Canberra Repertory Society will celebrate its 85th year in 2017. Rep president David Bennett said an 85th anniversary was a diamond anniversary and he believed the Canberra theatre company reflected many of the qualities of the precious gemstone.
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"One of the characteristics of a diamond is its brilliance – I think at Canberra Rep we're brilliant. We've made it 85 years; we put on high-quality productions; we have shows that are creative, imaginative, well performed and well staged.
"That's why we're brilliant; that's why we're like a diamond."
On Friday night Rep launched the six plays of its 2017-18 season. They range from comedy to drama to cover a range of subjects and themes, including immigration, nationalism, theatre and World War I. Rep president David Bennett said none of the plays had previously been produced by Rep and two of them were being staged by directors who had not worked in that capacity for the company before.
Opening the season in March, he said, would be Trelawny of the 'Wells' by Arthur Wing Pinero. It's a romantic comedy-drama about a popular star of melodramas who attempts to give up the stage for love. Bennet said the story was close to all theatrical people and would have an appeal to anyone with an interest in show business.
Neither the play nor the author is well remembered today, though Pinero was a leading light of the Victorian theatre as an actor and playwright.
"He was compared to the likes of Ibsen, though George Bernard Shaw did not agree."
According to Bennett, "Tony Turner said to me, 'I've waited 50 years to direct this play'." And now, Turner will have his chance.
In May, newcomer to Canberra Chris Baldock will direct Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge, a play about family, immigration and betrayal set in the world of New York dock workers that is also an allegorical representation of Miller's dealings with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Baldock, Bennett said, will be relocating from Melbourne where he has much experience as a theatre director ("He sent us a CV") to become co-director of the National Acting School in Canberra.
In June will come The 39 Steps, Patrick Barlow's light-hearted adaptation of the 1915 John Buchan espionage thriller and its 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation to be directed by Jarrad West with quick scene changes and props and set elements that turn into something else in the blink of an eye.
"Four actors play more than 100 parts," Bennett said.
"It should be hilarious and one of the quickest nights in the theatre you've ever seen."
Then come two comedies about aspects of Australian life. In August, former Canberran Lally Katz's Neighbourhood Watch, to be directed by Kate Blackhurst, will tell the story of two neighbours, a Hungarian widow and a younger Australian woman, who gradually begin to share their lives. And in November, Cate Clelland will direct Jonathan Biggins' Australia Day, about an organising committee in a country town trying to organise Australia Day celebrations.
Finally, to kick off 2018, in February Tim Sekuless, a prolific actor last seen on stage at Rep earlier this year in Macbeth, will direct his first Rep production, Oh What A Lovely War. Bennett said it was intentionally timed to coincide with the centenary of the end of World War I.The 1963 British musical, devised by Joan Littlewood & Theatre Workshop, juxtaposes the tragedy of the conflict with songs from the period.
