Category Archives: Pram Factory Theatre

APG Collective Programming meeting – Nov 1976 – Committee’s evaluation report

Featured in this post is a copy of a report by the Australian Performing Group’s Programming Committee. It was presented to members at the Collective Programming Meeting held 4/11/1976. As can be seen, the report raises a state of affairs that was bothering the Committee. The report is layed out as follows:

  • The Critique
    • Loss of vigor, energy, enthusiasm and “Australianess”
    • Losing touch with the reality of “out there”
    • Loss of identity
    • Ad hoc and isolationist work methods
    • Lack of hard analysis before, during and after productions
    • Confused choice of material
    • Lack of direction
    • Disintegration of design
    • Absurd use of personnel
    • Short rehearsal periods
  • The New Methodology
    • General workshops for whole collective
    • Deeper engagement with material before final choice
    • More preparation prior to beginning rehearsal
    • More extensive use of open rehearsal
    • In- & post- production analysis
  • Criteria for choice of material
    • Community relevance and benefit
    • Innovation
    • Critical stance towards existing social structures
    • Exploit the uniqurness of the group
    • Recognize the limitations of the group
  • A new role for the Programming Committee

Note: The handwritten notes on the report are mine and were made during or before the meeting. The first lot of notes show the time the discussion took place. The notes at the end could be suggestions I had.

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David Hare on political theatre: “The Playwright as Historian” (1978): APG extracts

In the 1970s the young English, socialist playwright David Hare (now Sir David Hare) was a favourite of many actors and writers at the Australian Performing Group. In November 1978 a lecture that Hare delivered to King’s College, Cambridge, was published in the London Sunday Times under the title “The Playwright as Historian”. The APG published extracts from Hare’s lecture in their newsletter, “The Perambulator”, in April 1979. A copy of those extracts is the subject of this post.

Notes:

  1. The extracts published in the APG’s version (below) appear to be less than half of the full lecture by David Hare
  2. David Hare’s lecture was also published as an addendum to his book/play/TV script “Licking Hitler”,as well as in his book, “Writing Left-Handed”, under the new title, “The Play is in the Air: On Political Theatre”.


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An assessment of the Australian Performing Group by Louis Nowra

In February 2008 a book by Gabrielle Wolf titled “Make it Australian: The Australian Performing Group, the Pram Factory and New Wave Theatre” was published. (Currency Press – ISBN10 0868198161). The Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist Mark Doyle, better known by the name Louis Nowra, wrote the following review of the book, outlining why he thinks it doesn’t tell the full story.


“Inside the collective”

By A NEW BOOK ABOUT A NOTORIOUS MELBOURNE THEATRE TROUPE DOESN’T TELL THE FULL STORY WRITES PLAYWRIGHT LOUIS NOWRA

THE AUSTRALIAN, MAY 24, 2008

“YEARS after the incident, a still astonished Sydney director described his visit to Melbourne in the early 1970s for a meeting with members of the Australian Performing Group, the vanguard of the new wave theatre movement. He attended a gathering of the collective in the morning, where there was a serious discussion about Bertolt Brecht. Afterwards he was invited to an Australian football match. The transformation was incredible. These rational theatre people turned into banshees, screaming abuse at the umpires and opposition supporters. With a resigned tone, similar to the end of Chinatown, where a baffled Jack Nicholson is told, “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown,” I said to the director, “That’s Melbourne for you.”

I should know. I lived in Melbourne during most of the APG era of the late ’60s and ’70s before I hightailed it to Sydney. While I was at university I was aware of exciting things happening at La Mama in Carlton, the theatre that gave birth to the APG. Founded about 40 years ago by the under-appreciated Betty Burstall, La Mama was formerly an old shirt factory.

The space was so intimate that the audience could smell an actor’s bad breath. The location was also serendipitously perfect. Inner-Melbourne Carlton was filled with university students, bohemians, nascent writers, young academics and, most importantly, cheap rents. Within a couple of years a motley group of actors and playwrights left La Mama and relocated nearby to a much larger space, the Pram Factory, where, in January 1970, they formally inaugurated the Australian Performing Group.

