Posts tagged 'plays'

When Captain Cat beseeched his deceased lover Rosie Probert to “let me shipwreck in your thighs” in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, we truly doubt he meant anything resembling the fate of the Costa Concordia cruiseship which ran aground on 13 January. The disaster has claimed 11 lives so far, with more confirmed deaths expected.

The somewhat odd behaviour of the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, remains the subject of widespread speculation. Was he a cowardly deserter or, as he claims, did he merely slip off the deck and into a lifeboat? And what of the heated exchange between Schettino and Port Authority commander Gregorio de Falco?

The listing Costa Concordia off Italy’s Tuscan coast, via Roberto Vongher/Wikimedia Commons.

Locally, Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott was today under fire for making light of the tragedy on breakfast radio, remarking, “Well, that was one boat that did get stopped, wasn’t it?” He has since conceded that his comments may have been inappropriate.

David Newland, writing for Macleans.ca, has reimagined the shipwreck as an Italian opera. He casts a hero in Hungarian violinist Sandor Feher, who helped a group of children to safety before perishing whilst trying to retrieve his violin, becoming the first of the dead to be identified.

If maritime drama is your thing but you prefer your shipwrecks fictional, The Guardian’s list of their Ten Best Literary Shipwrecks may float your boat.

The radio play may have fallen on hard times, but interest in the form hasn’t disappeared altogether. Perhaps that’s because some writers are excited by the potential of a drama delivered entirely in sound. Curiously, the origins of the form stretch much further back than the radio. The first writer to create drama entirely for sound was Seneca the Younger, a philosopher, statesman, dramatist, humorist and a Roman contemporary of Christ’s.

Image of a 1950s Kurer radio via WikiCommons

Radio dramas of distinction include Orson Welles' famous adaptation of War of the Worlds, which had many Americans in 1938 convinced that aliens were invading the planet, and Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood. The form peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, but radio plays continue to be written and broadcast today, despite the form having been replaced by several generations of new technology.

Arts Mitten, youth radio station SYN’s arts and entertainment program, is planning to launch a regular segment showcasing radio plays throughout August. It’s making a call-out for new and emerging playwright to submit their plays to be aired on SYN. Plays need to be 10 to 20 minutess in length, can be of any genre and based on any theme, as long as it works as a radio play. Thesubmission date is Monday, 18 July. To submit or to obtain more information, emaill Florence at artsmitten [at] syn [dot] org [dot] au.

Twenty years to the day since Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist regime was overthrown in Romania, a revolutionary figure of another type is celebrating an anniversary.

It is 100 years since the birth of playwright Eugene Ionesco, one of Romania's most important cultural figures. But, as the Australian reports, there has been little evidence in his homeland that anyone has noticed.