MTC Audio Lab Melbourne Theatre Company

The Turn of the Screw Director Sarah Goodes chats with MTC Literary Associate Jenni Medway about the enduring fascination with Henry James novella and the process of creating an audio drama.

MTC Associate Artistic Director Sarah Goodes directs a dramatic reading of Henry James’s classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, brought to life by Laurence Boxhall, Marg Downey, Robert Menzies and Katherine Tonkin, with a sound design by Clemence Williams.

MTC Associate Artistic Director Sarah Goodes directs a dramatic reading of Henry James’s classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, brought to life by Laurence Boxhall, Marg Downey, Robert Menzies and Katherine Tonkin, with a sound design by Clemence Williams.

MTC Associate Artistic Director Sarah Goodes directs a dramatic reading of Henry James’s classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, brought to life by Laurence Boxhall, Marg Downey, Robert Menzies and Katherine Tonkin, with a sound design by Clemence Williams.

Vida Goldstein was an Australian suffragette and social reformer.

In 1900 she founded the Australian Woman's Sphere, a monthly journal which advocated for equal rights for women. With the support of the newly formed Women's Federal Political Association, Goldstein was one of four female candidates to stand for federal parliament in 1903, the first at which women were eligible to stand. While unsuccessful, she continued to campaign for women's rights and interntional peace, running in the 1910, 1913, 1914 and 1917 elections.

As a committed pacifist, Goldstein helped found the Women's Peace Army, an anti-war organisation, in 1915 and was Chair of the Peace Alliance. These groups were among the first to oppose the war, but also were among the first to be censored. In September 1914, the offices of The Women Voter were raided in attempt to stop publication.

On 5 October 1915, Goldstein published an open letter to the Members of the Commonwealth Parliament in her newspaper The Woman Voter. In this open letter, she speaks out against conscription and 'the gradual but steady loss of the great Bulwarks of Liberty, a Free Conscience, Free Press, Free Speech'.

For MTC Audio Lab's Great Australian Speeches, Director Petra Kalive has reimagined Goldstein’s open letter into a speech, read by Marg Downey.

Shareena Clanton is an Australian theatre, film and television actor.

Clanton portrays Doreen Anderson in the Foxtel TV series Wentworth and appeared in the feature film Last Cab to Darwin. In 2017, she starred in Melbourne Theatre Company's production of Macbeth.

In Autumn 2018, Clanton published her essay ‘The Age of Ignorance is Over’ in Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance Equity Magazine. It issues a wake-up call to those in positions of authority to lift the cloak of invisibility from artists of colour and afford them the same opportunities as their white cohort.

For Great Australian Speeches, 'The Age of Ignorance is Over' is read by the author herself, Shareena Clanton.