Steve Capelin is a writer, based in Brisbane Australia. His most recent publication, Paradiso A Novel, a work of historical fiction, tells the story of his Italian ancestors who arrived in Australia in 1881 after an ill-fated attempt to build a utopian colony in the jungles of New Guinea. This blog also contains stories about family, travel, quirky moments in life and refections on the world and its absurdities.
Tuesday 8 March 2016
Language in historical novels - Paradiso, Paradìxo, Paradise
Language in historical novels.
What possessed me to include Italian language dialogue in my novel? Authenticity? A fascination with language? Embedding the story in a culture other than my own?
All true and manageable until I realised that the characters would not have spoken Italian but Venetian in 1879/80. More to the point they would have spoken a regional dialect of Venetian. How was I to respond to that challenge?
Three ways
1. I discovered an Italian/Venetian/English dictionary on-line which I used to do a rough version.
2. I asked Claire Kennedy and the Brisbane Dante Alighieri Society for assistance.
3. I sent a call for help to Marina Battistuzzi in Orsago (my great g'mothers village) in Veneto, Italy (I first met Marina in 1988 - a remarkable tale of three meetings over 28 years). Marina informed me that Orsago and the surrounding villages speak a Trevigiano dialect (Treviso is the capital of this province) rather than a Venice based dialect. She offered to help.Today I received back six pages of translation and notes from her (I had sent her a cut and past version of all the Venetian passages in the novel - more than she expected I suspect).
There are some subtle differences: papa is Italian pupa is Trevigiano; thank-you is gràsie not grazie; Paradiso is Paradìxo etc Some words have clear roots common to English 'commode' is 'còmoda' for example and some words are spelt quite differently. Imbecile is 'inbezhilàt' in Trevigiano and 'imbecille' in Italian etc etc.I also discovered that the Italians and Venetians have a fabulous range of insults in their languages.
It has been a rewarding but tedious word by word process.
Tuesday 1 March 2016
Brisbane’s Radical Theatre History 1965-1985
In 2006 I was involved in a project with the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) where I was asked to develop material for the exhibition "Taking to the Streets - Two decades that changed Brisbane 1965-1985." I found this on my computer and as there is a growing interest in local arts history below are my notes from that time. Apologies for any omissions or inaccuracies. I acknowledge Deanna Borland-Sentinella for her work in helping compile this material.
Chronology of Brisbane’s Radical Theatre History 1965-1985
1967 Yeti Theatre group
formed from the Kedron State High past pupils association, with Paul Richards
as the driving force behind the collective, with other members including the
former Qld Premier Wayne Goss. The group
were not in theatre to be professionals, but rather to express themselves and
make social and political commentary.
University of
Queensland Architecture Student Revues, with involvement of William Yang, Ralph
Tyrrell, Max Bannah and others, were first performed at the Avalon Theatre, Sir
Fred Schonell Drive. They created original sketches that reflected suburban
life, content was comical, satirical and often political.
1968 Foco Club (1968/69) was a short lived but seminal initiative which brought political activists together with trade unionists and artists (musicians, theatre performers, visual artists...) to create a memorable period of political and cultural expression in this performance venue. Paralleling the turbulent student uprisings which erupted across the western world at this time it was subsequently dubbed 'Brisbane's 1968' by some. It was located on the third floor of the old Trades Hall (a magnificant building since demolished) at the corner of Turbot and Edward Street.
The alternative theatre collective group called "Tribe" performed fringe theatre at the Foco Club as an attempt to link student theatre to Trades Hall.
The alternative theatre collective group called "Tribe" performed fringe theatre at the Foco Club as an attempt to link student theatre to Trades Hall.
Doug Anders' production of Van
Italie's "Motel" (the last part of "America Hurrah") was
presented by Dramsoc, the UQ student drama group, in what was then the
relaxation block on the St Lucia campus (now where student support services
is). In "Motel" the word
"Fuck" was written on the motel wall - causing the police to move in
with the intention of arresting the actors but the audience through passive
resistance allowed them time to escape.
1969 Twelfth Night
Theatre at Gowrie Hall staged Norm and
Ahmed, a performance which had police dragging actor, Norman Staines off
the stage to arrest him for saying ‘Fuckin Boong’. “Boong” apparently was fine
with the arresting officers but “Fuckin” remained an intolerable public
obscenity.
1970 The Yeti Theatre
group moved into a house at 146 LaTrobe Tce, Paddington. The Aboriginal Tribal Council moved in next
door and the young indigenous kids started to do theatre with Paul Richards
about their own stories and suffering.
This prompted Paul Richards to work to establish the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1971.
As part of the
Architecture Reviews, a sketch called ‘Zelmo’ was developed around the then
vice-chancellor of UQ Zelman Cowen (who went on to become Govenor General of
Qld), which played on the Hollywood icon Zorro.
After seeing this performance Errol O’Neil produced a comic strip with
the same character of ‘Zelmo’ for almost three years for the student magazine
Semper.
