Artistic Director Adriano Cortese +61 3 9537 1771
General Manager Alison Halit +61 (0)421 789 210
Unit 6, 76-80 Grey St., St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia 3183
company cv ranters@pacific.net.au
Holiday uses performance, baroque song, sound, and video installation to expose the hidden anxieties, private fantasies, boredom, personal mythologies, and the strange, inexplicable behaviour between two people trying to relax.
This Australian import is an extraordinary piece of theatre, a subsuming into another place that send the audience into the night refreshed an afloat on a sea of calm... the two performances are exquisitely judged.
Emer O'Kelly, Irish Independent
This is an Australian two - hander and it is like nothing I have ever seen in the theatre before... I enjoyed it.
Noeleen Dowling, Irish Times
Lucid, gentle, funny and unexpectedly moving, it remains one of the shows of the year.
The Australian
This is contemporary performance of the highest calibre, wrought with deft skill and tempered with a discerning, unwavering hand. This is theatre of the moment, in which no word exists before it is uttered, no action before it is performed. There is no story in the sense of a developing narrative, just a series of crystalline moments that can leap from the boring to the beautiful in a breath.
John Bailey, Real Time Magazine
Ranters Theatre achieves a profound and joyous lightness. From writing to performance to design, Holiday is a devastatingly elegant show. It's a series of apparently artless, inconsequential dialogues, interspersed with a capella performances of baroque love songs by Schubert, Bocconcini or Gluck that excavate the unspoken desires that run beneath the skin of idle conversation.
Alison Croggon, Theatrenotes
Holiday is great theatre - funny and light as air on the surface, with philosophical depths that will niggle you long after you leave.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
This gentle, subtly hued and intellectually rigorous piece easily ranks among their best.
John Bailey, The Sunday Age
Wistful humour permeates writer Raimondo Cortese's artful manipulation of the solecisms of everyday speech. The writing is infused with a yearning for simplicity, the pleasures of lost youth. Director Adriano Cortese's production... is unforced and nuanced... you could almost be fooled into thinking no one is really acting at all. But therein lies a paradoxical point of Holiday: we perform all the time. When we're watched, we're theatre.
Jason Blake, Sun-Herald, Sydney
2009 Dublin Fringe Festival Awards
Best Male Performer
(Paul Lum & Patrick Moffatt - joint winners)
2007 Victorian Green Room Awards
Best Production
Best Direction
Best New Writing
Best Male Performer
Best Set/Costume Design
Concept and Direction
Adriano Cortese
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed and Co-devised by
Paul Lum and Patrick Moffatt
Set Design
Anna Tregloan
Lighting Design
Niklas Pajanti
Sound Design
David Franzke
| 2009 | Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre, Dublin |
| 2009 | Aarhus Festuge, Entré Scenen, Aarhus Denmark |
| 2009 | Noorderzon Festival, Grand Theatre, Groningen |
| the Netherlands | |
| 2009 | SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney |
| 2008 | Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne |
| 2007 | Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall |
Script available online from Currency Press
With conversation, song and live harpsichord music, Affection, gently searches the connections between three performers and their audience. Freely traversing the abstract and the ordinary, Affection, looks at the way people empathise and nurture, reject, help, and play with each other. Featuring the music of Francois Couperin (1668-1733), Brian Wilson, The Ramones and the harpsichord of Anastasia Russel-Head.
Their unique innovations are so thoroughly approachable that even the most wary theatregoers will find themselves seduced. Ranters' method makes us aware of our role in constructing narrative. Theatre no longer becomes a case of solving the mystery or finding the secret truth to a text, but instead forces us to consider that our own act of observing brings with it a history that massively affects our understanding of what we see.
John Bailey, Realtime
There's a great deal of craft here... but the effect is everything. And that is entirely indescribable. You'll have to see it for yourself.
