AustLit

'Memories of 1984. London. Phil Collins on MTV. Cassette tapes.

'Janet is 23 and to make some money she and her fellow Tasmanian friend pretend to be expert live-in housekeepers. They land a job with Harold Pinter, one of the most significant playwrights of the twentieth century. Harold loves his house of treasures but mostly his favourite ugly coffee mug. Coffee every day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. If anything were to happen to his favourite mug…

'Hilary Bell’s new play explores our love for odd things. What is the magic that makes us possessive about objects? Three stories intertwine to take us on a hilarious, poignant and magical journey.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Gather your mistletoe, hang your stocking and join the Crummles family in their home as they bring to life this classic festive tale of villainy, injustice, transformation and redemption. This Victorian troupe will immerse you in the magic of Dickens’ ghostly world as they conjure up spirits with music, pantomime and other thrilling surprises.

'Visited by three strangers on the eve before Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge sees his inexcusable penny-pinching ways laid bare: from brushes with the past, to enlightenment in the present and dreaded visions of the future. Will Scrooge repent and throw turkey to the wind, or will he hold on to his purse strings, forever doomed like his poor deceased friend Marley?'

Source: Ensemble Theatre.

'Some objects possess mysterious powers. They can take us back in time. They can remind us of someone. They can make us emotional—joyful, wistful, homesick.

'Objects can also imply drama. When you hear the words ‘window’ and ‘cricket bat’… what do you think of?

'A short chamber performance for a solo performer and a curious audience, Window, Cricket Bat comes to life within the exhibition space of Happy objects at the Australian Design Centre. Become a guest at the glamorous luncheon of one of the world’s most famous playwrights—evoked with nothing more than a well-loved souvenir and a cracking story.

'Produced in a unique collaboration with Griffin, the Australian Design Centre’s Happy objects is a celebration of ‘stuff’—material items that are often imperfect, and always deeply symbolic of the lives we lead. Accompanying the exhibition, Window, Cricket Bat is a delightful journey back to London in the 1980s, penned with fond humour by playwright Hilary Bell.'

Source: Griffin Theatre.

'A stunning tribute to the places and rituals of an Australian summer.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'An irreverent and delicious farce where the old world meets the new.

'Argan is a needy and controlling patriarch of a household of women, and his hypochondria is the perfect means to keep them at his beck and call. But when his self-obsession extends to selling off his daughter in return for on-tap medical attention, his housekeeper Toinette decides it’s time to fight back.

'In this world premiere, Hilary Bell adapts Molière’s classic satire for  contemporary Australian audiences. The Hypochondriac critiques a society of overdiagnosis and over-prescription that has us clamouring for short-cut fixes and pharmaceuticals.'

Source: Malthouse Theatre.

'When the dice is always loaded against you how do you move forward?

'Join us for an extraordinary journey to a world of imagination where origami boats take you on an ocean voyage, giant fish host musical interludes, and parades pass you by. This is the story of a young girl living inside her bedroom and how she conquers her fears and anxieties, finally embracing hope and taking control of the world that has always been around her.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Count as you walk up Numerical Street.

Every page has a numerical treat.

Get your pants altered, get your keys cut,

Open the book before the shops shut.

'From the creators of bestselling Alphabetical Sydney comes a walk up busy Numerical Street, past its laundromats, cake shops, panel beaters and hair salons. A fresh look at familiar shops and businesses, the vibrant illustrations and playful verse of Numerical Street celebrate the jostle and chaos of suburban streetscapes.' (Publication summary)

'Age range 6-10 years This whimsical, witty history of Sydney will entertain and inform children like nothing else they've seen! Through a series of (unexpected) 'firsts', Hilary Bell and Matthew Martin trace the events, people and places that have shaped their city, however unintentionally. Where else will you find Sydney's first traffic light sharing pages with its first tightrope walk across Middle Harbour? (And just so you know, it was performed by the marvellous funambulist Henri L'Estrange in 1877.)' (Publication summary)

