NOVEMBER 15 – 26

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS


By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Adapted for the stage by Peter Evans and Anita Hegh
Direction Peter Evans
Performed by Anita Hegh
Set and Costume Design Adam Gardnir
Lighting Design Luke Hails
Sound Design Roger Allsop

"As soon as Anita Hegh props herself primly on a wooden schoolroom chair
and glances neurotically at her right hand, as if it were some wild animal that
might escape any moment, you realise you’re in for a special performance."
Alison Croggon

A woman is trapped. Trapped in the docility of a confining marriage and it
seems, between the distorting yellow walls of her bedroom. Dark and
psychologically stirring, Anita Hegh’s & Peter Evan’s The Yellow Wallpaper,
in a tour de force of solo performance, creeps, whispers and growls into the
Tower Theatre, after last years successful premiere season at the Storeroom.

Based on the classic short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
The Yellow Wallpaper is a bent matrimonial psycho-drama of ghosts and
memories of menace. An unnamed woman who is being treated for a nervous
condition is confined to her room by her doctor husband. The room has some
particularly "sickly" yellow wallpaper. Through a series of diary entries which
give voice to her gradual mental breakdown, her domestic prison encroaches.
The facades of family threaten to burst underneath the patterned wallpaper,
while illegitimate identities reach out for acceptance. But the door is locked and
the key has been thrown away.

A cunning use of props and lighting, and a stylised choreographed physicality
push the extremes of this performance. Our unnamed woman’s path charts the
dilemma of the stereotypical ideal of womanhood in a modern world demanding
conformity: be good and mad, or bad and sane. Anita Hegh effortlessly glides
from Henry James heroine to Patti Smith rock poet as she straddles the
tightrope of social expectation and dis/empowerment.

The formal and stylistic choices made by the creative team – set and costumes,
Adam Gardnir (A View of Concrete), lighting by Luke Hails (Summerfolk) and
sound, Roger Alsop (The Three Interiors of Lola Strong) - highlight with a
riveting intensity just exactly what is at stake for the unnamed woman. No
crinoline or fastidious period detail, rather the rawness of an empty space,
sunglasses and microphones, rehearsal petticoat and sculptural lighting.

Anita Hegh graduated from NIDA in 1994. She has worked extensively
throughout Australia in theatre, television and film. Her theatre credits include
roles with Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland
Theatre Company, and Bell Shakespeare Company. Anita is probably best
known for her role as Ellen Mackenzie in Stingers for which she is nominated
for an AFI.

Peter Evans is also a NIDA graduate and has worked with many of the major
theatre companies in Australia and New Zealand including the Melbourne
Theatre Company, Court Theatre Christchurch, the Sydney Theatre Company,
Red Stitch Actors Theatre and Bell Shakespeare Company.

Venue: Tower Theatre, CUB Malthouse
Season Details: November 15 – November 26 2006
Previews: Wednesday 15 November 7.30pm, Thursday 16 November 1.00pm
& 7.30pm.
Opening: Friday 17 November 7.30pm
Performance Times: Tuesday 21 November 7pm, Wednesday – Saturday
7.30pm, Sunday 5.30pm. Matinees – Thursday 16 November 1pm & Saturday 25
November 1pm.
Tickets: $15 - $27 + booking fee

Bookings: Malthouse Box Office 9685 5111/ www.malthousetheatre.com.au

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Peter Bridges
03 9534 0585
0417 390 180
Email:

Pia Johnson, Media Assistant
03 9685 5175
Email: