AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 1248706402592297565.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Riflemind single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 Riflemind
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'John was once the frontman in one of the world's biggest bands, Riflemind.

Now John and his wife Lynn are safe from the world in their walled country house. Money and anonymity, however, won't protect them from themselves or their past. Fame and its attendant luxuries are addictive.

Addictions almost ruined both their lives. Well away from that life they are now safe. Unhappy, silent, fragile, but safe.

Until the pressure of a comeback tour bears down upon John. And the band simply can not work without him. Crunch time. A weekend of music-making is planned at John and Lynn's estate. As soon as the band turns up - plus their associated spouses, lovers and hangers-on - it's a rock'n'roll circus.

Riflemind captures, with delicacy, precision and a beguiling black humour, a series of relationships languishing in the backwaters of co-dependent love, greed and need. Despite, or because of, their apparent affluence, social privilege, preposterous egos, septic past and rock-god lifestyle, each of them struggles to find redemption.

Over this weekend they will open old wounds, lose their way, play great music and, perhaps, stumble into a more certain future.'

Source: STC website, http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/
Sighted: 25/01/2007

Production Details

  • First produced by the Sydney Theatre Company at Wharf 1, 11 October - 18 November 2007. Director: Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 1248706402592297565.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 92p.
      ISBN: 9780868198231

Works about this Work

Upton Bares His Pain Clare Morgan , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27-28 March 2010; (p. 16)
Untitled Mark Seton , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 53 2008; (p. 228-230)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
Blanchett's Touch Fails to Save West End Play Clare Morgan , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20 October 2008; (p. 3)
Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll Was Never So Dull Charles Spencer , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Daily Telegraph , 19 September 2008; (p. 31)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
A Dull Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Reunion Paul Taylor , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Independent , 19 September 2008;

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
Untitled Ian Shuttleworth , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Financial Times , 22 September 2008; (p. 21)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
Untitled Michael Billington , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian , 20 September 2008; (p. 2008)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
A Reunion That Never Quite Rocks or Rolls Benedict Nightingale , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Times , 19 September 2008; (p. 38)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
A Dull Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Reunion Paul Taylor , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Independent , 19 September 2008;

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll Was Never So Dull Charles Spencer , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Daily Telegraph , 19 September 2008; (p. 31)

— Review of Riflemind Andrew Upton , 2007 single work drama
Have Script, Will Travel Angela Bennie , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 September 2007; (p. 18-19)
Producer to Put Aussie Plays on the World Stage Matthew Westwood , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 February 2008; (p. 3)
Matthew Westwood reports that British theatre producer Howard Panter is considering taking Australian plays, including 'Riflemind' to stages in London and New York.
UK Pans Upton 'Dross' Robin Usher , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 20 September 2008; (p. 21)
London Critics Savage Upton's Play Richard Jinman , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 September 2008; (p. 3)
'Mr Blanchett' Feels West End Lash 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 September 2008; (p. 5)
Last amended 29 Nov 2022 15:50:54
X