Fighting against happily ever after

Acclaimed Austrian playwright Elfriede Jelinek’s work would be unfamiliar to most Australians — something Andre Bastian is on a mission to change.

Bastian, a Spanish-born, German-trained theatremaker who’s settled in Melbourne in recent years, is directing three of Jelinek’s short works (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Jackie) for Red Stitch this month, with the three short plays showing together under the collective title Princess Dramas.

“When I first came to Australia, I was surprised that nobody really knew Jelinek here, even after her Nobel Prize win [in 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature],” Bastian said.

“Her plays have been so widely staged in Germany and around Europe, and there have been quite a few beautiful, iconic stagings of her work that have been done in the past 15-20 years.

“I thought it would be a nice challenge to find new theatrical strategies to recover her work for Australia and for the English-speaking world.”
And that’s exactly what he’s doing, having embarked upon a PhD at Monash University on the topic. But what is it about Jelinek’s work that’s turned Bastian into such a passionate advocate?

“There’s a certain density and complexity to Jelinek’s texts — every line has hidden meanings and connotations, which makes it very tough for actors to learn and perform,” he said.

“And she’s written a lot on the weak members of our society. She started writing in the ’60s and ’70s, when the whole issue of feminism was growing all over the world, and she wrote about the oppression of women. But she never tells you in her work how things should be or how you should think.”

Princess Dramas sees Jelinek exploring the stereotypical notion of the princess, and how such a deeply ingrained idea can still constrain women today. It’s about ‘the difficulty of self-­realisation in a world where women are painted over with stereotypical images’, and challenges women to break free of the stereotypes that render them helpless and (quite literally, in the case of Sleeping Beauty), unconscious.

Given the fairy tale setting, Bastian said he had ensured “a very colourful, playful stage design with gorgeous costumes. It won’t be static figures throwing text at the audience — it’ll be a funny, playful ride through a lot of different styles”.

Bastian has also organised a public forum on all things Jelenik for Saturday, June 11, where Australian and international experts will present short papers on the author and her work.

He said he hoped it would provide an ‘in’ for audiences whose interest has been piqued.

“As her writing is so particular, and she’s not known in Australia, I wanted to provide one afternoon where you can get some background information. The experts will give talks that aren’t just aimed at specialists, but also general theatregoers who want to learn more about her work.”

info: www.redstitch.net Princess Dramas is at Red Stitch June 10 – July 2.