operetta:
third
person
other
March 25 - 29, 2015
La Mama presents
operetta: third person other
Written & directed by James Clayden
Developed with the cast: Helen Hopkins, Meg White,
Sally Armstrong, John Francis Howard and Kevin Hopkins
And musicians: Dur-e Dara, David Brown and Adam
Simmons
Musical Director: David Brown
Seeing Conrad clearly can indeed be tricky. But that is the point:
his books are epistemological journeys, parables of knowing. Giles Foden, December 2007
This work is inspired by the spirit of the great modernist writer
Joseph Conrad, not his stories as such but the impressions
conveyed through the senses by his so-called “personages”
along with his narrators, not least Conrad on himself, “I was
simply attending to my business.” It was 1906, “during a period
of mental and emotional reaction” when he “began impulsively
and wrote continuously” his most ironic and humourous book The
Secret Agent, 1907.
I had been an admirer of Conrad for many years when in 1997 after
reading The Secret Agent, I came up with a text, the idea being
to develop an Opera - The Other. I made a short video test one
evening with musicians David Tolley and Ren Walters along with
actors, Shelley Lasica, Sally Armstrong, Ian Scott, Tom Wright. It
was an interesting and rewarding session, but for one reason or
another it wasn’t to be. The following year I adapted that text for
the play EVIDENCE, staged at La Mama in December 1998 - with
actors Helen Hopkins, Shelley Lasica, Peter Green, Tom Wright
with music by Tim O’Dwyer.
Last year Dur-e Dara asked if I would play a short piece of music
with David Brown at LaMama Courthouse along with a group of
other musicians in memory of the musician/artist David Tolley. I
was to play with David Brown that night and was moved by the
other musicians and the spirit of the night. It remains a special
memory.
Out of that I had the desire to develop my previous texts of The
Other together with EVIDENCE as an Operetta and stage it at La
Mama Courthouse if possible, with a group of musicians from
that night along with several actors-singers. Once I had the text
together I was fortunate enough to gather the group we have here
to perform Third Person Other.
The show you are about to see is not a story as such though
there is narration to it, within it, watching it . . . woven around and
through it, as in Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent . . . with what
he and others wrote about his act of being able to write anything
at all.
In the works of Darwin, Hardy, Lawrence, and Conrad, then, reading
mimics the physiological process of seeing. - The Entangled Eye
– James Krasner 1992
D.H. Lawrence wrote of Cezzane’s apple:
For the intuitive apperception of the apple is so tangibly aware
of the apple that it is aware of it all round, not only just the front.
The eyes see only fronts, and the mind, on the whole, is satisfied
with fronts. But intuition needs all-roundness, and instinct needs
insideness. The true imagination is forever curving round to the
other side, to the back of presented appearance.
Sensations
not a picture but - a presence
Bon Voyage
James Clayden
James Clayden has made theatre pieces at La Mama since 1972,
working with Helen, Meg, Sally, Kevin and John on La Mama productions along with several film/video productions of his own, and over the
years he has performed with Dur-e Dara and David Brown many times,
more recently with David as a duo. As a painter he has exhibited since
1969, with numerous paintings held in private and public collections.
His experimental film and video works are held in Screen Australia Archives/Library (or whatever title the original National Film Library goes
under at these days) having been screened at film festivals here and
other countries. James is represented by NKN Gallery:
[email protected]
Helen Hopkins Co founder of The Shift Theatre with Carolyn Bock,
Helen appeared in their productions of Two Sisters and a Piano and Fred
at The Dog Theatre in Footscray. Together they have written, produced
and performed in The Girls in Grey about Australian army nurses in
World War 1 which had an Explorations season at La Mama and has
toured Victoria and NSW. Helen has performed for The Australian
Shakespeare Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Performing
Arts Projects, Hoy Polloy Theatre and many shows at La Mama. She
wrote a play about the Chirnside family, Grind and Grandeur, for the
130th anniversary event at Werribee Mansion. Her recent theatre
appearances include Wuthering Heights at Ripponlea for The Australian
Shakespeare Company and The Shift Theatre’s co-production with
L. Wolf Productions of Barry Dickins’ Lost in Ringwood at La Mama
Courthouse. Helen has previously worked with James Clayden at La
Mama on Substitute for the Mechanics’ Institute, Macbeth X, Evidence,
Monologues for an Apocalypse and Mary Shelley and the Monsters as
well as the films Ghost Paintings 1-4, Hamlet X and The Marey Project.
Sally Armstrong graduated from the VCA in 1995 and has performed in
a number of film, television and theatre productions since that time. Her
most recent performance was as Trisha in Aurora Calling - The Results
of A Joint Observation at Lot 19 in Castlemaine. Sally is also a Speech
Pathologist, specialising in the management of voice disorders. She
collaborated with James, Meg, Helen, Kevin and John in a production
at La Mama Courthouse in 1997 and she is delighted to perform with
them once again. Sally was also involved in the original conception of
Third Person Other with James in 1997 and is honoured to be a part of
its final vision.
