The other place
'Your suicide robbed the world of one of its most promising directors'
– Betty Burstall
About this video
This moving and original play by Christopher Bryant is based on the lives of two influential women of theatre – Australia's Betty Burstall and Britain's Buzz Goodbody.
Christopher Bryant was awarded the inaugural Russell Beedles Performing Arts Fellowship in 2015. His play explores the ways Burstall's and Goodbody's lives were mirrored in the theatre they produced, the roads they paved and the lives they changed, even in death.
Accompanied by simple offstage directions, this reading of The Other place incorporates Betty Burstall's letters to her husband, along with the Library's numerous texts on feminism, theatrical style and philosophy.
Performed by Kathy Schoenjahn and Trelawney Edgar, The other place was presented in Queen's Hall on 3 June 2016.
About Christopher Bryant
Christopher Bryant is a Griffin Award-nominated playwright (Home invasion, 2015) and NIDA graduate (Master of Fine Arts, Writing for Performance, 2014), who has worked with a range of companies including Malthouse Theatre, MKA, ATYP, Apocalypse Theatre, La Mama, ACPA and Monash University. In early 2016 his play Intoxication played to sold-out audiences at the La Mama Courthouse in the Midsumma Festival.
Speakers
Playing Betty Burstall, Kathy Schoenjahn is a graduate of the Howard Fine Acting Studio. Her theatre credits include Cordelia (King Lear), Evelyn (Eulogy, Adelaide Fringe Festival), Juliet and Francisca (Measure for Measure, Melbourne Fringe Festival) and Ophelia (Hamlet).
Playing Buzz Goodbody, Trelawney Edgar is a multidisciplinary theatre-maker who cut her teeth performing, designing and directing with Monash University Student Theatre, and is a member of independent theatre company Before Shot.
