The Scoundrel That You Need (or Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man)
First performed at Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1868, The Scoundrel That You Need (or Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man) is a comedy which follows the fortunes of a social-climber who finds himself on a ladder of ambition every bit as rotten and hollow as his own collapsing schemes. Telling the timeless tale of an older woman scorned for a younger girl, the play bounces from satire to farce as the spurned married woman seeks her own moral justice from her former lover.
Born in 1823 in Moscow, Ostrovsky was one of 19th Century Russia s most highly regarded playwrights, and lived when theatre was dangerous. Famously, he was the first to depict onstage the ordinary merchants, government bureaucrats and other middle-class denizens of Moscow and the Volga River region. Melbourne was a ferment of activity and exploration, powered by explorations of the role of the actor and the language of acting.
He directed Aeschylus Oresteian Trilogy at the Pram Factory, the second play to be staged at the now legendary Melbourne venue, then went on to found one of Victoria s first community theatre companies, the Mill Theatre. McCaughey set up the performing arts program at Deakin University.
Despite Ostrovsky s popularity in Russia, his works have been rarely performed in the West. James McCaughey comments What was happening in Melbourne in the late 1960s and early 1970s was comparable to what was happening in Russia at the time of Ostrovsky a commitment to remaking a theatre which stemmed from the society of which it was part, powered by the energy of vernacular speech and releasing new capacities in the actor.
Having Evelyn Krape in the play draws those two stories together, bringing to the realisation of Ostrovsky some of the rich development of Melbourne theatre over the last forty years.
 |
Phone: 03 8606 4200 | Don't forget to mention about-australia.com when you call! |
The listing you are trying to contact hasn't supplied an email address.
Feel free to let them know you found them on about-australia.com. |
Experiences | |
|
