How comfortable is dumb? How dumb is comfortable?
The first Robert Reid play I ever saw was a rock musical about the Balanglo State Forest Murders. We decided this one might be more appropriate for brunch.
Grab a danish and a coffee and settle in for a listen.
With Casey Scott
Laura Bentley
Simone Costa and
Luke Gleeson
Date: Sunday 29 January
Time: 11am
Venue: Cafe
Price: Free
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New Years Revolution
About the Artist
Robert Reid is a freelance playwright, director and academic. He is Artistic Director and a founding member of the independent theatre company, Theatre in Decay and also of the experimental puppet and visual theatre company, Terrible Comfort. Robert’s works produced by Theatre in Decay include The New Scum, Screaming in America: The Bill Hicks Project, All of Which are American Dreams, A Mile in Her Shadow, Sweet Staccato Rising and Empire. His projects for Terrible Comfort have included the tabletop puppet work Everything Will Be Okay, the shadow puppet show Urgent Little Things and the finger and hand puppet show Owl in Spotlight at the Carlton Courthouse. He most recently had his play The Joy of Text produced at Melbourne Theatre Company and his next work, Eating Alone, was presented as part of the MTC’s 2011 Cybec readings.
With Theatre in Decay Robert has toured to the Wellington and the Adelaide Fringe festivals. His works produced by other companies include Pat Sabatine’s Eighth Birthday Party, presented by St. Martins Youth Arts Centre and the Australian Theatre for Young People with Blind Girls Play, The Fat Black Pussy Cat and Comfortably Dumb presented by Lunchtime Theatre, Gone broadcast by 2SER FM, The Man Who Had Gout broadcast by 3RRR FM and The Battle of Bourke Street for St. Martins Youth Art’s Centre’s Scattergun project. Robert directed Tyranny by Barry Dickens at La Mama, An Actor Prepares by James Adler at Theatreworks, Oedipus for Eagles Nest theatre and This is Set in the Future by Glyn Roberts at La Mama. His plays Trade and The New Black were both given public readings by Ironbark Theatre in London this year and The New Black was selected for a two-week workshop by the Hightide Festival in the UK.
Robert won the St Martin’s Playwright of the year award in 2000 for Pat Sabatine’s Eighth Birthday Party. His play, Empire, was given a special commendation by Melbourne Fringe in 2004. He was given the R.E. Ross Trust Playwright Development Award for his play A Mile in her Shadow in 2005. His play Sad Bird Boy and the Scalpel Fingered Girl won both the Best Independent Theatre Company Prize and the Best Overall Performance Prize at Short and Sweet Melbourne 2005. His play Portraits of Modern Evil was shortlisted for both the Wal Cherry Award and the Griffin Award and was performed by Black Swan Theatre Company BSX in Perth. His play The New Black was shortlisted for the Kit Denton Award in 2009 and performed at the PWA National Play Festival in 2010.
Robert recently published Hello World! Promoting the Arts on the Net, a Platform Paper for Currency House. He is the editor of Australian Puppeteer, the national puppetry magazine for UNIMA Australia; a reviewer for theatrealive.com; a panelist for the Greenroom awards Alternative and Hybrid Panel; a regular panelist for Arts Victoria; and host of the Meant to Be Spoken events for Melbourne Writers Festival.
Robert was an Affiliate Writer at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2006, an Associate Artist at The Storeroom. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a post graduate diploma in directing in 2000, holds a Masters Degree in Creative Industry (Scriptwriting) from Queensland University of Technology and is currently completing a PhD in Australian Theatre History at La Trobe University.
