Alex Buzo
Review: ABC Radio 702 Sydney
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Listen
to a
PODCAST of
Diana Simmonds speaking with Richard Glover
about Norm & Ahmed plus
Shafana & Aunt Sarrinah at
the Seymour Centre until August 29 2009. Terrific
to hear how much a piece of theatre has affected
someone just by the tone of their voice. Click on
this link to listen to the
PODCAST of
the review on August 18th 2009.
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Review: beautifully wrought bookends
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Review: powerful...fascinating and moving...highly successful
Tuesday 11 August 2009
2009 Alex Buzo Memorial Lecture: Alana Valentine
Monday 10 August 2009
Review: Extraordinarily brave and bold double bill
Saturday 08 August 2009
Opening Night: new worlds to be fathomed
Friday 07 August 2009
While it's always a joy to see Laurence Coy (Norm) and Craig Meneaud (Ahmed) weave their magic as I've had the privilege to do on countless occasions, it was the premiere of the new work that was most exciting for me. Sheridan Harbridge (pictured above) and Camilla Ah Kin's illuminating performance was for an audience including many of the Muslim women interviewed by Alana Valentine for Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah. I know by now that when people come out of the theatre talking excitedly and starting sentences with "I never thought of it like that..." or "I had no idea..." that the vision is a success. As Shafana so profoundly utters:
"there are yet, new worlds to be fathomed and new
impossibilities to be
revealed."
SHAFANA AND AUNT SARRINAH by Alana Valentine
August 6th-29th 2009, Seymour Centre
Beautiful new images from the production here
Bookings here
Article: Working on fresh approach to Buzo classic
Wednesday 05 August 2009
Article: Holding a mirror to an Australian classic
Tuesday 04 August 2009
Article: Triumph of censor's target
Monday 27 July 2009
Read Triumph of censor's target in The Australian
Uni of Syd student speaks about observing rehearsals
Wednesday 15 July 2009
![Chris-web-pic[1]](chris-web-pic005b1005d.jpg)
That old "f" word: still a producer's nightmare
Saturday 04 July 2009
This
week, a Sydney high school whose English department
had booked out an entire performance of
Norm and Ahmed + Shafana and
Aunt Sarrinah,
were forced by their principal to cancel the
booking. The reason? That pesky old "f" word
uttered by Norm. It appears the more things
change, the more they stay the same. 40 years ago,
that one word put the play at the centre of a
censorship battle which saw it banned in three
states, but also gave Australian theatre its front
page debut. Buzo was bemused and perhaps a little
annoyed. While the publicity achieved instant fame
for the play and its author, he felt its important
themes were somewhat overshadowed by the brouhaha
over one word.
The most distressing part about this school principal's fearful, archaic attitude is that it shows a complete lack of understanding about the purpose of dramatic art, which is to ask questions, encourage self reflection and open minds. Does banning students from seeing a production about the tension between cultures and generations in Australia help them become good citizens and critical thinkers? I think not.
Here's a very short bite from an ABC TV 'Talking Heads' episode on Graeme Blundell who produced Norm and Ahmed in 1970 with some great footage of the play being done for a magistrate and his court.
The most distressing part about this school principal's fearful, archaic attitude is that it shows a complete lack of understanding about the purpose of dramatic art, which is to ask questions, encourage self reflection and open minds. Does banning students from seeing a production about the tension between cultures and generations in Australia help them become good citizens and critical thinkers? I think not.
Here's a very short bite from an ABC TV 'Talking Heads' episode on Graeme Blundell who produced Norm and Ahmed in 1970 with some great footage of the play being done for a magistrate and his court.
Welcome to The Alex Buzo Company Blog
Friday 03 July 2009
I first had the idea to commission a contemporary playwright to respond to Buzo's iconic Norm and Ahmed in 2007 and it's taken me two years of hard yakka to see it come to fruition. I wanted to bring new audiences to my father's work and plant it firmly in the present with a view to the future. I'm also aiming to create a bit of a "through line" for Australian theatrical heritage, now that we've got some history behind us. Cultural amnesia is a common affliction in Australia, I've discovered. Perhaps this is the antidote? We'll see.
Norm and Ahmed is an encounter between a white Aussie "bloke" and an articulate Pakistani uni student, inspired by an incident Alex witnessed in the uni bar at UNSW in 1968. It's about racism and generational tension, with the premise "never underestimate the power of difference." I decided to commission Alana Valentine to write the companion play as she told me a captivating story about the opposition a young Afghani Australian Muslim woman faced when she told her own family she wanted to wear the headscarf. We don't often hear of diversity within an ethnic community.
Since 2007, Norm and Ahmed has become a NSW HSC Drama text, and together with reports of racial bashings perpetrated against international students at Australian universities plus the ongoing dialogue about the wearing of the headscarf...that's one prophetic idea!
