WHILE the Sydney Olympics looms on the horizon, stories about our sporting hopefuls are already beginning to take their place in the news aside the news of horrors of war.
FREEWHEELS THEATRE COMPANY production of SWIMMING THE GLOBE links both stories as a reminder that Olympics was established to generate a spirit of world peace.
Written by Sydney playwright ALANA VALENTINE, the plays features actor BARRY SHEPHERD as war correspondent, now television journalist, Mark Munro who begins to question Olympic ideals in a war-ravaged world.
LOUISE CHAPMAN and ANGELA SHONE play the two swimmers from very different backgrounds who are known to Munro.
Valentine wrote the play believing big sporting events to be one of the main international forums for questioning what it means to be an Australian.
'The play is about a horror of war and an appreciation of the fact that we live in a country where there isn't war,' she said.
Valentine was commissioned by FREEWHEELS director BRIAN JOYCE to write a play which put young people at the centre of the drama.
'The idea of the Olympics was to generate a spirit of world peace. I mean that seems like a fairly lofty ideal, but I think it's one that we can never forget was the inspiration,' she said.
Newcastle audiences will be the first to see the reworked production before it is toured in Malaysia.
Joyce has used a combination of live performance, closed circuit television and pre-recorded video to tell the story which is set before and during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
TE has two double passes to see SWIMMING THE GLOBE at the Civic Theatre. To be in the draw send an envelope, with your name, address and telephone number, to SWIMMING THE GLOBE GIVEAWAY, PO Box 200, Newcastle, 2300. Or click your entry through at the TE web site at www.nnp.com.au
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