Monash Memo - 5 September 2001

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Pandora one out of the box

The newly formed Monash Graduate Players have performed to rave reviews in this month’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The group, which includes current students and graduates of performing arts at Monash, performed Pandora’s Box at the fringe festival before going on to the Monash Centre in London.

Written by Monash graduate Ms Sally Faraday, Pandora’s Box looks at the licentious world of Restoration Theatre in England through the eyes of writer Aphra Behn.

Writing in The Scotsman, reviewer Diane Dubois described the play as “witty and wonderful” and the writing as a “phenomenal achievement”, giving the performance a top rating of five stars.

“Sally Faraday has written a Restoration comedy so authentic you would think it had been penned by Aphra Behn, on whose life and work the play comments,” Ms Dubois wrote.

“The writing is a phenomenal achievement, demonstrating a thorough understanding of Restoration drama, its themes, its intrigues, character types and, most impressive of all, its witty and wonderfully licentious language.”

Also receiving high praise were the actors, which were described as having been  perfectly cast.

Concluding her review, Ms Dubois said that “lovers of Restoration comedy are in for a most satisfying, elegant and outrageous treat”.