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PLAYWRIGHT CONFUSED
It’s another challenging, brave, provocative, heroic, dissenting play:
A school assignment asks students to name a contemporary hero who is prepared to give up personal wealth for what he believes in and is inspirational to many people.
This is the opening premise for the prize-winning play Osama the Hero by English playwright Dennis Kelly, who wrote it soon after the invasion of Iraq.
And immediately after filtering four bottles of Chateau Idiot into his gob through wadded-up Robert Fisk columns, by the looks of things:
“It’s a deliberately provocative title designed to shock us into action,” says the play’s director, Syd Brisbane. “Dissent about what’s happening is hard to find. You need strength and purpose to keep the debate moving forward.”
What action might that be, Syd? The action of going to see a play?
The play functions as a microcosm of the world after the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington, with violence now much more paramount.
Because of the, ahem, hero.
Gary, played by Xavier Samuel, is the student who believes in honesty and names Osama bin Laden as his modern hero. This results in him being seized by people from the housing estate where he lives, and bound and gagged.
They didn’t even kill him ... as Osama’s henchmunchkins killed nearly 3,000 people. They could have at least given him some box-cutter throat action, hero style.
The playwright, whose earlier play Debris was performed in Melbourne last year, described Osama as a “brutal play” that expressed his own confusion about the state of the world.
A psychopath’s muppets murder thousands - and the playwright is confused.
Brisbane says it is quite political ...
You don’t say.
Osama is the first production by a new ensemble, The Rabble, made up of Brisbane and two other directors, Emma Valente, who is production manager on Osama, and Kate Davis, and supported by La Mama.
“I think the fact that we are all directors gives us a different slant to other independent groups,” Valente says. “We understand what it takes to be provocative.”
Not even close. A play titled “Where’s My Koran? Oh, It’s In Emma Valente’s Toilet!”; that would be provocative. So, how has the theatre world coped with this rebellious work?
It won Britain’s $20,000 Meyer-Whitworth award last November, after its first Australian production in Sydney.
UPDATE. James Lileks:
The play is described as “provocative.” Naturally. There’s no finer word in the modern artist’s lexicon.
Click for further Lileksian gold.
” ‘It’s a deliberately provocative title designed to shock us into action,’ says the play’s director, Syd Brisbane.”
Wait . . . coming over the wire . . . a special BBC report . . . “Playwright David Kelley was found unconscious this morning. Jammed into a manhole, his pants missing, and his buttocks painted with pitch, a single, long-stalked red geranium stood sentry from the vantage point of his anus. Police believe that angry playgoers may have been shocked into action by Mr. Kelley’s controversial play, Osama the Hero.”
“I think the fact that we are all directors gives us a different slant to other independent groups,” Valente says. “We understand what it takes to be provocative.”
If I were polite, these statements would be called smug, self-congratulation. But since I’m not, they’re what’s known as wanking in public.
So, why doesn’t this play open in Pakistan? Sounds like it would be a major hit there.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 20 at 01:36 PM • permalinkGary, played by Xavier Samuel, is the student who believes in honesty and names Osama bin Laden as his modern hero. This results in him being seized by people from the housing estate where he lives, and bound and gagged.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that this is some thinly veiled pseudo-autobiographical wishcasting by the writer.
Tim’s suggestion for a real provocative title and paco’s BBC report were just hilarious.
I’m recovering from a spot of surgery and have 70 odd staples and a few sutures closing a couple of incisions and the thought of my notebook being riddled by a machine-gun like spray of metal turned the laughter meter from roaring to near maniacal. [Tough little buggers stayed in – amazing – must inquire about an endorsement fee for my story – it was a terrific stress test.]
The best thing about productions like this is that if they bomb, the writers and directors can always use the excuse that the great unwashed sheeple just couldn’t handle their “provocative” work instead of having to confront the possibility that they created a giant piece of crap. If the play is a failure, I guarantee that that Kelly will blame the audience (or lack thereof), the same way Oliver Stone did after Alexander flopped (that one was because we are such religious fundies in the dark despotic days after 9/11 that we couldn’t handle the gay or something like that).
Posted by EmilyJones on 2007 06 20 at 03:22 PM • permalinkAre there any other characters in this play? Like Achmed, played by Robert, who, implementing Osama’s teaching, beheads young Christian school girls? Or Abu, played by John, who, in order to save the family’s honor, kills his sister for wearing makeup and dating a Joo? Or Yassir, played by Alex, is a father who drowned his daughter for driving a car?
Just asking.
Posted by Mark Razak on 2007 06 20 at 03:28 PM • permalinkThis the type of crap that Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park is famous for putting on. For $500 we’ll buy two season tickets with great seats to see god awful stuff. Such as Metamorphosis, the Greek play with a strong gay story line and a 18 year old lad who prances around with just butterfly wings and his little wee wee shaking. Oh, the principally gay audience enjoyed that.
