At Sea, Staring Up

Synopsis

‘Some plays are refined over years, the writer chiselling and revising.

Others owe their power to having been written in a white heat, but after a long mental gestation period: such is<i> Away</i>.

Peter Kingston, Griffin’s Artistic Director at the time, needed something to fill a slot for a show that had fallen through.

Gow proposed the idea of <i>Away</i>, then spent three weeks writing ... and he told me recently that “there was virtually no rewriting, in fact the one and only typescript of the play is pretty much what Currency published”.’

In <i>Robin Shall Restore Amends</i>, Hilary Bell presents a contemporary response to a treasured Australian play <i>– </i>a personal and bewitching take on <i>Away</i> by Michael Gow.

<i>Robin Shall Restore Amends </i>is part of <i>Cue the Chorus</i>, a series of ten thought-provoking responses to classic Australian stories.

The other titles in the series are:

1. <i>An Ever-Changing Idiom</i> by Alana Valentine <i>–</i> a response to <i>Summer of the Seventeenth Doll </i>by Ray Lawler

2.<i> The Makings of a Man </i>by John Harding <i>–</i> a response to <i>No Sugar </i>by Jack Davis

3. <i>Playing Awkward</i> by Noëlle Janacewska <i>–</i> a response to <i>The Chapel Perilous</i> by Dorothy Hewett

4. <i>Pulling Rabbits Out of Hats </i>by Melissa Reeves <i>–</i> a response to <i>Speaking in Tongues</i> by Andrew Bovell

5. <i>Radiant Women on Radiant Country</i> by Andrea James <i>–</i> a response to <i>Radiance</i> by Louis Nowra

6<i>.

Still Waters</i> by Wesley Enoch <i>–</i> a response to <i>The Secret River</i> by Kate Grenville; an adaptation for the stage by Andrew Bovell

7. <i>The Unexpected Feminist</i> by Van Badham <i>–</i> a response to <i>The Removalists</i> by David Williamson

8. <i>What Goes Around Comes Around</i> by Kate Mulvany <i>–</i> a response to <i>Hotel Sorrento</i> by Hannie Rayson

9. <i>A Youth Presumed </i>by Finegan Kruckemeyer <i>–</i> a response to <i>Blackrock</i> by Nick Enright