Blood Pressure
Commissioned and produced by Salamanca Theatre Company, Hobart, Tasmania, 1991.
I wrote, produced, and directed this play. It was a huge task at the time, and a great learning process, taking an idea, shaping it and seeing it come alive in performance. In hindsight I think it would have been a more fulfilling experience to have worked with a director and producer. That way I could have reshaped some of the less-successful parts of the narrative, those that were imposed, rather than dramatically earned. But these understanding only emerge from seeing and I now make sure that I apply them to my writing.
Synopsis
Two teams from an advertising agency compete for the new business of a company moving into the area of feminine hygiene.
Background notes
I was fascinated blood—the natural monthly menstrual cycles of women and the blood of violence shed in street fights and war—one such a taboo subject and the other seen almost as a right. Menstruation is a difficult subject to put on stage, so I looked for a setting in which men would, as a matter of course, take on the consideration of menstruation and talk about it. The setting I chose was an advertising agency, where the agency was being asked to pitch for the new business of a company moving into the area of feminine hygiene.
Production
Lion Theatre, Adelaide, 1992, funded by the SA Dept for the Arts and Cultural Heritage.
Reviews
‘Full of sparking life and humour’
Tim Lloyd, The Advertiser
‘The opening night audience stomped the floor in delight at this fine play’
Carol Altmann, Weekly Times Messenger
‘Darrelyn Gunzburg’s original and insightful script is a joyous celebration of womanhood… an exploration of both masculine and feminine psyche… uplifting and positive.’
Krissie Scudds, Rip It Up Magazine
‘A challenging topic brilliantly and perceptively addressed’
Peter Goers, Sunday Mail
‘Explores with witty clarity a subject both everyday and taboo-ridden… There’s a quirky, generous intelligence at work in Blood Pressure … comic, imaginative and ambitious’
John Edge, The Bulletin
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