Chris Boyd, Sunday Herald Sun
A brutal naturalism, which feels more like great improvisation than the scripted piece it is. For all this, it is as refreshing and as unmannered a piece of theatre as I have seen, which leaves the audience squirming and self-scrutinising, even as they laugh.
Allison Vale, British Theatre Guide
Directed and Devised by
Adriano Cortese
Text by
Raimondo Cortese
Performed and Co-devised by
Beth Buchannan, Paul Lum, Patrick Moffatt,
Anastasia Russel-Head, and Heather Bolton
Lighting Design
Niklas Pajanti
| 2009 | Victorian Arts Centre - Black Box Theatre, Melbourne |
| 2007 | Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales |
A place where people meet. A multitude of simultaneous events that arise, collide, fester, explode and dissolve in one continuous scene.
Their interactions are so completely in the moment, so thrillingly real and beautifully realised, that you will feel like a voyeur. Privileged. Awed.
Chris Boyd, Herald Sun
The six actors give one of the finest ensemble performances I have seen. On stage for two hours, they could almost be improvising their park bench conversations, apparently randomly relating to one another, drifting apart, always observers and sometimes participants in a slow, familiar social ritual of chance acquaintance.
It sounds Beckettian, but it is distinctively Australian, local as well as universal in its references.
The Wall challenges our notions of conventional theatre, but its brilliance lies in the fact that in the stripping away of performance conventions, it reveals deeper truths about the human condition.
Helen Thompson,The Age
Direction
Adriano Cortese
Co-directed
Bob Daoud
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Kris Bidenko, Heather Bolton, Beth Buchanan
Natasha Herbert, Paul Lum, Margaret Mills
and Patrick Moffatt
Set Design
Adriano Cortese
Lighting Design
Shane Grant and Paul Lim
Music
Kim Salmon
| 2008 | Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales |
| 2008 | Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall |
| 2003 | Horti Hall, Melbourne International Arts Festival |
Presented in association with
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
British Council for the Arts
12 plays set in 12 different locations based on themes drawn from an ancient Chinese cosmology called the 12 Branches of Life.
It's been a long time since I've experienced acting as transcendentally clear, clutter free and mesmerising as this. See it.
David O'Brien, DB Magazine
The short works on offer here are each as amusing, accomplished and provocative entertainments as you could wish to stumble upon. This is very exciting work, by turns naturalistic and surreal, unbearably tense and wildly comic, and always utterly contemporary. At times it's theatre so good you wonder how cinema ever took over in our estimations of performed reality, when only the stage can give a sensation of eavesdropping on extremely intimate human exchanges from a constant, silent point of view.
Steve McLeod, Daily Telegraph
Raimondo Cortese's series of plays is raw theatre at its most basic and brilliant.
Craig Clarke, Sunday Mail
The plays are works if nuance, throwing light into shadowy realms of common human experience, with sudden stabs of emotional revelation providing climaxes that are occurring within the watcher as much as the actor. Beneath the everyday discourse, the apparently unmediated chat of strangers, we sense incredibly powerful emotions - anguish, rage, terror, longing - that are the real context of human life.
Helen Thomson, The Age
Such intimate moments of revelation and affinity, such surprising connections, seem to make sense of an increasingly absurd world of laws, rituals and habit. Raimondo Cortese has deftly tapped into these all-too brief epiphanies that bypass politics, culture, social standing and the games we play.
Dina Ross, The Age
Roulette is highly worked naturalism, dexterously constructed text with the rhythms, ellipses, repetitions and stumbles of ordinary speech. Yet none of these works are two people just having a chat - there are issues at stake, matters to resolve, possibilities to explore. Lovers of the subtleties of narrative, of the joy of pieces that don't deliver meanings pre-determined will find much to stimulate and enjoy.
Stephen Dunne, Sydney Morning Herald
Raimondo Cortese's writing is delightful. Each character is a hive of buzzing idiosyncrasies. They speak like mad birds, pecking at one another. They pull ideas and memories from the backs of their brains, surprising us with non sequiturs.
