‘Macbeth’ is Court’s biggest production yet

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 24

‘Macbeth’ is Court’s biggest production yet

Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” the Court Theatre’s (major production for 1982, will open in the, company’s theatre in the Arts Centre on Saturday night for an extended season which will run until April 24. The production is under the direction of . Elric Hooper. '■ ’ ' . Of the four great Shakespearian tragedies; “Macbeth” has been the most frequently performed in Christchurch since World War 11, but this will be the first professional presentation of the play in the city for many years. The Court production will differ from its predecessors in the costuming and setting. Although the events that Shakespeare took and mixed up from Holinshed’s chronicle are from the eleventh century, the spirit of the play is more modern. Most productions have tried to. reconstruct eleventh-cen-tury Scotland. The Court’s production, with costumes by Murree Hutchinson and setting by Simon Allison, places the play very near to Shakespeare’s own time, and in. a world at once morally sophisticated and savage. The cast of 20 and the

length of the playing season make this the largest production mounted by the Court Theatre.

, The company’s workshops have been busy making six-teenth-century weaponry and armour, cloaks, furs, and thigh boots; and new skills have been acquired by the production staff. The armour, masks, and tableware have been vacuum moulded from plastic in the Court’s workshops. For the first time, the set. construction will use steel, so that the complex set design can be realised. Macbeth will be played by Stuart Devenie, and Lady Macbeth by Wickham Pack. Others in the cast include regular company members such as David Copeland (Porter), John Curry (Banquo), Geoffrey Heath (Ross), and Deborah Davids (Lady Macduff). Also to perform are Alistair Browning (Malcolm), Alex Gilchrist (First Witch), Gerald Lascelles (Duncan), David Telford (Angus), and Gwyneth Hughes (Gentlewoman). The two young boys, Fleance and the young Macduff, will be played by Richard Hillock and Simon Jones'

With the use of the recently acquired computer lighting-board, the technical

designer, Joe Hayes, expects to create some arresting effects. Gillian Bibby has composed music to accompany and underline the action. The season will run for six weeks, and will include special school performances. Bookings are already heavy, says the Court Theatre. Hutchinson, who has joined the company for four months, returned recently from Australia, where he taught at the Australian Film and Television School, and also directed four episodes of the popular television serial, “The Sullivans.”

Before he leaves, he will direct the company’s next production, “Accidental Death of an Anarchist,” an Italian play about the case of a prisoner who died in a midnight “fall” from a police-station window in 1969.

He has an old acquaintance with “Macbeth,” because this was the play in which, at the age of nine, he made his debut in the role of Fleance, Mac Duff’s son. At 16 he was designing for the local Te Aroha repertory company. While at the Ardmore Teachers’ College he began directing, and continued to design and act.

After six years of teaching in Britain and New Zealand he joined the N.Z.B.C. as designer in children’s programmes, drama, and light entertainment in Wellington. Two years later he completed a producers’ course and was posted to Dunedin as a producer/director.

In 1971 Murree Hutchinson was the first recipient of an award for overseas study for a television producer presented by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and the N.Z.B.C. In 1972 he was in Britain, with attachments to the 8.8. C., Thames, and London Week-end, as a production assistant for such shows as “Softly, Softly,” “Barlow at Large,” and “Dr Who.”

He returned to Dunedin in 1973 and originated . “Spot On,” the children’s programme.. In 1974 he became one of the four founding directors of Fortune Theatre. It was his association with Fortune that eventually lead him away from television to work fulltime in the theatre as codirector, designer, actor and writer.

Musical reprieve A concert which was “res-

cued” by the Christchurch Town Hall Board of Management will be held in the Town Hall on Saturday night, when the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, with the New Zealand pianist Richard Mapp as soloist, will present a programme in which the main work will be Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 1. When the Christchurch Arts Festival announced some months ago that it was unable to stage the 1982 Arts Festival, the Town Hall Board assumed the financial responsibility for the concert. Richard Mapp made his concert debut at the age of 12, when he played Mendelssohn’s "Capriccio Brillant” with the Christchurch Civic Orchestra. In 1975, after gaining a first-class honours degree, he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy, where he is now a junior professor. He performs regularly in Europe.

The second half of the concert will feature young Christchurch musicians with the orchestra in a performance of Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks.” The group consists of five oboes, four bassoons, five french horns and three trumpets. Most of the players will be making their debut with the orchestra. They will also be heard in Berlioz's “Hungarian March” and the final work, Eric Coates's "Dam Busters March.” Akaroa music Strong public support for the Sunday concerts sponsored by the music group associated with The Gallery, Akaroa, has encouraged the group to plan this year, for the first,,, time, a subscription series. The group has announced that it will accept all three concerts offered to it this year by the Music Federation. The first concert will be given on March 28 by the New Zealand-born, Frenchbased pianist, Christopher Beckett. The president of The Gallery, Harvey Keedwell, said that the. concert would be a milestone in its history.

