Draft:Paul Rees playwright

Paul Rees is a playwright active between 1993 and 1999. In that time many of his plays were produced and performed, notably Morde (1999 in Adelaide), The Games People Play (1993 Sydney and 1996 Adelaide), Antwerp (1996 Adelaide) and CycleLogical (1997 Adelaide). Together with actor and director Catherine Carter, his plays were produced under the banner of the independent theatre company, Theatre Praxis, which folded at the end of 1999. Rees also wrote on commission for Leigh Warren and Dancers and Junction Theatre Company and the Art in Working Life program as well as other corporate education programs.

During its active period, Theatre Praxis also produced several theatrical works in addition to Rees’s work. Notable among these was a highly regarded production of British Playwright Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry; Edward Albee’s Zoo Story; and Harold Pinter’s Dumb Waiter. The company produced several Shakespeare ventures, including free twilight performances of Twelfth Night in the heart of Adelaide at the Women’s Memorial Garden. In its time Theatre Praxis also undertook a notable collaboration with two then Melbourne-based playwrights, Jodi Gallagher and Daniel Lillford. Praxis produced Lillford’s Dark Heart twice between 1996 and 1998. The first was directed by Peter Dunn with performers Kate Kendal, Richard and Phil Spruce. The second outing as part of Junction Theatre’s Threesome program saw Catherine Carter, Phil Spruce and ?? in the roles. This was accompanied by Gallager’s Web, directed by Carter and performed by.

Rees’s Plays Morde was arguably Rees’s most successful work. Based on the true story of Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli anti-nuclear whistleblower activist who after working at a nuclear plant in Israel spent time in Kings Cross, Sydney where he converted to Christianity and faced the ethical dilemma of knowing Israel’s secret nuclear capacity. Inspired by an activist priest and the philosopher Kierkegaard, Rees explored the story in which the main character blows the whistle, the story being picked up by a British newspaper and while in the UK Vanunu is attracted by a Mossad agent and is subsequently kidnapped and awakes in solitary confinement in an undisclosed Israeli facility. Directed by Catherine Carter, the main character was performed by Syd Brisbane, with Geoff Revell and Marlo Groke (Mossad integrators), Patrick Frost (the Priest) and Lucy Slattery as the Mossad agent. The production was seen at the Lion Arts Theatre, Adelaide in early 1999. Antwerp was set on a small pig farm in rural Victoria, Australia and dealt with a true story of an exorcism of a farmer’s wife demonstrating ‘unusual behaviour’ such as unexplained singing and dancing and hearing voices. An exorcism is carried out by the husband and a friend with instructions over the phone from a cleric in Sydney. She does not survive the experience. Directed by Jenn Havelberg, the Farmer’s wife is played by Catherine Carter, farmer Phil Spruce and friend/cleric is played by Mitch Burton. Antwerp was performed at The Stables Theatre, Adelaide. Games People Play was Rees’s first play written and performed. Set on a couch, a couple argue, fight, love, laugh and use rapid-fire words to manipulate each other all in one evening. Performed as part of the Off The Page program in Sydney in 1993, Carter and Rees revived the play for Adelaide as their first production in what became the company’s and the couple’s hometown. The 1996 production was performed at The Small Price Theatre, Adelaide.

CycleLogical, was a short play and companion piece to the Praxis production of Albee’s Zoo Story. Exploring the same terrain as Zoo Story, a couple meet in a park and with a hint of Groundhog Day repeat a mugging that worsens in violence each cycle. The production was Directed by Carter.

Rees stopped writing in 2000 and continues to work in various roles within the arts and cultural heritage sector.