PITY at State Theatre Centre of Western Australia

Ellandar Productions brings you an inside look into the development of their new play 'Pity' with a workshop presentation of the play. Pity is a reworking of John Ford's Tis Pity She's A Whore in a collaborative spirit, using music and movement to tell the story in a new way.

With composition by Jennifer O'Connor and The Men From Another Place and direction by Ellen O'Connor, this play set out to experiment with the link between different elements of the performance. All drawing on the same original source the artists were also influenced by each others work. Add to this the contribution of the performers who engaged in several development workshops to develop new text.

Pity is about a pair of star-crossed lovers who, unlike Romeo and Juliet, are brother and sister. Ford's original text conveys the Elizabethan idea that going against the natural order, through incest, leads to ultimate tragedy and, in this case, a bloodbath. Our text seeks to explore these themes anew from our current context.

It's a twisted love story, it's a rock concert, it's a play.