace, illuminating the moments of beauty or cruelty that are
inherent in any encounter between two people. Sometimes they are
chance meetings between strangers, at other times between friends,
colleagues or family. Collectively they present an epic display of
human frailty… Presented throughout Australia, they mark the debut of
playwright Raimondo’s Cortese in the UK.
Hotel:
Tara and Jane, two “rough as guts” hotel cleaners discuss the
intricacies of work relations, theft and Kylie Minogue - with violent
consequences.
Fortune:
After the death of his partner, Terry, an old age pensioner, is
enslaved by an aggressive prodigal son.
Borneo:
Angelica, a
psychotherapist befriends a young passenger on a return flight
home to learn precisely how it feels to have a monkey on her back.
Sickness:
There is nothing fantastical about a dying man’s confessions to a
put-upon priest about his Oedipal tendencies.
Playwright
Raimondo Cortese is a founding member of Melbourne’s
Ranters Theatre.
Established in 1994, the company is committed to producing
contemporary, text-based theatre in an urban context that is
pared-back, raw, and immediate.
The
production will be
performed on the Sunday and Monday nights, and will be performed
in the round. Australian playwrights have long been challenged by
limited budgets and this restriction has helped create a style of
theatre which has had to distil the essential elements of the
art-form- the play and the people in it. This pared-back production in
a virtually empty space which prioritises the actor and the text; it
is raw and without artifice, which is why Jacaranda chose these pieces
for this particular space. They reveal an underbelly of Australian
society which does not feature in its tourism advertising, yet is
universally relevant and makes for challenging, alive and exciting
art.
PRESS
ACCLAIM FOR
RAIMONDO CORTESE
“Universally
relevant, theatrically engaging and very much of the day” Magdalena
Schwaegermann, Director, Berlin World Theatre Festival
“Raw theatre at its most
basic and brilliant” Craig Clarke, The Sunday Mail
“A power that can make
everyday language resonant with emotion and meaning” Helen Thomson,
The Age
“Language-based drama at
its best ” Liz Jones, La Mama Theatre, Melbourne