Now I will say they usually try to throw in a My Fair Lady or Mr. Roberts. But it doesn’t make up for 2 hours of mind numbing dreck, once a month for five months. I hate it, I tell my wife I hate it. But every year she subscribes. This must stop!
Posted by wronwright on 2007 06 20 at 03:42 PM • permalinkOsama the Hero is in fact an inspirational title. It inspires me to throw large rectangular building things to theatre marquees…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 06 20 at 03:50 PM • permalinkMaybe they can give Mr. Kelly Arafat’s Peace Prize.
Rectally.
And is “Meyer-Whitworth” a euphemeism for “Leftist Asshole of the Year”?
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2007 06 20 at 03:59 PM • permalinkFrom the British Historian David Pryce-Jones
“Intellectuals by and large disgraced the twentieth century”
I’m sure this twat with kneepads considers himself an ‘intellectual’
More from Pryce-Jones…
With rare exception, they whored after false gods, of which the most odious and overwhelming was power. Writers, artists, philosophers, historians, even musicians and architects, enthusiastically committed their talents to the service of one cause or another. This treason of the clerks spread like an epidemic, diminishing the world’s hard-won stock of wisdom and morality, and Civilization is still reeling from it.
The 21st century ain’t going to any better….
#18: Good concept, Keith. I’m thinking of doing a play, myself. Guess Who’s Coming to Dhimmi? is about a hip, liberal, nominally Christian girl who brings her Muslim boyfriend home to meet the folks. After the undocumented Central American maid serves lunch, Abdullah takes a bite out of his sandwich, at which point the father asks, “Hope you don’t mind tinned Polish ham?” Abdullah - not only outraged, but obviously prepared to be outraged - then rips open his Pakistani-style nightshirt, pushes a button on his suicide belt, and . . . nothing happens. The father rises slowly from his chair, walks around to Abdullah, looks intently at the suicide belt, and says, “Well, there’s your problem, right there! The ignition wires aren’t making proper contact.” He fixes them, the bomb goes off - killing Abdullah, his girlfriend and her parents - and the undocumented Central American maid, overwhelmed by the violence she has found in the United States, goes back to Guatemala: sadder, wiser, and in possession of a 100-piece set of antique silver flatware.
There! Something to shock everybody into action.
Dissent about what’s happening is hard to find.
Wow. How out of touch can you be? If “dissent” were any easier to find, I’d have an ANSWER march through my living room every night.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 06 20 at 04:55 PM • permalinkThis the type of crap that Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park is famous for putting on.
Heh. A few years ago, a local playwright associated with the Playhouse in the Park wrote a play “about” a teenage Palestinian girl who went out to murder people with a bomb strapped to herself.
The regional CAIR-ites pitched a fit, despite the play being a typical twaddle, bending over backwards to “understand” the murderous little bint. Apparently it was horribly insulting for him to show her listening to music and talking about boys.
The play was, of course, canceled.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 06 20 at 05:07 PM • permalinkPaco
Just for you, truth being better than fiction: Little Mosque on the Prairie. Rumour has it being on a US network soon.Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 06 20 at 05:56 PM • permalinkGary, played by Xavier Samuel, is the student who believes in honesty and names Osama bin Laden as his modern hero. This results in him being seized by people from the housing estate where he lives, and bound and gagged.
Bins and garages have been blowing up on the estate and Gary gets the blame.
They were actually controlled demolitions. Google it!
Here’s my play:
“The Koran, as read by a gay black midget transexual Catholic (former muslim)”
In this provocative play, the midget, with the nomdeplume Tim Palmer ;), acts as the director, reading passages from the Koran, and then an assemble act out various scenes from the religion of peace as demonstrated by its followers in the last 2 years, including:
1. FGM
2. Stoning
3. Decapitating
4. Shooting a 12 yr old boy
5. Taking international aid money and transfering it into a Swiss bank account, while children die of starvation and lack of medicines
6. Flying a plane into a building.In the background a multimedia screen will show actual footage of said atrocities.
The play will end with a ritual burning of the Koran and the flag of a different muslim nation each night.
And just for balance, for the encore, the midget will read from the Bible, about Jesus wanting us to turn the other cheek, and the ensemble comes out facing backwards, and drops their pants. This gesture will be described as deeply reflective of the Western’s world general piss weak response to such violence, as well as the writers view of those same people. Don’t you just love multi-layered meanings in 1 gesture?
Hilarity ensues.
Now, I’m about to put out a press release calling for actors (I do admit the midget will require some searching) and small theatres ( I will sue the government ones for refusing to carry my play in the anti-discrimination tribunals - more irony) willing to support this provocative play. I expect significant government grants (when I change “koran” to “bible”) and lefty awards (ditto), as well as the usual ineffective fatwa. Some demonstrations are expected, and the usual call for violence will come to define irony.