Kate Herbert, Herald Sun
The gold which comes from the writer and the Ranters undoubted theatrical alchemy consists of paring back conversations between characters to the point where the viewer is almost beguiled into believing they are spontaneous, happening now.
The Australian
2002 Victorian Green Room Award Nominations
Best Direction
Best Male Actor in a Leading Role
Best Female Actor in Leading Role
Direction
Adriano Cortese and Bob Daoud
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Kristina Bidenko, Heather Bolton, Beth Buchanan,
Zoe Burton, Adriano Cortese, Paul Lum,
Robert Morgan, Torquil Neilson,
Tony Nikolakopoulos, Kelly Tracey
and David Tredinnick
Set Design
Adriano Cortese
Lighting Design
Listerine
| 2005 | Carlton Courthouse, La Mama Theatre, Melbourne |
| 2005 | Butterfactory, Drouin, Victoria |
| 2003 | Site Festival, Coimbra, Portugal |
| 2002 | Chapel of Chapel, Melbourne |
| 2001 | Company B, Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney |
| 2001 | PoNTi 2001 Festival, Porto, Portugal |
| 2000 | The Price Theatre, Adelaide Festival |
Presented in association with Adelaide Festival
Company B, Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney
PoNTi 2001 European Capital of Culture Festival, Porto, Portugal
Chapel of Chapel, Melbourne
Site Festival, Coimbra, Portugal
La Mama Theatre, Melbourne
Arts Victoria
Australia Council
City of Melbourne
Script available online from Currency Press
A relentless night-time ritual of drugs, alcohol, and excess.
St Kilda Tales is a rush of theatrical adrenalin that leaves you punch-drunk but strangely exhilarated. There is nothing like it.
Stage Left Review 2001
Amazingly authentic and not at all precious. It's hard-hitting and obscene, but sounds dead right coming from his cast of 10.
Chris Boyd, Herald Sun
This production really does extend the possibilities of the Australian stage. St Kilda Tales pushes theatre into a new relationship with the world of experience. It reminds us of the most subversive, most democratic truth of all. That everyone has a story.
Michael Cathcart, Summer Series ABC Radio
St Kilda Tales is reminiscent of of the kind of stage occupation practiced by Les Ballet C de la B. It certainly had that same alternating slackness and static electricity, breaking through expectations of the well-organised play or performance piece. Its power is deliberately presentational rather than representational. The critique it presents is finally less of society than of the way that theatre has represented it.
Richard Murphett, Real Time Magazine
2001 Victorian Green Room Award Nomination
Best Ensemble
Direction
Adriano Cortese
Assistant Direction
Bob Daoud
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Kristina Bidenko, Heather Bolton, Beth Buchanan,
Zoe Burton, Luke Elliot, Paul Lum, Patrick Moffatt,
Robert Morgan, Genevieve Morris,
Glenn Perry and Tess Masters
Set Design
Anna Tregloan
Lighting Design
Shane Grant
Music
Shane Thornton
| 2003 | Site Festival, Coimbra, Portugal |
| 2003 | Teatro Nacional S. Joao, Porto, Portugal |
| 2003 | Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales |
| 2003 | Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales |
| 2003 | Green Room, Manchester, England |
| 2001 | Centenary of Federation Festival, Merlyn Theatre, |
| Playbox, Melbourne |
Presented in association with
Centenary of Federation Festival, Merlyn Theatre, Playbox, Melbourne
Site Festival, Coimbra, Portugal
Teatro Nacional S. Joao, Porto, Portugal
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales
Green Room, Manchester, England
Arts Victoria
Australia Council
City of Melbourne
British Council for the Arts
Script available online from Currency Press
Those with plenty of time and little else. Into a shared house of urban twenty-something's including a student, a stripper, a wannabe writer, an unemployed 'philosopher' and his frustrated offsider, enters a naive skinhead, an ambitious prostitute and the very dangerous landlord and everyone's world explodes in a raw, provocative and ultimately violent drama.
