Malthouse Theatre

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS

ELIZABETH

ALMOST BY CHANCE A WOMAN

[QUASI PER CASO UNA DONNA: ELISABETTA]

BY DARIO FO
TRANSLATED AND FREELY ADAPTED BY
LUKE DEVENISH AND LOUISE FOX
DIRECTOR MICHAEL KANTOR
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA CORDINGLEY
LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON
COMPOSER MARK JONES
SOUND DESIGNER RUSSELL GOLDSMITH
DRAMATURGE MARYANNE LYNCH

CAST INCLUDES
BILLE BROWN, JULIE FORSYTH, MARK JONES,
CHRIS RYAN, NIKKI SHIELS, DAVID WOODS

MERLYN THEATRE
APRIL 3 – APRIL 24

Running Time: 2 hrs (inc interval)

MONARCH. MAIDEN. SUPER-FREAK.

The Virgin Queen is about to be dragged into the twenty-first century...

...and she’s not coming politely.

You are invited, by Her Majesty’s appointment, to a right royal arse-kicking. Mid the comforts of her boudoir and the ministrations of motley cronies, Elizabeth has a few bones to pick. There are the constant conspiracies and assassination attempts. There are the boob-lifts and leech-o-suction. But most of all, there’s the lack of sex – er – Essex, first name Robert, who holds her heart in his treacherous hands. It‘s not easy being Queen.

Featuring the incomparable Julie Forsyth (Happy Days) and Bille Brown (The Judas Kiss) we suggest you leave any preconceptions about the court of Elizabeth firmly at the door: this riotous new production, directed by Michael Kantor, is an enema to the dry recesses of history. Savage and hilarious, it puts a velvet-heeled stiletto into targets high and low, saving its sharpest blows for the conventions of theatre itself. Hang onto your armrests.

Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo (Accidental Death of an Anarchist) delivers one of his most brilliant and uninhibited rewritings of history reminding us that perhaps our favourite Monarch’s most notorious legacy is actually the modern Police State. One minute a mad burlesque, the next an unexpectedly poignant portrait of an ageing woman, but always speaking to the excesses of our age.

Luke Devenish (Fun and Games with the Oresteia) and Louise Fox (Tartuffe) have concocted a brilliant new adaptation true to the anarchic spirit of Dario Fo whose Elizabeth, Almost By Chance A Woman is one of the most unforgettable creations of modern theatre: a hell-raising tornado of paranoia, lust, vanity and giddy delight - with a mouth that would put a sailor to shame.

A MALTHOUSE THEATRE COMMISSION

PHOTO GARTH ORIANDER PICTURED JULIE FORYTH