—————————————————————
Now seriously:
If the arts world can shove my bible in urine, shove my jesus in urine and cow shit, and shove my religion in the sewer, why can’t I respond in this way? If muslims can burn my flag, why can’t I burn theirs? If muslims can kill my countryman, why can’t I show my disgust? Oh I get it - I’m supposed to roll over and accept their shit because I caused it. I caused it. I need to find out why they are upset, open a dialogue, change MY ways, and the religion of peace will be happy and live in peaceful co-existence with me.....
(to be continued)Nigel Jamieson, Director of David Hicks: the Musical received $35,000 from the Myer Foundation.
Australians will be chuffed to know that this failed play is now doing the rounds of Europe. They are doing this on the back of money amassed by Sidney Myer a Russian Jew who escaped the pogroms to create a retail empire.
I wonder if this British award is more Jew money?
Ain’t life fucked.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 20 at 07:16 PM • permalink“Dissent about what’s happening is hard to find…. amongst the narrow world of the left intellectual, where group think is inbred and Osama is a scapegoat for the evil bush…. trails off into the usual incoherent religious chants
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 20 at 07:26 PM • permalinkSyd Brisbane?? Surely it must be Bris Sydney? Syd Vicous? Syd Sydney?
OK I’m killing time ‘til my stuff peppers are cooked.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 20 at 07:33 PM • permalinkOsama, the new RILF (Radical I’d Like to Fuck) of the intelligentsia.
For some, Che and Fidel are not enough…Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2007 06 20 at 07:35 PM • permalinkBut…. are the theatre group, actors, stage hands, directors ‘n’ all gay/lesbian/bi-sexual and trans-gendered?
They hardly carry any weight if not.
If not, the play’s crap.
How about a GLBT mozzie play?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 20 at 07:39 PM • permalinkMore wit and wisdom of Islam. Watch, as the magician - Presto! - pulls the table cloth off of his head without disturbing any of the stupidity inside! And shouldn’t there be an empty bottle of Chianti with a candle in it somewhere in that picture?
peter m, in all seriousness, they are upset because, deep down, they know that the muslim world is backward, ignorant and poverty-stricken because of the muslim religion, which is a fascist, totaletarian ideology, like hitlerism, not a religion that provides sustenance
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 20 at 07:52 PM • permalink#38 Paco, out of principal, I have not watched the CBC for some years. But from what I dunerstand, this program is a piece of Dhimmi shit.
All the women in headscarfs are feminists (none of the actresses actually muslim BTW) and all the men are good familly metrosexual men - in the PRAIRIES, for crying out loud.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 20 at 07:59 PM • permalinkInterestingly, I can find no web reference to Honour Bound appearing at festivals in Europe except on Australian websites like this. (3rd par from bottom).
Seems odd - maybe no-one showed up (again).
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 20 at 08:18 PM • permalinkActually, here is a provocative production they should consider instead: National Lampoon’s 72 Virgins.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 06 20 at 08:23 PM • permalinkI’ve got my own play, labelled “The Two Emperors and the Idiots”.
It’s loosely based on the historical events where Emperors Heraclius and Khosrau received letters from the Umma telling them to “submit to Allah”, give up their misguided ways and embrace monotheism.
Watch for the stirring portion where Khosrau embarasses Muslims by informing them that the Persians are already monotheists and have been for millennia.
I picture this scene being accompanied with trombonist going “Bwa-bwa-bwaaaaaaaa”.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 06 21 at 03:57 AM • permalinkIf we go with strict interpretation of their own logic, these nitwits should drive their Priusi off the nearest cliff in lemmingesk strategy of survival of the species. They contribute nothing, they needlessly waste resources, and they are sucking down precious carbon free O2. Do what’s best for Gaia O wayward kinsmen, follow your own advice. After all, you know best, right?
Not even close. A play titled “Where’s My Koran? Oh, It’s In Emma Valente’s Toilet!”; that would be provocative.
The first rule of progressive art: One must never direct ‘provocative’ art at anyone who can be truly provoked.
Posted by Jeffersonian on 2007 06 21 at 09:50 AM • permalinkMeanwhile, a real poet and playwright named Bill S. once wrote:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.Posted by charles austin on 2007 06 21 at 01:53 PM • permalinkTalking about great writing (#60), here’s two sentences from the Bleat linked to in Tim’s update:
This cannot stand; the center must not hold. That rough beast isn’t going to birth itself, you know; we have to rip it out, saddle it up and ride all the way to Bethlehem so we can get on with whatever comes next.
Posted by Chris Chittleborough on 2007 06 22 at 08:47 AM • permalinkHands up those who have actually seen the play? WHOOPS - Looks like it’s just me. How could I tell…because of the ignorant comments most of you made. That includes the ones about the director’s name. Obviously many of you are not into the theatre… pity really… in the case of “Osama the Hero”, you are missing out on some great performances.
