Onward Productions - Exciting new theatre venture from Sally Burton

Sally Burton – wife of the late Richard Burton has announced the launch of a new theatre company for Perth during an elegant champagne reception at the Western Australian Club in the city on Wednesday of last week. ‘I am passionate about theatre and very excited that at this point in my life I am able to pursue a new venture.’

During her witty address to the hoi polloi of Perth’s theatre community, a relaxed Ms Burton explained how Richard Burton’s savvy agent had ensured that some of his film deals included a percentage of future sales – so-called residuals. She now receives a substantial income from this source and has decided to spend it for the cultural good of Perth and Australia.

Onward Productions will produce 2 plays per year, the first will be presented Downstairs at the Maj later this year. Singular Women written by Stewart Permutt will feature mother and daughter team, Jenny and Rebecca Davis. Following this will be Seven Deadly Sins, Four Deadly Sinners by Norman Hudis & Marc Sinden, which will be presented in association with Black Swan State Theatre Company with artistic director Kate Cherry at the helm.

Playwriting Award

To complement the Sally Burton Award for Third Year Acting that has been available to students at WAAPA since 2007, Sally will be funding an annual award for playwriting. $20,000 will go the the best new play and $10,000 for the runner up. This award is open to playwrights throughout Australia and not just in WA; Black Swan will be involved in the assessment and selection of eligible scripts.

The Last Enemy - TV review

"The Last Enemy is an emotional odyssey about a man in search of the truth" (Gub Neal, producer)

The Last Enemy
Writer - Peter Berry, Director - Iain B MacDonald
Producer - Gub Neal (Box TV) for BBC TV/WGBH Boston

In the opening few minutes of this 5-part Brit thriller a hairy Max Beesley is seen exploding along with his jeep on a lonely road in Afganistan where his character Michael Ezard is (was) an aid worker. Now, Beesley left a good gig in Hotel Babylon to do this part so I wasn’t convinced that he’d died... unless they were going to do a lot of flash backs. Distracting though my private musings about casting choices were during these crucial expositionary moments, they were an appropriately cynical and suspicious response, given that the episode continued in the vein of Spooks with a plethora of mysterious disappearances including creepy neighbours, a dead body and a grieving widow.

In the near future, Stephen Ezard (Benedict Cumberbatch) is an OCD afflicted maths genius and has returned to a scarily hi-tech England, full of CCTV surveillance and military-grade data analysis, after a long absence in China to attend his brother Michael’s funeral. Although professing a limited filial bond, he soon comes to question the circumstances of Michael’s death and falls into the role of accidental hero. Michael’s widow Yasmin chooses to follow her own version of the Kübler-Ross stages of grief – stage one, shag your dead husband’s brother.

You can tell we’re in hi-tech fiction-land because the swipe cards in this world give a self-satisfied little whizzy noise as they obligingly open doors and pay your bills. In my world they usually elicit a less than desirable shriek denoting an error, grrrr...

A lot of improbable narrative leaps were made possible through the existence of TIA – Total Information Access, a government sanctioned data analysis system that Ezard is given access to and you really have to suspend your disbelief at the plot contrivance that allows this. There’s an odd imbalance between genuinely thrilling - Robert Carlyle skulks around looking divinely menacing as a retired spook, and wonderfully silly in that uniquely understated English style – a stately Geraldine James orders an ‘Olympic’ breakfast.

I’m hoping it settles into a more recognisable thriller. All in all it’s not clear who is on whose side and who the good guys actually are which is about right. I’m hanging in here for the long haul.

The Last Enemy screens on ABC1 Sundays 8.30pm

To blog or not to blog

Welcome to my blog - my first foray into this medium, but as William Blake once said, ‘Every harlot was a virgin once’.

It seems a good time to be discussing Perth theatre as it enters an exciting phase of its history. The long anticipated State Theatre Centre (pictured) is well under way in its construction. Perth theatre goers eagerly await the opening and to seeing what it can achieve for Perth's cultural scene in general and for Black Swan in particular.

I look forward to sharing ideas and debate in the comments forum.