News

8/12/07 White Whale Enjoys Silly Season

White Whale Theatre will be taking a small hiatus from the creation of theatrical mayhem to sacrifice themselves on the altar of family.

Next year will see a whole range of new shows spew forth from the chasmous throat of the Whale: check this website regularly for updates.

18/11/07 Melburnalia Closes

Melburnalia, White Whale's most successful Melbourne season to date, closed yesterday.

Reviews from both and public applauded the sell-out show's depiction of Melbourne and it's bringing together of local writers.

With all but three nights officially sold out, Melburnalia stands as one of White Whale's most successful offerings to date, achieved with no small thanks to the cast, crew, and supporters who got behind the whale's push to make it happen.

The show highlights five different suburbs of Melbourne and five different styles of writing, featuring St Kilda prostitutes, Ringwood criminals, and Footscray's Asian community. But often these stereotypes are addressed in a way that's unexpected, even shocking.

Reviews, press and other details can be found here.

1/11/07 Melburnalia Opens

Melburnalia opened to a spectacular reception at fortyfivedownstairs last night.

The show, written by five of Melbourne's most talented playwrights and directed by our own David Mence, was well patronised by those curious to have a look at White Whale Theatre's latest offering.

Melburnalia has been creating a storm in the press, with a feature article in Friday's EG section of The Age Newspaper and various articles and listings, with more to come.

The show highlights five different suburbs of Melbourne and five different styles of writing, featuring St Kilda prostitutes, Ringwood criminals, and Footscray's Asian community. But often these stereotypes are addressed in a way that's unexpected, even shocking.

This is particularly the case with Lally Katz's piece 'The Fag from Zagreb', which addresses the conservative suburb of Kew through the eyes of a gay Schoolboy and an Apocolypse Bear. It must be seen to be believed!

More details can be found here.

1/11/07 Melburnalia Writer's Forum Announced

White Whale Theatre is proud to announce an afternoon discussion with Melburnalia writers Lally Katz, Ross Mueller, Tee O’Neill and Alice Pung.

Hosted by acclaimed poet and playwright Alison Croggon, the focus of the discussion will be writing to space, under the topic ‘Words in Space: Writing Narratives of Place and Locality’.

This Special Event is hosted by White Whale Theatre and fortyfivedownstairs, and provides a unique opportunity to engage with some of Melbourne's most talented young writers.

More details can be found here.

8/10/07 Convict 002 Closes at Melbourne Fringe

Convict 002 gave its final cry for rum last night, ending an acclaimed 13 show run.

The play saw a healthy audience turn out for White Whale's first venture since the world-wide smash hit Macbeth ReArisen.

They saw a host of gruelling convicts do battle with the hard, stone-faced red-coats, who abused their authority.

The show was also lauded for its depiction of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and their connection with colonial Australia - stripped of their rights as citizens.

28/9/07 Convict 002 Opens at Melbourne Fringe

Convict 002, the dark rewriting of Marcus Clarke's classic Australian novel For the Term of His Natural Life opened to a huge audience at the Northcote Town Hall on Wednesday night.

The play, written and directed by our own David Mence and starring an ensemble cast of nine, tracks the fate of convict Rufus Dawes as he grapples with incarceration for a crime he didn't commit.

Bookings can be made via the Melbourne Fringe Web site or through Fringe Ticketing on 03 8412 8777.

For more info, check out the Convict Page here.

26/7/07 Convict 002 and Melburnalia

White Whale are working hard on our two upcoming shows. The first is Convict 002, a dark rewriting of Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life, which will be on at the Northcote Town Hall in the Melbourne Fringe (September). I have finished the script (no, really, I have) and we are about to audition and begin rehearsals. Our second show for 07 is Melburnalia, featuring five new short pieces by Melburnians: Ross Mueller, Lally Katz, Tee O'Neill, Kate Holden and Alice Pung. We are SO excited about this show (holding back on the exclamation marks) and very pleased to announce it will be staged at FortyFiveDOwnstairs in late October / early November. More to follow, Cheers! Dave

16/5/07 White Whale Full-Steam Ahead

White Whale Theatre is exited to announce that it has appointed a new Board of Managers. We welcome to the company:

to join us:

We are raising funds and programming for the next 2 years of coming theatre.

In other new: we have upcoming seasons of two new shows, Melburnalia, and For the Term of His Natural Life planned before the year is out.

We also will have a new website and, something that I'm really keen on, a monthly series of play-readings coming up!

See y'all in the belly of the whale,

Dave