Review: Supporting The Development Of New Australian Plays, THE LYSICRATES PRIZE for 2017 Was Awarded, By Audience Vote, To Melissa Bubnic for GHOSTING THE PARTY

Friday 10th February 2017, Verbrugghen Hall and Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

In its third year, THE LYSICRATES PRIZE, supporting the creation of new Australian plays, was awarded, by audience vote, to Melissa Bubnic for GHOSTING THE PARTY.

At the packed Verbrugghen Hall, the first act of the three plays that reached the finals, Jennifer Compton's THE GOOSE IN THE BOTTLE, Nick Coyle's FEATHER IN THE WEB, and Melissa Bubnic's GHOSTING THE PARTY, were performed as staged readings prepared by professional directors and performers. Drawing on the five day Ancient Greek Dionysian Festival where Atheneans from all backgrounds attended free performances and voted for the winner, the LYSICRATES PRIZE is a free event for any interested audience members to join in a somewhat scaled down version with a fraction of the 15,000 strong crowd that gathered in the shadow of the Acropolis. Similar to its inspiration, the LYSICRATES PRIZE encourages democracy, creativity, communication, reflection on society and of course celebration as evidenced in the chatter after the presentation of the plays as the crowd moved down to the Royal Botanic Gardens for the awarding of the prize of statue and full commission from Griffin Theatre Company of $12,500 to complete the script. (Runners up each receive a $1000 cash prize)

Following encouraging words of support for the competition from Kim Ellis, the Executive Director of Sydney's Parklands and Botanic Gardens, and The Hon Gabrielle Upton, NSW Minister for the Environment, Local Government and Heritage, co founder of the Lysicrates Foundation, John Azarias shared his passion and inspiration for the event. The most uplifting and enthusiastic words however came from Griffin Theatre Company's Artistic Director Lee Lewis who has a vibrant energy and passion for the impact the LYSICRATES PRIZE and Griffin Theatre Company has on the Australian Theatre landscape, sharing a long term vision for the competition with John and Patricia Azarias.

For each play, the director and actors were allowed three days in which to rehearse meaning they were all still on book to ensure the wonderful text was captured correctly. The costumes were kept simple but detailed enough to identify characters age and social standing. The sets had varying degrees of detail from a home undergoing renovations, a quick changing multi location plot and a family kitchen table multi day story. The works deal with human experiences with humour and varying degrees of plausibility as an alcoholic three time divorcee deals with her past (THE GOOSE IN THE BOTTLE), a teenager lives in a twisted fantasy world (FEATHER IN THE WEB) and three generations of women discuss death (GHOSTING THE PARTY).

Jennifer Compton's THE GOOSE IN THE BOTTLE was performed by Belinda Giblin, Celia Ireland, Claire Lovering and Kate Skinner, under the direction of Gale Edwards. FEATHER IN THE WEB, by Nick Coyle,was directed by Ben Winspear, performed by Tima Bursill, Linda Cropper, Gareth Davies and Nikki Shiels. Winning work GHOSTING THE PARTY by Melissa Bubnic was directed by Kim Hardwick and performed by Lynette Curran, Amanda Muggleton and Shari Sebbens.

http://www.griffintheatre.com.au

https://www.lysicratesfoundation.org.au/