<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><u>INFORMATION FOR ENGLISH & LITERATURE TEACHERS<o:p></o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><u><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none; "> </span></o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><u><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none; "> </span></o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; ">In May 2014, La Mama Learning will present <i>The Parricide</i>, a play that looks at a tumultuous period in the life of the Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span>The scene is St Petersburg, Russia, 1866. Nihilist revolutionaries have taken to the streets and the rule of the Tsar is under threat. In a small flat, Dostoyevsky grafts out a novel for an unscrupulous publisher. It’s not the novel he wants to write, but he is under contract, so he works. But all the time he is haunted by a story from his past – that of a parricide, a young man who kills his father. And as the characters in his imagination take shape around him, he finds himself forced to choose between rebellion and repression, authority and chaos, passion and love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span>Exploring the creative forces that shape a great work of literature – and the torment of one writer as he tries to discover what exactly it is he’s trying to say – <i>The Parricide </i>is an illuminating glimpse at the life and work of one of literature’s great geniuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><i><span>The Parricide </span></i><span>is suitable for years 9-12, and will be of particular interest to students of VCE Literature and VCE English. As the play itself is a creative response to Dostoyevsky’s work, it will also stimulate explorations in the <i>Creating and Presenting </i>strand of the curriculum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span>Background information and detailed teachers’ notes will be available in April 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span>For further information, see </span><a href="http://lamama.com.au/autumn-2014/the-parricide/"><span>http://lamama.com.au/autumn-2014/the-parricide/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><span>For booking inquiries, call Maureen Hartley, Learning Producer, La Mama, 03 93476948<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; "><o:p> </o:p></p></body></html>