Director’s Note:

The theatre has often been a site of desperate communal escapism, where the worries of the world are set aside while we try to re-find our childish enthusiasm for life. Our production mines many forms of theatrical optimism: pantomime to vaudeville, magic show to Broadway musical, cross dressing, slapstick stand up to falling over – even drawing room farce.

Its silliness hopes to almost unwittingly uncover a darker pattern of entertainment – where the twinkle of the star cloth obscures dreadful evidence of a world in decay.

It uses the cultural motifs of wind and flight as an expression of that most optimistic of activities; we zoom around the world in huge birds of steel, meanwhile billowing out carbon laden poison behind us that threatens to suffocate the natural world.

Maybe the Age of Reason – that spawned such enlightened thinkers as Voltaire – is having its candles snuffed out, even as we sweat, laugh and groan under the theatre lights.

As the character of Martin warns Candide: “The world was created good and all really should be for the best, but a malign force has taken over. God has turned his back and left an exquisite realm to run its own course. And like all machines, when left alone, it runs down. Darkness, Candide, Darkness. In the belly”.

Michael Kantor

Writer’s Note:
Asking Questions, Avoiding Answers

It seems as though the millenarians and catastrophists are always among us. I grew up with nuclear devastation hanging over our heads like a sword of Damocles. I suppose it is still there.

Apparently nature is in a state of revolt because of our avarice; and every day the jeremiads from climate worriers become more hysterical. The opposing ‘sceptics’, for some reason, seem even more depressing. At least for a while it looked as though we had reached ‘the end of history’ and that market capitalism was delivering astonishing wealth for everyone. Maybe it still is. Or will do so again. Maybe the problem is not the system but the faith we put in it.

‘Optimism’, as Voltaire uses the term, is not the same thing as simply getting up in the morning and assuming that things can only get better; Optimism is a philosophical theory. But Voltaire does not suggest Pessimism as a viable alternative. One theme that comes across strongly in Voltaire’s Candide is that one’s happiness has usually been earned somewhere, and often at the expense of someone else. Being happy or rich or safe is not the problem; acknowledging why would be useful. The slave who wryly observes that his maltreatment and suffering are the price he has to pay so that wealthy Europeans can have cheap sugar has a particular poignancy so many years after the book was written. How much of our own little ‘best of all possible worlds’ is a fool’s paradise?

The text for this new piece consists of 19 short scenes adapted from Candide. It is designed to be played by a team of theatre makers who come up with a confection that is simultaneously frothy in its elusiveness and sanguine in its irony. Voltaire let his novella jog along asking questions and avoiding answers until the end. I hope this piece does the same.

Tom Wright

A Free Thinker

Candide, first published 250 years ago, took Europe by storm. Following the first edition of this satirical novel, issued in Geneva in January 1759, others followed in Paris, London, Amsterdam, in Germany and Italy. By the end of 1759, no fewer than 17 French editions had appeared, as well as an Italian translation and three English versions, so that over 200,000 copies were in circulation – an extraordinary figure for the period. The book was officially condemned by the French government, which was of course powerless to halt the progress of a work that had become an instant best-seller. Voltaire was simply too famous to be censored.

Candide appeared anonymously, and everyone knew it was by Voltaire. Then in his mid-60s, Voltaire was the most famous living author in Europe and, more than that, he was a celebrity, enjoying the sort of star status which meant that everyone knew him and what he stood for – whether they had read his books or not. He was celebrated as a fanatical opponent of fanaticism, as an irrational defender of reason, catholic in his mockery of all established religions. He lived a long life, born (in 1694) at the end of the reign of Louis XIV and dying (in 1778) at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI, just 11 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution. Always a controversial and subversive figure, he displeased first the Regent and then Louis XV with his free thinking.

Voltaire was ambitious for literary success in Paris, having his plays performed at the Comédie-Française and seeking election to the Académie Française; yet he spent most of his life away from the French capital, living in England, in Prussia at the court of Frederick II, and finally in the environs of Geneva. Voltaire wrote in verse and prose, composing history, fiction, epic, burlesque; in fact he wrote in just about every known literary genre apart from the sentimental novel – and that genre he parodied in his short satirical anti-novel Candide. So he would certainly have been surprised to know that he was largely remembered by posterity as the author of that work.

The novel’s full title is Candide, or Optimism, and it is generally read as a philosophical discussion of the problem of evil. The word ‘optimisme’ had then only recently entered the French language, and it had not yet acquired its modern meaning of ‘looking on the bright side’. Optimism referred to the theories of the German Enlightenment philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), who in the early 18th century had produced a radically new answer to the age-old question of why, if God is just, does he permit evil to exist in the world. Instead of attempting to ‘explain’ the function of evil, as previous philosophers had done, Leibniz produced a dazzlingly simple solution: evil does not exist. We live in the best of all possible worlds, he claimed; it is just that we do not realise it. Man has only a limited perspective on the world, and if he could but share God’s broader view he would understand that, as Alexander Pope memorably put it, ‘All partial Evil, universal Good’. We, from our narrow viewpoint, think it evil when a car runs over a dog; but what God knows, and we do not, is that the dog was about to kill umpteen children. So the problem of evil turns out not to exist after all.

Leibniz’s philosophy reached a wide European audience thanks to Pope’s hugely popular Essay on Man. Leibnizian Optimism suited a certain 18th-century public which felt at ease with the notion that the world had harmony and shape, and that, in spite of appearances, all was for the best. Not surprisingly, Voltaire was impatient with this seeming complacency in the face of brutal evil. He had long entertained doubts about Optimism, and two events in the late 1750s brought these to a head. In 1755 an earthquake in Lisbon caused the death of thousands of people and shocked European public opinion. Voltaire expressed his anguish, and responded to the public mood, in his Poem on the Disaster of Lisbon, quickly translated into many European languages. Tremors of the earthquake can still be felt four years later in Candide, where of course it figures in the action. But in the novel the earthquake is quickly followed by an auto-da-fé: Voltaire hammers home the fact that the pointless cruelty caused by man’s fanaticism is worse even than the cruelty of nature. The Lisbon earthquake was followed in 1756 by another event that affected Voltaire deeply: the outbreak of the European conflict which we know as the Seven Years War. The mindless violence of war is emphasised in an early chapter of Candide; and indeed the whole novel teems with fanatically and fantastically cruel individuals. How on earth could a Leibnizian, like Doctor Pangloss, believe that this evil is part of some larger divine plan? Optimism simply defies reason.

At the beginning of the novel, Candide is in thrall to Pangloss and his Optimist teaching. Chapter by chapter, his beliefs are put to the test, and gradually Candide’s creed begins to falter. The key turning-point occurs in Chapter 19, when Candide and his faithful servant Cacambo come upon a slave lying on the ground: As they drew near the town they saw a Negro stretched on the ground with only one half of his habit, which was a kind of linen frock; for the poor man had lost his left leg and his right hand. ‘Good God’, said Candide in Dutch, ‘what are you doing here, friend, in this deplorable condition?’ ‘I am waiting for my master, Mr Vanderdendur, the famous trader’, answered the Negro. ‘Was it Mr Vanderdendur that used you in this cruel manner?’ ‘Yes, sir’, said the Negro; ‘it is the custom here. They give a linen garment twice a year, and that is all our covering. When we labour in the sugar works, and the mill happens to snatch hold of a finger, they instantly chop off our hand; and when we attempt to run away, they cut off a leg. Both these cases have happened to me, and this is the cost of the sugar you eat in Europe; and yet when my mother sold me for ten patacoons on the coast of Guinea, she said to me, “My dear child, bless our fetishes; adore them forever; they will make you live happy; you have the honour to be a slave to our lords the whites, by which you will make the fortune of us your parents”.’ Alas! I know not whether I have made their fortunes; but they have not made mine; dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less wretched than I. The Dutch fetishes who converted me tell me every Sunday that the blacks and whites are all children of one father, whom they call Adam. As for me, I do not understand anything of genealogies; but if what these preachers say is true, we are all second cousins; and you must allow that it is impossible to be worse treated by our relations than we are.’ ‘O Pangloss!’ cried out Candide, ‘such horrid doings never entered your imagination. Here is an end of the matter. I find myself, after all, obliged to renounce your Optimism. ‘Optimism’, said Cacambo, ‘what is that?’ ‘Alas!’ replied Candide, ‘it is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.’ And so saying he turned his eyes towards the poor Negro, and shed a flood of tears; and in this weeping mood he entered the town of Surinam.