1971
Queensland Theatre Company
staged the political theatre shows Oh
What a Lovely War (an anti-war satire developed by Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop company in the UK in 1963) and Legend of King
O’Malley by Australian playrights Michael Boddy and Bob Ellis.
Paul Richards
set up the Black Theatre for indigenous people and their stories, performed at
a church hall in Leichhart St, Spring Hill.
Ian Reece and
CAG (Children’s Activity Group – subsequently Hands on Art) began the earliest
form of community art in Brisbane when his band of artsworkers took to the
streets and parks to offer ‘art’ to everyone.
Many community arts activists were formed through their link to this work.
1972 The international rock musical “Hair” was performed at Her
Majesties Theatre after being refused by QPAC because of its nudity and
progressive ideas.
1973 Establishment of a
team who worked on the 1974 Queensland Festival of the Arts - a fringe arts
component of the highly commercialised Warana Festival. Lesley Gotto, invited
Albert Hunt out from the Bradford College of Art to assemble a team (including
Richard Fotheringham), which later became the Popular Theatre Troupe.
1974
The first Festival of the Arts
was held. Two plays written by Richard Fotheringham that commented on the
federal election, “Startrick” and for children “The Clean Air Factory,” were
performed as part of the event. There
was also an evening event held in King George Square with outdoor performances
of these shows and a guided tour of the then ASIO offices in the Commonwealth
Bank building opposite.
The Yeti Theatre
group was asked by the event organisers to do some kind of performance to
‘cause an interval’ for the rock concert of iconic early Brisbane band Railroad Gin at Mayne Hall,
UQ. The group staged a mock police scene
where they interrupted the concert to arrest planted actors in the audience without laying
any charges or giving their identity to see what people’s reactions would be. The incident made the newspapers reporting
that the Special Branch of the Qld
police had caused the disturbance and the actors never told the newspapers
otherwise!
1975
Popular Theatre Troupe became
formally established emerging from the Festival of the Arts initiative. In its first year the PTT performed the shows
Puny Little Life Show, Red Cross followed by The White Man’s Mission written by
Richard Fotheringham and Yorkshire writer/director Albert Hunt . The National
Times compared the show to the best work of the country’s leading alternative
theatre group, the Pram Factory,. In
this year the troupe received funding from the Community Arts and Theatre
Boards of Australia Council. Unlike
theatre groups from other states the PTT did not receive joint funding from State
Government. Far from supporting the troupe, the Qld Cabinet of the time (lead
by Joh Bjelke-Petersen) directed the Division of Cultural Activities to never
fund the group. The Queensland Police
Force, Special Branch, also kept surveillance on the activities of the company
and its members.
8 December 1975:
4ZZZ goes to air. Brings together an impresive array of creative artists and presenters including the individuals who later went on to form ToadShow, a company who produced a series of memorable musical political satires.
1976
During a La Boite Theatre
performance of Nick Enright’s production of Edward Bond’s Saved, about 150 people walked out during a violent scene in the
play in which a baby in a pram is stoned by a group of youths. The walkout was
led by a group of fifty Lions Club members who had a group booking for that
performance. The play set in London in the 1960s is about cultural poverty and
disenfranchised youth. Around this time La Boite earned a reputation for being
alternative, left-wing and, in theatre critic Katharine Brisbane’s words,
“the place to go to see the red meat of theatre”.
1977 La Boite Theatre’s
production of Happy Birthday East Timor was instigated by La Boite’s artistic
director Rick Billinghurst as a documentary theatre project. John O’Toole
co-scripted and co-directed Happy
Birthday East Timor with Richard Fotheringham, John Bradley and Lorna Bol.
Its dramatic content included a highly critical interpretation of Indonesia’s
recent invasion of East Timor plus television footage shot by the group of
Australian journalists who were later murdered.
1978 The Popular Theatre
Troupe found a permanent home in the hall attached to St Barnabas’ Church at 60
Waterworks Rd, Red Hill which became known as the Community Arts Centre. Prior to this the troupe had rehearsed at
various halls and stored sets, props and costumes across different member’s
homes.
1979 Happy Birthday East Timor was re-written
and developed by Richard Fotheringham and the PTT under the (ironic) title of
Viva Indonesia, a show which the PTT toured nationally.
1980 La Boite’s artistic
director Malcolm Blaylock favoured Australian plays with strong political
messages. Over a two year period productions such as Stephen Sewell’s Traitors, David Allen’s Dickinson, and Graznya Monvid’s The Enemy Within attracted the attention
of the Queensland Police Force Special Branch who attended performances but
took no action.
1981 Crook Shop by the Popular Theatre Troupe was banned and declared
unfit to tour government schools. The Queensland Education Department said it
“did not encourage respect for law and order”
Mad Hatters
(1981-1984) collective is formed by. John Haag, Peter Callinan, Mufrida Hayes, Janelle
Skinner, Chris Anderson, Michael Golick, Allison……). This collective of
musicians and theatre artists based themselves in Spring Hill and created street
theatre often focussed on environmental issues.
The core group also lived together and converted under their house into
a local cabaret and children’s activity venue.
