JULY 30 – AUGUST 21

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS

SAPPHO

…IN 9 FRAGMENTS

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JANE MONTGOMERY GRIFFITHS
STAGING 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.

WARNING: THIS PRODUCTION CONTAINS NUDITY AND STRONG LANGUAGE

THE CONFERENCE ‘FROM SAPPHO TO ... X’: CLASSICS, PERFORMANCE & RECEPTION AND LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER EVENTS ARE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL AS PART OF A MONASH UNIVERSITY / MALTHOUSE THEATRE LINKAGE PROJECT STAGING SAPPHO: INVESTIGATING NEW METHODOLOGIES IN PERFORMANCE RECEPTION.

THE PROJECT HAS ALSO BEEN ASSISTED BY THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF VICTORIA, THE AUSTRALIASIAN SOCIETY FOR CLASSICAL STUDIES AND MONASH UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, COMMUNICATIONS AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES

PHOTO © SAPPHO BY MENGIN