This is the first and only time that the word ‘Optimism’ occurs in the book, after its initial appearance on the title-page. And once Candide has pronounced the word, he ceases to believe in the idea. Candide has – finally – shed tears at the spectacle of evil, and nothing is the same again. There have been plenty of critics who have condemned Voltaire for the alleged shallowness of his response to evil: in the words of the French critic Roland Barthes (1915–80), Voltaire was ‘the last of the happy writers’. A witty writer, he seems to be saying, but not one who could confront the evil of the Holocaust. But that is to misread Voltaire and to underestimate the depth of his passion. Yes, he makes us laugh at evil, but at the same time he makes us uncomfortable. He tries to make us think.

Voltaire sets out to make fun of Leibniz’s notion that there is an underlying harmony and shape to the world. He undermines this belief in order by portraying absurd comic disorder at every turn. And in the process he attacks not just Leibniz and Optimism but every dogmatist and every ‘ism’ – everyone in fact who wants to impose a simplistic structure on the rich diversity of human experience. In his essay ‘On re-reading Candide’, Aldous Huxley describes how in 1922 he sought refuge from the confusion of moving into a new house by rereading Candide, a copy of which somehow resurfaced in the process of the move: But the remarkable thing about re-reading Candide is not that the book amuses one, not that it delights and astonishes with its brilliance; that is only to be expected.

No, it evokes a new and, for me at least, an unanticipated emotion. In the good old days, before the Flood, the history of Candide’s adventures seemed to us quiet, sheltered, middle-class people only a delightful fantasy, or at best a high-spirited exaggeration of conditions which we knew, vaguely and theoretically, to exist, to have existed, a long way off in space and time. But read the book today; you feel yourself entirely at home in its pages. It is like reading a record of the facts and opinions of 1922; nothing was ever more applicable, more completely to the point. The world in which we live is recognizably the world of Candide and Cunégonde, of Martin and the Old Woman who was a Pope’s daughter and the betrothed of the sovereign Prince of Massa-Carrara. The only difference is that the horrors crowd rather more thickly on the world of 1922 than they did on Candide’s world. The manoeuvrings of Bulgare and Abare, the intestine strife in Morocco, the earthquake and auto-da-fé are but pale poor things compared with the Great War, the Russian Famine, the Black and Tans, the Fascisti, and all the other horrors of which we can proudly boast…

Candide has been many times imitated. In the film Candy (1968), based on the novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg, Candide is updated to become a (female) child of the 60s, a ravishing but naive blonde who sets off in search of truth. This journey to find meaning in her life takes her to New York and Las Vegas, where she meets, among others, a poet (Richard Burton), a general (Walter Matthau), a Mexican gardener (Ringo Starr) and a spiritual guru (Marlon Brando). The fanatics have never gone away, and for that reason Voltaire’s novel remains always relevant. When W.H. Auden contemplated Fascism in Europe in 1939, he wrote a poem ‘Voltaire at Ferney’. When Bernstein was a witness to MacCarthyism in the USA in the early 1950s, he composed his musical Candide. When the Italian novelist Sciascia observed the conflict between Marxism and Christianity in post-war Italian society, he wrote his novel Candido (1977). For as long as there are fanatics promoting their ‘isms’, we will go on reading and re-reading Candide.

© Nicholas Cronk
Nicholas Cronk is director of the Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford; he has recently edited The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (2009).

Biographies:

