Gurr, Michael 1961-

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GURR, Michael 1961-

PERSONAL: Born October 20, 1961, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Education: Attended National Theatre Drama School.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Curtis Brown Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 19, Paddington, 2021 New South Wales, Australia.

CAREER: Writer and dramatist. Playwright-inresidence, Melbourne Theatre Company, 1982; artistic counsel, Playbox Theatre, Melbourne, 1993-95.

AWARDS, HONORS: Victorian Premier's Literary award for drama, 1993, for Sex Diary of an Infidel, and 1997, for Jerusalem,; Green Room award for best play, 1992, for Sex Diary of an Infidel, and 1996, for Jerusalem; New South Wales State Literary award for drama.

WRITINGS:

plays

Magnetic North (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1982), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Victoria, Australia), 1982.

A Pair of Claws (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1982), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Victoria, Australia), 1983.

Dead to the World, (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1986), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Victoria, Australia), 1986.

Worlds Apart, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1987.

These Days, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1988.

The Hundred Year Ambush, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1990.

Sex Diary of an Infidel (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1991), Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1992.

Desirelines, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1993.

Underwear, Perfume, and Crash Helmet (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1994), Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1994.

Jerusalem (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1996), Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1996.

Desire Lines, produced in Brisbane, Australia, 1996.

Shark Fin Soup, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1998.

Something to Declare, performed in Victoria, Australia. 2003.

Julia 3, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 2004.

other

Emmett Stone (television play), 1984.

Departure (screenplay), 1986.

World's Apart (radio play), 1986.

SIDELIGHTS: For more than two decades, award-winning Australian playwright Michael Gurr has explored contemporary moral dilemmas in plays that demonstrate a complicated amalgam of dialog and action. Finding much fodder for literature in the mess of contemporary humanity, Gurr has written over a dozen stage plays. In 1991 his seventh play, Sex Diary of an Infidel, brought him to the forefront of Australian dramatists. This play, whose subject is sexual tourism by Australians in the Philippines, revolves around the activities of a female journalist, an Australian pimp involved with Filipino prostitutes, a male photographer, and a Filipino transsexual.

As relayed in Contemporary Dramatists, Gurr believes that "it's the mess of humanity that's attractive." Several of Gurr's plays deal with political concerns, including Jerusalem, The Hundred Year Ambush, and the political thriller Underwear, Perfume, and Crash Helmet. In these dramas he portrays Australian Liberal party supporters who have caved in to free-market forces and members of the Labour party who have lost the relevance they once had. Even though Gurr's political and social concerns are clearly evident, as in his other plays, the characters must still suffer the consequences of their moral decisions.

In his 2003 production, Julia 3, main character Julia is an elegant and rich widow who invites her three concurrent lovers to her husband's funeral.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Dramatists, sixth edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

periodicals

Australian Drama Studies, October, 1994, Helen Gilbert, "Occidental (Sex) Tourists: Michael Gurr's Sex Diary of an Infidel" pp. 177-188; April, 1995, Helen Gilbert and Melinda Mawson, "Pulling the Rug out from under Your Feet" (interview), pp. 22-35.