th International Women's Playwrights' Festival Readings, Sept 9, 2000

5th International Women's Playwrights' Festival Readings

at Beckett Theatre Saturday September 9, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Eleven plays written by Melbourne's women are travelling to Athens in October for the 5th International Women's Playwrights' Festival. These plays are  presented once only in Melbourne for our delectation.

The two part program lasted for over five and a half hours so let's stick with part One. Most pieces in this showcase are rehearsed readings of excerpts from full length plays. The first, The Girl Who Wanted To Be God, was the only one to be presented in its entirety.

The play is written by a trio, Karen Corbett, Rosemary Johns and Brenda Palmer (all) who also appear in the piece with Gillian Hardy. Its subject is the fraught and tragic life of American poet, Sylvia Plath who published a book of poetry, married Ted Hughes, left him and put her head in a gas oven with the flame off.

This is an episodic, abstract and poetic script in which the three women simultaneously play Sylvia at all ages as the child, writer and mother. It is interesting and evocative and still in development say the writers.

Smashing Pancakes is a Youth Theatre play written by Sarah Vincent for Mainstreet Theatre and performed here and in Athens by a contracted cast of five teenagers from Rushworth College. It is a funny, well-observed slice of country town life with no holds barred.

The kids get drunk and have sex with strangers, throw rocks at neighbours houses and complain about their families who eventually get taken by aliens. Every kid's dream.

Ruthed by Marita Wilcox is a play set in the cut-throat world of a Public Relations Company focussing on the ruthless behaviour of the women who work in it. It has some clever moments but the dialogue is glib and the story predictable.

The strength of Streetsweeper by Liz Goldman is in the potent performance by Gillian Hardy as a derelict woman on the street, reminiscing about her marriage, children and mental illness.

Crossing the Bridge, by Gaylene Carbis, is compelling in parts. It paints a picture of an isolated country town when a middle-aged son visits his elderly parents to confront them about his childhood abuse. The parents live in denial. The son is hamstrung by his pain.

The remaining six plays are by Jeannie Haughton, Suzanne Spunner, Margaret Bearman, Angela Costi, Marjorie Darling-Ward and Nik Willmott.

By Kate Herbert