Now in its eighth year, the National Play Festival is coming for the first time to Adelaide.
Run by Playwriting Australia, the National Play Festival is a unique opportunity for members of the public to observe the incubation process of a play, while also being given the opportunity to write their own. The plays are carefully selected from those submitted throughout the year to Playwriting Australia, and then read to the crowd by notable theatre talents, an experience, which Artistic Director of Playwriting Australia, Tim Roseman, enthuses, is well worth watching.
© Daniel Boud “It's a place where people can come to see the most important, the most hilarious, the most exotic and the most incendiary plays of our time,” Tim says. “It’s a chance for the audience to see work before it hits the production phase, it’s a ‘saw it here first’ kind of festival, and that’s something quite special.
“The work in the festival is all curated from plays that we have been developing over the past 12-18 months or other projects we’ve initiated with other theatre companies. And then from that we select those which we believe are very beautiful pieces that deserve to be heard in such a way. The shortlist of 20 is then whittled down to the 6 that you see on the programme.”
© Stephen GodfreyThe six plays highlighting the programme include 'Astroman' by Albert Belz, 'Keith' by Ben Ellis, 'Deluge' by Phillip Kavanagh, 'Rice' by Michele Lee, Maxine Mellor's 'The Silver Alps' and 'Lake Disappointment' by Luke Mullins and Lachlan Philpott.
“I really hope that people who want to see great artists, great actors just getting their elbows deep in great new works for stage will come along – it will be a joyous experience. There’s something very different about simply watching a play being read, you know it’s not like a theatrical experience where perhaps the set is more important or the spectacle is more important, this is something where the writing truly shines, and that is something beautiful to see. Things like on Broadway, now I’m not saying they’re not important, but they’re different, and the plays that will be read at the festival really, I believe, get to the core of the human condition and allow us to view things in a different way.”
As well as featuring the works of some of the most up-and-coming playwrights of today, the festival will also play host to a series of speakers and master classes run by some of the most experienced tutors within in the industry. Keynote speaker Joanna Murray-Smith, one of Australia’s most notable playwrights, is a particular highlight of the programme, and one that Tim is particularly excited about. “Murray-Smith is one of our most treasured playwrights, her plays have been performed in more than 35 countries and she is just tremendous.”
The classes provided cater to each and every kind of play enthusiast, ranging from beginner to perhaps more advanced, and are proving very popular, with some classes already full and others quickly filling up. In addition to all of this, there will also be a late night event on 23 July aptly named 'Late Night Love Letters' – where playwrights are invited to pen letters to their own personal heroes within the playwriting world and then divulge their contents to those present in the Bibliotheca Bar & Book Exchange.
© Daniel Boud“Adelaide as a city has a lot of beautiful cultural things going on within it, but this is the first time the festival is coming here, so it’s not something they’ve ever experienced before... And, because we go to a different city every year, it will likely not be here for a good few more years again, so I really encourage those who will be in Adelaide to come along and enjoy the show.
“I really hope the Adelaide people come and support us – as it is really the people who make these things what they are – and Adelaide has not had anything like this before.”
The National Play Festival plays the Adelaide Festival Centre, 22-25 July.
