Brutality in the workplace, rage in the streets, seething in the home. The vulnerability of political parties when they’ve forgotten why they’re there is explored in Belvoir’s production of Stephen Sewell’s The Blind Giant is Dancing from 17 February 2016.
How power corrupts. When it premiered in 1983, The Blind Giant is Dancing felt like a sharp slap in the face. And in an age of ICAC, Union credit cards, speculative housing bubbles, vapid leadership representing a disengaged polity… it’s definitely time for another look at this Australian classic.
Allen Fitzgerald (Dan Spielman) is a true idealist and committed activist for the working class left. When he becomes embroiled in party politics, his idealism clashes head on with the pragmatism of a party machine that abandoned his steel-worker father. As neo-conservatism and market forces seduce the centre of his party, Allen is left with nothing to believe in, in his professional or personal life.
“This play was written at a really critical moment in Australian history, when the economy was changing from a post-war manufacturing base into the kind of economy we have now, where the working class has been decimated and destroyed,” said playwright Stephen Sewell. “Now we’re in a massively important historical moment, where we are living the end result of the neo-conservative revolution that we witness happening in the play.”
Yael Stone (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Diary of a Madman) returns to the Belvoir stage after worldwide success in the multi award-winning Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. Dan Spielman (The Code, ABC1) will make his Belvoir debut alongside an impressive cast including Ivan Donato (A Christmas Carol), Russell Kiefel (The Business), Emma Jackson (Food), Genevieve Lemon (Seventeen), Zahra Newman (Ivanov) and Geoff Morrell (Ruben Guthrie).
New Artistic Director Eamon Flack (Ivanov, The Glass Menagerie) begins his tenure directing a company of eleven of the country’s great actors in one of the country’s great plays.
Director: Eamon Flack Featuring: Michael Denkha, Ivan Donato, Andrew Henry, Emma Jackson, Russell Kiefel, Genevieve Lemon, Geoff Morrell, Zahra Newman, Dan Spielman, Yael Stone, Ben Wood Set & Costume Designer: Dale Ferguson Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson Composer & Sound Designer: Steve Toulmin Fight Choreographer: Scott Witt Stage Manager: Melanie Stanton Assistant Stage Manager: Grace Nye-Butler
The Blind Giant is Dancing
Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills
Season: 17 February – 20 March 2016 (previews: 13 – 16 February)
Bookings: (02) 9699 3444 or online at: www.belvoir.com.au
For more information, visit: www.belvoir.com.au for details.
Image: Dan Spielman and Yael Stone feature in The Blind Giant is Dancing – photo by Brett Boardman