The Beast

March 3rd, 1978 — March 3rd, 1978


Venue

La Boite Theatre

Producer

La Boite Theatre

Director

David Bell

Playwright

Snoo Wilson

Cast

Gregory Silverman
Marina Bossov
Luigi Forzin
Lorna Bol
Stewart Stubbs
Peter Stokes
Jacki Teuma
Steven Billet

Costume Designer

David Bell

Set Designer

David Bell

Lighting Designer

Paddy Teuma


The Beast by Snoo Wilson

Snoo Wilson’s The Beast, directed by David Bell, represented the extremes to which La Boite, under Billinghurst’s artistic direction, was not afraid to go.

The play’s characters “sniff cocaine, shoot heroin, roll around naked, take fits, practise the occult, talk kinky and funky language”.[i] Robertson saw it as Billinghurst “sticking pins into Queensland’s smug theatrical hide” or, in this case, using a machete rather than a pin.[ii] Tickell described it as “not a play for the weak of heart”… “an affront to mankind” …  “but the superb acting more than saves it”.[iii] Batchelor praised Bell’s visual treatment – “everything and everyone looked fantastic” – but found the lack of constraint by the actors turned the acting into “a splurge; ugly, but not faintly diabolical … the only truly diabolical thing all night was the spoken French”.[iv]

Writer: Christine Comans


[i] Rowbotham in The Courier-Mail, March 4, 1978.

[ii] The Australian, March 10, 1978.

[iii] The Telegraph, March 8, 1978.

[iv] Batchelor in Theatre Australia, May 1978.


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