Queensland Theatre Company presents Boston Marriage to open Season 2015
By David Mamet
24 January to 15 Febuary at the Playhouse, QPAC
Director: Andrea Moor Designer: Stephen Curtis Lighting Designer: David Walters Assistant Lighting Designer: Daniel Anderson Composer/Sound Designer: Phil Hagstrom
Cast Includes: Helen Cassidy, Rachel Gordon and Amanda Muggleton
A laugh out loud comedy of bad manners delivered by two Edwardian Bostonian ladies of high society who know no boundaries!
Queensland Theatre Company is set to open Season 2015 in fine fashion – with one of David Mamet’s most satisfying and accomplished plays in Boston Marriage, directed by the Matilda Award winner Andrea Moor and starring stage doyenne Amanda Muggleton along with fellow sirens Helen Cassidy and Rachel Gordon.
Boston Marriage is a quick-fire comedy riddled with the wicked wit of the acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning, storyteller David Mamet – the storyteller creative behind Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow as well as The Untouchables, Hannibal and more. With sarcasm and ribald banter it chips away at the pretensions and proprieties of high society and blows apart class distinction, while exploring the compromise needed to keep a marriage alive.
Boston Marriage is directed by Andrea Moor, who delighted audiences and critics alike and won a Matilda Award for 2013’s Venus in Fur.Leading the cast is the multi-awarded actor acclaimed for her work across film, television and theatre in Amanda Muggleton. While the London-born Muggleton is perhaps most famous for her role in the iconic series Prisoner, she has become one of Australia’s best-loved, most versatile and colourful leading ladies. Brisbane-born, NIDA-graduate Rachel Gordon has worked in some of the country’s most iconic productions – most notably Bue Heelers where she played Detective Senior Constable Amy Fox. Sisters of War’s Helen Cassidy completes the star cast for Boston Marriage (more on the cast below).
The play also promises a veritable frock fest on stage – with the cast donning stunning custom-designed period costumes from the talents ofStephen Curtis, one of Australia’s leading stage and costume designers.
The Story:
The erudite Anna and Claire dwell together on the fringes of the Boston elite, but to keep themselves in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, Anna has been accepting expensive presents from a wealthy married man who’s become besotted by her. Claire, meanwhile, is aging disgracefully and is set on seducing a much younger woman, and wants not only Anna’s blessing but her help. According to Director Andrea Moor, the core message is that true love will win out.
“Essentially it’s a girl gets girl story. The fact that the love interest is between two women is sort of by and by. We witness the complicated emotional landscape of their relationship that has us laughing, holding our breath in disbelief that anyone could say such things, and desperately wanting our Anna to win the day. It’s simply hysterically funny! Audiences will love the characters, the language, the jokes and the thrill of the suspense. It’s a fast paced comedy of bad manners. They will take away that wonderful feeling when a cast have transported you to their world, cajoled you in to their dilemma and celebrated the winning of the challenge with you! This is a witty delicious night in the theatre.”
Director Andrea Moor on the Boston Marriage cast …
Three extraordinary actresses star in this play. Actors who have already played a gamut of roles. Between them I think most of the best roles for women have been covered. Amanda is so very experienced and has a delicious facility with language. Her delivery of Mamet’s eloquent and at times gutter course dialogue will be brilliant. She is also an actor who is very aware of her own physical presence as is the character of Anna.
Rachel is one of my favourite Australian actors and I have wanted to direct her for many years. We played mother and daughter in the QTC/MTC production of Let the Sunshine. We had so much fun on that show and I think she was the best thing in it. She brings a sharp intellectual presence to her work combined with a sophisticated sexuality. She is also a wonderful ‘player’ and will no doubt have a ball playing with Amanda and Helen. Helen is one of my favorite Brisbane actors. There’s nothing Helen can’t do. She is a brilliant comic but at the same time she can deliver roles of great depth. Her Laura in the Glass Menagerie was heartbreaking.
Director Andrea Moor on the writer David Mamet:
David Mamet, together with American actor William Macy, originated an acting technique called Practical Aesthetics. This technique essentially encourages an uncluttered approach to performance, allowing the full complexity of the text to come to the fore. I studied this technique with the Atlantic Theatre Company, a company that Mamet and Macy originally set up. I later co-founded the Sydney annex of The Atlantic Theatre Company with one of the founding members, Melissa Bruder. Practical Aesthetics Australia was a company devoted to teaching this work and we brought out all of the master teachers from New York. I subsequently became a master teacher in the technique and continue to teach at NIDA, WAAPA , QUT, in masterclasses all over the country; and just ran a masterclass at LAMDA in London. Melissa and I were given the Australian premiere rights to Boston Marriage many years ago but were unable to raise the funds needed to stage the play. I, of course, was going to play Anna. So this play has been in my mind for many years. I was thrilled when the opportunity came up with QTC. So as I know the world of Mamet so intimately from teaching his acting technique for so many years, from reading all his wonderful essays on theatre, from seeing and reading his plays over the years, it would seem that I am the ideal director to bring this work to life. I have a passion for his work. I also love the palpable and very muscular sexuality of the characters and that is very Mamet.
Tickets are available at queenslandtheatre.com.au or by calling 136 246.
* On tour to nine Regional Queensland venues: 17 February – 26 March