Louis Nowra by John Webber
Mark Doyle aka Louis Nowra
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“Soapbox Circus” 1977 interview, National U newspaper

In June 1977 “National U”, the newspaper of the National Union of Australian University Students, published an interview with Ponch Hawkes and Mick (Microphone) Conway of Soapbox Circus (later to become Circus Oz). Much of the interview was about the record album that had just been released, “Matchbox and the APG – The Great Stumble Forward”.  L 36245,  Festival Records.


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“The Hills Family Show” programme booklet – front theatre, October 1975

Cast: Sue Ingelton (“Adelaide Hills”), Evelyn Krape (“Fanny ‘Granny’ Hills”), Fay Mokotow (“Antigone Hills”), Max Gillies (“Fitzroy Hills”), Bill Garner (“Sandringham Hills”), Robert Meldrum (“Clifton Hills”), Tony Taylor (“Winston Hills”) and Buz Leeson (“David Hills”).  Photos: Larry Meltzer. Choreography: Lorry Clark and Bob Thorneycroft.


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“The Hills Family Show” – programme booklet – country tour – May/June 1976

Cast: Sue Ingelton (“Adelaide Hills”), Evelyn Krape (“Fanny ‘Granny’ Hills”), Fay Mokotow (“Antigone Hills”), Max Gillies (“Fitzroy Hills”), Jack Weiner (“Bluey Hills”), Bill Garner (“Sandringham Hills”), Robert Meldrum (“Clifton Hills”) and Tony Taylor (“Winston Hills”). Jon Hawkes as “Albert Alps, manager”.

Presented by THE VICTORIAN ARTS COUNCIL, 31/5/76 – 26/6/76

Cover
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7

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“The Hills Family Show” – programme booklet – front theatre, May/June 1977

Cast: Evelyn Krape (“Fanny Hills”), Bill Garner (“Sandringham Hills”) , Max Gillies (“Fitzroy Hills”), Fay Mokotow (“Antigone Hills”), Tony Taylor (“Winston Hills”), Jack Weiner (“Bluey Hills”) and Laurel Frank (“Mona Vale”). Photographs: Brendan Hennessy.

In FRONT THEATRE from 5/5/77-12/6/77


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“Radio Active Horror Show” – preview – The Age, 5/7/1977

The Radio Active Horror Show has been described as “An Australian anti-nuclear musical by John Romeril and the A.P.G. (Australian Performing Group). “Things are crook, just take a look, we’re in more pooh than Winnie”.” (Source: AusStage.) It played at the Pram Factory from 7 July to 21 August 1977. The APG members involved were Kerry Dwyer, Ursula Harrison, Wilfred Last, Richard Murphet, Margot Nash, Hellen Sky, Carol Porter, Greig Pickhaver and John Romeril (writer).

(The play was also performed in Sydney, at the New Theatre, Newtown, opening on 29/4/78. The Sydney cast and crew were not from the APG.)

Below is a copy of a PREVIEW by John Stevens of the APG production. The full title of the preview is “See this and freak out”.


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“The Dudders”, poster and reviews, Nov 1976

“The Dudders”, a cabaret-style musical comedy set in Australia in 1942, was staged at the Pram Factory front theatre and ran from 11 November to 24 December 1976. It was written by John Romeril and John Timlin and directed by John Romeril, all APG members. The actors were Tim Robertson, Alison Richards, Susy Potter, Bob Thorneycroft, Bob Daly, Peter Green, Richard Murphet and Bill Garner.

Below are copies of the APG publicity poster and favourable reviews by theatre critics Bob Crimeen, Leonard Radic and Neil Jillett.


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“Dimboola” the movie – review by Colin Bennett

The movie “Dimboola” – produced by Pram Factory Pictures Pty Ltd – had it’s Melbourne premiere at the Bercy Cinema on 10 May 1979. Writer, Jack Hibberd; producer, John Weiley; director, John Duigan; leading actors, Max Gillies, Bruce Spence and Natalie Bate; (production accountant, Peter Keenan!).

“Dimboola” was not a critical or popular success, and that’s an understatement. Below is a copy of one of the reviews the movie received, this one by Colin Bennett of The Age. A copy of another review – one by Susan Adler appearing in Cinema Papers – is elsewhere on this site and may be viewed by clicking HERE.


“The messy marriage feast at Dimboola”

Cinema review, The Age, Monday,14 May 1979


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