Ladies and Gentleman but mostly LADIEEEEES!!!
Line up because it’s playwright August Strindberg!
What a megababe! What a cock of the walk! What a man.
Though a protector of the patriarchy, Strindberg exclusively fell in love with women of ambition and independence.
His three marriages were explosive! And violent! And definitely not legal by contemporary ‘laws’!
The Defence was first presented at Sydney’s crucible of experimental performance, PACT: Centre for Emerging Artists and then Wollongong’s Merrigong Theatre to critical acclaim and a growing number of Strindberg groupies.
The Defence is a gender-swapped re-imagining of Strindberg’s Nineteenth Century study (on himself) ‘The Defence of a Fool’ that dissolves into the rehearsal room of a modern theatre production where the gender dynamics are no less charged. Written by emerging, Sydney based director Chris Dunstan, The Defence is an ambitious play-within-a-play-based-on-an-essay and a thrust and parry to some of the undercurrents and personalities behind-the-scenes of contemporary Australian theatre, and as it turns out, everywhere.
Funny and satirical on the one hand. Sinister and provocative on the other. Experience Strindberg in all his glory and witness a theatrical legacy as potent today as it was 100 years ago. Did we make a phallus joke?