Amanda Bishop
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Waiting for Garnaut (Wharf Revue), STC Cabaret. For Malthouse Theatre: debut. Other Theatre: For Company B: The Pillowman, Open House. For Bell Shakespeare: Macbeth Intensive, Action Inaction, Trick or Treat Actors at Work, Lady Macbeth teacher workshops. For Ensemble Theatre: Losing Louis, Dags. For Sydney Opera House: Angry Penguins. For Downstairs Belvoir and B Sharp: Fallen Angels, Two For The Road, 24 Hour Play Project. For Darlinghurst Theatre: Boston Marriage, Vicious Streaks, Lessons In Flight (Australia Council funded Indigenous project, producer). For Old Fitzroy Theatre: A Girl In A Car With A Man (also Street Theatre, Canberra), Bird’s Eye View, Music & Mandy & Scott (including Griffin Theatre and Queanbeyan). For Bare Stage: Spyring. National Tours of Bite My Chilli, Opera Divas for Leave It To Diva and The King & Di (including NSW tour). Film: Callous, The Venus Factory, Fresh Air (SBS). Recent Shorts: Twist Of Fate, Amorality Tale, Tea For Two, Survival of the Fittest, The Big Check-out, 2007 Project Greenlight winning submission. Television: Penelope K, By The Way BBC, Review With Myles Barlow (series 1 & 2) ABC, My Place ABC, Double Take 7, My New Best Friend 7, guest roles All Saints, Blue Heelers, Backberner, Sunrise, Midday Show, Breakfast Show, and as Mrs Foil with the Umbilical Brothers in The Upside Down Show. Training: Bachelor of Music UNE, WAAPA.

Caroline Craig
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: The Pig Iron People, Bed. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Babes in the Wood. Other theatre: For Playbox: Falling Petals. For MTC: Love Song, Hitchcock Blonde. Other: Secret Bridesmaid’s Business. TV: Sleuth 101, Underbelly – A Tale of Two Cities, Underbelly, Blue Heelers, Bastard Boys, Orange Roughies, The Heartbreak Tour.

Francis Greenslade
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Navigating. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Tartuffe, Babes in the Wood, The Odyssey. Other Theatre: includes for Playbox Theatre Company: Babes in the Wood, Competitive Tenderness, Waking Eve, Chilling and Killing/My Annabel Lee. For MTC: The Madwoman of Chaillot, Urinetown, Things we do for Love, Man the Balloon, Blabbermouth. For Magpie Theatre: Funerals and Circuses. For STCSA: Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Cosi, School for Scandal, Comedy of Errors, Marat/ Sade, The Tempest, The Club. TV: Sleuth 101, City Homicide, East of Everything, The Librarians, Bastard Boys, All Saints, The Micallef Program, Welcher and Welcher, Micallef Tonight, Marshall Law, Sea Change, Pig’s Breakfast, Full Frontal, Janus, Real Stories, Mercury, Wicked Science, Snake Tales, Introducing Gary Petty, Blue Heelers, Water Rats, Fergus McPhail, Critical Mass.

Hamish Michael
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Two Brothers. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Woyzeck, Moving Target, Eldorado. Playbox Theatre: Meat Party. Other Theatre: For MTC: Ray’s Tempest, Two Brothers. For Theatre in Decay: Sweet Staccato Rising, so much art…so few bullets: god, the devil & the true history of mankind. For Arena Theatre Company: Outlookers. For La Mama: Pathétique & the Papers, Snarl. For Melbourne International Arts Festival: LifeLine. For Performance Anxiety: Weepie. For Big Picture (Hobart): St Valentine’s Peak. Film: Heaven, Lucky Miles, Ingrid Sits Holding a Knife, Em 4 Jay, Homesick, Sweetness & Light, Heartworm, Tom White, The Only Person In The World. TV: City Homicide, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, The Heartbreak Tour, Blue Heelers, Stingers, The Secret Life Of Us. As Sound Designer/Composer: For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Moving Target. Other Theatre: The Hayloft Project: Spring Awakening. Film: Heaven.