'On his way to school, a young boy finds a red balloon tangled around a lamp post. Soon after rescuing it, the boy discovers the balloon has a mind of its own! Together, the boy and his balloon wander the streets, exploring the neighbourhood and searching for adventure.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'This is our Sydney, the brightest and best of it, North to the south to the east and the west of it. Bats and cicadas, lawn bowls and the zoo, This is our town. Let us share it with you. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'When Away premiered at Griffin Theatre in January 1986 I was nineteen and just embarking on a career as a playwright. I’d been part of the inaugural Interplay Young Playwrights’ Festival six months earlier, and had recently begun my first theatre job as Shopfront Theatre’s playwright-in-residence.' (Introduction)

'"Take Up Thy Bed & Walk" is a subversive performance about women, disability & fiction. Unlike views about women, society's understanding of disability has not changed greatly since Victorian classic fiction for girls were first being penned.

'Spanning this literature, popular music & the personal stories of the performers themselves, "Take Up Thy Bed & Walk" explores the layers of untruths about disability still so present in popular culture today. "Take Up Thy Bed & Walk" is a disability-led project that ground breaks a uniquely accessible audience experience through a creative approach that incorporates Auslan, audio description & other access features into the core aesthetic of the work.'

Source: http://vitalstatistixtheatrecompany. (Sighted 28/09/2012).

'A mother and father celebrate. They thought they would never be happy again but today the best thing imaginable has happened: Eliza has returned.

'Abducted from her bed as they slept, Eliza has been missing for nine long months. Months during which the couple's days were filled with grief and an ever-present absence. Now she is home and neither parent cares that the little girl's return is as mysterious as her disappearance.

'That is until they begin to notice that she has changed: her face is puffy from exposure, she is taller, bigger, never throws tantrums and, most troublingly of all, refuses to speak.

'Unable to sleep at night, the man sits up watching his daughter. As he gazes down on her peaceful body, a splinter of doubt lodges in his mind. Is the girl lying in the bed really Eliza? If not, who is this usurper? And what have they done with Eliza?

'Inspired by the Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw, the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Snow Queen and real life stories of abducted children, this new work by Australian playwright Hilary Bell is an emotional thriller about all consuming obsession, grief, childhood and identity.'

Source: Sydney Theatre Co. website.

'In the spirit of the mediaeval Mystery plays, a team of Australian writers and directors present the stories from the big dawn; the Creation, the Fall, the Expulsion from Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark.

'...Creation out of chaos, chaos out of paradise, grace within chaos, pride, confusion, and a simple offering of hope. Not the full cycle of Mystery plays; just a beginning...'

'Lady Tichborne farewells her son Roger, as his ship prepares to sail for South America.

'This is London, 1854 and he is a foppish young English aristocrat, with a lisping French accent, and a sense of derring-do way beyond his abilities.

'Thirteen years later ... Wagga Wagga, 1867. Tom Castro, a lardy, filthy, uncouth and incompetent butcher, is in court on a misdemeanour charge. He's full of bluster and condescension, and hints darkly at having been born to higher things. Tom is hacking up pigs when a customer flies in with the Melbourne Age. In the Missing Persons column, a certain Dowager Lady Tichborne is asking for news of her son, lost at sea while headed for the colonies.

'Tom reacts mysteriously, which only confirms the customer's suspicions. "It is you, isn't it, Tom?"

'So begins Hilary Bell's retelling of one of the longest, most notorious and expensive cases in British legal history. The Tichborne case divided British society with "Tom Castro" cast as people's champion against the landed gentry, who are determined to ward off a fraudulent claim by a colonial upstart. Bell's comic melodrama takes us on a rollicking journey full of rogues, and preposterous characters engaged in a struggle for land, wealth, and title.'

Source: ABC Radio National website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/airplay/stories/2006/1667073.htm
Sighted: 17/07/2006