Class, conflict, and changing technologies come into direct focus in polarising dark new comedy Puntila/Matti at the Kings Cross Theatre from 25 September 2017.
This troubling, terrifying, and entertaining world premiere adapts Brecht classic Mr Puntila and his Man Matti in a post-modern deconstruction of corporate greed in the 21st Century. Mr Jack Puntila is a logger. He owns polar bear rugs, rugby league teams, media empires, ex-wives, cigars, and an oil spill that spells out the words ‘foul, destructive, and fading patriarchy’.
Matti Flint is Puntila’s right hand manservant; an uber driver that hasn’t closed the ride yet, ever attentive to Puntila’s disgusting, sinful barbarism. Set between whisky-soaked limo rides and shady world-leader meetings in underground carparks, Puntila/Matti is satirical, anti-capitalist, and as funny as it is bleak.
Leaders in iconoclastic, political performance, Doppelgangster and Melbourne’s MKA – last seen in Sydney with The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’ at Griffin Theatre, and The Eternity of the World at Bondi Feast – present Puntila/Matti with controversial theatre mavericks Tobias Manderson-Galvin and Dr Tom Payne at the helm.
“Puntila/Matti looks at the inherent problems of class and power, but it also looks at the personal responsibility of those with power. This isn’t a happy ending kind of show; to quote Brecht, first there’s eating, then morality,” said Manderson-Galvin.
“Puntila/Matti is being performed across from Sydney’s most iconic symbol of Enjoyment the Coke Sign of Kings Cross at a time when the only nightlife is whatever’s approved by government officials and the casino, and where almost no one under 35 will ever own a house.”
Take a class-war battlefield flashback in the sadistic, prophetic spectacle that is Puntila/Matti and get shockingly intimate with one of the most ground-breaking live performance companies in Australia.
Concept & Direction: Tobias Manderson-Galvin and Dr Tom Payne Featuring: Tobias Manderson-Galvin, Dr Tom Payne, Antoinette Barboutis, Grace Lauer Dramaturgy: Dr Tom Payne Visual Design: Antoinette Barboutis Composition: Jules Pascoe/Maria Moles and Adam Halliwell
Puntila/Matti
Kings Cross Theatre (KXT) 244 – 248 William Street, Kings Cross
Season: 25 September – 14 October 2017
Information and Bookings: www.mka.org.au
Image: Tobias Manderson-Galvin and Dr Tom Payne – photo by Wilson Liew