Griffin Award - The Stables Theatre - 03/08/06

Ethan Switch - Friday, 4 August 2006 - Print Version

Free flowing flutes with bubbly billowing out of the huge white doors of the Stables Theatre. No smashing of glasses and a house facing front toward the Theatre crashes out with its arm hanging in the gutter, the belt is still clean and tight around the upper arm.

Cabanossi cubes chat with the crackers on one plate as severed lamington fingers get the cold shoulder from the biscuits on another. Odd tasting beetroot dip goes head-to-head against the curry flavour and its the latter that wins with a drool slick coming off the edges. Wetness and a sinking feeling for the bright red loser in this competition.

Hungry lot for the wine and beer. Even though the night is still preteen, napkins hit the floor with the tampons ready to catch the spill of red nobody is yet willing to part with. Crusty quasi-fresh bread getting chewier by the air in there and the build up climbs with the blood alcohol limit.

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On with the show... The 2006 Griffin Award for A New Australian Play.

Introducing the night is David Berthold, Artistic Director of the Griffin Theatre Company. Direct and extremely clear the man has poise and command like no other behind a podium bearing "OFF THE RAILS" etched in one of the panels. Rambling quotes are done away with for a more personally reflective speech on the importance and extraordinary sense of immersion that can only come from live theatre. It's warm, heartening and slightly forgettable outside a feeling of "mmm."

Following Berthold, an accountant from sponsors PKF and member of the judging panel. Outside of a jibe at JetStar, the man is a wash of the memory and talks of a dinner prior with the winner of the award, money and laptop. Not long after he introduces the recipient for 2006.

Winner of the award, Mary Rachel Brown for her play Australian Gothic.

Not much higher than the podium itself, Brown weaves vocally between audible, anecdotal aside and all in between. As if the prop was not enough the relaxation in posture is ardently clear. Proliferation of the scum that is the conditions of flying JetStar not lost on the crowd. Full body laughs, hearty in some, on the drops and parallels with the life of a playwright forever feeling stuck in such conditions of life. Struggling in more than just the financial stakes, what now with the deliciously vile sedition laws and their closed minded cheerleaders. Recalling a drunken resolution to buy a plane ticket to Berlin, Brown's quip as to the timeliness of the win is gold.

From an excerpt of notes from the judging panel, Australian Gothic it appears to be drawing on the history of the Nazis and dabbing in with the current mix of terrorism and the paranoid police state that it is.

Terse and tight, the night finds a fine execution on the clock. Efficiency is always great and with an accountant handing over the award, remiss if otherwise. All preliminaries done and the stragglers moving their mass toward The Bayswater Brasserie for even more drinks.

Ethan Switch