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"Patronise a theatre of ideas. A sensual and energising communal environment" Geraldine Brophy
This Anzac Day afternoon will be the first public performance of Michael Galvin's play War Hero at Downstage Theatre, Wellington, April 25, 3pm, a play inspired by We Will Not Cease by Archibald Baxter and commissioned as part of the Bruce Mason Playwriting award.
The playreading, directed by Murray Lynch, will be accompanied by projection of celebrated paintings by Bob Kerr, which also tell Baxter's story, as featured in Field Punishment No.1 by David Grant, a history of conscientious objection in New Zealand.
Archibald Baxter was one of 14 conscientious objectors who were forcibly transported to the front line in France during the First World War where they were subjected to a variety of disciplinary measures, including the barbaric ‘No. 1 field punishment'.
This playreading is being presented by Playmarket with Downstage, the Bruce Mason Estate, the Downstage Theatre Society, and the FAME Trust. It's also an opportunity to hear the work of a leading emerging playwright interpreting a classic of New Zealand literature with a stellar professional cast. The play was commissioned from Galvin as part of winning the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, New Zealand's most significant theatre award.
Michael Galvin is best known for his play Ocean Star which premiered to acclaim with Auckland Theatre Company in 2006. Well known as an actor for stage and screen (Shortland Street) his play New Gold Dream is scheduled for production soon.
Baxter, the father of James K Baxter, wrote We Shall Not Cease in London at the beginning of the Second World War. When it was republished by Caxton Press in 1968 he wrote the following in the preface:
"A greater barbarism than any the human race has known in the past has risen among the nations. In the First World War multitudes of conscript soldiers were buried alive in the mud of France. Villages were also annihilated but the greatest number of casualties were among the conscript troops. In the Second World War the wholesale slaughter of civilians-by high explosives, by firebombing, and finally by atomic weapons-became a matter of course. Reports from the present Vietnam War indicate that 80 percent of the casualties are occurring among civilians. War has at last become wholly indiscriminate... We make war chiefly on civilians and respect for human life seems to have become a thing of the past... all wars are equally atrocious and no war can be called just."
War Hero, Michael Galvin, Downstage Theatre, Saturday April 25, 3pm, Entry by koha
Paul Rothwell has been awarded New Zealand’s most significant national theatre award, the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. The emerging playwrights’ award for 2008 was announced at Downstage Theatre Wellington by Playmarket. Rothwell’s award recognises his dedication as a playwright and its recognition by critics and audiences.
The Bruce Mason Award is decided through voting by a panel of leading directors and play developers throughout New Zealand. The award sees Rothwell awarded a $10,000 full-length play commission, to be given a playreading in 2010.
Five of Paul Rothwell’s plays, including Hate Crimes, Golden Boys and Deliver Us, have been mounted in the last three years providing both delight and controversial insights into the heart of New Zealand society. He has been widely heralded as one of this country’s most exciting new playwrights. Rothwell has twice been nominated for the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Most Outstanding New Playwright and is a previous winner of Playmarket’s New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition. A new work Christmas Indoor premieres in Wellington in December, and another new play The Blackening had a reading with Auckland Theatre Company this year.
This prestigious annual award has since 1983 recognised the work of an outstanding emerging New Zealand playwright. Such a playwright has had one or more full-length plays produced to acclaim. Previous winners include many of this country’s most celebrated writers, including Briar Grace Smith, David Geary and Toa Fraser. The award is sponsored by the Downstage Theatre Society, The FAME Trust, the Bruce Mason Estate and Playmarket.
Twisted, dark and often very funny, Rothwell’s plays have often led to debate amongst critics and audiences for their pointed commentary on New Zealand middle class suburbia, where families struggle under the weight of society’s expectations. Rothwell’s latest Christmas Indoors, opening at BATS Theatre in early December, is described as an unashamedly anti-Christmas comedy about family; exploring how sometimes the things that bring us together are the same things that push us apart.
The Award is named after the man considered to be New Zealand’s first most significant playwright, Bruce Mason who died in 1982.