THE BOOKBINDER OF JERICHO
So…I can at last say officially that my follow up adaptation of the wonderful Pip Williams’ The Bookbinder of Jericho, will be staged in 2027/28. Pip wrote The Bookbinder of Jericho as her second novel after the runaway success of The Dictionary of Lost Words. It’s not a sequel, but it is linked. It shares several characters and the world of Oxford at the outbreak of the First World War, but perspectives are very different. Its protagonist is again a young woman (Peggy Jones), but this girl/woman is working class, someone with far fewer choices than the intriguing Esme of Dictionary and with a cocktail of familial obstacles pulling her away from her yearned-for, impossible scholarly destiny. The ‘world of the play’ is once again evoked in Pip’s masterly depiction of global political turmoil; the shared cultural social history of life among an underclass; and the individual story of striving female talent trapped in patriarchal and class structures. It embraces love. And the impact of neurodivergence. And the shock of and negotiation with disability. But always embedded in characters who are people first and causes second.
It’s a complex thing, eh? So it was a case of deep breath and jump in when I was commissioned to write the adaptation. The play will be part of firstly the 2027 season at the Sydney Theatre Company who launched their program last night and given that they were public about it I can also say it will be part of the State Theatre of South Australia’s 2027 season (launching September 30th) before going first to Sydney and then to the Melbourne Arts Centre in 2028. It will be directed by Shannon Rush, who has recently directed fellow South Australian Emily Steel’s very successful Housework for STCSA and STC, designed by Jonathon Oxlade who created that magical set for Dictionary (for those who saw that show), with music by Max Lyandvert who was the sound meister for Dictionary also, with one of the best musical scores for a stage show that I’ve known over my now long career. And there’s more music in Jericho than there was in Dictionary so he will have his work cut out for him! So far, we have cast three out of the cast of eight. Watch this space!
And I mentioned before that I am part of a group of three poets who’ll be featured in the latest Friendly Street Poets New Poets series, along with Rob McKinnon and Tracy McNally (whose artwork will be featured on the book cover – multi-talents abound!). It is such a thrill be to joining other South Australian writers in the iconic Friendly Street stable. Update is that we are launching on Saturday 28th November at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Thebarton.
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