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 The
Melbourne Workers Theatre is one of this town’s great
successes. Not only has it nurtured talent […] it
has also expanded a long way from its origins. It is a tribute
to the strength of Melbourne’s theatrical tradition
that this company is thriving as it begins its 16th year.
Robin Usher, Arts Editor, The Age, 5 May
2002
With
a few notable exceptions, middle-class themes and middle-class
personnel dominate professional theatre in Australia. Melbourne
Workers Theatre (MWT), which celebrates its twentieth anniversary
in 2007, has redressed this imbalance by creating high quality
theatre that represents the lives of the most disadvantaged
members of our community. In short, the company has made a
major contribution to Australian theatre culture by giving
voice to marginalised Melburnians including people from impoverished
backgrounds, indigenous communities, various migrant groups
and persecuted minorities like asylum seekers.
Class
Act celebrates the Company’s artistic
achievements and successes over the last two decades through
interviews, essays and high quality images of key productions.
It recounts its history, its evolving relationship with the
embattled trade union movement, and its on-going engagement
with working class, indigenous and migrant communities.
Class
Act is more than a history of a theatre company.
It documents a particularly turbulent period in Melbourne’s
history that witnessed consistent attacks on trade unions,
asylum seekers, aboriginal and working class people by state
and federal governments, and the forces of globalisation.
In an era when the very concept of ‘class’ has
been discredited, Melbourne Workers Theatre remains committed
to principles of social justice and revels in using theatre
as a form of political activism and protest.
The
book contains new interviews with founding members of the
company and key artistic personnel, including Patricia Cornelius,
Irine Vella, Andrew Bovell, Andrea James, Julian Meyrick,
and Christos Tsiolkas. It also includes production images
drawn from the company’s extensive archives, and essays
that document the company’s history and analyse its
landmark productions such as Who’s Afraid
of the Working Class, Yanagai Yanagai,
and Tower of Light.
About the editor:
Glenn
D’Cruz is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Deakin University.
He has published widely in the areas of theatre and performance
studies. His academic work has appeared in prestigious national
and international journals, including Meanjin,
New Theatre Quarlerly, Modern
Drama, Life Writing,
The Journal of Intercultural Studies
and The Journal of Commonwealth Literature.
He is reviews editor for Australasian Drama
Studies, and the former chair of the MWT Committee
of Management. His book Midnight’s Orphans:
Anglo-Indians in Post/Colonial Literature
was published in 2006.
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