Media Enquiries + Press clippings

Siobhan Waterhouse:

Siobhan@mrfahrenheitpr.com.au 

 

Ph: 0424 289 702  

Press Release Here 

 

View our production teaser here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGG-9OvPzjY

 

REVIEWS

1. Stage Whispers (Whitney Fitzsimmons): http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/new-electric-ballroom-0

"The New Electric Ballroom will subtly reach inside you, tug at the deepest, darkest corners of your mind and make you consider love, romance, family and your own purpose. "

 

2. Stage Noise (Diana Simmonds): http://www.stagenoise.com/review/1822

"... a richly realised production of a play that deserves and needs such treatment. "

 

3. Jason Blake: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/dancehall-dalliance-proves-there-were-never-such-devoted-sisters-20120312-1uw1y.html

"Kate Gaul’s production has the measure of the play’s mix of the surreal, the prosaic and the deadpan humorous, hitting the required notes of hysteria with help from Darryl Wallis’s glassy-sounding underscore. Crucially, Gaul has cast these curious characters extremely well. ...this strong production and its fine acting keep us locked in with these sad sisters for the duration" 

 

4. Alternative Media (Michelle Porter): http://www.altmedia.net.au/the-new-electric-ballroom-2/50215

"...flawless performances..." 

 

5. OZ Baby Boomers (Geraldine Worthington): http://www.ozbabyboomers.com.au/theatre/2012/03_12/electric/electric.html

“Odile LeClezio, Genevieve Moody and Jane Phegan all shine without a false note. Their ensemble performance acts as a connective and destructive force creating a domestic savagery as they skilfully negotiate the emotions, the silences and the subtext in the sacred ritual.... A must see. Thumbs up!” 

 

6. Concrete Playground (Diane Cohen): http://sydney.concreteplayground.com.au/event/48422/the-new-electric-ballroom-griffin-independent-and-.htm

 

7. Sydney Arts Guide (Richard Cotter): http://www.sydneyartsguide.com/View-Review.asp?ReviewID=1004

"...a story that is re-enacted day after day, like a ritual, complete with a sort of transubstantiation from peasant dress to party frock and garish makeup and lipstick worn like some surreal stigmata.....Kate Gaul’s production is slick, finely nuanced, and as mentioned, beautifully cast"  

 

8. Daily Telegraph (Chris Hook):  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/whats-on/review-the-new-electric-ballroom-at-the-sbw-stables-theatre/story-e6frexmi-1226298262381

"There's a lot to love about Siren Theatre's production ...  the performances from the cast of four are uniformly superb, an unnerving and stifling claustrophobia informing conversations among the three sisters .... they've gone to the New Electric Ballroom, fallen in love with the teen idol performing and learned a few things about the economy of desire and where they fit within its cruel freemarket." 

 

9. Arts Hub (Ildiko Susany): http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/the-new-electric-ballroom-188172

“Together, lighting and set design create a wonderful world of isolation and dilapidation which fully supports the character’s emotional and psychological torment; as do the costume changes, which transform them into garish versions of their naïve younger selves as they re-enact or relive their past trauma on a night out at The New Electric Ballroom.

Dramatically, the entire cast are excellent, never missing a beat as they support one another through the string of monologues which comprise much of the piece.” 

 

10. Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary: http://kjtheatrereviews.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-electric-ballroom.html

“…. through the skill of the writer and the deftly wrought and devoted performances of the actors, and the subtle support of the artistic team … under the sensitive and disciplined direction of Kate Gaul, one is seduced into the music of  the text and the wealth of the imagery and the  human anguish for the disappointed souls that Mr Walsh clearly aches for, and loves….the integrity and skill of the vision of Ms Gaul shines through.

THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM is worth catching.”  

 

11. MC Reviews (Daniel East):http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5140 

This is a GREAT review - you  JUST have to read the entire thing!  (Ed)  

 

12. Augusta Supple:  http://augustasupple.com/2012/03/the-new-electric-ballroom-siren-theatre-company-griffin-independent/

"Director Kate Gaul has harnessed the energetic forces of some of Australia’s finest theatre makers to present this story about the redemptive and the stunting qualities of narratives." 

