Independent Brisbane: Four Plays [BOOK REVIEW]

Independent Brisbane: Four Plays is, as the title suggests, a collection of plays by independent theatre-makers and theatre-making collectives in Brisbane in the 2002– 07 period, including Marcel Dorney’s Harriers (6–51), the nest’s The Knowing of Mary Poppins (52–102), Linda Hassall’s Post Office Rose (103–71) and Maxine Mellor’s Magda’s Fascination with Wax Cats (172–216). According to the contextualising information on the book’s back cover, these plays are ‘distinctive’ in content, story and style, ‘[y]et carry with them what is characteristic of the city they come from – a preoccupation with landscape, creation in tightly knit collaborative teams and brave, often unexpected, theatrical choices’.

Four plays for children: The rose and the ring, The goody- witch, The goosegirl, Boots and the north wind,

Mode of access: Internet.

The classical student's manual; containing an index to every page, section, and note, in Matthiae's Greek grammar, Hermann's Annotations to Vigerus on idioms, Bos on ellipses, Hoogeveen on the particles, and Kuster on the middle verb: in which Thucydides, Herodotus, Æschylus, Sophocles, Pindar, Homer's Iliad, Xenophon's Anabasis, and the four plays of Euripides edited by Professor Porson, are illustrated. With philological and explanatory observations.

Mode of access: Internet.

The classical student's manual : containing an index to every page, section, and note, in Matthiae's Greek grammar, Hermann's Annotations to Vigerus on idioms, Bos on ellipses, Hoogeveen on the Greek particles, and Kuster on the middle verb : in which Thucydides, Herodotus, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the four plays of Euripides edited by Professor Porson, are illustrated and explained /

Mode of access: Internet.

Four plays of the Free Theater; The fossils,

Mode of access: Internet.

Suicide plays

Suicide is a uniquely human behaviour and has always elicited strong - usually negative - opinions. Thus I would like to state from the very outset that this morbid collection of writing (all separately published elsewhere previously) should not be seen as an attempt to glamorise the act of felo-de-se. Nevertheless, one needs to recognise the inherent theatricality of suicide: too often it is a petulant, peevish performance intended to convey a bitter message to the audience of those left behind. Unfortunately, it is also a performance that many similarly unhappy souls try to emulate, and this phenomenon, known as “The Werther Effect”, is the subject of the first paper, which serves as a most appropriate introduction to the four plays that follow it. The first play, entitled “Hamlet + Ophelia = ?”, is deliberately provocative, and may easily be misunderstood as a call to commit self-murder. It is hoped, however, that the protagonists of this angry little piece are seen to be impetuous and childish, rather than noble or deep. The second play, “Games for Married Couples”, is less about seppuku than it is about the despair of child-less marriage. It is not much happier than the first, but may nevertheless raise a smile or two. “His ... or Her ... Suicide”, on the other hand, is utterly frivolous. I am sure no reader will take it seriously. Finally, and circuitously, is the stage adaptation (and translation) of Goethe’s classic 1774 novella "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers". This piece was produced as part of my 2005 Master of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Many thanks must go to my supervisor, Associate Professor Angela O’Brien, for prodding and poking me until the thesis was of an acceptable standard.

A select collection of old plays. In twelve volumes.

Four plays included in earlier editions are omitted, and replaced by others.

Reclassification of Pasteurella gallinarum, [Haemophilus] paragallinarum, Pasteurella avium and Pasteurella volantium as Avibacterium gallinarum gen. nov., comb. nov., Avibacterium paragallinarum comb. nov., Avibacterium avium comb. nov. and Avibacterium volantium comb. nov.