Barry Otto
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Troupers, Boy gets Girl, Proof, Volpone, Barrymore, King Lear, The Marriage of Figaro, Hot Fudge and Icecream, Tom & Viv, Portage to San Cristobal, A Happy and Holy Occasion, As You Desire Me. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Tartuffe. Other Theatre: includes for QTC: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, A Doll’s House, Present Laughter. For Company B: WASP, The Tempest, Night on Bald Mountain, Cosi. For MTC: Faust. Nimrod Theatre: Kiss of the Spider Woman, Uncle Vanya, Burn Victim, Cloud Nine, Protest, The Three Sisters, Traitors, Upside Down at the Bottom of the World. Film: South Solitary, Australia, Cheap Seats, Dead Letter Office, Kiss or Kill, Oscar and Lucinda, A Nice Guy, Lilian’s Story, Cosi, On Our Selection, Strictly Ballroom, Bliss. TV: Stupid Stupid Man, Farscape, Vietnam, The Dismissal, Shadows of the Heart. Awards: 2005 Adelaide Theatre Guide Award Nomination for Best Individual Male Performance for Last Cab to Darwin. 2003 MO Award nomination for Male Actor in a Play for Last Cab to Darwin. 1999 Green Room Award nomination for Best Male Artist in a Leading Role for Show Boat. 1997 Film Critics’ Circle of Australia Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Cosi. 1996 Australian Film Institute Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Cosi. 1994 Green Room Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Cosi. 1992 Film Critics’ Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actor for Strictly Ballroom. 1992 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Strictly Ballroom. 1991 Green Room Award for Best Male Actor in a Leading Role for The Marriage of Figaro. 1986 Australian Film Institute Award nomination for Best Actor for The More Things Change. 1985 Sydney Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actor for Bliss. 1985 Australian Film Institute Award nomination for Best Actor for Bliss.

Alison Whyte
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Don’s Party, The Jon Wayne Principle. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Tartuffe, Eldorado. Other theatre: For
Playbox Theatre: Night Letters (with STCSA), Myth Propaganda & Disaster in Nazi Germany & Contemporary America, Crazy Brave, The Language of The Gods. For MTC: Don’s Party, King Lear, Dinner, Explorations of Macbeth, Born Yesterday, Shark Fin Soup, Twelfth Night, The Dutch Courtesan, Much Ado About Nothing, The Game of Love & Chance, The Crucible, Morning Sacrifice, Hay Fever, The Taming of The Shrew, Nana, The Heidi Chronicles, Present Laughter. For Elston Hocking & Woods: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night. For Ford O’Connell Productions: Decadence. Film: Centre Place, The Jammed, Roundabout, Subterano, Just Do It, Saturday Night, What Goes Around Comes Around, The Boatbuilder. TV: Satisfaction (Series 1 & 2), Small Claims, Marshall Law, Leather and Silk (pilot), Crashburn, Dogwoman, The Hub, SeaChange, State Coroner, Micallef, Good Guys Bad Guys (Series 1 & 2), Frontline (Series 1, 2 & 3), GP, Kangaroo Palace, The Glynn Nicholas Show. Awards: Green Room Awards: 2005 Outstanding Female Actor in Drama for Dinner. 1996 Gerda Nicolson Award for Best Actress in Drama for Decadence. TV Week Logie Awards: 2008 Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress, 1997 Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Actress. 2008 Astra Award for Most Outstanding Actress. Green Room Awards: 1999 Best Female Actor nomination in a Leading Role for Born Yesterday. Training: VCA.

Frank Woodley
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: debut. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season). Other Performance: For Melbourne International Comedy Festival/ Adelaide Fringe Festival Sydney Opera House/ Brisbane Powerhouse/Perth Regal Theatre: Possessed. For Sydney Comedy Store: Frank Woodley Live. Other: Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Lano & Woodley Goodbye, Lano & Woodley Sing Songs. For Melbourne International Comedy Festival/Adelaide Fringe Festival/Sydney Opera House/Ten Days On The Island Festival: The Island. For Melbourne International Comedy Festival: The Happy Dickwit, Glitzy, Bruiser (with Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Sydney Opera House, Perth Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival), Slick (with Adelaide Fringe Festival). For Continental Café: Lano & Woodley at The Continental. For Melbourne International Comedy Festival/Auckland Comedy Festival/Edinburgh Fringe Festival/ Royal Festival Hall in London/National Festival of Australia Theatre: Curtains. For Melbourne International Comedy Festival/Festival of Sydney/Adelaide Fringe Festival/Auckland Comedy Festival/Edinburgh Fringe Festival/British Festival of Visual Theatre/Lyric Theatre London/ Sydney Opera House/Festival of Perth/National Festival of Australian: Fence. TV (includes): Network Ten: Good News Week, Thank God You’re Here, Rove [Live], The Panel. ABC TV: The Sideshow, Spicks & Specks, Stand Up!, The Adventures of Lano & Woodley – Series 1 & 2, Recovery. Networks Ten/Nine/Seven: Melbourne Comedy Festival Galas. Nine Network: Big Question, The Today Show, The Midday Show, Hey, Hey it’s Saturday. Seven Network: Comic Relief, Out of the Question, Thank God You’re Here. Comedy Channel: The Island, Aussie Gold. Awards: 2009 Herald Angel Award for role of Candide in Optimism, 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Comedy for Lano & Woodley Goodbye, 1994 Perrier Pick of the Fringe Award for Best Show, Fence, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

