By Jonathan Gavin
Based on Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky
Australian Premiere
23 April – 29 May 2011
BELVOIR UPSTAIRS THEATRE
“Playwright Jonathan Gavin and director Cristabel Sved take a big Aussie stick to Maxim Gorky’s seldom produced 1909 satire Vassa Zheleznova and beat it into an acrid black comedy.” Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald
Photography: Heidrun Lohr
Director: Cristabel Sved
Set Designer: Victoria Lamb
Costume Designer: Stephen Curtis
Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson
Composer & Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert
Dramaturg: Eamon Flack
Literal translation: Karen Vickery
Stage Manager Mark Lowrey
Assistant Stage Manager Edwina Guinness
With: Kate Box, Grant Dodwell, Thomas Henning, Jody Kennedy, Russell Kiefel, John Leary, Sarah Peirse, Samantha Young
“…a rambunctious and riveting production.”
Gary Smith | The Daily Telegraph
“What makes The Business potent is its emotional cruelty presented in the guise of comedy, sometimes bordering on farce, rich in gags, in explosive tensions and, not least, suspense…—and then shock… Director Cristabel Sved and her cast are endlessly inventive, keeping these monsters believable… Performances in The Business were uniformly excellent, underpinned by a strong sense of ensemble.”
Real Time, Keith Gallasch
“In working from Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova, Jonathan Gavin has created a play that is his own, one finely realised by his collaborators and, sadly, a play for and of our times.”
Keith Gallasch | Real Time
“…seriously entertaining night of bourgeois bashing. I loved it.”
Diana Simmonds | Stage Noise