The sharp, sometimes shattering Features Of Blown Youth may not be an overtly political play but, in its culmination of detail and debris, it manages to pack an almighty punch. Features Of Blown Youth is brilliant theatre.
Bryce Hallett, The Australian
This is a powerful work given an excellent production, and it satisfyingly develops a subtle plot out of its tangle of relationships. The end is almost sickeningly bleak... this is genuinely disturbing theatre. See it if you can.
The Age
Blown away - gritty young theatre to mess with your head.
Bryce Hallett, Metro Sydney Morning Herald
It's clear why the production was invited to the Festival. It fits exactly in the Theatre of the World concept to show contemporary theatre that takes issue with the reality of the countries concerned. The Features Of Blown Youth that Ranters Theatre brings to the stage are snapshots of moments of an aimless, seducible youth, put together with perfection and enlightening zeal.
Oliver Kranz, Radio Kultur, Berlin
Features Of Blown Youth is vital, compelling and utterly devastating theatre. Originally staged in Melbourne, it has lost nothing in its transplant to Sydney. In fact it has gained a razor quality to its already sharp edge through expedient editing and clarification. Truly an ensemble work.
Julietta Jameson, Daily Telegraph
Direction
Adriano Cortese
Assistant Direction
Bob Daoud
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Arthur Angel, Kristina Bidenko, Beth Buchanan,
Zoe Burton, Patrick Moffatt, Robert Morgan,
Torquil Neilson and Tess Masters.
Set Design
Dan Potra
Costume Design
Ina Shanahan
Lighting Design
Lisa Trewin
Music
KIm Salmon
| 1999 | Performance Space, Sydney |
| 1999 | Theater am Halleschen Ufer, Theater Der Welt |
| Theater Der Welt Festival, Berlin, Germany | |
| 1997 | Economiser Building, Melbourne International |
| Arts Festival |
Presented in association with
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Performance Space, Sydney
Theater Der Welt Festival, Berlin, Germany
Arts Victoria
Australia Council
City of Melbourne
Script available online from Currency Press
Have you ever looked deeply into the eyes of your obsession and sworn you would do anything to possess it? Bob and Insatiable stand before a great shiny object of desire for which they will do or sacrifice anything.
Fertility Of Objects -better described as a dried blood burlesque than a black comedy -reinforces my initial impression that Cortese is an outstanding new dramatist.
Chris Boyd, Herald Sun
Fertility Of Objects is a sharp reminder of everything theatre should be. Truthful, entertaining, honest and thought provoking. More please.
C E C Busby, Theatre Reviews
Direction
Lynne Ellis
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Zoe Burton and Patrick Moffatt
Set Design
Lynne Ellis
Lighting Design
Lisa Trewin
| 1996 | La Mama, Melbourne |
| 1995 | La Mama, Melbourne |
Presented in association with
La Mama, Melbourne
Surrounded by a projected landscape of his eerie imaginings, Dino interacts with various 'ghosts' from his past and ritualises his obsessions with the few remaining objects left at his disposal. Meaning slowly disintegrates, rationality crumbles, past and present are fused into a continuous verbal monologue as Dino's situation becomes increasingly bizarre. The Room is a play for one actor
Raimondo Cortese belongs to a new breed of playwrights who are alive to the possibilities of the theatrical as opposed to the prosaically representational that passes for a lot of modern theatre these days. They look beyond the kitchen sink to a vista extending as far as the eye can see. Or as far as words can take them. Their richly imagistic language contravenes all the sumptuary laws imposed by the plain-Jane writing school approach, their baroque conceits often outrageous. It is, you suspect, a reaction in part against the dullards who believe theatre should be "relevant". The Room, I am happy to say, is not "relevant".... The Room is not a comfortable evening in the theatre. It is well worth it, however, for Jerome Pride's intricate performance and the emergence of a strong new voice in Raimondo Cortese.