David Woods
Performer

For Sydney Theatre Company: debut. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Exit the King, The Importance of Being Earnest. Other Theatre: How to be Funny: Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow. Other: David is one half of the performance outfit Ridiculusmus, whose performances include: The Importance Of Being Earnest, Say Nothing, Yes, Yes, Yes, The Exhibitionists, Ideas Men, Paranoid Household, Tough Time, Nice Time.

Alan John
Musician

For Sydney Theatre Company: As Composer: A Streetcar Named Desire, The City, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, The Great, Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Season At Sarsparilla, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Fat Pig, Mother Courage and her Children, A Hard God, Hedda Gabler, Boy Gets Girl, The Give and Take, Major Barbara, Hanging Man, A Doll’s House, A Man with Five Children, A Month in the Country, Jonah Jones, The Government Inspector, Death and the Maiden, Tales of Helpmann. As Actor: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Season At Sarsaparilla. Other theatre: For Company B: Stuff Happens, The Spook, The Chairs, Ray’s Tempest, Our Lady of Sligo, The Underpants, Waiting for Godot, My Zinc Bed, The Tempest, Diary of a Madman, The Alchemist, Diving for Pearls, The Governor’s Family, The Judas Kiss, As You Like It, The Small Poppies, Emma’s Nose. For Bell Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick, Hamlet, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra. Musical theatre: The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, The Last Decade – A Cabaret Song Cycle, Chess (orchestrations and arrangements, 1990 version), Frankie – An Opera for Young People. For Opera Australia: The Eighth Wonder. For The Victorian Opera/Malthouse: Through the Looking Glass. Film: Human Contraptions, Travelling North, Looking for Alibrandi, Passion, The Bank, Three Dollars. TV: Dangerous, Love My Way, The Shark Net, Loot, Edens Lost, Naked – Coral Island, Playschool Meets the Orchestra, The Farm. Positions: Musical Director of Jim Sharman’s Lighthouse Company (1982-1983); Musical Director for Robyn Archer (1984-1988). Composer-in-Residence with the Sydney Youth Orchestra (1999-2000). Awards: 2003 APRA and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award for Best Music for Short Film for Human Contraptions, 2002 APRA and AGSC Award for Best Score Feature Film for The Bank, 2004 APRA and AGSC Award for Best Music for Mini Series or Telemovie for The Shark Net. Victorian Green Room Award for Best New Operatic Work for Through the Looking Glass.

Michael Kantor
Director

For Sydney Theatre Company: Howard Katz. For Malthouse Theatre: Happy Days, Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Woyzeck, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Sleeping Beauty, Babes in the Wood, Not Like Beckett, The Odyssey, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year. Other Theatre: For Playbox Theatre: Babes in the Wood, Meat Party, Natural Life (and presented later as Natural Life 2). For Adelaide Festival of Arts: Excavation, Moon Spirit Feasting. For Company B: Happy Days, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Ubu, The Ham Funeral, Macbeth. For Melbourne International Arts Festival: Lenz, Ubu, Moon Spirit Feasting. For Perth Festival touring to Sydney: The Burrow. For Chunky Move and Melbourne International Arts Festival (tours to Sydney and Perth festivals, and New York): Tense Dave. Other: Collaborated with Barrie Kosky’s Gilgul Theatre, performing in The Dybbuk, Es Brent, The Wilderness Room, The Operated Jew. Currently: Artistic Director of Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne.

