"He seems like a god to me the man who is near you.
Listening to your sweet voice and exquisite laughter
That makes my heart so wildly beat in my breast.
If I but see you for a moment, then all my words
Leave me, my tongue is broken and a sudden fire
Creeps through my blood. No longer can I see.
My ears are full of noise. In all my body I
Shudder and sweat. I am pale as the sun-scorched
Grass. In my fury I seem like a dead woman,
But I would dare" (Sapho). . .
( a snippet from rehearsals)
Sapho in 9 Fragments -
SAPPHO
…IN 9 FRAGMENTS
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JANE MONTGOMERY GRIFFITHSSTAGING BY MARION POTTS
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA CORDINGLEY
LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON
COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER DARRIN VERHAGEN
DRAMATURGE MARYANNE LYNCH
BECKETT THEATRE
JULY 30 – AUGUST 21
As Sappho herself reminds us: all education is a form of seduction. Your lesson begins now.
2700 years ago, Sappho is the world’s first love poet, the tenth muse of the ancient Greeks, and the inspiration for every lovelorn writer and songster since. But history catches up with her, and over time, Sappho becomes just a gap to be filled with the lusts and desires of each new generation...
Sappho...in 9 fragments is a roller-coaster, tour de force through two and a half millennia of Sappho’s story, weaving together the strange tale of her fragmented reception with a contemporary love story in her own words. As a timeless Sappho relives her uses and abuses through history, in the modern world a heart-broken young woman tries to piece together the fragments of her sexual awakening.
In its sell-out premiere at The Stork Theatre in 2007, Jane Montgomery Griffiths attracted passionate praise for her audacious performance and shrewdly intelligent and sensual writing. In a new staging by Marion Potts (Venus and Adonis), Sappho…in 9 fragments continues Malthouse Theatre's project of re-presenting the boldest and best new works from Melbourne’s independent stage.
MY RESPONSE
Love Desire - woman identified homo - erotocism. Post - modern non linear script - virtuoso acting.
The language in this play is exquisite! The depth of training and the breadth of Jane Montomery Griffiths made this piece and absolute theatrical feast.
I was inspired by this piece to delve more into the subjective 'truth' or the internal world of myself as a performer.
The one prop was amazing - a bath ( or coffin) rectangular and filled with red (ish) liquid that seeped from a tap below.
Jane began her performance in the box of liquid and she was totally submerged and the audience could not see that as they took their seats that she was already contained within - She emerged naked - androgynous - like the body itself became the canvas.
A performance of love, desire, identity - fragmented humanity- the contemporary and the ancient.
It is always about the integrity of the performer and their honesty on stage - their ability to make themselves 'naked' for you.
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