Helen and Michael are excited to be appearing with one of Australia’s finest contemporary music ensembles, Kupka’s Piano in the Australian Premiere of Samuel Beckett’s WORDS AND MUSIC at the Judith Wright Centre as part of the Queensland Music Festival
7pm Saturday 15 July
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Full– $35
Concession– $30
Presented by Judith Wright Centre, Kupka’s Piano and Queensland Music Festival
In a post-truth world, where words can no longer be trusted, can we instead say it with music? New music ensemble Kupka’s Piano continues this investigation in the 2017 Words Fail series.
All dark no begging
No giving no words
No sense no need…
Sloth, love, aging, and the meaninglessness of words themselves are explored in this enigmatic radio play by Samuel Beckett.
The work casts music as an actual “character” (although often also called Joe), who works with and sometimes against, ignores and sometimes taunts Words (often called Bob) as he gets lost in doubt-filled reflections, rambles, and songs. Interjecting throughout this strange dialogue, a third character, the inexplicable Croak, implores the two characters to “Be friends!” but it is clear that this relationship is an impossible one.
The music, written by American minimalist Morton Feldman and added to the radio play in 1987, provides an eerie and often sarcastic counterpoint to Beckett’s famously witty and self-conscious wordplay. Words and Music will be performed completely in the dark to preserve the intended platform of a radio play, and it will be followed by Feldman’s brilliant Why Patterns as a postlude. This production is a collaboration with award-winning Australian actress Helen Howard and local director and writer Michael Futcher, who makes a rare return to performing in the Australian premiere of Beckett’s and Feldman’s work, and is presented by the Queensland Music Festival.
Matrix Theatre in residency at Clayfield College
Matrix is excited to be collaborating with the wonderful Senior students at Clayfield College on Carla Moore’s heart-rending, Over The Moon and Far Away, based on historical reminiscences of interned women in Indonesia in WW2.
DATE: AUGUST 22nd and 23rd at 7.00 pm
VENUE: Roundhouse Theatre
Michael with the cast of “Enemies” at the Loft in May 2017