The Queensland
Community Arts Network was founded and acted as an important
advocate for community arts.
1982
Street Arts Community Theatre
Company was formed by Pauline and Denis Peel, Steve Capelin and Andrea Lynch. The
company operated from 1982 - 1995 and was involved in 28 projects, including
short residencies, company shows, Theatre-in-Education pieces and large-scale
community productions. Political theatre for Street Arts was based on community
participation. They established a venue, The Paint Factory (1987-1991), in a warehouse at
Donkin Street West End. It hosted a diverse range of events including theatre,
music, circus, dance parties, benefit concerts and community events. It became
the defacto Community Centre for West End and attracted alternative arts
practitioners from across the city and from interstate.
Queensland’s
first Multicultural Fiesta was held in Musgrave Park, South Brisbane.
A second Popular
Theatre Troupe show, The State We’re In
(A Revue of the Commonwealth Games), was banned from government schools,
also for the reason that it “did not encourage respect for law and order”.
.
1983
The Popular Theatre Troupe lost
funding for this year and soldiered on with four shows: Limited Life written by Kerry O’Rourke, Wage Invaders, As The Crow
Flies written by Michael Cummings and Glenn Perry and There’s More to Life than Snogging Barry directed by Dee Martin and written by Hugh
Watson and cast. After trying to live off
door-takings for a year the troupe disbanded due to the lack of core funding
after producing 25 shows over their 10 years.
Queensland’s
first Community Circus Festival held in Musgrave Park as a culmination of
Street Arts’ inaugural community project, funded by the Community Arts Board of
the Australia Council. Emerging from
this was the Thrills’n’Spills Community Circus troupe, which lasted for 3 years
and devised 5 shows. This troupe finally transformed itself into the Rock N
Roll Circus Troupe in 1987.Its legacy lives on in the form of Brisbane based international touring circus company Circa.
Street Arts also ran a major project in Inala,
a Housing Commission suburb, called Inala
In Cabaret in this year. The project
included the community in the
development and performance of the work and, following a larger community
production, Once Upon Inala, staged in 1984 and follow-up work by members of
the company, a number of women from Inala founded Icy Tea (ICT – Inala
Community Theatre), a professional women’s Community Theatre Company.
Once Upon Inala
was embraced by the Australia Council’s Community Arts Board as a model of
community participation and was influential in shifting Community Theatre practitioners and Australia
Council funding guidelines in this direction.
Errol O’Neill’s new political work Faces in the Street directed by Andrew Ross (Artistic Director) at La Boite and commissioned by the Warana Festival, dramatised the Brisbane General Strike of 1912 and featured Matt Foley as Harry Coyne, MLA, leader of the strike committee.
1984 Her Majesty’s Theatre was demolished. The last show was a 4ZZZ promotion organised by David Pyle. It featured Norman Gunston and the Fabulous Dingo Family – a precursor to ToadShow bands.
1985 The Queensland
Performing Arts Complex, was officially opened by His Royal Highness, the Duke
of Kent in 1985.
Unemployed
People’s Umbrella (UP. U. 1985 - 1987). Ironically, in a very conservative
political environment a team of artists (Vicki Stark, Donna Graham, ………..)
was funded through the Arts Office within the Bjelke-Petersen
Government to work with a group of unemployed young people to produce a
performance to coincide with the opening of QPAC. The resulting show, “Crystal
Gutters” caused a degree of discomfort for the conservative politicians.
Order By
Numbers, a collective of theatre workers (many from the Popular Theatre
Troupe), founded by Dee Martin, Penny Glass, Gavan Fenelon and Nat Trimarchi staged
and toured three shows to the end of 1986: A
Few Short Wicks in Paradise, Tall
Tales From the Altered State and Casualties. The style was a cross between theatre and
political cabaret.
ToadShow’s The
Paisley Pirates of Penzance plays @ LaBoite Theatre in protest to (& at the
same time as) QPAC’s first musical theatre production Pirates of Penzance - an
interstate production. The ToadShow production satirised Queensland politics
with the Major-General played by Gerry Connolly in caricature as Joh
Bjelke-Petersen. The show also satirised corrupt Queensland police. The second production by Toadshow this year
was Conway Christ: Redneck Superstar @ LaBoite Theatre, a satirised story of
Jesus.
Acknowledgments:
Bannah, M. (2005) Personal contributions
Batchelor, D. ed. (1986) Twelfth Night The Morning After,
Boolarong Publications, p.21.
Capelin, S. (2005) Personal contributions
Capelin, S. ed. (1995) Challenging the Centre: Two Decades of Political Theatre, Playlab
Press: Brisbane.
Comans, C. (2005) Personal contributions on
LaBoite
Evans, R. and Ferrier, C. eds. (2004) Radical Brisbane: An Unruly History,
Vulgar Press: Victoria.
Fotheringham, R. (2005) Personal
contributions
Jones, A. (2005) Personal contributions on
ToadShow
O’Neil, E. (2005) Personal contributions
Richards, P. (2005) Personal contributions
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