Rust and Bone by multi-award winning playwright Caleb Lewis (The Honey Bees, Red Stitch) will be given its Victorian premiere by Director Daniel Clarke (Arts Centre Melbourne, Theatre Works) at La Mama Courthouse from 17 November 2016.
Adapted for the stage by Lewis from Canadian Craig Davidson’s short stories, Rust and Bone is an arresting no holds barred exploration of masculinity that packs a punch and unsettles with its intimacy and honesty. Lewis has found a distinctly Australian voice in his stage adaptation of Rust and Bone, which has also been released as a feature film starring Marion Cottilard.
This Australian stage adaptation was developed by Lewis over many years with Playwriting Australia and Adelaide Festival Centre and had its Australian premiere at Griffin Theatre in 2013. This new production will be staged in the round, giving audiences an even more intimate and powerful experience of the play performed by Adam Ibrahim, Glenn Maynard and Luke Mulquiney.
Eddie is a fighter; too old and broken to win he continues fighting to atone past sins. James breeds and fights pitbull dogs; he wants a child but is he capable of being a father? Ben is a trainer at Sea World whose daily show goes horribly, horribly wrong. This is a brutal world of broken gods and sinuous monsters. The fragility and brutality of these three men’s stories collide on stage in this stark and poetic production that highlights the power of storytelling.
“I first encountered Craig Davidson’s prose back in 2007 and was stunned by its immediacy and raw physicality, the writing sometimes crude, at others exquisite: dark poetry finding unexpected beauty in the ugliest of settings,” said Writer Caleb Lewis. “Davidson’s vision is a dark, brooding and often violent exploration of men at their best and worst.
“Ben, James and Eddie survive in a world showing little tolerance for weakness and human frailty, yet each man yearns for some deeper human connection. I was struck by the image of these three wounded men limping onwards towards oblivion or maybe transcendence. And despite all the horror, a tenuous strand of hope runs through each story, uniting them.”
Clarke has assembled a stellar team to create this work, whose talents have been lauded on the Melbourne stages for many years. He is joined by Ingrid Voorendt (Movement director), Richard Vabre (Lighting Designer), Chris Wenn (Sound Design and Composition) and Jacob Battista (Set Designer). Clarke is also working very closely with Assistant Director, Penny Harpham, a recent graduate from VCA whose production of Hart has been toured nationally and was seen at La Mama during the Melbourne Fringe.
Caleb Lewis is a multi-award-winning writer for the stage. Currently resident playwright with Melbourne’s Red Stitch Actors Theatre and former writer in residence with Griffin Theatre, Australia’s premier new writing theatre, Lewis was mentored by Nick Enright (Blackrock, Lorenzo’s Oil) and later Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf). His plays include: Nailed, Dogfall, Death in Bowengabbie, Aleksander and the Robot Maid, Clinchfield, Tribute, Six Million Hits, The Honey Bees and Maggie Stone.
Writer: Caleb Lewis Director: Daniel Clarke Featuring: Adam Ibrahim, Glenn Maynard, Luke Mulquiney Assistant Director: Penny Harpham Movement Director: Ingrid Voorendt Set Design: Jacob Battista Lighting Design: Richard Vabre Sound Design and Composition: Chris Wenn
Rust and Bone
La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton
Season continues to 27 November 2016
Information and Bookings: www.lamama.com.au
Image: Adam Ibrahim, Luke Mulquiney and Glenn Maynard feature in Rust and Bone – photo by Daisy Noyes