Theatre Network Australia - Covid-19 Response

Email from Nicole Beyer Theatre Network Australia  Posted by Frank McKone Contact: nicole@tna.org.au Dear colleagues, As you will be aware, the government has now banned events of more than 500 attendees and has made a firm call for social distancing and self-isolation, in order to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 virus.  TNA is aware of the impact this has on our sector and we are hearing about the anxiety this is causing, especially to independents who work project to project. The cancellation of events and shows across the performing arts is a significant loss of work and income to an already financially precarious sector.  In the TNA 2018 Independent Survey Report – THIS IS HOW WE DO IT: Working Trends of Independent Artists, Creatives, and Arts Workers in Australia – it was shown that respondents worked an average of 8 projects across a year, half of which were paid below industry rates. So right now, we are especially thinking of the independent artists, producers and presenters who juggle multiple jobs and roles to make a living, and we are concerned about those who are already marginalised and more vulnerable to the impacts of the virus, such as Disabled and Deaf artists. What TNA is doing: 1.     TNA, together with our national colleagues are heading into a national industry roundtable with Paul Fletcher, the Federal Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts advocating for an immediate and targeted assistance package for Australia’s performing arts industry. 2.    We are promoting the value of the small to medium and independent sectors to the media, and urging stimulus in multiple areas, including financial assistance for the sector's casual workers, and an injection of funds to ensure that all 162 short-listed organisations in the Australia Council's Four Year Funding round can be supported in the next cycle, providing vital infrastructure to our sector as it rebuilds over the medium term.   3.     TNA has been speaking to advisors of both major parties and the Greens to seek their support for an assistance package. 4.     Updating the TNA Resources Page with relevant resources, links, and plans from national and international colleagues.  What you can do: 1.     Log your loss of income with I Lost My Gig Australia. This will support the combined efforts of our national colleagues in advocating for an assistance package. 2.     Join in Live Performance Australia’s campaign #livesupport – All industry workers are urged to record a short message and let the government know about the impact of the shutdown on our industry. 3.     Take the health and safety of our community seriously, and practise social distancing, and self-isolation if you are unwell to slow the spread COVID-19. It is an incredibly stressful time with the loss of work and income, and we also acknowledge how heart breaking it is to have to cancel shows you’ve worked very hard to bring to life. But we cannot emphasise how much more urgently we need to show care towards ourselves and to each other. Please feel free to contact us if you need any further advice or information. Nicole, Simone, Jamie, Rani and Yuhui Support Act Wellbeing Helpline 1800 959 500 – a free, confidential service, available 24/7 to anyone who works in the performing arts. We are doing our very best to keep up with the additional demand, but there may be a slight delay. If you or someone you know is at immediate risk, please contact the Emergency Services on 000. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 or click here for additional services. Visit ‘Looking after your mental health during the coronavirus outbreak’ from Beyond Blue.

THE ILIAD OUT LOUD ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2020

 

Blazey Best, William Zappa, Socrates Ott and Heather Mitchell

In The Iliad  Out Loud

The Iliad  Out Loud

Written by Homer.  Various translations adapted by William Zappa after Homer. Performed by William Zappa, Heather Mitchell, Blazey Best and Socractes Otto. Musicians Michael Askill on percussion and Hamed Sagedi on the Persian Oud. Set and costume design Melanie Liertz. Lighting design Matt Cox Premiere production for Sydney Festival and co-produced by Sport For Jove. Supported by Creative Partnerships Austtralia through MATCH LabScott Theatre. Adelaide Festival 2020. March 14-15 2020

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

William Zappa’s The Iliad Out Loud is a theatrical masterpiece. For six years, Zappa pored over seventeen translations to create his own version of Homer’s epic saga of the decade long Trojan Wars. The result is nine hours of gripping storytelling, performed in three parts over nine hours at the close of the Adelaide Festival. Actors Blazey Best, Heather Mitchell and Socrates Otto join Zappa in this marathon reading from most of the twenty four books of Homer’s Iliad. Together they breathe life into Homer’s epic poem, switching characters with absolute perfection and uttering with magnificent clarity and conviction the emotional and visual impact of the text. As Zappa says at the start, Homer’s Iliad is likened to an action movie, so graphic in its description of the slaughter, so sensitive in its account of the suffering, so comical in its depiction of squabbling Gods and so compassionate in its regard for the frailties of the human condition. Zappa captures it all in his direction, like a veteran cinematographer panning back for the broad shots of the armies, zooming in for the closeups on the individual Greek, Trojan or God and all the time allowing his stage tapestry of action to captivate an audience, hanging on every word, journeying with the actors through a virtual landscape of  sea and sand, walls and trenches, palaces and celestial seats of the omniscient, omnipotent immortal Gods. 

William Zappa in The Iliad Out Loud

 Long banners on either side of the stage list  on stage right the Greek Gods supporting Achilles’ fleets as they set off from Greece to rescue Menelaus’s adbucted wife  Helen from Paris, the son of the Trojan King Priam. On stage left the Gods supporting the Trojans, with Zeus as the head God are listed above the Trojan tribes and the leading Trojan characters, including the abducted Helen. Audiences can swiftly gaze from side to side as names are mentioned, characters face each other from either side and Gods interject, interfere and argue and debate amongst themselves whether soldiers may live or die.

Three huge cymbals like giant Greek shields hang in front of a painted copper embossed backdrop. In front of them Michael Askill accompanies the action on drums, while Hamed Sadeghi sits at the side, strumming the Persian Oud. The music is subtle, atmospherically conjuring the auspicious tension of the evolving drama.  The actors with script in hand, sit at the side of the large circle of sand in centre stage Zappa introduces each book, and opens each part with a precis of the story for audiences who may not have remained for the entire cycle.

Socrates Otto and Blazey Best in The Iliad Out Loud

And all the time Homer’s rich tapestry of love and war, of fear and courage, of kindness and cruelty, of power and powerlessness before the mighty Gods unfolds through the spoken word of consummate actors creating magic moments  without artifice or spectacle It is their art that so engagingly creates each distinctive player in this tragic event. We are swept along by the drama, intently bound to listen and imagine, utterly spellbound by the storytellers, just as they would have been three thousand years before.

It is the seamless fluidity of the production that gives it such magnetism. Zappa’s direction creates a dance upon the sand, through which the actors revolve, advance, appear as different characters and exit. In the oral tradition it is the lesson of humanity seen through the prism of the Trojan War but spoken for all time. It is a world where Gods are human and heroes godlike and Homer’s epic poem in Zappa’s version assumes immortality.

It is little wonder that at the close of Part Three, the audience spontaneously rose to their feet to applaud a remarkable work and a perfect finale to the 2020 Adelaide Festival.