AustLit
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Adaptations
-
form
y
Blessed
( dir. Ana Kokkinos
)
Australia
:
Blessed Film Productions
Head Gear Films
Wildheart Zizani
Screen Australia
Film Victoria
,
2009
Z1608662
2009
single work
film/TV
Seven children wander the streets of Melbourne at night, while their mothers await their return.
Notes
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Four stories are interwoven throughout the play. Andrew Bovell wrote Trash; Melissa Reeves, Dream-Town; Patricia Cornelius, Money; and Christos Tsiolkas, Suit. Irine Vela wrote the musical score.
Production Details
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First performed by Melbourne Workers Theatre at the Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne on 1 May 1998.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Class, Rage, and Staging the Revolution : Tsiolkas's Theatre
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 35 no. 1 2021; (p. 53-65)'From 1996 to 2002, the renowned Australian novelist Christos Tsiolkas worked collaboratively with the Melbourne playwrights Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, and Melissa Reeves and the musician Irine Vela to write Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? (1998) and Fever (2002) for the Melbourne Workers Theatre. While Tsiolkas’s prose work is the subject of extensive study, these collaborative and highly successful plays are largely ignored, despite their undisputed influence on the subsequent Australian theatrical canon and the light they shed on his broader oeuvre. In this article, we posit that these two theatrical works draw on Tsiolkas’s political rage to deliberately challenge Australians’ perceptions of class warfare by problematizing political ideology through the exploration of race and religion. A historical context of Australian playwriting is provided and positions Tsiolkas as a key contributor in bringing queer and immigrant experiences from the margin to the center of Australian stages. Tsiolkas’s key contributions to both theatrical works are discussed in detail, and the implicit calls for revolution in the plays are put in the larger context of his career and its political and social preoccupations, including the themes of his later, more commercial works. The authors’ arguments are framed in notions of Tsiolkas provocatively calling for a revolution within Australian national identity.' (Publication abstract)
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The Ties That Bind : The Making of Blessed
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: FilmInk , 4 August 2017; FilmInk , 20 May 2019; -
Family
2015
single work
essay
— Appears in: Andrew Bovell : The Alchemy of Collaboration 2015; (p. 23-27) -
A Lesson in Subterfuge
2015
single work
essay
— Appears in: Andrew Bovell : The Alchemy of Collaboration 2015; (p. 5-9) -
The Follies Bizarre : Australia's Political Theatre
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 52 no. 3 2008; (p. 22-28)
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Gargoyles and Gore
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 226 2000; (p. 23-24)
— Review of Selected Plays 2000 selected work drama ; Melbourne Stories : Three Plays 2000 anthology single work drama ; Who's Afraid of the Working Class? 1998 single work drama ; Polly Blue 2000 single work drama ; Features of Blown Youth 1997 single work drama -
Still Lives
2005
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Author , August vol. 37 no. 2 2005; (p. 6-7) -
Politics, Faith and Sex
Patricia Cornelius
(interviewer),
2005
single work
interview
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 181 2005; (p. 18-25) -
Funny Politics
John Romeril
(interviewer),
2006
single work
interview
— Appears in: Storyline , Winter no. 15 2006; (p. 9-11) -
'Class' and Political Theatre: The Case of Melbourne Workers Theatre
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Theatre Quarterly , August vol. 31 no. 3 2005; (p. 207-217) -
The Follies Bizarre : Australia's Political Theatre
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 52 no. 3 2008; (p. 22-28)
Awards
- 2000 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards — Jill Blewett Playwright's Award for the Creative Development of a Play Script by a SA Emerging Writer
- 1999 winner AWGIE Awards — Stage Award — Original
- 1999 joint winner AWGIE Awards — Major Award
- 1999 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Drama Script — Stage
- 1998 winner Victorian Green Room Awards — Best New Australian Play — Best new play
- Melbourne, Victoria,
- 1998