Work in Australia
Gerrard's work on the epic production of Howard Barker's The Ecstatic Bible lead to a fruitful ongoing collaboration with Adelaide's Brink Productions, one of Australia's leading 'cutting-edge' theatre companies.
After the 2000 Adelaide Festival, Gerrard was immediately invited by the company to return to Adelaide to direct a production of Heiner Muller's Quartet, a work which Gerrard knew intimately from his own performance of the role of Valmont for Glasgow Citizen's Theatre.
Gerrard both directed & designed the award-winning production, at the Queen’s Theatre, Adelaide, site-specifically developed for the beautiful empty shell of the oldest mainland theatre in Australia.
In 2005, Gerrard returned to Brink at the invitation of its new director Chris Drummond, to run a two-week workshop for actors and directors. The emphasis here was once again language, and the guidelines of grammar and structure, sifting down through to some root ‘purity’, a freshness of response that took as it’s starting point the ‘anti-theatre’ of Gertrude Stein, where Stein’s playlets are pure language-they do not present events, they are events in themselves. This is disconnection from ‘drama’ in action, and it is through such disconnection and disruption of expected practice, that new connections can be made and new practices built in the body and mind of the actor.
Gerrard's sense of the physical in theatre was further explored when he worked with Phelim McDermott & Lee Simpson's celebrated Improbable Theatre, the makers of Shockheaded Peter’. He played the title role in 'The Hanging Man', in their 2006 revival for the main theatre space at the Sydney Opera House. The following year, Gerrard returned to Adelaide again to play Goldberg in Pinter's The Birthday Party for new company The Flying Penguins, directed by David Mealor, previously one of the founders of Brink, and a member of the Australian cast contingent for The Ecstatic Bible.
After the 2000 Adelaide Festival, Gerrard was immediately invited by the company to return to Adelaide to direct a production of Heiner Muller's Quartet, a work which Gerrard knew intimately from his own performance of the role of Valmont for Glasgow Citizen's Theatre.
Gerrard both directed & designed the award-winning production, at the Queen’s Theatre, Adelaide, site-specifically developed for the beautiful empty shell of the oldest mainland theatre in Australia.
In 2005, Gerrard returned to Brink at the invitation of its new director Chris Drummond, to run a two-week workshop for actors and directors. The emphasis here was once again language, and the guidelines of grammar and structure, sifting down through to some root ‘purity’, a freshness of response that took as it’s starting point the ‘anti-theatre’ of Gertrude Stein, where Stein’s playlets are pure language-they do not present events, they are events in themselves. This is disconnection from ‘drama’ in action, and it is through such disconnection and disruption of expected practice, that new connections can be made and new practices built in the body and mind of the actor.
Gerrard's sense of the physical in theatre was further explored when he worked with Phelim McDermott & Lee Simpson's celebrated Improbable Theatre, the makers of Shockheaded Peter’. He played the title role in 'The Hanging Man', in their 2006 revival for the main theatre space at the Sydney Opera House. The following year, Gerrard returned to Adelaide again to play Goldberg in Pinter's The Birthday Party for new company The Flying Penguins, directed by David Mealor, previously one of the founders of Brink, and a member of the Australian cast contingent for The Ecstatic Bible.
Copyright 2016 © Gerrard McArthur | website by