Award-winning playwright, actor and Griffith PhD candidate, Margi Brown Ash, will present a double bill performance of her worksHe Dreamed a TrainandEveat the Brisbane Powerhouse in late June/July.
It will be the first time the works have been performed as a double bill. As part of her PhD Margiwrote the scripts forHe Dreamed a TrainandEve(together withHome, presented by Qld Theatre in 2015). The three plays form a trilogy of belonging and how people find their place in the world.
Margi, who is completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Michael Balfour, Dr Linda Hassall and Professor Emeritus Bruce Burton, came to her PhD as a mature-age student.
With two master’s degrees in drama and counselling, Margi is no stranger to academe, teaching both areas at QUT for many years, while fitting it around her family and theatre commitments.
“At 65 I’m doing my PhD for very different reasons than someone younger may,’’ she says candidly.
“As an academic and a researcher, these plays are the perfect coming together of the academic frame and the artistic frame.
“It’s been a brilliant journey. As a mature-age student you may not know what you’re looking for, but you’re very clear on what you want to explore.”
Margi’s research has taken her around the world — researching and presenting her work in Finland (where she was artist-in-residence this year) as well as previously in Egypt, Israel and USA.
“The landscape of creative academic work has just fitted so beautifully with my PhD,’’ she says.
“The beauty of theatre is that it allows you to see how people respond to your work.”
Evocative wordplay
Fusing poetic storytelling with multi-media, He Dreamed a Train is an intimately personal story of a family exploring love, loss, grief and remembrance.
Margi plays a fictional version of herself while her son Travis Ash embodies a character inspired by her brother who has a degenerative neurological disease.
Co-devised, directed and designed by Dr. Benjamin Knapton and written by Margi and Travis, with several excerpts borrowed from her brother David Brown’s book of the same name, He Dreamed a Train debuted in Brisbane in 2014 to wide acclaim.
Multi award-winning Eve is co-devised and directed by Dr, Leah Mercer with Travis Ash as performer and musician.
Described by Australian Stage as “a sublime, evocative, rich, disturbing and tightly woven piece that will leave you intellectually reeling and profoundly inspired”, Eve was inspired by the Australian writer, Eve Langley.
Part memoir, part fiction, part homage to the sacrifice of the artist, Eve is presented by Force of Circumstance and Nest Ensemble in partnership with Brisbane Powerhouse.
Season: Thursday, June 29-Sunday, July 16. Bookings