Meg White has worked for more than 20 years in theatre as
both a performer and a designer. Theatre design work includes
Dark Heart, Malady of Death, Savannah Bay, Hideous Portraits,
Bauernhof, Agatha, Paradise, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Hanging of
Jean Lee, …waiting for Godot, The Madness of the Day (La Mama),
The Telephone Exchange (fortyfivedownstairs), Mr Puntilla and his
man Matti (Trades Hall) and Poet #7 (Black Box). Green Room
Awards include Bauernhof (1999) and Mr Puntila and his man Matti
(2005). Nominations include: Body of work (1999), Krapp’s Last
Tape, Paradise and Poet #7. Meg is also an architect and works
at Cottee Parker Architects on a number of large scale projects.
Kevin Hopkins has worked in the entertainment industry for
24 years as an actor and director. He has worked with James
Clayden in theatre on Macbeth X, Mary Shelley and the Monsters,
and last year’s Substitute fro the Mechanics’ Institute and in film
on Hamlet X and The Marey Project. Most of his work has been
in theatre, with companies including The Melbourne Theatre
Co, Complete Works Theatre Co, Arena Theatre Co, Performing
Arts Projects, La Mama and others, in all states of Australia and
overseas. He has been an ensemble member with The Australian
Shakespeare Company for 15 years. In feature films he has been
seen in The Settlement, Life, Nigel, Sensitive New Age Killer,
has appeared in many television series including Stingers, Blue
Heelers, Neighbours, Phryne Fisher, Janus, Phoenix and The Feds.
He was head of Acting at regional Arts academy GRADA for 3 yrs,
and now teaches for CAE, and runs annual workshops in Europe.
Kevin lives in Footscray with partner Helen and their two boys
John Francis Howard has performed with numerous mainstream
theatre companies and independent co-operatives including
Antigone (Hoist Theatre Group), Claustrophobia (La Mama), A
Mile In Her Shadow (The Store Room), Non Parlo Di Salo [Do Not
Speak Of Salo] (Melbourne Workers Theatre), and Hamlet (APT).
John’s television appearances include guest roles in various ABC
and Network TV series including Blue Heelers, Stingers and The
Nick. His cinema work includes principle roles in numerous short
films including Hell’s Gates and An Illness At The House; and
in the feature films Sweethearts, Deadly Chase, Open City, The
Marey Project, Purge, Hamlet, and Van Diemen’s Land.
David Brown has been involved in the Melbourne avant-garde,
art rock/punk rock scene since the mid-seventies. The focus of
his solo projec, candlesnuffer, has increasingly centred on the
development of composing techniques which meld opposing
streams like conventional electroacoustic methods with noise and
rock and also the development of a vocabulary of tiny acoustic
sounds enlarged outside their normal context. He has continued
to develop a vocabulary that runs the gamut from rock bassist
through experimental guitarist to sound artist and has recently
completed a PhD project researching the use of electroacoustic
compositions in a public hospital Emergency Department.
Adam Simmons is a sought after woodwind multi-instrumentalist, well known for creating the Adam Simmons Toy Band, he is
currently performing with Nick Tsiavos Ensemble, BOLT
Ensemble, The Pearly Shells, Tanin-e Melbourne, and Origami
and has worked with international and major artists such as Ernest Ranglin, Nigel Kennedy, Peter Brotzmann, Odean Pope, The
Mavis’s, You Am I, Spiderbait, Australian Art Orchestra, Kutcha
Edwards, Legends of Motorsport and Gotye? His recent commissions include for the Quiddity Project, celebrating the
Federation Bells (Melbourne Museum), as well as by M.A.D.E. for
Eureka 160 to produce a song for a 100-voice choir to be performed in December 2014. He is also the Artistic Director and
creator of the Festival of Slow Music (Ballarat)
Dur-e Dara is a Sounder and Improviser and has performed
over many years in Melbourne. Dure and her partner David Tolley
worked and collaborated with James Clayden on various projects
over the years. James’ Operetta is a renewal of this connection
for Dure.
Office Phone: (03) 9347 6948
Office Hours: Mon – Fri
10:30am – 5:30pm
Level 1, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC 3053
www.lamama.com.au
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/lamama.theatre
Our sincerest thanks to the many volunteers who generously give
their time in support of La Mama.
La Mama’s Committee of Management, staff and its wider theatrical community acknowledge that our theatre is on traditional
Wurundjeri land.
The La Mama community acknowledges the considerable support
it has received in the past decade from Jeannie Pratt and The
Pratt Foundation.
La Mama is financially assisted by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council – its arts funding and advisory body,
the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria - Department of
Premier and Cabinet, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts
and Culture triennial funding program.