James Beach

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Memento Mori

by Bradley Vincent

featuring Craig Meneaud and Johnny Nicolaidis

Design by Tarik Ahlip

Composition by Monika Brooks

performed at Red Rattler

as part of the inaugural Sydney Fringe Festival

September 10-12, 2010

Friday, April 9, 2010

Up Late & Alone in Denmark at the Adelaide Fringe

photo by Vivian McGregor

From the program:

I first encountered Hamlet like many of us do at high school (just as I was stepping into theatre more eagerly and away from the piano I’d been playing for most of my young life). I watched the Zeferelli film with Our Mel and Glenn Close. I was called upon to read the part of Hamlet as we read aloud in class. I remember a young man standing before the class and speculating over the many available queer readings of the text and looking, challengingly, into another boy’s eyes. Along with these touchstones the staggering final moments of this tragedy have lingered with me since that time and over the years I’ve paid more and more attention to the resonances of Shakespeare’s standalone powerhouse – its sounds, its poetry, its depth of expression. So, here we are again looking at ourselves reflected at our most human through an old play and through Horatio, whom Harold Bloom has observed as one who ‘desires no existence apart from the prince’ and yet apparently remains ‘too drab to be theatrical’. What else can be made of the storyteller within the story? How does a story survive? If all stories carry truth which ones weigh more? Let’s find out.

Adelaide Theatre Guide Review

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Up Late & Alone in Denmark

Cliff Notes and Wikipedia won’t tell you the secrets of Elsinore. Only Horatio’s behind-the-scenes account of the most epic tragedy ever reveals who loved who and what really went on as he tries to make sense of his own role in events. There’s at least two sides to every story.

Up Late & Alone in Denmark will be playing at the
Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide, South Australia
as part of the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival

Written and Performed by James Beach
Directed by Anthony Skuse
Sound Design, Technical and Stage Management by Caitlin Porter
Music by Brendan Maclean
Show blog: http://jakohbein.blogspot.com/

In the Studio:

Tuesday 23 February - 2pm
Wednesday 24 February - 11pm
Thursday 25 February - 11pm
Friday 26 February - 11pm
Saturday 27 February - 11pm

In the Main Theatre:

Tuesday 9 March - 2pm
Wednesday 10 March - 11pm
Thursday 11 March - 11pm
Friday 12 March - 11pm
Saturday 13 March - 2pm, 11pm

Bookings on 1300 FRINGE
or www.adelaidefringe.com.au
from January 9, 2010

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Caution: Aggressive Birds

a new version(!) by Erin Thomas

starring Marika Aubrey

with Musical Direction by Geoffrey Castles

and directed by James Beach

produced by Jeremy Youett for Your Management International

at Rával, December 8, 9, 15 & 22, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Horrific Acts for Charity Pics

Brendan Maclean

Pearl Tan, Deborah Thomson

Helen Tonkin, Deborah Thomson, Katrina Rautenberg

Andrew Duvall

Oleg Pupovac

Brendan Maclean

Odd socks

Brendan Maclean, Oleg Pupovac

Deborah Thomson

Photography: Bob Seary

Horrific Acts for Charity

by Ben Ellis

featuring:
Andrew Duvall, Brendan Maclean, Oleg Pupovac, Katrina Rautenberg, Pearl Tan, Deborah Thomson, Helen Tonkin

Directed by James Beach

Lighting Design:
Spiros Hristos
Lighting Operator:
Elizabeth Lowe
Sound Operator:
Michael Bridges
Production Manager:
Paul Appleby

Produced by New Theatre, 22-25 July, 2009 as part of New Directions

The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity to show not just the US government, but the heart of the American people, and I think it has paid great dividends for us.

~ Condoleezza Rice, Jan 2005, during the US Senate hearing confirming her as Secretary of State to George W. Bush

In one of the most desolate inland camps on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, I met a young mother named Renuka, arrestingly beautiful even in rags [...] Her youngest child, a girl, was six months old, born two days after the tsunami. Renuka had summoned superhuman strength to grab both of her boys and run, nine months pregnant and in water up to her neck, away from the wave. Yet after this extraordinary feat of survival, she and her family were now quietly going hungry on a parched piece of land in the middle of nowhere. A couple of canoes, donated by a well-meaning NGO, made a pitiful sight: three kilometers from the water, and with not even a bicycle for transportation, they were little more than a cruel reminder of a former life. She asked us to carry a message to everyone who was trying to help the tsunami survivors. "If you have something for me," she said, "put it in my hand."

~ Naomi Klein, from Blanking the Beach: "The Second Tsunami", The Shock Doctrine, 2007.

We understood the power of a tsunami, and now Australia has its own capacity to detect these tsunami events and so the country is much better prepared in the event that we do have another tsunami.

~ Peter Garret, Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts on opening a Tsunami Detection Centre in Melbourne, October 31, 2008 (n.b. Australia shares part of its network established to monitor tsunami activity with Indonesia)

Why has Kevin Rudd gone to Indonesia? Is it to order more asylum seekers?

~ Susie Colvin, Bilgola Plateau, July 8, 2009, Letters, The Daily Telegraph

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUZuv6_bus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g15sZ_d2WUY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6P3fCDQVMI

Directed by James Beach