Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

50th Anniversary Souven11 . •. ;.' . ... , , . -, ":-t .• ~ ., The Couri e r - Mail 29 Aug ust 198 3 The impressive cultural centre on the Brisbane River's south hank ... artistic spirit is alive and well in the Brisbane of the '80s. ., ' Culture comes of ag§ T HE first Courier-Mail an– nounced, with·aeveral su– perlatives in the paid ad– vertising, that "Noel Coward's moat famous play, 'Private Lives', starring brilliant leading man George Barraud and the beautiful and attractive Isobel Elaom, waa soon for His Majeaty'a Theatre". For less than eight shillings a ticket. ., _. Brisbane audiences were able to sec '"The greatest comedy production ever staged in Australi;i"". And, by coincidence in thi s Courier– Mail anniversary year, '" Pri va te Li ves" wa s back recently 10 delight Brisba ne playgoers, with Coward\ portrait of high society domestic scrapping revived by the T .N. Theatre Company. Fifty years on, and the Coward play provides a bridge over which half a centu– ry of Brisbane theatre has travelled - but not without some bumps or potholes on the surface. Brisbane, for an incredible period in the 1960s, had a Jeserved image of theatrical prudity, with celebrated incidents drawing national (and in one case, international) attention. By DES PARTRIDGE '"About 100 Walked Out On Virginia,'" we reported in July, 1964, indicating the reaction of apparently easily shocked citi • zens to some of the dialogue and actions in an Old Tote Company's production of Ed– ward Albee 's award-winning "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'! '" In June the following yea r. the WtJrld headlines were nHh l unwelcome when ptl· lice. acting in 1lu: bcsl in1 crcs ts of 1hc South-East Queensland popul:i11on. nr• dercd that 14 West Africa n female danc– ers would have In for),!.et about their tr:ul i– tional style uf perfor mance. and wear bras as they danced in '" l.e, Ballet Africain, ". (Brisbane drew some comfort a couple of years later when a council in Montreal also ordered the girls to cover up.) Fortunately, the dress-up order did not apply to newspapers excited by the story. Their pages ga ve generou s di spla y to scenes from the show, revealing how the girls looked when they were not dancing in Brisbane. Attent ion in 1969 switched to a lbca l production. by the Twelfth Night Theatre Company, of the Alexander Bu zo play highlight ing racial prejudi ce. called '"Norm and Ahmed'" . Actor Norman Sta ines was arrested by police for saying the line'"... boongs'". and was fined $1 5 in default one month's jail. His convict ion wa s overturned on ap• peal, and then police in turn appea led , without success, to the Full Court and ulti• matcly the lligh Court of Australi a. The ac 1o r-nr1 is t' s successful stand against theatrical censorship, given solid communit y backing, was a landmark ca se fo r theatre in Australia . Try as they might , promoters in subse– quent years have not been able to interest a solit ary Queensland police man in mov– in g to prohibit, restrict, or condemn a pro– duction. That model of decorum . Stuart Wag– staff, uttered ".•.." not once but several times in '"Noises Ofr· ea rl y this year. and no more pai nt naked off the interior of Her Majes1y's with the shock of it nil. In '"Steaming" , four beautifull y propor– tioned actresses stripped to the buff in a Brisbane winter, agai n without anybody offering even a moderate '"tut-tut'". This welcome maturit y is seen by man y to have developed in hand with the artistic spirit alive a nd well in the Brisbane of the '80s. with the growth of performing arts, and artistic endea vors across the whole spectrum, unparalleled in our history. Among major met ropolit a n newspa– pers, The Courier-Mail is distinguished by its emphasis and prominence given to the world of arts and entertainment. and has three of the country's best known and ac– credited critics in David Rowbotham (the– atre) , Peter Dea n (television) . a nd Dr Gertrude Langer (art ). In June la st year . The Ct>uroer-Mai l prc~c n1cJ :i ma g 11 if1l.·c nt co lor wrap• ' 1 , a round of the :11.:d a imcd !le\, prcmi,c:-. for the Queensland /\ rl (,:Iller) . 1he fi rst stage .,r 1hc Robi n (; ib,nn-de,1i:ned SI Hl n11l- l1l111 suulh bank ..:ultural centre • i Yet to I:, opened to ca ter to a ..:ity' cul - i tu ra l appetite i, the impressive perform ing 1 arts complex of the new centre - fitt ingly 1 continu ing a theatrica l tradition begun on ' the .outh ba nk by the fnbled C remorne Thea tre . In the arts complex. there will be two maj r auditoriums. e:1ch capa ble of a • , comm(xla ting 2000 people, plu~ a smaller 1 experiment al theatre for :1udicnccs of 300 Another ha lf centur y on, a nd it will have created its own theatrica l memories for tomorrow's audiences. 1 . - - - - -- - -- - ---~ - I