Four Letter Word Theatre

Last Friday night I saw one of FLW’s final performances of Sarah Ruhl’s play about female empowerment, love and all things mechanical at the Guild Theatre, Melbourne University. Never one for a synopsis and not being familiar with the play, I had no idea what to expect.

Are you prone to feeling dizzy or faint? Do bright lights irritate you? Sad? Depressed? Can’t seem to find any motivation? Are you slacking in your domestic duties? Disappointing your husband?

Four Letter Word Theatre’s second outing this year is one of Shakespeare’s most bloody and confronting plays, Titus Andronicus.

“If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul.” -Titus Andronicus

Peter Shaffer is regarded by discerning theatregoers and historians as one of the foremost playwrights of the Twentieth Century. Establishing his reputation with Five Finger Exercise in 1958, he solidified his stature with Royal Hunt Of The Sun (1964) and Black Comedy (1965). Nurtured by London’s National Theatre, he then took his career into legendary and revered status with Equus (1973) and Amadeus (1979).

Equus is a play about the uses of memory: its echoes and its rewrites. After all, its action is at least twice refracted through what characters are able to recollect. More, of course, if we consider the capacity that each of us has to refigure our own histories. - Shannon Loughnane, Director

Last night I went to see A Clockwork Orange. Golly. I am still getting the occasional urge to cross my legs in fear. First off however, I feel I need to make a disclaimer:

Sustainability is the catchphrase of the modern age but does reduce, recycle, reuse translate to the theatre - Robert Smith, Set Designer and Constructor, believes it does!  

Inside Out, a new play by Donna Bradshaw and presented by Four Letter Word Theatre at La Mama, examines the progeny of the voices in our heads that may haunt, often deride but certainly remain a constant throughout our lives.