This paper describes a phenotypic and genotypic investigation of the taxonomy of [Haemophilus] paragallinarum, Pasteurella gallinarum, Pasteurella avium and Pasteurella volantium, a major subcluster within the avian 16S rRNA cluster 18 of the family Pasteurellaceae. An extended phenotypic characterization was performed of the type strain of [Haemophilus] paragallinarum, which is NAD-dependent, and eight NAD-independent strains of [Haemophilus] paragallinarum. Complete 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained for one NAD-independent and four NAD-dependent [Haemophilus] paragallinarum strains. These five sequences along with existing 16S rRNA gene sequences for 11 other taxa within avian 16S rRNA cluster 18 as well as seven other taxa from the Pasteurellaceae were subjected to phylogenetic analysis. The analysis demonstrated that [Haemophilus] paragallinarum, Pasteurella gallinarum, Pasteurella avium and Pasteurella volantium formed a monophyletic group with a minimum of 96·8% sequence similarity. This group can also be separated by phenotypic testing from all other recognized and named taxa within the Pasteurellaceae. As both genotypic and phenotypic testing support the separate and distinct nature of this subcluster, the transfer is proposed of Pasteurella gallinarum, [Haemophilus] paragallinarum, Pasteurella avium and Pasteurella volantium to a new genus Avibacterium as Avibacterium gallinarum gen. nov., comb. nov., Avibacterium paragallinarum comb. nov., Avibacterium avium comb. nov. and Avibacterium volantium comb. nov. The type strains are NCTC 1118T (Avibacterium gallinarum), NCTC 11296T (Avibacterium paragallinarum), NCTC 11297T (Avibacterium avium) and NCTC 3438T (Avibacterium volantium). Key characteristics that separate these four species are catalase activity (absent only in Avibacterium paragallinarum) and production of acid from galactose (negative only in Avibacterium paragallinarum), maltose (negative only in Avibacterium avium) and mannitol (negative in Avibacterium gallinarum and Avibacterium avium).

"Les Journées nationales" suivi de "Quand les huissiers se saisissent de la scène : l'absurde bureaucratique dans le théâtre contemporain"

Le recueil de brèves théâtrales "Les Journées nationales" rassemble trois courtes pièces ("La Journée nationale du pardon", "La Journée nationale de la lutte contre l’embonpoint" et "La Journée nationale de la frivolité") qui reposent sur une prémisse commune, en apparence farfelue : l'obligation de célébrer un quelconque impératif social dicté par la majorité. À travers un humour parfois noir, "Les Journées nationales" se présentent comme de courtes satires sociales qui, en judiciarisant une conduite morale implicitement imposée, entreprennent de disséquer et de décomposer les normes sociales et les valeurs généralement admises afin d’en souligner les incohérences. "Quand les huissiers se saisissent de la scène : l’absurde bureaucratique dans le théâtre contemporain" est un essai qui vise à analyser les procédés et à identifier les enjeux à l’œuvre dans les pièces de théâtre de l’absurde bureaucratique. Cette expression désigne des œuvres dramatiques qui, à travers un comique de décalage, une utilisation ludique et créative du jargon bureaucratique et une importance accordée au référent social du lieu et des personnages, expriment la terreur ressentie par leurs auteurs à l’endroit de l’institutionnalisation des relations humaines. À l’aide de quatre pièces principales ("Le Professeur Taranne" d’Arthur Adamov, "Les Travaux et les Jours" de Michel Vinaver, "Quelques conseils utiles aux élèves huissiers" de Lydie Salvayre et "États financiers" de Normand Chaurette), d’études sur le théâtre de l’absurde (Esslin, Hubert) de même que d’ouvrages de sociocritique (Duchet) et de sociologie (Crozier et Friedberg, Le Breton), il sera démontré qu’en exprimant une tension constante entre l’intime et le professionnel, l’absurde bureaucratique laisse aussi entrevoir la persistance du pouvoir et de la responsabilité individuels au sein des organisations sociales.

