Past Programs
History - 2008
Portraits of Modern Evil
31/08/2008
Why do ordinary people do horrific things? This is the underlying question posed in a new surreal play called Portraits of Modern Evil, by Robert Reid.
It's based on the true story of Melbourne's brown-out strangler. And in case you don't know, a brown-out is this: during the second world war, rather than a full blackout, Australian cities like Melbourne were subjected to brown-out conditions, where the lights were dimmed and car headlight covers had slits in them. This was both to conserve energy and to hide the city from night-time bombing raids. But because we weren't a major target, a full blackout wasn't considered necessary.
This play also features one of the great names of Australian painting, Albert Tucker. Indeed he's a major protagonist in the drama, and descriptions of his paintings become a recurring motif.
The Black Swan theatre company along with the HotBed Ensemble has taken on the challenge of this production. It's playing at PICA from 5 to 20 September.
