Resource |
Text: Article
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Title |
Woman as subject: Critical perspectives of Australian commercially successful plays with leading roles for female actresses |
Creator Contributors |
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Abstract/Description |
In The Doll's Revolution: Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination (2005), Rachel Fensham and Denise Varney call for an evaluation of present and future representations of female subjects in mainstream Australian plays. As their study shows, female-centric narratives have historically been under-represented in the Australian theatrical canon. Addressing Fensham and Varney's provocation, this article examines three of the most commercially successful original Australian plays featuring female protagonists produced between 2006 and 2017. Here we discuss the representation of female protagonists and the actresses who have played them. We engage with critical reviews of the plays in order to gauge how the protagonist is perceived more widely, and analyse the descriptors of the characters used. By posing preliminary questions about the dearth of female leading roles for Australian actresses in mainstream Australian plays, we call for a renewed scholarly critique of mainstage programming, questioning who these stories belong to and from whose perspective they are being told. |
Subjects |
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Related Resources |
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Source |
Australasian Drama Studies, ADSA, VIC
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Issue |
75
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Page |
13-45
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Date Issued |
December 2019
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Language |
English
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Citation |
Caroline Heim, Margaret Haining, Woman as subject: Critical perspectives of Australian commercially successful plays with leading roles for female actresses, Australasian Drama Studies, 75, December 2019, 13-45
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Resource Identifier |
69323
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