Theatrical Tendencies

Between the academy and the marketplace, how well do we look after our playwrights, and what is the health of our theatre community? Raimondo Cortese, Hannie Rayson, Lally Katz and Jenny Kemp discuss the dramas of drama with Dr Denise Varney.

Lally Katz discusses bringing her writing from the world of dreaming and the subconscious to the realm of plot and character. Staying in the realm of consciousness, Jenny Kemp’s characters (and particularly women) slip between symbolism and realism, the internal and external. She discusses mental illness and the potential it has to overshadow a work.

Raimondo Cortese discusses Ranters Theatre Company, the danger of limiting your understanding of what characters are capable of, and focussing on nuance and unconscious behaviour.

Finally, Hannie Rayson explores the “very public forum” of theatre and her practice of creating intimate, familial portraits that sit against a backdrop of social change – exploring “issues of the day” through characters, situations and contexts.