1,720,999 research outputs found
Hamlet + Ophelia = ?
No full textThis short one act play tells the story of the last few minutes in the lives of a re-imagined Hamlet and Ophelia. Their post-apocalyptic world is crumbling around them and their disillusionment and disgust causes them to make the ultimate rebellion; suicide. Along with the surreal staging of the Prince's evil King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, apparently alive and looking down on them from their portrait frames, this play crosses other boundaries imposed by standard theatrical conventions by placing actors in the audience, who, in the climactic finish, take Hamlet's advice and join him and Ophelia in the noble act of self-slaughter. Described by Linda Hassell, script assessor for Playlab Queensland, as; "Existentialist in nature, the piece portrays the pointlessness of existence, metaphorically depicting those very fine lines between patricide and genocide, death and regeneration, sexuality and terrorism and hope and despair . . . a very (dare I say it?) profound piece of writing." Certainly, 'Hamlet + Ophelia = ?' is not for everyone. It is deliberately provocative and disturbing. The author has tried to push the concept of theatre as entertainment out the door and onto the garbage heap and he makes no apologies for this. Another less flattering comment than Ms. Hassell's came from the A.C.T. Writers Centre when Jose Marques asked; "What are you trying to do, drive people away from the theatre?" To this the author should have answered "Sure, why not?" This short play was published in the October 2002 issue of "Ygdrasil: A Journal of the Poetic Arts" (online)
The sorrows and sufferings of young Werther; a Stageplay
No full textAlthough numerous English literary translations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "nobility in suicide" - themed, epistolary, psychological and therefore "untheatrical"(Atkins 1949) novel "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" (1774) have been published none of the resultant English stage translations have ever been described as faithful to the original. The various obstacles to the creation of a faithful translation for the English language stage were analysed in the author's Master of Creative Arts thesis at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The first obstacle is caution by Christian playwrights regarding the proscribed theme of nobility in suicide. Related to this is the second obstacle: the fear of producing "imitative" suicides, which have been labelled "The Werther Effect" by sociologists (Phillips 1974). Other obstacles are form-related rather than theme-related and include the absence of an authoritative English literary translation and the difficulties in translating to the stage the psychological and epistolary novel. With reference to Goethe's three tiered moodel of translation (translated by Lefevere 1977) and cinema academic Geoffrey Wagner's "Three modes of adaptation" (Wagner 1975) the author has attempted to write a "prosaic", "transpositional" and unaugmented stage translation by identifying and addressing each of the obstacles, the hypothesis being that if these obstacles were systematically addressed and overcome, then an English language stageplay closely equivalent in meaning to the prominent ideas, themes and form of the novel that is, a work arguably faithful to the novell could be created. The research lead to the resultant creation "The Sorrows and Sufferings of Young Werther; a Stageplay" which was submitted as the creative work component (30%) of the author's thesis in September 2003 (receiving an overall grade of first class honours). This two act play was published in the April 2004 issue of "Ygdrasil: A Journal of the Poetic Arts" (online)
His ... or her ... suicide
No full textA short one-act play in the absurdist tradition. This short play was published in issue 14 of "Antithesis" by the Department of English with Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne in 2004 (pp. 151-155)
Suicide plays
No full textSuicide is a uniquely human behaviour and has always elicited strong - usually negative - opinions. Thus I would like to state from the very outset that this morbid collection of writing (all separately published elsewhere previously) should not be seen as an attempt to glamorise the act of felo-de-se. Nevertheless, one needs to recognise the inherent theatricality of suicide: too often it is a petulant, peevish performance intended to convey a bitter message to the audience of those left behind. Unfortunately, it is also a performance that many similarly unhappy souls try to emulate, and this phenomenon, known as “The Werther Effect”, is the subject of the first paper, which serves as a most appropriate introduction to the four plays that follow it.\ud
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The first play, entitled “Hamlet + Ophelia = ?”, is deliberately provocative, and may easily be misunderstood as a call to commit self-murder. It is hoped, however, that the protagonists of this angry little piece are seen to be impetuous and childish, rather than noble or deep.\ud
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The second play, “Games for Married Couples”, is less about seppuku than it is about the despair of child-less marriage. It is not much happier than the first, but may nevertheless raise a smile or two.\ud
