APA takes out major titles at One Act Play Festival

AWARD-WINNING theatre company Anglesea Performing Arts (APA) used the stage as a catalyst for discussion at the weekend’s One Act Play Festival.

Winning Best Production, Best Original Script (Jules Allen) and Best Supporting Female Actor (Stacey Carmichael) for its play Slipped Through The Cracks, APA is thrilled to announce this season’s body of works.

Celebrated director Iris-Walshe-Howling, who won Best Director for both of this season’s productions, presented The Blood Cries Out Of The Soil – a compilation narrative inspired by Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children.

Churchill’s acclaimed albeit controversial short play was written in response to the war between Israel and Gaza (2008-09).

Presenting a timeline of events, APA’s The Blood Cries Out Of The Soil thoughtfully examines how despite society’s progression in both a macro and micro context, mistakes centring war, peace and indifference are often repeated. It also features poems by Israeli children in 1947 and 1974 from The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive.

“It’s a really powerful little piece,” Iris said.

“We’ve actually included three (local) school children because we wanted to have a young voice.”

Presented alongside Jules Allen’s debut play (Slipped Through The Cracks), Iris said it was important to create a secondary story that explored similar notions surrounding trauma and inner-turmoil.

“It was a matter of finding something that was going to have an emotional impact so that people can go away feeling confronted,” she said.

“I think it’s necessary that people are actually talking about the things that are concerning us as a race on this planet.

“It’s really quite a haunting message, but it also has an uplifting and hopeful quality to it with the inclusion of young people.”

Iris, who co-directed The Hope Song for which she was awarded Best Director, said APA was a company driven by its capacity to tackle societal issues in a theatrical and literal sense.

“We are the kind of company that’s concerned about social issues, social justice, and things that are happening on the edge,” Iris said.

Catch The Blood Cries Out Of The Soil (performed by Lina Libroaperto, Nikki Watson, Janine McKenzie, Maggie Evans and Sam Amisse) on August 23, 24, 30 and 31 at Anglesea Memorial Hall (1B McMillan St, Anglesea).

For more information and for tickets, head to angleseaperformers.org.au or trybooking.com/BEACK.