Theatre of mystery, imagination and the fantastique
Theatre of mystery, imagination and the fantastique
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History
The original P.I.T.S. DIED on June 2nd. 1984 to make way for a bus stop.
In its 33 months of operation, more than 77,000 people were entertained at the P.I.T.S. ("appropriately named" said a music teacher in 2001 when recalling the punks and "oi" skin louts who lined up to see The GADFLYS on Friday nights early in 1983). But The PITS was more than a popular young music venue. 27,000 people passed through its doors to see live theatre: ranging from the likes of David Williamson's The Club, through to more obscure works in the vein of later SHADOW HOUSE PITS productions: works like the controversial GEORGE'S PEEPSHOW and BROTHER APE by Joe Woodward. People used stay for late night live music. During its tenure at The Canberra Rex, over 43,000 came to see the bands and dance into the morning hours.
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In 1995, a form of the old PITS was revived with PITS Productions setting up its Story House to produce its theatre of "mystery, imagination and the fantastique". The name was changed in 1998 to SHADOW HOUSE PITS. As the name suggests, it deals with material that falls into the shadow of experience and culture. Writer / director, Joe Woodward, is Artistic Director. Productions have been presented at The Canberra Theatre Centre, The Street Theatre Studio, DNA Studios at The Ralph Wilson Theatre in Canberra and at The Seymour Centre in Sydney.
But why a SHADOW HOUSE?
Through SHADOWHOUSE PITS, we seek an expressive life away from the mundanity of mediocre fluorescence that shines in so much of our everyday life. The shadow seems to evoke the dead while giving birth to living imagination: two potent forces in creation. Sex and fear, those two companions for fascination, lurk in the shadow house of our souls where aspirations, desires and metaphors meet. The theatre is the room of the SHADOW HOUSE where the soul roams as a cockroach from the pits into the tables of respectability ... up through the cracks in the facade. And it's a kind of fun ... sometimes important; sometimes perverse ... and often absurd.
It is a sacred place where nothing is sacred; where all is potentially exposed and even the most sacred precepts may become ludicrous. As such, SHADOW HOUSE PITS was formed in reaction to theatre and art as affirmation of particular orthodoxies.
SHADOW HOUSE PITS has produced the following works since December 1995:
THE CELICA OF EXISTENCE
(theatre in a car)
Shadow House PITS director has also written and/or directed works for other companies. Such works include:
BAAL by Bertolt Brecht (for Culturally Innovative Arts in 1998)
THE FLIES (1999, written and directed by Joe Woodward and based loosely on William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES for Daramalan Theatre Company)
ROMEO AND JULIET (2000, a Gothic style production with music by Damien Foley for Daramalan Theatre Company)
ALICE IS MISSING (2001, written and directed by Joe Woodward with music by Damien Foley and Tom Woodward for Daramalan Theatre Company)
In 2002, a new collaborative work with The Daramalan Theatre Company, Cathedral Song was presented in October at The Street Theatre in Canberra.
In 2004, Joe Woodward adapted PEER GYNT by Henrik Ibsen and presented it with The Daramalan Theatre Company at The Street Theatre in Canberra. In 2007, Mack The Knife and Children Of The Bauhaus was wrtten with the cast and presented at McCowage Hall.