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“His ... or Her ... Suicide”, on the other hand, is utterly frivolous. I am sure no reader will take it seriously.\ud
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Finally, and circuitously, is the stage adaptation (and translation) of Goethe’s classic 1774 novella "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers". This piece was produced as part of my 2005 Master of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Many thanks must go to my supervisor, Associate Professor Angela O’Brien, for prodding and poking me until the thesis was of an acceptable standard.\ud
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Soft sleeper
No full text"Soft sleeper" is a short story inspired by the author's experiences teaching English in China and the novel "Ping Hu tongche" by Zhang Henshui. This short story was published in issue 7 of "Transverse", by the Center for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto in 2007 (pp. 106-116)
Downhill
No full textChapter one of my forthcoming novel, "The Bullroarers", being the creative component of my PHD at Murdoch University (in progress), re-written as a stand alone short story
Games for married couples
No full textA three act play exploring infidelity. This play was published in the February 2003 issue of "Ygdrasil Journal of the Poetic Arts" (online
Yours faithfully: "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" for the English-language stage
No full textAlthough numerous different translations of Goethe's 1774 'nobility in suicide'-themed epistolary, psychological and therefore "untheatrical" novel "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" have been published, no English-language stage adaptation has ever been described as "faithful". With reference to Goethe's three-tiered model of translation and cinema theorist Geoffrey Wagner's "Three modes of adaptation" the author has attempted to write a prosaic, transpositional and unaugmented translation/adaptation for the English-language stage. Each of the obstacles to faithful translation/adaptation were addressed, the hypothesis being that if the obstacles were systematically overcome, then an English-language stageplay closely corresponding in meaning to the principal themes of the novel - that is, a work arguably faithful to the novel - could be created
Letter to the Editor
No full textAn article extolling the virtues of QUT's ePrints system. (Note, this article was awarded 'Letter of the Month' by the publisher!
The Evolving Human and Dream-like, Screen-based Media
No full textWith rare exceptions, film theorists have traditionally focussed on culturally symbolic criticism in a persistent denial of the biological function and benefit of film-going. There has been a recent reversal of this trend, however, with the development of a cognitive theory of film, which Nicolas Tredell describes as an approach whereby "A film can be regarded as a simulation of a (possible) real-life situation that engages the viewer’s intellect, emotions and body, and that involves a complex negotiation between fiction and reality" (2002: 259). One aspect of this attempt to include science in the understanding of film has been neoteric work by William Evans on the evolutionary aspects of film-going. He argues that "humans have evolved to prefer television and film to print media [… because] it seems real to us [and because] humans are hardwired to attend and respond to visual stimuli, especially when visual stimuli include other people [...] engaging in salient behaviour" (2005: 200-201). But this elegantly simple explanation of the evolutionary significance of film and other screen-based media needs further elaboration. Firstly, Evans fails to consider the evolutionary benefits that accrue from Revonsuo's 2005 theory of the threat rehearsal function of film-going, in that films are like dreams. Secondly, in emphasizing the reality of the screen's moving image, he neglects to consider why humans attend to unrealistic film such as animations, which I argue are even more dream-like than non-animated films, using the example of Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). Thirdly, he omits consideration of the evolutionary function of a film auteur who is assigned the virtual status of tribal elder. Hence I make a tendentious claim regarding the evolutionary benefit of film-goers assigning the status of 'auteur' to an individual writer/director, despite the well known collaborative nature of film-making, and (dare I say) the out-of-fashion Barthesian notion of the death of the author. Regarding Disney once again, one notes the absence of certain genres of cinema in his otherwise heterogeneous body of work: he has never made a war film or action movie. Such exclusions, only apparent when the huge oeuvre he has helmed are considered as a single text emanating from an individual author, generate an understanding of the Disney worldview, in which family values are prioritised and prompts attitudes toward this auteurial individual akin to meaning-seeking villagers genuflecting to a wise tribal elder as he offers advice for survival of the species in the evolutionary struggle for survival of the fittest. In addressing these three omissions, my paper aims to gain credibility for a more comprehensive evolutionary theory of film
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