Thank God it’s Ear

In 2007 I took a trip to New York to study music theatre on a scholarship. For the better part of a month, I saw Broadway shows, worked with composers, musical directors, acting coaches, vocal coaches and soaked up the atmosphere of the city that never sleeps.

My two touring companions, Kirby Burgess and Lucy Maunder, and I ended up downtown one evening and stumbled across an off-Broadway play called God’s Ear, which was playing its premier season. We watched this exceptionally wordy, darkly funny and profoundly brilliant piece of theatre in the East 13th Street Theater, East Village.

I can honestly say that this piece of theatre is one of the most wonderful works I have seen. The language in this play is incredible – almost poetic – and after the death of their son the young couple in the play use strings of clichés to try and communicate after conventional language fails them. Routine conversations become a springboard for a whip-­smart indictment of cliché, while everyday interactions turn thrillingly surreal, peopled by a transvestite stewardess, GI Joe, and a woman in an airport bar who’s allergic to anything organic. Even the toothfairy makes an appearance.

Despite the fact that one of the girls I was travelling with was then taken ill with kidney stones that evening (and we spent all night in a downtown hospital with the wonderful Alex Lewis ‘protecting’ us), I still believe that this evening in the theatre is one of the most amazing I have ever experienced.

The first thing I did when we had slept and recovered from the hospital ordeal was to purchase the play God’s Ear at a bookshop in New York, and read it over and over again. The show is exquisitely written by Jenny Schwartz, a young American playwright who has been hailed as a rising star but Pulitzer Prize-­winning playwright Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?).

I have been waiting to see this play performed in Australia since the very moment I bought the script in New York. Thankfully, this November the Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre will present the piece starring Natasha Beaumont (Inception, Eastenders), Julian Garner (Bell Shakespeare), Victoria Greiner, Kieran Foster, Cameron Knight and Helen O’Leary.

This play is moving, hilarious and ultimately hopeful. It’s a love song language, demonstrating how it can both tear us apart and bring us back together.

Featuring an original score by renowned American composer and lyricist Michael Friedman, this Australian premiere of God’s Ear is directed by Jonathan Wald and produced by Jocelyn Brewer.

Unfortunately, I will be in Melbourne for the entire duration of this season – but I urge those of you in Sydney to see this play. It’s clever, it’s funny and it’s here in Australia! Thank goodness we are bringing out challenging new works for our audiences.

Congratulations to Pursued by a Bear and The Reginald for presenting this work.
Pursued by a Bear is a company which strives to “make work which wrestles with deep and abiding questions and concerns; combines comedy and tragedy; challenges audiences as well as entertaining them; engages with both ideas and emotions; is superbly designed and technically well-executed. We are energised by process, not concept – we try to create an environment where we can be surprised by the piece we’re working on, by each other, and by ourselves.”

GOD’S EAR

Dates Thursday 10 November – Saturday 3 December, 2011
Wednesday – Saturday 8pm, Tuesday 6:30pm
Tickets Full $27 / Conc $23
Bookings 02 9351 7940 or www.seymourcentre.com