Courtesy of the Juniper Gallery, Toni Frissell,
The Lady in the Water, 1947
NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK
WORLD
Premiere
Jenny Kemp
Kitten
Presented by Melbourne International Arts Festival
and Malthouse Theatre
A bi-polar soap opera in three acts
Kitten looms on the edge of a cliff, her lover perhaps lost to the sea, his
best friend at her side. She is a song in three movements, a fragmented,
untameable self. She surrounds herself with the relics of a love lost, but
memory alone won’t fill the void. This yearning becomes a vacuum so
powerful it threatens to devour her world.
The landscape of a mind in disorder has no horizon. Kitten’s rollercoaster
journey from the depths of despair to soaring hope makes for theatre at its
most powerful. Love, grief, transformation and yearning manifest without as
well as within. Bewitching and unsettling, Kitten is a three-act tale that is at
once psychiatric fable, lyrical puzzle and metaphysical love song performed
by an outstanding cast. Sound and image, movement and word, style and
substance are a single vision inextricably entwined.
Jenny Kemp is one of Australia’s most revered auteurs and Kitten is her
first Black Sequin Production since the mesmeric modern fairytale Still
Angela in 2002.
The CUB Malthouse,
Beckett Theatre
Previews
Fri 3 & Sat 4 Oct at 7.30pm
Tue 7 Oct at 6.30pm
Season
Wed 8 – Sat 11 Oct at 7.30pm
Tue 14 Oct at 6.30pm
Kitten was jointly commissioned by
Melbourne International Arts Festival,
Malthouse Theatre and Black Sequin
Productions. The script has been
developed with support from the
Major Festivals Initiative,
Wed 15 – Sat 18 Oct at 7.30pm
Sat 18 Oct at 2pm
Tue 21 Oct at 6.30pm
Thu 23 Oct at 1pm
Wed 22 – Sat 25 Oct at 7.30pm
Sat 25 Oct at 2pm
(Performance on Tue 14 Oct
followed by post show Q&A)
1hr 30min no interval
the Theatre Fund, Australia Council
and the 2006 Australian National
Playwrights Conference.
Commissioned for Melbourne Festival, Kitten is a landmark collaboration
between Kemp and Malthouse Theatre’s Resident Artist, Anna Tregloan
who has imagined a rich and remarkable physical world saturated with the
sumptuous vocal and sound score from Darrin Verhagen and choreography
by Helen Herbertson.
Please note: The performance on Tuesday 14 October is followed by
a post show Q&A.
Written & Directed by
Jenny Kemp
Set & Costume Design
Anna Tregloan
Composer & Sound Design
Darrin Verhagen
Lighting Design Niklas Pajanti
Choreography Helen Herbertson
Performed by Chris Connelly,
Natasha Herbert, Kate Kendall
& Margaret Mills
“Kemp’s extraordinary talent is as a creator of
haunting painterly beauty … striving to connect
with things that exist without a verbal language
to express them.” The Age
Audio Description:
Wed 15 Oct at 7.30pm
Season
Full
Groups (10+) / Seniors
Conc
$49
$42
$37
Preview / Matinee
Full
$40
Groups (10+) / Seniors $34
Conc
$30
Discounts apply. Save up to 20%.
See page 2 for details.
Ticketmaster 1300 136 166
The CUB Malthouse
(03) 9685 5111
www.melbournefestival.com.au
www.malthousetheatre.com.au
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