Sixteen Words for Water - Garrick WA

 PRODUCTION
March, 2010
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April, 2010
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Venue:
Garrick Theatre Club

Sixteen Words for Water - Garrick WA

Billy Marshall Stoneking

Jeff Watkins

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (October 30, 1885 – November 1, 1972) was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century. He is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry.

He disapproved of American involvement in [WWII] and tried to use his scant political contacts in Washington D.C. to prevent it. When Pound spoke on Italian radio, he gave a series of talks on political and cultural matters, art and patronage and economic theories. Pound believed that economics was the core issue for the cause of World War II.

Specifically, his talks were largely about usury and the notion that representative democracy has been usurped by bankers' infiltration of governments through the existence of central banks, which made governments pay interest to private banks for the use of their own money. He maintained that the central bank's ability to create money out of thin air allowed banking interests to buy up American and British media outlets to sway opinion in favour of the war and the banks. Pound believed that economic freedom was a prerequisite for a free country.

Inevitably, he touched on various sensitive political matters in his denunciations of the war. In addition, various of his comments were considered anti-semitic. Pound was indicted for treason by the United States government in 1943. On May 3, 1945, as Mussolini's puppet regime tumbled, Pound was arrested by partisans. At his request, he was then brought to the U.S. He was found incompetent to face trial by a special federal jury and sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 12 years from 1946 to 1958.

The play deals with the events around his release from St. Elizabeths Hospital.


8pm

10.30pm

Swan Valley Visitors Centre

9379 9400

$16 Adult, $14 Concession, $12 Child or Member

16 Meadow Street, Guildford, WA

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"Bird in cage does not sing."
Author: Brodie Lane (not verified)
Date: 08/03/2010 - 06:20

In 1943, the American poet, Ezra Pound, was indicted by the United States government on the charge of treason. It was alleged that Pound, an American citizen, had made anti-American broadcasts over Italian radio during wartime, and that these same broadcasts had given "aid and comfort" to the enemy. By war's end Pound found himself in the custody of U.S. marshals.

Mindful of the political hysteria of the times, and fearing for Pound's life, his wife, friends and colleagues, urged him to enter a plea of insanity as a means of escaping trial and the possibility of a death penalty. This he did, and the court subsequently upheld the plea. However, instead of releasing him into the care of his wife as had been expected, the government chose to confine him at St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., an institution that housed hundreds of the criminally insane. Pound - "one of the great literary figures of our time" - would remain incarcerated at St Elizabeth’s for nearly thirteen years.

Sixteen Words for Water takes up Pound's life in the final days of his "imprisonment", when the balance between life and death had reached its most critical point. The Ezra Pound of the present play must choose between sanity and the possibility of the electric chair, or insanity and the surety of safety at the expense of freedom. In the midst of this, he finds himself invaded by strange thoughts - memories of the ancient Aboriginal myth of the Wandjina... the creative spirits of the Dreamtime who fashioned the world out of words and who, in the act of naming, threatened the world with chaos.


Pound for Pound one of the best
Author: Billy (not verified)
Date: 08/03/2010 - 06:24

Ezra Pound was an irascible old fascist who was probably the most famous person to be indicted for treason in America during World War II. He was also one of the century's greatest poets, often mentioned in dispatches with the likes of T.S. Eliot, Yeats and James Joyce.

Billy Marshall Stoneking's play, Sixteen Words for Water, is set in St Elizabeth's Hospital for the Insane in Washington, where Pound was effectively incarcerated after the war. An adept bureaucratic application of the Catch 22 principle kept him locked up for 13 years without the benefit of a trial or the unseemly publicity that might have gone with it.

Marshall Stoneking's script is a tour de force. It is dense, evocative and loaded with more intellectual argument than a busload of rabbis. Pound attacks almost every shibboleth of modern social engineering with the pronounced vigour of fanaticism and displays all the aspects of his deranged and ugly anti-semitism.

Simon Chilvers' bravura performance as Pound creates an image of a mighty mad old man who is a cross between a modern-day King Lear and William Blake.

Despite the tension and the seriousness of many of the themes, there is wit aplenty, with more one-liners than the phone book.

Beautifully produced, it will repay more than one viewing or hearing.

- MARIUS WEBB
Sydney Morning Herald


Marius Webb review 16 Words for Water
Author: Lisa Skryp
Date: 08/03/2010 - 11:17
Lisa Skryp's picture

Is this review of a recent production? I just did a quick Google, & did not find anything further.

I'm in rehearsals for 16W4W at present and am finding Marshall Stoneking's script fascinating to work on. I hope we are able to do it justice - feels like we're off to a good start, knock wood...


Author's Site
Author: Labrug
Date: 08/03/2010 - 11:19
Labrug's picture

The Review is from the Author's Site... http://stonekingpages.webs.com/sixteenwordsforwater.htm

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


found it shortly thereafter
Author: Lisa Skryp
Date: 08/03/2010 - 11:27
Lisa Skryp's picture

yes, I re-Googled, including the name Ezra, & got past all the boxing references to the author's site. Lots of interesting stuff there, including a lovely poster!


Notice
Author: Labrug
Date: 25/03/2010 - 09:41
Labrug's picture

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Opening night of Friday the 26th has been cancelled. The show will now open on the 27th.

There are tickets still available for this well written, challenging and very entertaining production.

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


The show will NOT open on
Author: Rachel Anderson (not verified)
Date: 25/03/2010 - 09:52

The show will NOT open on the 27th???


Good Catch
Author: Labrug
Date: 25/03/2010 - 10:21
Labrug's picture

Thanks for the catch. Comment edited to reflect reality. Eye-wink

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


"now"
Author: Lisa Skryp
Date: 25/03/2010 - 10:10
Lisa Skryp's picture

I think Jeff's tired typing fingers meant to say: "The show will now open on the 27th."


Freudian Fingers
Author: Labrug
Date: 25/03/2010 - 10:22
Labrug's picture

Don't you just hate it when your fingers have different thoughts than the rest of you?

"W" is no-where near "T" - Freudian "Slip"?

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


BOOKING OFFICE DOESN"T KNOW!!
Author: Bass Guy
Date: 25/03/2010 - 10:34
Bass Guy's picture

You'd better let the Swan Valley Tourist guys know "tout suite"- they're in the dark about this. I've just told them myself based on the info on this site.

Bummer- I will rebook for another night. Is it a storm-related hassle?


Decision
Author: Labrug
Date: 25/03/2010 - 10:43
Labrug's picture

It was a decision that was reached last night (based on a number of issues) between the cast, myself and two Garrick Committee Reps including the President. The Swan Valley Visitors centre will be notified if not already and those whom have already made bookings will be given the opportunity to change their booking.

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


Sample Image
Author: Labrug
Date: 28/03/2010 - 17:21
Labrug's picture

 Sixteen Words for Water

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer
Community Spirit


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Garrick Theatre Club
The Garrick Theatre was founded on the 13th May 1932 and is the longest continual running amateur theatre group in metropolitan WA. Garrick Theatre was named after the famous English actor and dramatist, David Garrick.


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