Red Stitch:- A Seamless Launch.

Red Stitch:- A Seamless Launch.

If you want safe, middle of the road theatre, then most likely you’ll have no interest in Red Stitch’s first season for 2013. I, on the other hand, prefer to A) be challenged; and B) stay awake during a performance, so Red Stitch as a company is a theatrical delight for me, always cutting edge, frequently offbeat.

Artistic Director David Whitely seemed the most excited of all of us at yesterday’s launch, which was attended by press, company members, subscribers and supporters and a smattering of “Wannabe Noticed” beautiful people. Certainly there’s a lot to be excited about. The season starts with Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles in February and it’s an Australian Premiere ( most Red Stitch productions are) of a U.S play which Time Magazine this year called “The Best Play Of The Season.” Set in a tiny New York apartment it explores the relationship and 70 year gap between 21 year old Leo and his 91 year old grandmother. Winner of 2 Obie Awards and an off-Broadway hit, it promises, under Mark Pritchard’s direction, to be a poignant but biting comic opening to the season.

Another premiere production, Penelope, follows in March 22nd at TheatreWorks this time, and heads my “Must see" list for the year. Irish playwright Enda Walsh is a Word Wizard, staggeringly good with dialogue. Mainstream audiences will know that he won this year’s Tony Award for the book for the musical Once. His screenplay Hunger also won a fistful of awards and, though his skills at plot progression and storytelling don’t match his lust for words, you have to salivate at the thought of a contemporary telling of Odysseus’s patient wife Penelope fending off suitors in speedos who live in a swimming pool! It sounds both hilarious and insightful and director Alister Smith is relishing the adrenaline rush, though set designer Peter Mumford knows it will be his biggest challenge for the year..

About Tommy, the company’s third offering for the year, is based on real events encountered by a UN peace-keeping force during the Serbian war. Written by Thor Bjorn Krebs and translated by David Duchin (there are in fact several translations of the play) it is highly political and could just as easily apply to Afghanistan now. It isn’t easy to promote peace when everyone else wants war, and at what stage do you start to fight back. The play is both comical and confronting and the exhilarating young director Kat Henry will no doubt dazzle us. The season is from April 26th – May 25th.

Finally, to wind up the first half of the year, is Herding Cats by Lucinda Coxon. (June 7th – July 6th). It’s an acerbic challenging exploration of co-dependancy with a subtext covering loneliness and abuse, and the compromises we make not to be alone. The very terrific Suzanne Chaundy….the “token middle aged female” of the group (her words not mine) will direct and no doubt will bring her considerable talents to charm us and challenge us in equal measures.

Four very different plays; if you can’t find something you’re anxious to see, then you really aren’t trying.

Bravo to Red Stitch for a great season and a great launch at a fabulous new venue Pawn and co (the food was excellent and the glassware to die for). It was Pawn and Co’s opening day, which shows that Red Stitch takes chances off stage as well as on. Fortunately all the elements came together and they promise theatregoers a great 2013.

Coral Drouyn

Image - Penelope

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