Tom Wright
Writer

For Sydney Theatre Company: As Writer or Co-Writer: The Lost Echo (Ovid), Tales from the Vienna Woods (Horvath), The Women of Troy (Euripides), The War of the Roses (Shakespeare), The Duel (Dostoevsky), Oresteia (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides). As Director: The Mysteries: Genesis. For Malthouse Theatre: As Writer or Co-Writer: Optimism (Voltaire), Criminology, Babes in the Wood, A Journal of the Plague Year (Defoe), The Odyssey (Homer). Other Theatre: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht), Ubu (Jarry), This Is a True Story, Lorilei, Don Juan Comes Home From The War (Horvath), The Golden Ass (Apuleius), Medea (Euripides), Puntila and His Man Matti (Brecht), Ghost Train (Kroetz), Hideous Portraits. As Actor and Director: Playbox Theatre Company, MTC, La Mama, Company B, Anthill, Gilgul, Mene Mene, Bell Shakespeare Company, Chunky Move, Black Swan Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Perth Festival. Positions: Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company.

Iain Grandage
Composer and Musical Arrangements

Anna Tregloan
Set & Costume Designer

As Set and/or Costume Designer: For Sydney Theatre Company: Venus & Adonis (Bell Shakespeare/Next Stage). For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne and Edinburgh Festival season), Kitten, Vamp, Venus & Adonis, Tartuffe, The Tell-Tale Heart, Criminology, Sleeping Beauty, Anna Tregloan’s BLACK, And the Coloured Girls Go (2007), Babes in the Wood, La Douleur, Eldorado, The Odyssey, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year, Alias Grace. Other Theatre: For Playbox Theatre: Babes in the Wood. For Playbox/Ranter’s Theatre: St. Kilda Tales. For Ranter’s Theatre: Holiday. For Chamber Made: The Hive. For MTC: Art & Soul. For Danceworks: Symptomatic, Audible/Happy Valley, In the Heart of the Eye, Fresh Start, The View From Here. For Caroline Lee: The Three Interiors of Lola Strong, Alias Grace. For Bagryana Popov: Subclass 26A. For Arena Theatre Company: gamegirl, Eat Your Young, Panacea, Chronic. For Chunky Move: Fleshmeat. For Circus Oz: The Blue Show, set designs x 5, Design collaboration for Big Top Tent, Front of House design. For Back to Back Theatre Company: Fish Man, Mental. For Handspan/Back to Back: Mind’s Eye. For Moira Finucane: Gotharama, The Saucy Canteena. For Melbourne Workers Theatre: Tower of Light. For ICE: Teratology Project. For Lucy Guerin Company: Heavy. As Creator and/or Director: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, Anna Tregloan’s BLACK, Contemptuous Perplexity, The Long Slow Death of A Porn Star, Skin Flick, Body Function, The Church of Perpetual Motion, Mach, Through the Looking Glass (Assistant director), Sleeping Beauty (co-creator). International Touring: Work has shown in Holland, Belgium, USA, Dublin, London, New York, Paris, Kyoto, Malaysia, Edinburgh and Prague (and more) along with all Australian Capital cities. Formerly: Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre. Associate Artist of The Storeroom Theatre Workshop. Awards: Green Room Awards: 2005 Most Outstanding Designs X3; 2005 John Truscott award for excellence in design; 2007 Best Design; 2006 Helpmann Award: Best Design. Other: Masters of Animateuring (Cross-Modal Performance), Melbourne University, Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts.

Luke George
Choreographer

For Sydney Theatre Company: debut. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne and Edinburgh Festival season), Criminology. Balletlab: Brindabella. Performing: toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. Developed and performed work with Chunky Move-Gideon Obarzanek, Phillip Adams’ BalletLab, Jo Lloyd, Stephanie Lake, Frances d’Ath, Shelley Lassica, ITOH Kim (Tokyo) and Miguel Gutierrez (New York). Choreography: LIFESIZE, Here, not now, Sydney Opera House: Special Mention, Trike, Stompin: Underground; Joyride; SYNC; Age of Consent; Home; Panoramadrama. Also as collaborator on works by Arena Theatre Company and Back to Back Theatre Company. Other: Artistic Director of Stompin 2002-2008. Recognition: Asialink Performing Arts Residency to Tokyo, Arts House CultureLAB Residency, Russell Page Fellowship for Contemporary Dance and Melbourne Festival Choice Award and Fringe Movement Award (Trike). Training: VCA – Dance.

