Category: Arthur Miller

“THE SPARE ROOM is an exciting new development on the independent theatre scene in Sydney. THE SPARE ROOM facilitates co-production between New Theatre and independent companies, providing a platform for the creation of challenging and stimulating contemporary performance by both emerging and established artists.” ARTHUR (a theatre company), is the inaugural partner of this enterprise. ARTHUR, has a company brief, which you can find on Facebook. Too full of too much whimsical persiflage to seriously quote here. DIRTYLAND by Elise Hearst, is a new Australian play and is the first offer of this most welcome development from the New Theatre:…

This play is, according to Mr Miller in his many interviews, the most performed of his plays. Published and first performed in 1953, during the height of the McCarthy House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, it still burns with relevance in 2009. When the Deputy-Governor, Danforth in the third act of the play speaking to one of his examinees, Francis Nurse, (in this production, Giles Corey, played by Peter Carroll) says, “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road…

This play was first performed in 1949. A year after that premiere on Broadway Miller was asked to write a first anniversary item for the New York Times. Of many observations the last paragraph is worth noting: “So what is there to feel on this anniversary? Hope, for I know now that people want to listen. A little fear that they want to listen so badly. And an old insistence – sometimes difficult to summon, but there nonetheless – that we will find a way beyond fear of each other, beyond bellicosity, a way into our humanity.“ Last night in…