Savages
Meaning lies both in and just behind language. Whoever speaks a line, when and how can bend the truth of it in any direction.
It’s why new readings of Shakespeare’s plays are still altering our understanding of centuries-old texts. Of course, in his day, every player was a man, including the star-cross’d Juliet and the bloody-palmed Lady Macbeth. From the very start, subtle layers were woven into the lines through this gender-subversion.
So I was fascinated by the idea of women and non-binary performers adopting the increasingly odious male personas of Australian playwright Patricia Cornelius’ Savages, her astonishingly powerful takedown of so-called casual misogyny that spirals into something dreadful.
While The Bard’s works are re-spun on our stages ad infinitum, it’s disappointingly uncommon for our own playwrights, unless it’s a Ray Lawler or a Joanna Murray-Smith.
So, what’s this new read on Savages all about?
First performed at fortyfivedownstairs in 2013, then directed by Cornelius’ regular collaborator Susie Dee, Savages starred Mark Tregonning as the hulking Craze; James O’Connell as the preening sex addict, Rabbit; Luke Elliot as the little big man Runt; and Lyall Brooks as sly guy George. As they board a cruise ship getaway, Cornelius loosely based what follows on the real-life tragedy of Dianne Brimble, the 42-year-old Brisbane mother of three found dead on the floor of a cabin shared by four men, with an overdose of GHB in her system and troubling question...