Flinders University graduates are among more than 30 of South Australia’s finest established and emerging artists who are collaborating and presenting a series of isolation-inspired stories for an exciting new online project from State Theatre Company South Australia and ActNow Theatre.
Decameron 2.0, based on the concept of the original The Decameron by 14th-century scribe Giovanni Boccaccio, will result in a collection of 100 stories by 10 South Australian playwrights, performed by 10 or more actors for online broadcast over 10 weeks. A preview of the series can now be seen online.
Flinders drama graduates Alex Vickery-Howe and Ben Brooke are among the five core writers involved and other Flinders alumni attached to the project include Anthony Nicola, Annabel Matheson, Lachlan Barnett, and two current Flinders staff, Alex and Sarah Peters.
Funding from the state government’s COVID-19 Arts Grant Support program has enabled employment for professional writers and actors whose planned productions or developments have been either cancelled or postponed as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. Three groups from ActNow (featuring First Nations, queer and CALD emerging artists) will also receive mentoring from the writers along the way.
The Decameron is a collection of novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio in which 100 stories were told over 10 nights by 10 people sheltering together in a villa outside Florence to escape the Plague. A masterpiece of literature, it has inspired other famous works by Shakespeare, Molière, Lope de Vega, Keats and Middleton.
With artistic staff from ActNow and STCSA, the writers of Decameron 2.0 will meet online each week to discuss and nominate a theme (loosely inspired by The Decameron’s original themes such as fortune, fate, love and virtue) and then work that day to write a short monologue or free-form piece that will be rehearsed by a director and actor (online or socially distanced).
The monologues will then be performed and recorded (either online or at STCSA’s Wigg and Son facilities) the following day and broadcast to STCSA and ActNow’s online communities shortly thereafter.
People can sign up to view the Decameron episodes as they are released, by accessing the form here: https://www.actnowtheatre.org.au/decameron-2-0