This chapter surveys the work of the Gilgul Ensemble, an independent theatre company established by Barrie Kosky in 1991 to investigate Jewish identity, history and performance. Across the 6-year lifespan of the company, Gilgul created...
moreThis chapter surveys the work of the Gilgul Ensemble, an independent theatre company established by Barrie Kosky in 1991 to investigate Jewish identity, history and performance. Across the 6-year lifespan of the company, Gilgul created five works that cemented Kosky’s growing reputation as a director and theatre-maker of uncommon vision and boldness. The authors, Yoni Prior and Matthew Delbridge, were members of the original ensemble and the chapter draws on interviews with past ensemble members to consider the idiosyncratic dramaturgy and collaborative working methods that forged the work, and the evolving stage language that developed across the span of the works. The chapter also reflects on the local and international cultural context out of which the work emerged, locating it in an historical moment when Australian (and peculiarly Melbournian) theatre artists were responding explicitly to the diversity of the Australian population through investigations of narratives of migrati...
