On the horizon in 2011

We're thrilled to share what's on the horizon with you!

In 2011 we've got two world premieres: an Adelaide Fringe season of Sean Riley's cross-continental Skip Miller's Hit Songs in February/March, and Nicki Bloom's kaleidoscopic Land & Sea in November. Tickets are on sale through BASS right now - go get 'em!

Would you like us to mail you a freshly printed copy of the brochure? Email your details to info[at]brinkproductions[dot]com to be added to our mailing list.

PS Our new website is almost ready! Stay tuned...

It's been a wild but wonderful ride!

Brink Bits spoke with Kay Jamieson, the Producer of Brink's Harbinger by Matthew Whittet, on the day of the closing performance....

Photo: Chris Herzfeld

Harbinger has been an amazing journey and a fun experience for me personally - and a hugely artistic success for Brink. There is strong interest from several interstate presenters and there is even the possibility of a Scandinavian season! Bring it on!

It has come from a delightfully eccentric, fantasy-fuelled and music-obsessed writer/actor, three sensational performers and a fabulous creative and production team - all of whom collaborated to give birth to what has been most recently described as the 'darkly enjoyable' Harbinger.

It is a unique theatrical experience - in its ambiguity, its daggy humour, its dark undertones, its simple staging, its crazy fantastical ride - one in which the audience becomes totally complicit.

Photo: Chris Herzfeld

It's different. It's unexpected. It's moving. It's very funny. It's not neat and tidy. Indeed it goes for the jug(ular)! But only those who have seen the show will understand and enjoy that joke! Others may take its literal meaning and fear being disturbed. Indeed I was amused to hear recently that a friend of mine tried to get a group together to see the show - a group who attend theatre regularly - but they 'didn't want to be disturbed!' Harbinger isn't predictable and it doesn't tie things up neatly at the end. It doesn't give you answers. It leaves you thinking...

We always knew that Harbinger would appeal to Gen X and Gen Y and the 'next' generation, whatever you are called! What has been fantastic for Brink is to receive countless emails and phone-calls - and posts and tweets and comments - from the young AND the elderly (pardon the parody!) who have so completely engaged with Harbinger - some of whom have come back twice and brought more of their young-at-heart 70 y/o friends. They had the courage to go on Maddy's adventure, just went with it, accepted that the play throws up many possibilities and is deliberately ambiguous and unsettling. But also exceptionally entertaining. We made a word cloud from the myriad responses.

Countless people are telling us their differing interpretations have resulted in stimulating and endless post-show analysis, not just hours but for days after, and that the experience has stayed with them long after the play has ended.

As a theatre company what more could we ask?!

Photo: Chris Herzfeld

All's well that ends well

A typographical error in the opening night invite for Harbinger led to one hapless Mr D passing on RSVPs to Brink that were left on his answer machine! To say thank you for his understanding and co-operation and by way of apology for the inconvenience to him Brink offered him tix to see the show. Today he wrote:

I am very pleased to have seen the play, which I enjoyed enormously. I don't go to the theatre as much as I would like - there is something intrinsically exciting about the whole process. Harbinger was thrilling because it broke so many conventions, though I admit to getting a bit lost at the end. The actors were all brilliant, and the stage craft I hardly noticed, it all worked so well.

We will all be telling people about it for quite a while - you deserve a big success with this!

After the show the four of us enjoyed a debrief downstairs. It's a beautiful venue, so all in all we had a lovely night. Thank you for that...

Urban(e) artists. CAPTION THIS PHOTO!

Brink Bits caught a theatre director and three actors moonlighting as urban(e) artists instead of doing their day job. Maybe it's because their day job means being in the dark a lot?!

Brink Bits wonders what they were talking about.   As a follower of our blog, suggest a caption. Amaze us!

The most outrageously funny one received by Brink, via any electronic means, before opening night of Harbinger (Tue 31), will win 'something'. The Brink judges' decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into - but know that chocolate holds great sway at Brink....

Winner notified and announced on Wed 1 Sept. 

Photo: Chris Herzfeld

Production Week is here!

L to R: Francoise Piron, Melanie Selwood, Michele Chigwidden
(Photo: Chris Herzfedl)

Melanie Selwood is the Stage Manager of Harbinger. She gave Brink Bits an iPhone glimpse backstage! The company has just moved into the Space Theatre.
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PRODUCTION WEEK IS HERE! As a stage manager, this is my favourite part of the process. We start to see all the elements coming together. As I write, the set is being built in the theatre, we are creating 120 sound cues and, later today, we’ll start plotting our lighting cues. Tomorrow we will begin to see the show as a whole - lights, sound, costumes and actors. We’ll go through the play and put it all together Q by Q. By Thursday we should be able to see the entire show for the first time and hope to be ready for our first preview audience on Friday.

It is really fascinating to see the many hours spent in rehearsals coming together with all the technical elements.Production week is certainly a manic time, with everyone working long days and nights, but once the adrenalin starts pumping, it can be very exciting. Back to plotting the sound Qs.....!

The long and the short of Harbinger

Confidentially speaking Brink Bits is wondering the lengths Yael and Nathan (playing Maddy and Chris respectively) will go to to get it off onstage, so to speak!

Photo: Chris Herzfeld

FF = Filmclip Friday!

In a twist on 'Follow Friday', we've decided that a 'Filmclip Friday' is in order! Playwright Matthew Whittet shared with us five songs that inspired him to write Harbinger for Brink Productions. Here on Brink Bits we share his thoughts along with clips of the songs. Get your air guitars ready...

Matthew wrote...
Some of the first thoughts I had about Harbinger were pretty basic and amorphous. I knew I wanted to write something about a guy and a girl who knew nothing about each other. I knew I wanted the story to take place over a single night. And I also knew there was a feeling I got from 2 pieces of music in particular that I wanted to translate in some way into the play. That the play would start with the feeling of early 1970's David Bowie, and somehow through the story of this one night lead these 2 characters to something that felt like Joy Division. Not that necessarily any music from either of them would appear in the finished product (maybe...) but that these artists inspired a feeling that hopefully is in the finished product. When I write I like to listen to a lot of music that is particular to the feeling of what I'm trying to write. Here's five songs that I had on high rotation while I was writing Harbinger.

1) Oh! You Pretty Things- David Bowie
Such a great, catchy early Bowie song from the album Hunky Dory. Really jangly, in a cool way. About "nightmares coming to stay", and all the young pretty things driving their parents insane. Very apt.



2) Cygnet Committee- David Bowie
Even earlier Bowie. A shimmering, epic 9 minute song. A bit psychedelic, but really passionate. Full of the frustration of youth, but also a bit of a manifesto about the world a young Bowie would want to live. "I want to believe in the madness that calls now". What a great line.



3) Shadowplay- Joy Division
So stark, with an incredible rawness and power. Something about this song feels so honest. In the same way that the Bowie songs dream of a magnificent future, this song feels like the reality of that future.



4) The Young Thousands- The Mountain Goats
One of my favorite songs. Has got this incredible drive for an acoustic song. Another fevered dream from a young mind of what the world could be. Has a great line, "the things that you've got coming will do things that you’re afraid to. There is someone waiting out there with a mouth full of surprises".



5) Ready, Able- Grizzly Bear
I could almost list any song from their album Veckatimest. It's simple and complex, and very beautiful. Almost glitteringly beautiful. I would listen to this constantly as I was thinking about the play, dreaming up what sort of delicate things would reside in the hearts of the 2 main characters Maddy and Chris. Of the things that dwelt deep within them, but they couldn't yet put into words.

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