#63: For which I thank God daily.
And as for theatre, I love it. For the idiots ramming their particularly dreadful ideology down my throat in the name of “art,” I simply do not patronize them with my hard-earned money.
Elizabeth
Imperial KeeperPosted by Elizabeth Imperial Keeper on 2007 06 22 at 12:15 PM • permalinkAnyone who puts “Osama” and “hero” in the same sentence is just asking for an ass-kicking, unless the sentence is: “Osama bin Laden was killed by a hero today.”
mks57, you make a very large leap by stating that most of us here aren’t into theater. Explain why you think this, because our ridicule of one ridiculous play isn’t sufficient evidence.
Obviously many of you are not into the theatre… pity really… in the case of “Osama the Hero”, you are missing out on some great performances.
That someone does it well does not make a despicable act praiseworthy.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 06 22 at 01:30 PM • permalinkI have to wonder if mks57 is one of the performers in “Osama The Hero”, and is trying to bump up ticket sales to cover the rent next week.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 22 at 02:41 PM • permalink#63 I put my hand up for being “into the theatah” and again for not having seen it.
You’re right. Maybe Tim and everyone here got it wrong, and the title is ironic.
You know, in scare quotes, like Osama the “hero”.
If that was the case, we’d look pretty silly, and I would have to take back everything I said about this play.
(Actually, this is my first comment on the topic, so I wouldn’t have to take back anything! haha gotcha!)
But seriously, besides my amazing wit, what else do you disagree with?
We’re assuming that the play tries to humanise Bin Laden and show the cuddly, warm side of terrorism.
We’re thinking that this is just a sentimental play to a sense of victimhood, to arouse enough anger in the audience for them to sympathise with terrorists.
Is this incorrect?
I await your response.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 06 22 at 08:04 PM • permalinkthanks, this place gets kinda creepy after they turn out the lights and everyone’s gone.
Posted by daddy dave on 2007 06 22 at 10:54 PM • permalinkLa Mama & THE RABBLE present..
The Melbourne Premiere of
OSAMA THE HERO
BY DENNIS KELLY
Winner of the 2006 Meyer-Whitworth AwardCRITIC RATING : 8/10 “One of the best shows at the Old Fitz”
Jason Blake Sun Herald
An explosive new play examining the ethics of violence, fear and terror. Written by Dennis Kelly, one of Britain’s hottest emerging artists, OS AMA THE HERO was first presented in London in 2005 creating a storm of controversy, which warranted a police guard outside The Hampstead Theatre on opening night.GARY: “I never know when things are funny, so what I do is wait until someone else starts laughing and then I join in, quick as I can and I hope I haven’t got in too late, because there’s nothing worse than being left out in the cold with a laugh hanging. People laugh a lot nowadays. I think that’s fear.”
Gary’s not stupid. He just dares to see the world differently, but when another garage explodes on his estate and unsettles his neighbours, Gary must take the blame.
OSAMA THE HERO is vital, urgent, an enema to apathy, dangerous, provocative, confronting, upsetting and poignant. It is a play for our times.
Directed by long time actor Syd Brisbane, who burst onto the directing scene in 2005 with a sell out season of cutting edge English play Been So Long by Che Walker in Melbourne. This production later went on to win an Advertiser award for “Best Show” at The Adelaide Fringe Festival 2006. Brisbane has had an extensive acting career in both Australia and abroad, training with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company in NY and working with Howard Barker’s The Wrestling School in London.
THE RABBLE is a new national theatre director’s collaborative run by Syd Brisbane, Kate Davis and Emma Valente. Osama The Hero was THE RABBLE’S inaugural production at The Old Fitzroy in October 2006 wowing audiences & critics alike.
Following the critically acclaimed CORVUS at Carriageworks THE RABBLE make their much anticipated Melbourne debut.
Finally, finally, finally I have found a group of Australian theatre makers who are pushing the boundaries of theatrical exploration
Nicholas Pickard – Arts Hub
DIRECTOR :SYD BRISBANE
CAST :KEVIN HOPKINS :XAVIER SAMUEL : HANNAH NORRIS :JESSIE BECK : THOMAS WRIGHT DESIGNER :KATE DAVIS SOUND DESIGN :TOM SPENDER LIGHTING DESIGNER :NIK PAJANTI PRODUCTION MANAGER :EMMA VALENTE
DETAILS:VENUE: La Mama @ The Carlton Courthouse 349 Drummond St Carlton
DATES: June 21 - July 7
TIMES: TUES, WED & SUN 6:30PM THURS, FRI & SAT 8:00 PM
BOOKINGS : 93476142 http://www.lamama.com.au
TICKETS: $20 FULL, $10 CONC.
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“Dissent about what’s happening is hard to find. “
God what a twat.