For the second year in succession, Scene Theatre Sydney (STS) has presented its Worlds Alive play festival. This year the festival included two plays, in full, and extracts from three other plays.
Highly experienced director Elaine Hudson production went well with the talented cast of eight – Alan Faulkner, Christopher Brown, Tiang Lim, Seth Eren, Micah Doughty, Madison Chippendale, Paul Williamson and Ruba el-Kaddoumi– bringing these fine plays vividly to life. They performed the scripts as well staged dramatic moved readings.
South African playwright John Kani‘s KUNENE AND THE KING poignantly brought together a highly renowned actor who only has months to live, and is determined to ‘go out’ playing one of the greatest roles, King Lear, and a younger man, a former black activist, who has been assigned to be his carer till his exit. The men reflect on their very different paths and their hope for true reconciliation.
Philippino playwright Floy Quintas‘ play AN EVENING AT THE OPERA was set in the dressing room of a rural theatre away from the glittering lights of Manilla. Miranda, the wife of a powerful governor, is doing herself up in front of the mirror whilst, behind, her dead mother counsels her about her unhappy marriage. Part of Miranda wants to leave the marriage. Then the other part knows how well off she is in her marriage. The juxtaposition of Miranda and the Governor going to an opulent European opera whilst much of the country lives in poverty.
The three remaining performances were extracts taken from the plays. Brazilian playwright Roberto Athayde’s play MISS MARGARIDA’S WAY was written in 1971 at the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship. Miss Margrida is an eccentric and increasingly tyrannical schoolteacher. The fourth wall is broken and we the audience become her reluctant and bullied students, and, in a metaphorical way, feel what it is like to live under authoritarian rule.
Korean playwright Sue Ja Joo’s play NIGHT PICTURE OF RAIN SOUND was a surrealistic exploration of the boundaries between reality and imagination. A reader enters a dialogue with a character from a play, in this case Juliet.
The final play of the night was Indonesian playwright W. Rendra‘s THE STRUGGLE OF THE NAGA TRIBE. Rendra’s piece satirises a government which wants to evict the indigenous Naga Tribe from some of their land so that mining can take place.
The night went well and the audience were generous in their applause. This applause was well deserved. Well done Scene Theatre Sydney. I can’t remember the last time when I saw a play from South Africa, the Philippines, Brazil, Korea or Indonesia. We need more of these plays.
Scene Theatre Sydney’s production WORLDS ALIVE 2026 played the Sydney Philharmonia Choir rehearsal performance space, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct on Friday March 13 and Saturday March 14 2o26.
