Dream of Sussex Downs

Export event | Export network | Feedback | Print
Event Dream of Sussex Downs
Venue Mercury One, Auckland, New Zealand
First Date 23 May 1986
Last Date 21 June 1986
Dates Estimated No
Status Professional
World Premiere No
Description A self-conscious hybrid that takes its plot from Chekhov and its title from a poem of Glover's: 'I do not dream of Sussex Downs/ Or quaint old England's quaint old towns…/ I dream of what may yet be seen/ In Johnsonville or Geraldine'. Set in 1950s Wellington, Chekhov's melancholy provincial exiles have become a family of decaying Thorndonians suffering from terminal anglophilia … Colonial life is experienced as a penal interlude …paradoxically (given its dependence upon a European classic) a play about the decolonisation of the New Zealand psyche.
Primary Genre Theatre - Spoken Word
Secondary Genre Drama
Adaptation
Subjects Post-Colonialism
Contributors
Name Function Notes
David Aston Actor Anthony Knight
Ross Duncan Actor Gordon Sweetman
Elizabeth Hawthorne Actor Mary
Teresa Woodham Actor Natalie
Jan Prettejohns Director
Roger Hall Playwright
Rodney Fumpston Set Designer
Text Nationality New Zealand
Production Nationality New Zealand
Further Information Adapted from Chekhov's Three Sisters. Evidently inspired by seeing Raymond Hawthorne's production of Three Sisters at Theatre Corporate in 1985.
Event Status Completed
Data Set Theatre Aotearoa
Event Identifier 185702