“An intense, moving piece of theatre.” The Weekend Australian
The company’s production of A Beautiful Life marked a watershed in its history, since it was a coming-of-age project for its writers, and brought an important document into the canon of Australian works examining the refugee experience. An Iranian musician, Mohammed (Cieavash) Arean, playing in the ensemble for The King and the Corspe!, felt moved to tell us – as we “bumped out” of the Botanical Gardens late at night – that he had a story to tell of his escape from the regime in his homeland.
To our surprise he felt that Matrix was the right crucible in which to develop it for performance. As the founders of the company, we were honoured to sit, night after night, and listen to Cia’s account, embellished with fascinating detail by his wife and children, as we prepared to write the play of his life. We felt responsible for the family’s voice in their new land, and, for the first time wrote the piece with minimal use of the ensemble improvisation techniques of our previous work.
Three actors explored the early material in a church hall, some way into the process, and our dream of a naturalistic portrayal, married to high theatricality, began to come true. The dramaturgy of playwright Janis Balodis provided not only his crucial advice about plot, character and dialogue, but also the foundations of a professional and private association which has catapulted our work to a higher level, and enhanced our lives. Project funding by Arts Queensland and the Australia Council, as well as support by co-producers La Boite Theatre Company, and the Brisbane Festival ensured the project would be presented on the main stage in Brisbane.
A magnificent cast, led by Eugene Gilfedder, made a deep commitment to the play and its characters, and Cia himself, along with Francis Gilfedder and Roland Adeney provided the live soundtrack each night. The production became one of the hits of the festival, and audiences were moved emotionally and ideologically by a piece which challenged Australia’s traditional views of refugees, an oppressive foreign regime and of freedom itself.
In 2000, Performing Lines toured the production to Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Regional NSW and Brisbane, and the show was recorded for ABC Radio. It received four Green Room Awards, plus two nominations, a Matilda Award and was nominated for an AWGIE Award and short-listed for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. A Beautiful Life, published by Currency Press, is studied widely in schools and universities throughout Australia, so that Cia’s story continues to resound.
A Beautiful Life was first performed by Matrix Theatre in co-production with The Brisbane Festival and La Boite Theatre, with funding by Arts Queensland and the Australia Council, at La Boite Theatre, Hale St, Brisbane, 27th August – 12th September 1998.
CAST
Sandro Colarelli – Masud/Reza/John
Russell Dykstra – Ahmad
Eugene Gilfedder – Hamid
Caroline Kennison – Stephanie/Neda
Joss McWilliam – Brendan
Errol O’Neill – Kamran/Father
Yalin Ozucelik – Amir
Angelina Quick – Jhila
MUSICIANS
Roland Adeney
Cieavash Arean
Francis Gilfedder
WRITERS
Michael Futcher and Helen Howard
DIRECTOR
Michael Futcher
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Helen Howard
DRAMATURG
Janis Balodis
DESIGNER
Bill Haycock
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Matt Scott
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR
Katy Wild
STAGE MANAGER
Nicole Lauder
ASM
Gemma Sharwood
REHEARSAL VIDEO
John Futcher
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Melanie Gray, Rob Maccoll
A Beautiful Life toured nationally in 2000, by Matrix Theatre and Performing Lines to the following venues:
Beckett Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne: July 5th- 15th, 2000
The Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart: July 18th – 22nd, 2000
The Civic Theatre, Wagga Wagga: July 26th – August 5th, 2000
Griffith Regional Theatre, Griffith: August 1st, 2000
The Performance Space, Sydney: August 9th – 19th, 2000
Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane: August 22nd – 27th, 2000
CAST
Sandro Colarelli – Masud/Reza/John
Damien Garvey – Ahmad
Eugene Gilfedder – Hamid
Caroline Kennison – Stephanie/Neda
Joss McWilliam – Brendan
Errol O’Neill – Kamran/Father
Yalin Ozucelik – Amir
Doris Younane – Jhila
MUSICIANS
Roland Adeney
Cieavash Arean
Francis Gilfedder
Ben Kashi
Gabriel Monson
DIRECTOR
Michael Futcher
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Helen Howard
TOUR DIRECTOR
Walter Van Nieuwkuyk
TOUR PRODUCER
Wendy Blacklock
DESIGNER
Bill Haycock
ASSISTANT SET DESIGNER
Alison Ross
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Matt Scott
STAGE MANAGER
Theresa Cumming
PHOTOGRAPHER
Geoff Busby
Michael Futcher brilliantly directs a dream cast… it is a vital, angry and dynamic play.”
– The Australian
Every now and then a play comes along that moves the world a little with its gentle beauty and searing truth. A Beautiful Life is such a play…a brilliantly staged theatrical masterpiece…one of the best local plays I have seen in twenty years…it will make you shudder and rejoice in the same breath.”
– The Courier Mail
Futcher and Howard weave past and present through the narrative. It is a joy to watch the stage world transformed by actors with few props and technology… Good theatre moves, transforms and transports an audience. A Beautiful Life does all this, forcing us to assess our views, question our society and shift uncomfortably in our seats.”
– Herald Sun
Provocative and consistently forceful in its searing examination of the price of freedom…A Beautiful Life has the kind of propulsive pacing sought by many directors but achieved by few…a beautiful piece of theatre.”
– The Daily Advertiser, Wagga.
This is powerful, moving, superbly performed theatre with the kind of social and political boldness that doesn’t let the good liberal excuse him/herself…writers/directors Futcher and Howard must be commended for developing this fascinating script…this production proves stage is far better than news for truth.”
– City Hub, Sydney
Theatre to treasure…a taut, often unbearably tense 150 minutes punctuated by flashes of humour.”
– The Sunday Mail, Brisbane
Richly rewarding theatre, directed with energy and discernment by its co-writer Michael Futcher…a dynamic play that eyeballs its audience challenging them to look again at cliched responses to oppression in faraway places and near.”
– The Mercury, Hobart
Futcher and Howard’s A Beautiful Life is at once personal and political – a forcefully impressionistic work that ultimately pleads justice…it affords rare and precious insights into contrasting cultural rituals, systems of justice and the kind of oppression Australians are never likely to experience…comprises a number of simple, inventive and brilliantly effective scenes which linger in the mind.”
– Sydney Morning Herald
A Beautiful Life is a powerful piece of theatre that should be compulsory for all Australians…the true story it tells is fascinating and the way it interprets that narrative, theatrically, is very original and effective.” – REVOLVER