Décliner la frontière : transit et contagion de la violence dans la fiction sacrificielle de Bernard-Marie Koltès

Ce mémoire de maîtrise traite de quatre pièces de l’auteur français Bernard-Marie Koltès. Résolument axé sur l’étude du texte écrit, il vise dans un premier temps l’analyse d’un ensemble de désajustements et d’une culture de l’équivoque dans le traitement du lieu, du temps et de l’identité. Le premier but de ces analyses est l’approfondissement de certaines avenues déjà investies par la critique (marginalité des lieux et des personnages, présence constante de la violence et de la mort, etc.), dans la recherche d’une signification globale à un ensemble de pratiques textuelles liées à la notion de limite ou de frontière. Opérant un changement de perspective, la seconde partie de l’étude s’attarde à la violence ainsi qu’aux modalités et implications de sa mise en texte dans une étude croisée de l’acte créateur et de la pratique de lecture. À partir de la théorie du sacrifice élaborée par René Girard dans La violence et le sacré, et faisant dialoguer certains textes importants d’auteurs divers (Aristote, Nietzsche, Artaud, Foucault, Derrida et Adorno), l’analyse vise à inscrire la littérarité du texte koltésien dans une entreprise plus vaste ayant à voir avec la violence, sa régulation et sa diffusion. Au carrefour des études théâtrales, de la littérature et de la philosophie, cette réflexion cherche à concevoir le théâtre de Koltès (particulièrement Roberto Zucco) comme un sacrifice rituel, afin de mieux en comprendre le rapport au réel et certaines de ses particularités du point de vue du mécanisme cathartique.

Traffic fatalities and public sector corruption

Traffic accidents result in 1 million deaths annually worldwide, though the burden is disproportionately felt in poorer countries. Typically, fatality rates from disease and accidents fall as countries develop. Traffic deaths, however, regularly increase with income, at least up to a threshold level, before declining. While we confirm this by analyzing 1,356 country-year observations between 1982 and 2000, our purpose is to consider the role played by public sector corruption in determining traffic fatalities. We find that such corruption, independent of income, plays a significant role in the epidemics of traffic fatalities that are common in relatively poor countries.

The role of agregate demand and supply shocks in a low-income country : evidence from Bangladesh

This paper explores the relative role of aggregate demand and supply shocks in affecting the output level and inflation rate in a low-income country vulnerable to various economic shocks. The study uses Bangladesh data, and following Cover et al (2006), employs a modification of the Blanchard-Quah (BQ) approach, in which the two shocks are allowed to be correlated. Strong evidence is found for the hypothesis that aggregate demand and supply shocks are interrelated in Bangladesh. For the case in which causality is assumed to be running from demand to supply shocks, it was found that an independent supply shock plays significant role for fluctuations in inflation, which was absent in the standard BQ model. The results suggest that a tightening of monetary policy may lead to an adverse effect on the long-run growth potential and some supply-side policies may be required to supplement contractionary monetary policy in combating inflation in Bangladesh.

Holocentric chromosomes: convergent evolution, meiotic adaptations, and genomic analysis

In most eukaryotes, the kinetochore protein complex assembles at a single locus termed the centromere to attach chromosomes to spindle microtubules. Holocentric chromosomes have the unusual property of attaching to spindle microtubules along their entire length. Our mechanistic understanding of holocentric chromosome function is derived largely from studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, but holocentric chromosomes are found over a broad range of animal and plant species. In this review, we describe how holocentricity may be identified through cytological and molecular methods. By surveying the diversity of organisms with holocentric chromosomes, we estimate that the trait has arisen at least 13 independent times (four times in plants and at least nine times in animals). Holocentric chromosomes have inherent problems in meiosis because bivalents can attach to spindles in a random fashion. Interestingly, there are several solutions that have evolved to allow accurate meiotic segregation of holocentric chromosomes. Lastly, we describe how extensive genome sequencing and experiments in nonmodel organisms may allow holocentric chromosomes to shed light on general principles of chromosome segregation.

The dramatick works of Beaumont and Fletcher;

Cont. Fair maid of the inn. Cupid's revenge.--v. 10. Two noble kinsmen. Tragedy of Thierry and Theodorey. Woman-hater. Nice valour, or, the passionate madman. Honest man's fortune. Masque. Four plays, or moral representations, in one.