Friday 22 May 2009. 07:30 PMSaturday 23 May 2009. 07:30 PMSunday 24 May 2009. 05:00 PMTuesday 26 May 2009. 06:30 PMWednesday 27 May 2009. 07:30 PMThursday 28 May 2009. 07:30 PMFriday 29 May 2009. 07:30 PM Click here to see all dates
The simple theme of Voltaire’s classic novel Candide is a wry, at times sarcastic demolition of the great canard of the era; that the world is benevolent, that all creation serves humanity’s needs, that this is as good as it gets, and if things seem malign, it is through our failings. In short Optimism, which is also the subtitle of the work. We seem now to be entering a new era of doubting contention between the free marketeers who would assure us that all is for the best, and the naysayers groaning under the weight of climate change, third world exploitation, rampaging consumerist waste and the threat of theologically-inspired terrorism. But there’s more. Optimism is a picaresque ramble, a road movie. It moves across all continents and through a multitude of moods. It is a dream as much as anything; it is modern rationalism telling itself a fairy-tale. It has within it religion, Utopia, sex, disease, philosophy. It’s a mess. It’s wonderful. The irresistible Frank Woodley leads a wonderful bunch of clowns in this new production by the team that brought you Babes In the Wood, Journal of The Plague Year and The Odyssey. At once a broad, red-faced burlesque and a keen dissection of the foibles of human longing, Optimism turns a hilarious eye to the woes of the heart. Reeking with scandal and scurrilous vice, it transforms Voltaire’s classic satire of enlightened insanity into a cutting commentary on the no-worries bravura of the Australian swagger.
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