Simon Hughes, The Age
The performance of Jerome Pride turns Raimondo Cortese's dense, lengthy, monologue The Room into a liquid and hypnotic night at the theatre. The Room, poetic and daring, continues Cortese's fascination with the mental landscape of characters who isolate themselves from the outside world. The Room is unusual in that the only narrative is of a gradual and cumulative decline in the mental credibility of the character: there is no plot, no emotional development, no journey. The attention to detail is spectacular... The production is also very funny; Pride is debonair and loquacious, his demeanour mocking and his physicality explosive. This is a rough, disturbing production, but voyeuristically mesmerising, nonetheless - in the manner of a car accident or American Psycho.
Fiona Scott-Norman, The Bulletin
Had Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet beaten Jack Hibberd to writing A Stretch Of The Imagination, then their Monk O'Neill might well have resembled the "hero" of Raimondo Cortese's overwhelming new play The Room. The first words he (Dino) utters are "I imagine". Two hours later (after dozens of rambling but self-contained set-pieces) this has change to "I remember". The transformation is complete. And total. It is difficult to imagine the play better executed than it is in Marcia Ferguson's meticulous production. And the only actor who might better Jerome Pride's performance is Pride himself 20 years from now.
Chris Boyd, Herald Sun
1995 Victorian Green Room Award
Distinctive Contribution to Melbourne Theatre
(Sound Design)
1995 Victorian Green Room Award Nominations
Best Playwright
Best Director
Most Outstanding Performer
Emerging Designer
Direction
Marcia Ferguson
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Jerome Pride
Lighting Design
Paul Jackson
Sound Designer
Darren Steffen
| 1995 | Napier Street Theatre, Melbourne |
presented in association with
Napier Street Theatre, Melbourne
Two lovers engrossed in an erotic game in which they alternately caress and desecrate each other with words. Motivated equally by longing and boredom, they must perpetually evoke new fantasies in order to resurrect their love.
Word for word - perhaps the most impressive new play to appear on our stages this year. Bar none. Two lovers, a man and a woman, fantasise - literally - to the death. Raimondo Cortese, the playwright, displays the same kind of natural intelligence and passion for language that can be found in Shakespeare. Even in the vortex of lust, Cortese's lovers spin words into silken rope. Lucrezia and Cesare is dangerous, dazzling theatre. You have been warned.
Chris Boyd, Herald Sun
1994 Victorian Green Room Award Nomination
Best New Australian Play
Direction
Adriano Cortese
Jason Blake
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Adriano Cortese and Kelly Tracey
Zoe Burton and David Tredinnick
Set Design
Ben Anderson
Lighting Design
Lisa Trewin
Costume Design
Jacqueline Everitt
| 1998 | Directors Cut, Victorian Tour, Theatreworks, |
| Melbourne | |
| 1994 | Napier Street Theatre, Melbourne |
Presented in association with
Napier Street Theatre, Melbourne
Theatreworks, Melbourne
Arts Victoria
A murder mystery and a tale of obsessive passion. A man and woman from different worlds meet beside a pond, which holds the secret to something shocking that happened between them in the distant past
(The play) aims to make the writer, Raimondo Cortese, invisible, and, in its skillful employment of situational dialogue, it succeeds. (The actors) tease out the possibilities of the dialogue with a light touch, making the final shock all the more effective.
Helen Thomson, The Age
Direction
Adriano Cortese
Brett Adam
Text
Raimondo Cortese
Performed by
Jerome Pride and Kelly Tracey
Beth Buchanan and Luke Elliott
Lighting Design
Lisa Trewin
| 1996 | La Mama, Melbourne |
| 1995 | La Mama, Melbourne |
| 1994 | Upstairs Belvoir St Theatre, Sydne |
Presented in association with
La Mama, Melbourne
Upstairs Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney