The Germaine Greer Legacy Hostage In Wellington

Media Release
23 February 2006

“Joanna Murray-Smith continues to write plays that are justifiably finding productions in the United States and Britain. The quality of her work transcends national boundaries in its acute exploration of the psychological states that determine social outcomes.” – The Age

Australian Playwright Holds The Germaine Greer Legacy Hostage In Wellington

A farce about feminism? An audience with one of Australia’s most internationally successful and accomplished playwrights in the Fringe? You betcha.

A woman with an uncanny echo of Germaine Greer is held hostage by women of two other generations in her own home. Joanna Murray-Smith (best known around the world for Honour) with Female of the Species (premiered Melbourne Theatre Company 2006) provides a hilarious riposte to the received idea that feminism and feminists are not funny.

Join Playmarket, the Theatre Artists Charitable Trust, Circa and Joanna for a rehearsed reading and a look at writing comedies about social issues, and playwriting for an international audience on the last day of the Fringe. Directed by leading new work director Susan Wilson.

Murray Smith has had over a dozen plays produced since she began writing in the late 1980s. Melbourne based her plays premiered almost annually at Playbox Theatre to critical and commercial success. Honour was launched at a Playwrights’ Workshop in New York with Meryl Streep in the lead and its numerous international productions include Broadway and London’s Royal National Theatre. We are pleased to be able to offer the first international airing of Female of the Species following its Melbourne debut.

Murray-Smith’s visit to New Zealand has been organised by TACT with funding support from Creative New Zealand. The reading is part of the TACT Theatre Symposium Staging the Future at Circa Theatre (March 1-4), a symposium designed to inspire excellence in theatre, and at which Murray-Smith will also speak on the morning of Friday March 2.

This Playmarket reading follows last year’s very successful playreading of leading UK playwright Simon Stephen’s Motortown as part of the Fringe. It is part of a continuing series of readings, discussions and workshops by Playmarket designed to open up New Zealand audiences, playwrights and practitioners to new work practise internationally.

Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith
Circa Two. Sunday March 4, 2pm
Tickets: $5. Fringe Addicts $3. Bookings through Circa Theatre,

Supported by Fringe 07, T.A.C.T, Circa Theatre and Creative New Zealand.

Ends

© Scoop Media