What the Umbrella Did Next
Australian Theatre for Young People @ The Wharf
Sydney 2003
Inspired by the life and death of Georgi Markov
Winner – ATYP National Young Playwrights Award
Georgi Markov
David Heinrich
Tatiana Kostov
Sarah Becker
The Shaving Man
Beejan Olfat
Todor Zhivkov
Ben Wood
Dimitar Stoyanov
Rebel Wilson
Golubev
Andrew Benson
Geshev / Snelling / Kryuchkov
Matthew Steege
Konstantin
Cale Morgan
Dumkhov
Aimee Falzon
Yefigeny / Traicho / Andropv
Manuk Aret
Stage Manager
Morag Hoeg Staun
Photography
Phil Shearer
Director
Christopher Hurrell
Set Designer
Ellen Shields
Costume Designer
Jo Briscoe
Sound Designer
Basil Hogios
Lighting Designer
Paul Walton
Dramaturgy
Craig Behenna, Elena Vericker & Christopher Hurrell
Assistant Director
Daniel Knight
Judges warm to Cold War view of writer fired by umbrella death
Sydney Morning Herald, April 8, 2003
The story is absurd and tragic, yet it may be the salvation of a young playwright.
Nic Velissaris, the winner of the adult category of the National Young Playwrights’ Award, was close to giving up theatre before he revived a piece of Cold War history.
The 26-year-old business graduate began researching the life of Georgi Markov, the exiled Bulgarian playwright and author who was assassinated in 1978. Markov was jabbed by the poisoned tip of an umbrella while waiting for a bus on London’s Waterloo Bridge and died from blood poisoning.
Velissaris said he based his play What the Umbrella Did Next on Markov in order to exorcise his ghost and pay him tribute.
“He had been neglected so long, I thought it was an urban myth,” he said. “To get this award is very encouraging right now. I’d just finished directing a show and I was really disheartened because it got fantastic reviews, yet the audiences didn’t show.”
As part of the award, the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) will premiere What the Umbrella Did Next in July.
The one-off award was offered as part of ATYP’s 40th birthday celebrations and attracted 139 entries. Three male and three female playwrights, ranging in age from 16 to 26, were awarded cash prizes totalling $5000.
One of the judges, playwright Katherine Thomson, said the quality of the finalists’ work was a message to those who said young people were not interested in theatre.
“I’ve always thought, ‘Those people don’t go out very much’,” she said. “If you come down to the wharf you see young people flocking here. They’re flocking to the Sydney Theatre Company, to Bell Shakespeare.”
David Berthold, the artistic director of ATYP, heralded the award as part of “a very unusual week in theatre”.
“It began with a great farewell for one of our best playwrights, Nick Enright,” he said. “And it continues with three premieres of new plays by Australian playwrights.”
The winner in the 15 to 18-year-old category was Queensland’s Kate Sherington for her play Children of the Divine. Other winners included Emma Bastian and Matthew Edgerton from NSW and Victoria’s Ricci-Jane Adams and James Shaw.
