Wild Surmise

Overview

A woman obsessed with the search for extraterrestrial life. A man lost in poetry as he faces illness and immanent death. A marriage in decay. Add a lesbian love affair and a touch of mid-life sexual awakening and you have Dorothy Porter’s Wild Surmise.

The baroquely literary verse novel was a Miles Franklin contender in 2003 and this week sees the presentation of a staged version at the Malthouse. Jane Montgomery Griffiths adapted the script and also stars as the female protagonist, Alex, with  Humphrey Bower as her estranged husband. This is her second production with Malthouse AD Marion Potts in the director’s chair, following from their successful collaboration on 2010’s Sappho... In Nine Fragments.

With the script drawn from Porter’s verse, expect this to be a cerebral and evocative night of theatre, exploring space both outer and inner and most poignantly the space between us and our loved ones.