Rupert (play)

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Rupert
Written by David Williamson
Date premieredAugust 29, 2013
Place premieredMelbourne
Original languageEnglish
SubjectRupert Murdoch
SettingRupert Murdoch
Elisabeth Murdoch
Margaret Thatcher
James Murdoch
Kerry Packer
Gough Whitlam
Tony Blair
Bob Hawke
Harry Evans

Rupert is a 2013 play by David Williamson about Rupert Murdoch.

Contents

Background

Williamson was approached to write the play for the Melbourne Theatre Company.

"If you’re doing big canvas, you’ve got to be passionate that the way the world is heading is not good," he said. "I still buy The Australian every morning, to enrage me and give me energy to get through the day... If I can do something before I die that casts some kind of warning, in a dramatically viable way, then that could be useful." [1]

Williamson explained his approach to writing:

I tried as much as I can to tell the story through his own voice, his own ideology, his own triumphalism, so it’s Rupert’s cabaret. He’s telling the audience what a fantastic legacy he has left the world and he truly believes it.... Brett [Sheehy, MTC’s artistic director] was adamant and I agreed it shouldn’t be a lefty playwright beating Rupert around the head and telling the audience with every line how awful he was. That would be boring and predictable. [2]

The author spent 18 months researching and writing the play. The playwright later said:

The more I read the less I thought he was just a businessman interested in profits. He’s interested in power and not just for its own sake. He believes his ideological message is necessary for the world to learn. He’s a quasi-politician, he’s an ideologue and he wants his opinion to be taken notice of. In his head, he’s beneficial to the human race because his support for free market economics has allowed people in places like China and India to rise out of poverty. [3]

Williamson said he saw parallels between Murdoch and Shakespeare's Richard III .

The insignificant little hunchback by a combination of cunning, boldness, utter ruthlessness, charm, when necessary, and a sense of timing becomes King of England. Rupert, of course, hasn’t murdered his brother and seduced the wife of the man he’s just murdered within the first 10 minutes of the play, but then Richard comes to a grisly end, whereas Rupert survives everything and his share prices and fortune keep rising. So in that sense his story is even more remarkable. [4]

“It’s not a typical Williamson comedy," the playwright added. “It harks back more to the rambunctious theatrical near-cabaret style of my early work for the APG [the Australian Performing Group]." [4]

Productions

The premiere 2013 production was reviewed by the Murdoch-owned Herald Sun but the review was never published. However reviews of the play were published in other Murdoch-owned newspapers. [5]

The production was reviewed by The Washington Post [6] as an entry in the Kennedy Center’s World Stages International Theater Festival , March 2014.

Related Research Articles

Rupert Murdoch Australian-American media mogul (born 1931)

Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-American billionaire businessman, media tycoon, and investor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK, in Australia, in the US, book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News. He was also the owner of Sky, 21st Century Fox, and the now-defunct News of the World. With a net worth of $22.4 billion as of 28 July 2021, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world.

Keith Murdoch Australian journalist, businessman and father of Rupert Murdoch

Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch was an Australian journalist, businessman and the father of Rupert Murdoch, the current Executive chairman for News Corporation and the chairman of Fox Corporation.

<i>The Australian</i> Daily newspaper in Australia

The Australian, with its Saturday edition, The Weekend Australian, is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership as of September 2019 of both print and online editions was 2,394,000. Its editorial line has been self-described over time as centre-right

David Williamson

David Keith Williamson AO is an Australian dramatist and playwright. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.

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Lachlan Keith Murdoch is a British businessman and mass media heir. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, co-chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of the Fox Corporation, and the founder of Australian investment company Illyria Pty Ltd.

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Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in "The Very Trevor Ashley Show"

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Money and Friends is a 1991 Australian play written by David Williamson. Its world premiere was at the Queensland Theatre Company directed by artistic director Aubrey Mellor.

Let the Sunshine is a 2010 play by David Williamson.

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Nothing Personal is a 2011 play from David Williamson.

When Dad Married Fury is a 2012 play by David Williamson.

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Flatfoot is a 2003 comedic play by David Williamson about the Roman playwright Plautus. It is one of Williamson's few plays not to be set in contemporary Australia and was written as a vehicle for actor Drew Forsythe. It features Plautus' play The Swaggering Soldier. Williamson:

I felt strongly about Plautus. He was a highly popular playwright. But he was going through the same agonies as any playwright so I identified with him – trying to convince the producer to put his next play on, trying to get his actors in line, trying to cast it, trying to keep them in order, trying to sort out his marital problems at the same time. He was a hugely funny character and I really liked him.

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References

  1. ↑ "Time Out | Best Things to do and Events in Cities Worldwide".
  2. ↑ Andrew Taylor, "David Williamson's play about Rupert Murdoch comes to Sydney" Sydney Morning Herald July 20, 2014 accessed 7 Feb 2015
  3. ↑ Matthew Knott, "Rupert on stage: Williamson’s happy, but will the Murdochs like it?", Crikey, 30 Aug 2013 accessed 27 Jan 2014
  4. 1 2 Matthew Knott, "Rupert the ‘insignificant hunchback’? Williamson on Murdoch’s cabaret", Crikey, 16 July 2013 accessed 27 Jan 2014
  5. ↑ Matthew Knott, "Rupert censored: Herald Sun spikes Murdoch review", Crikey 2 Sept 2013 accessed 27 Jan 2014
  6. ↑ Washington Post review 15 March 2014, Peter Marks | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/rupert-murdoch-play-at-kennedy-center-is-like-a-really-boring-biography-of-the-media-mogul/2014/03/13/82b56370-aabe-11e3-b8ca-197ef3568958_story.html
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