David Hicks and Honour Bound

THEATRE VISIT Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre- Tonight! 6.30

Meet me in the foyer of the Drama Theatre at the Opera House at 6pm. The Drama Theatre is at Ground Level; its doors look across to the Harbour Bridge. If you are late I will leave your ticket at the box office.
You should read the entry on David Hicks in the Wikipedia before tonight and the Age Editorial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/13/1087065029888.html?from=storylhs
We are seeing this play to understand the role of Theatre in deepening the Conscience of the Modern World…. remember Shelley’s dictum” “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”… If you are doing Australian Literature- it is a powerful Australian play challenging contemporary political prejudice; if you are doing Twentieth Century Literature it is a perfect example of committed political theatre… very much in line with what Harold Pinter was arguing for in his recent Nobel Prize speech http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html ; if you are studying William Blake then what a wonderful example (a la “Visions of the Daughters of Albion”) of theatre committed to challenging the notion of the United States as a free, democratic country committed to egalitarianism…. Blake would have been cheering for a play like this!!!!
You should also get a look at the following interviews and reviews:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/njam-a23.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/hick-a23.shtml
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/679/679p26b.htm
See you there or be square!… and remember if you don’t have a ticket you can still get one there at the theatre party discount price… just say you are a late-comer to our university Theatre Party….
MG
In conclusion read all these links to inform yourself about the background to this harrowing piece of theatre which is reflecting on the moral chaos in our so-called Western democracies. I especially urge you to read the Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s speech…. Twentieth Century students we are shortly to study this speech and one of his plays…. A taste of his speech is to be found in the following paragraph:

What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days – conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what’s called the ‘international community’. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be ‘the leader of the free world’. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally – a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man’s land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticise our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You’re either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.