Paul Jackson
Lighting Designer

For Sydney Theatre Company: Mysteries: Genesis, Venus and Adonis (Next Stage), Frozen. For Malthouse Theatre: Knives in Hens, Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Happy
Days, Woyzeck, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Venus & Adonis, Moving Target, Tartuffe, The Tell-Tale Heart (Lighting Adaptation), Criminology, Sleeping Beauty (also as co-creator), The Pitch, Anna Tregloan’s BLACK, Babes in the Wood, Eldorado, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year, The Odyssey, Boulevard Delirium. Other Theatre: For Playbox Theatre Company: The Frail Man, Babes in the Wood, This Way Up, The Fat Boy, Double Bill. For Bell Shakespeare: Taming of The Shrew, Venus & Adonis (co-production with Malthouse Theatre). For Playbox Theatre Company: The Frail Man, Babes in the Wood, This Way Up, The Fat Boy, Double Bill. For MTC: Enlightenment, Ghost Writer, Frozen, The Recruit, Dinner, Cruel and Tender. For Victorian Opera: Don Giovanni, Ariadne Auf Naxos. For Chamber Made Opera: Crossing Live, The Hive, Teorema, The Possessed, Recital, Walkabout, Corruption. Also includes: Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Griffi n, Black Swan Theatre Company, Ballet Lab, Not Yet It’s Difficult, Oz Opera, Melbourne Opera, The Production Company, Lucy Guerin, Melbourne Workers Theatre. As Set Designer (with lighting): Melbourne Workers Theatre, Neon Heart Theatre, La Mama, Ranter’s Theatre. Awards: 2007 Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellowship. Green Room Awards: 2006 Lighting for Drama, 2004 Lighting for Opera, 2005 Design Cabaret. 17 Green Room Award nominations for design, 2004 Bulletin Magazine Smart 100 list member, 2005 and 2008 Helpmann nominations for lighting. 2008 Sydney Theatre Critic’s Award nomination for Best Lighting for Moving Target. Positions: Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre. Lighting designer with Melbourne based firm, The Flaming Beacon. Technical manager of Not Yet It’s Diffi cult performance group. Other: Paul has lectured in design and associated studies at University of Melbourne, RMIT, NMIT and VCA.

Russell Goldsmith
Sound Designer

For Sydney Theatre Company: I Am My Own Wife. For Malthouse Theatre: Happy Days, Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season), Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Sleeping Beauty, Exit the King, It Just Stopped, Love. Other Theatre (includes): Optimism. For Playbox Theatre: The Frail Man, Ruby Moon, Stolen (Touring Production 2002-2005). For: HotHouse Theatre Company/Black Swan Theatre Company: The Web. For Ignite Theatre: A Dream Play. For Victorian Arts Centre/ St. Martins Youth Arts Centre: Big Sky Town. For Melbourne Town Players: Attract/Repel, Sandwiches. For ChamberMade Opera: The Children’s Bach, Slow Love. For Anthony Crowley/Chapel Off Chapel: Shadow Passion. For McLaren House: Fully Committed. For Echelon Productions: Virgins – A musical threesome. For 11th Hour Productions: Krapp’s Last Tape. For Next Wave Festival: Panic (co-creator and technical director). Other: Sound designer/ composer for numerous film, radio and installation projects including: City of Melbourne Laneway Commission: Rosie’s Secret. BBC Radio, London: A Packet of Seeds. Verde Productions: Spilt. Cascade Brewing: “The Natural Order” – national advertising campaign. Borders Books: “S.S.S.” – 13 part animated series. SexBeetleFilms: Swimming to the Boy. Awards Tony Award Nomination for Exit the King, which opened in March 2009, and ran for 16 weeks at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. Winner, 2007 Sydney Theatre Award Best Sound Design for Exit the King. Nominated for multiple Green Room Awards for work over the last decade.

Sarah Giles
Assistant Director

For Sydney Theatre Company: As Assistant Director: Tot Mom. Other Theatre: As Director: For La Mama: The Maids. For New Theatre: The Herbal Bed. For NIDA: The Bald Soprano, The Stronger, The Universal Language. For Melbourne University: The Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy. For Short and Sweet: SPOTS. For Griffin: Foot, Cut. As Assistant Director: For MTC: The History Boys. For Malthouse Theatre: Optimism (Melbourne & Edinburgh Festival season). For Griffin Theatre Company: Strange Attractor. Positions: Affiliate Director, Griffin Theatre Company (2009). Training: University of Melbourne BA, NIDA (Directing).