Archived

Atlantis

By Lally Katz
Director Rosemary Myers

  • Venue Upstairs Theatre
  • Dates 28 October – 26 November 2017
  • Duration Approx. 2 hours & 30 minutes inc. interval

WORLD PREMIERE

Lally Katz is on a journey. She’s left Australia behind and she’s in the country of her childhood, trying to find a way back to when things were innocent. Her relationships are chaotic, her professional life is a shambles and contemporary America seems riddled with charlatans and shysters. But along the way moments of wisdom bubble up, as if from some lost ancient city beneath the waves off Florida…

Five actors play the myriad characters of Lally’s life: ageing Jewish grandparents in Miami, wizened taxi drivers, cynical prophets, unhappy pharmacists, clowns, hip-hop artistes, narcissists, angels, animals – and, of course, Lally herself.

Lally mixes dreaming as a playwright and dreaming as a person – there’s no line between them. This one’s about her, travelling into a mess of love and America, refusing to accept the world is doomed. The whirligig of this latter-day Don Quixote is bursting with playfulness, with imagination – Lally seems to be saying that’s what will save us all and make this bleak world beautiful. – Eamon

Atlantis is supported by The Hive and The Honey Bs.

Warning: This production contains the use of strobe lighting, haze, e-cigarettes, sexual content and loud sound effects.

Team

Writer Lally Katz
Director Rosemary Myers
Set & Costume Designer Jonathon Oxlade
Lighting Designer Damien Cooper
Composer & Sound Designer Harry Covill
Dialect Coach Paige Walker
Movement Director Sara Black
Stage Manager Keiren Smith
Assistant Stage Manager Georgiane Deal

Cast

Paula Arundell
Lucia Mastrantone
Amber McMahon
Hazem Shammas
Matthew Whittet

Videos

Rehearsal images by Daniel Boud
  • Writer’s Note: Lally Katz

    Thanks so much for coming to see Atlantis. I really hope you enjoy it. I’ve really enjoyed writing it and I love working at Belvoir. I’m so grateful that they’ve made this play happen.

    The idea for Atlantis came from a conversation I had with an oceanographer in my grandparents’ retirement home in 2012 about rising sea levels, and something a taxi driver told me in 2011 about her belief in Atlantis. But you’ll see that in the play.

    This is a story made up of a lot of different characters and stories that were part of my life over the past five or so years. All of them changed me in some way and then became part of my life story. I hope you will love them like I have loved them.

    The character ‘Lally’ says in the beginning of the play that everything in it is based on truth and all the characters in it are based on real people. This is true and not true, because it is still a story. In the play, time and places have morphed. Two people from life have sometimes become one character in the play. Events are changed and rearranged to fit together into scenes. Dialogue has been invented and rewritten. Some of it is exactly true, as I remember it. But of course, memory is a tricky thing and can’t always be trusted as true.

    Certain weather events that I wrote about in the play actually began to occur during our rehearsal period. Any similarity is purely coincidence: Except that it is what climate scientists (including the oceanographer) have been predicting.

    I’ve had many collaborators since beginning work on this in 2012. I’d like to thank all the actors who participated in the workshops and gave so much. Many great minds have provided invaluable dramaturgy to the script, but I’d like to particularly thank: Eamon Flack, Rosemary Myers, Chris Drummond, Anthea Williams, Ben Chessell and Luke Mullins.

    I’ve loved working with the brilliant director Rose Myers and the incredible cast and crew on this adventure.

    I’d like to thank Anita Jacoby for believing in this project and supporting it from the beginning and coming to the workshops. And I’d like to thank my friends and Belvoir supporters The Hive and The Honey Bs for their support. It means a lot.

  • Director’s Note: Rosemary Myers

    I think Lally Katz is totally brilliant so I was excited and deeply honoured when Eamon Flack asked me to consider directing her new work, Atlantis, for the 2017 Belvoir season. I read the draft on a flight to America, which proved particularly appropriate, and I Iaughed out loud at its continual surprises, inspired by Lally’s unique theatrical voice. The play is a road trip for our time and it explores ideas with potent metaphors and astounding characters.

    I don’t want to give too much away before you experience it for yourself, but this work is a testament to the way Lally’s life and art are deeply intertwined. We meet a woman grappling with her own ticking clock living in a world on a countdown. It is about an eternal optimist reconciling dreams with reality, and it is a Lally Katz message of hope.

    The flair Lally exhibits rendering her imaginings on the page pose exciting challenges for the team tasked with delivering them to the stage. I have been happy to be accompanied in this endeavour by the boundless talent of some of my absolute favourite collaborators: the incredible Amber, Jonathon, Matthew and Harry. This is my second time working with the wonderful Hazem and the first with the creative dexterity of Lucia, the rigour of Paula and the absolute expertise of Damien. Thank you also to Eamon for his insightful dramaturgy, our stage manager Keiren and ASM Georgie for their care, coordination and cakes, to Paige and Sara for their invaluable contribution and to all of the wonderful Belvoir team across production, marketing and admin.

    Thank you also to Kaye Weeks and the team at Windmill Theatre Co for their support, which made it possible for me to be part of this production.

    Our rehearsal room has been full of laughter and revelation as we realise the premiere production of this original play – it is the work that drives us as makers of theatre.

    I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I have.

    Rose

  • Podcast

    Playwright Lally Katz, director Rosemary Myers, and actors Amber McMahon and Lucia Mastrantone, talk about tackling Lally’s hilarious and personal new work about “ovaries and climate change”. Produced by Zoe Ferguson for Belvoir.

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