Thanks to LyridsMC at the forum we have scans from the theatre program of Gross Und Klein!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Theatre: Gross Und Klein

Congratulations to Cate who won again!

The 2011 Sydney Theatre Awards were presented in an awards ceremony Jan. 16. Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, Angela Betzien’s new play The Dark Room, and Hairspray were among the evening’s winners.

In addition to the awards presentations, Australia’s original Fantine, Debra Byrne, performed “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the musical’s opening at Sydney’s Theatre Royal.

The winners follow:
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Cate Blanchett (Gross und Klein)

Read the full list at Playbill!

Gross und Klein has received 7 nominations for the Sydney Theatre Awards including best mainstage production and best actress in a leading role. The full list of nominations are here:
http://www.sydneytheatreawards.com/2011.php

Congratulations to the cast and everyone who worked on the play!

Here is more photos from Gross Und Klein! Thanks to LyridsMC at the forum for some of the photos

GALLERY LINKS:
- Theatre: Gross Und Klein

Read full transcript in our press archive!

Andrew Upton:

Benedict came in late to do the production. After the other director, Swiss Luc Bondy fell sick.

On whether a director can have a lot of input at such a late stage:

Andrew:

Benedict had worked with the cast and crew before and brought his own input into the room and also speaks through other elements that weren’t his (the original director’s instead).

Richard Piper:

I auditioned in year and a half ago. I could have been in a home (laughing). Instead I get to go to Europe.

Added several photos from Gross Und Klein, both production stills and behind the scenes photos.

GALLERY LINKS:
- Theatre: Gross Und Klein

A good review by Crikey of Cate’s performance and the play!

Poor, lonely Lotte; also known as Cate Blanchett. She’s a misfit; a gentle, optimistic soul, heartbroken and rejected, but continually exhibiting the courage to continue. Prolific German playwright Botho Strauss’ Gross Und Klein first saw light of day as far back as 1978, long before the fall of the wall, in 1989, and the decompartmentalisation, physically, culturally, militarily, politically and socioeconomically, of Berlin.

Despite its engaging humour and magical, surrealistic, fairytale-like qualities, Big And Small, to give it its English title, isn’t an easy play to penetrate. Oh sure, it’s easy to feel for lost, little (notwithstanding Blanchett’s lithe, lanky frame) Lotte, but what is the particularity of this play from a German perspective; then, and now? After all, 1978 might’ve been a good 30 years after the war, but Germans were, presumably, trying to forgive themselves the Holocaust, while much of the rest of the world still wagged a wary finger. Much of this self-approbation likely took the form of denial, as the nation absorbed itself with economic and cultural reconstruction. Perhaps that’s why references to Hitler in the play are so few and far between but, more tellingly, are chucked into the ether apropos of nothing, like a word that just popped out in a fit of Tourette’s.

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A new interview and a lovely new photoshoot:

Cate Blanchett and Benedict Andrews share the curious complexities and pleasures of bringing Botho Strauss’s Gross und Klein to the stage.

When Cate Blanchett and Benedict Andrews emerge from the rehearsal room at the end of another long day, they are still deep in conversation. It’s week six. The pair share an intensity and intellectual curiosity that is sometimes hard to keep up with. But their passion for theatre and its audience is crystal clear. As they prepare the biggest production of the year for the Sydney Theatre Company, they find time to eat, laugh and share their thoughts on each other’s craft – both embarrassing and inspirational.

Read full interview here!