Revival

Press, 7 October 1980, Page 12

Revival

A play written nearly a century and a half ago by a German revolutionary will be presented this week for a- three-night season by students of the University of Canterbury’s "European tragedies" course in the Teachers’ College drama workshop in Dovedale Avenue. The play is “Woyzeck.” It was written by George Buchner in 1837. when he was 23, and was not completed when he died. For many years it was forgotten, but ’ during. the Expressionist period it was revived, and had a considerable influence on European theatre. Beretold Brecht was one of its admirers: another was the composer, Alban Berg — he based an opera on it. A film version of “Woyzeck” was screened in Christchurch recently. The Techers’ College production is an adaptation, in English, of Buchner’s original script. It is being directed by Peter Falkenberg. Icon adjuncts Two events have been arranged for this month by the Robert McDougall Art Gallery to coincide with the exhibition of icons, which will remain

in the gallery- until November 2.

On Thursday, Mr R. Haggo, a lecturer in art history at the University of Canterbury, will give a public lecture on the icon at 8 p.m., in the gallery.

On October 18, from 1.30 to 2.30 p.m., an international folk-dance group will demonstrate traditional Greek, Russian and Eastern dances on the asphalt outside the gallery. Weaving awards Margaret Finnerty has won the off-loom section of the Bank of New Zealand Weaving Award for the second time, it was announced in Wellington recently. The traditional section was won by Georgia Suiter. from Auckland. Both awards are valued at $lOOO. and are the largest available to New Zealand weavers.

The -;.ward was judged by an Australian weaver, Belinda Ramson, who said that an interesting aspect of the exhibition was its “demonstration of the strength and individuality of the N.Z. contribution to contemporary fibre art.”

The exhibition will be on view at the Dowse Art Gallery. Lower Hutt, until October 19.

Child’s play “The Tinder Box,” a musical play for children, written and produced by John Goodliffe, will be presented by the St Christopher’s Drama this week. The cast includes a witch (Juliet Robinson), whose spells are not very successful; hertwo lazy cats, Dinglepuss and Danglepuss (Rosemary Tayler and Nicola Freestone); a soldier (Philip Simpson), who is the hero of the piece; and three dogs with enormous eyes (Nicola ’ Uren, Rebecca Robinson, and Justine Clewer). The music, too, was arranged and will be played by John Goodliffe, assisted on the drums by Stephen Robinson. It includes items sung by John Harker. as the henpecked King of Kastelburg, and Alys Tayler, as his domineering queen. Keith Cooke is the narrator. The show will be presented on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in St Christopher’s Hall, Avonhead Road. Two more performances will be given at Isleworth School, Bishopdale, on October 18. Music prize

New Zealand composers have been invited to enter an Australian competition in which the prizes amount to $ll,OOO, and which also offers the chance of a performance of their works by the Sydnev Symphony Orchestra at‘the 1982 Adelaide Festival of Arts. The competition is for the Young Composers Award. One prize will be awarded in each of three categories — an overture, a work for a solo instrument and orchestra, and a major orchestral work. The winners will receive $2OOO, $4OOO. and $5OOO respectively. Contestants must be aged 35 or younger on September 1, 1981. The winners will be announced in December, 1981. The competition has been arranged to commemorate the fiftieth annivversary of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and will be a feature of the 1982 festival. It is a joint project of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the A.B.C. and the Peter Stuyvesant Cultural Foundation.