“Thanks to the wholehearted support received from the local community and from further afield, in 1982 we have for'the first time introduced a subscription season of three con-

certs." he said, "We are delighted that Christopher Beckett, a pianist of international renown, should present our first concert of the season, and hope it will encourage. many locals to subscribe. •

After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, where he won several prizes and awards and was the first New Zealander to receive a French Government , bursary for music, Christopher Beckett decided to remain in France, and settled in the small town of Etampes, near Paris. His major break came when he was invited by the French violinist, Regis Pasquier, to accompany him on a concert tour of the United States. The tour was a “sell-out,” as was a second tour soon afterwards. Since then Beckett has toured for several months each year in Europe and elsewhere as both a soloist' and accompanist.

For the rest of the time he teaches at the Conservatoire of Etampes, where his wife, who is French,, is also a teacher.

Christopher Beckett has developed a particular affinity for the music of Chopin, and has written and produced a one-man play about Chopin’s life and music. His programme for the Akaroa concert will include works of Chopin, and music by Bach and Schubert. The other concerts in the series will be given by the Wellington Pro Musica — a wind and brass group — and by Aurora, another Welling-ton-based group which features the unusual combination of singer, clarinettist, and keyboard player.

The latter group, which is new, ccflnprises June Brain (Clarinet) and Colleen RaeGerrard (both of whom have previously toured for the federation). and the sopranoi Pauline Fitchett.

They say they chose the name partly because it suggests rich tonal colourings and blends, and partly because of its historical association with Wellington — one of the first ships to arrive in 1840 was named the Aurora. Aurora will tour in the spring, and will be in Akaroa for the concert there on September 26. Pro Musica’s concert is scheduled for June 13, and will open the group’s 16-centre tour.

Fund-raiser A touring Wellington pianist will give a concert on March 20 in the Cheviot Community Hall, as part of a fund-raising effort to buy equipment for the hall, which is part of the new gymnasium at the Cheviot Area School.

The pianist, Rae de Lisle, is touring for the Music Federation. The Cheviot recital will be her only performance in North Canterbury. Rae de Lisle graduated in 1964 from Victoria University of Wellington. After winning the “Auckland Star” Piano Concerto Prize, she was awarded an Arts Council Bursary to continue her studies overseas. She enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music, in London, and spent four years studying with Brigitte Wild. Other London teachers included Cyril Smith and Maria Curcio. Soon after her debut as a soloist at the Wigmore Hall in 1976 she returned to New Zealand, and in the last five years she has been in steady demand as a soloist and accompanist. She has been a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the major regional orchestras, and has toured frequently for the Music Federation, solo and in ensembles. Tour sponsor Sponsorship has been accepted from the Northern United Building Society for the exhibition in New Zealand of a collection of seven-teenth-century paintings, featuring "Still Life in the Age of Rembrandt”. The exhibition will be shown in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. The paintings will be shown only in New Zealand, and after the tour of the three galleries they will be returned to their owners. In Christchurch the paintings will be on display in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery from August 30 to September 26. The paintings have been obtained from a number of sources; one is the ThyssenBornemisza Collection, from which a selection of works by modern masters was shown in New Zealand in 1980.

The director of the Auckland City Art Gallery (Dr T. L. R. Wilson), who initiated the preparation of the exhibition, said: “It is some time since New -Zealand has mounted such an important exhibition, and it is the only major exhibition in an advanced stage of planning at this time. It has taken several years to assemble this collection, which includes not only paintings but also contemporary books and engravings which, were influential in the development of stilllife painting during the age

of Rembrandt. Although the exhibition only includes one Rembrandt etching (as he himself was not a still-life painter), we are sure that the beauty of these masterpieces will help New Zealanders appreciate why the Dutch called this period 'the Golden Age’.” Change of name The National Youth Orchestra, which is administered by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, will be known in future as the "New Zealand Youth Orchestra.” All New Zealand' musicians under 23 are eligible to audition for the opportunity to work with an international conductor and soloist in the orchestra in August. Auditions, will be held throughout the country during May by the ' N.Z.S.O. concertmaster, Peter Schaffer, and the assistant general manager, Peter Averi. Details are available at Radio New Zealand stations..

The guest conductor this year will be the principal of Trinity College of Music," London,. Meredith Davies, who will also conduct the N.Z.S.O. during his visit. The soloist will be the New Zealand clarinettist Mark Walton, who was a member of the 1975 Youth Orchestra which performed in Britain and China. The 1982 New Zealand Youth Orchestra will give three concerts in August — at Tauranga, Te Kuiti, and Auckland. A feature of the programme will be Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.