 

13.  Same Same (Matt D/Silva): http://www.samesame.com.au/reviews/8135/The-New-Electric-Ballroom-Griffin-Theatre.htm

"Think of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, throw in a couple of buckets of fish, a pink coffee cake, three very peculiar ladies, an obsession with an encounter in an electric ballroom and just for the hell of it lets also have someone pee on the floor…  "

 

14. Northside (Polly Simons): http://northside.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/review-the-new-electric-ballroom-sbw-stable-theatre/

"A great director and terrific performances make for claustrophobic yet compelling drama ..." 

 

15. Sun-Herald (Elissa Blake) 8/10 

 

16. A random blog: http://theatrefromthebackseat.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-electric-ballroom.html

  

 

 

 

 

 

Brag Preview:

 

 Alternative Media Group -  posted Sunday 19th Feb, 2012

Journalist - Michelle Porter 

http://www.altmedia.net.au/the-new-electric-ballroom/49145 

 

Have you ever been unable to break a self-defeating pattern? Have you ever become stuck in retelling the same story about yourself? These are the main themes explored in The New Electric Ballroom through the characters, Breda, Clara and Ada, three sisters living in an Irish village, who constantly re-enact a heart-breaking night from their past. But when Patsy, a local fishmonger, enters their lives, the structure of their tightly-bound pattern begins to unravel.

Director Kate Gaul says The New Electric Ballroom was a dance where Breda and Clara went 40 years ago. In the present they are situated in their kitchen, where they have walled themselves in. Here, they re-enact the event of being jilted by the man they loved at this particular place.

“They were both broken-hearted, and they want to shield Ada from that experience,” says Gaul. “So they turned the colour off, they turned the lights off basically and decided to stay inside, because inside if you don’t have to deal with anything, then you can’t have your heart broken.”

In this enclosed world these three women tell stories to each other, a very limited range of stories that serve as protection from the outside world. However, Gaul believes that in the same way people want to be safe, we also want to know what’s outside the door. “Something’s gotta give at some point, and you’re going to ask questions: what is it like out in the rest of the world?” she says.

Jane Phegan, in the role of Ada, says the older siblings don’t go out anymore, so it’s up to the younger sister to make a living while also maintain distance from the rest of the village. This limited interaction, combined with the issue of, “trying to figure out what it is to be alive through those stories,” has severely constrained her life experiences.

“But on this particular day, something has changed,” says Phegan. “There’s something which says this isn’t going to be your usual day… And that’s where the usual pattern is put into disarray.”

Director Gaul believes what makes The New Electric Ballroom stand out as a play, and as a story, is its poetic, text-driven language, its imagination and its three roles for women, which each display a range of emotions. She also states it’s a very bizarre world; the world of the play itself is not the normal world we live, but rather, “a complete and utter left-of-centre interpretation of our lives.” Despite this, we will still recognise ourselves within it.

It’s no surprise The New Electric Ballroom possesses all these qualities. Penned by celebrated Irish playwright, Enda Walsh, renowned for his honest, lyrical language and dark humour, it serves as the companion piece to The Walworth Farce, a play that similarly explores an intense family dynamic and its subsequent implosion.

“I think the practical reasons were that the cast of The Walworth Farce were all men,” says Gaul in response to how it fits as a companion piece with this other play.  ”And he wanted to write something for women. But it is the same story, so in the same way that the characters in our play are destined to tell the same story, over-and-over again, the playwright is writing the same story over-and-over again too. But for what purpose? Well, that is the question isn’t it.”

Gaul continues that while the play is about these really deep things, it’s also a good yarn and humorously told in a very contemporary kind of way. Although the audience will have to work hard to stick with the story, in the end they will laugh, they’ll cry, they’ll be shocked and silenced.

Phegan adds that humour is also tantamount to the story. “Of course we want to create the feeling that you’re trapped in this room with these women and you get a sense of what that is,” she says. “But there’s no point in putting an audience through just that. So you have to have the flip side, which is this absolute, gorgeous humour; beautiful Irish, genuine humour.”

So what do they hope the audience takes away with them? “As long as they’re changed,” says Ms Gaul. “I think if they arrive as individuals and leave as an audience, then you’ve done your job. Hopefully, we do something that demands their attention – that would be my aim. Too much to hope for? Who knows.” 

 

 

 

SX Magazine : http://gaynewsnetwork.com.au/entertainment/theatre/5070-cabin-crazy.html

 

Southern Courier : http://southern-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/hooked-on-an-electric-past/

  

Time Out: http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/theatre/events/20976/new-electric-ballroom