Michael Gow

For the British general, see Michael Gow (British Army officer).

Michael Gow is an Australian playwright and director most famed for his 1986 work Away.

As a student at Sydney University, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973-1976. After graduation, Gow went on to act with Nimrod, Thalia and Sydney Theatre Companies.

He was the Artistic Director at the Queensland Theatre Company from 1999 until 2010. Productions he directed for the company include: Private Fears in Public Places, John Gabriel Borkman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2007); The Importance of Being Earnest, Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome: A Shakespeare Commentary, I Am My Own Wife, (2008); The School of Arts and The Crucible (2009).

Away is the story of three Australian families who go on holiday "up the coast" for Christmas 1967 as a remedy to personal crises, whose story threads eventually interconnect. The families cross the class and social divides: one is in a smart hotel, another is at the local caravan park; another is in the throes of possible divorce. These factors are woven into a story of love and loss that allows a young boy and girl to taste first love and the pain of death while their parents cope, more or less, with the consequences. It remains a landmark of Australian contemporary drama and the best of Gow's earlier work.

Europe is also an intriguing work as a young man and a European actress of uncertain age meet in her dressing room.

Gow had not written a full-length play for ten years while fully engaged as artistic director of QTC – Queensland Theatre Company – then produced Toy Symphony in 2007, which received its world premiere production at Belvoir St Theatre. It was a critical and popular success, starring Richard Roxburgh in his first stage role for some years. Toy Symphony is a further exploration of Gow's Shire roots and much else besides. The production won four Sydney Theatre Awards: Best Mainstage Production, Best Director (Neil Armfield), Best Actor (Richard Roxburgh) and Best Supporting Actress (Monica Maughan).

Works

• The Kid (1983)
• The Astronaut’s Wife (1985)
• Away (1986)
• 17 (N/A)
• On Top Of The World (1987)
• Europe (1987)
• 1841 (1988)
• All Stops Out (1989)

• Furious (1994)
• Sweet Phoebe (1994)
• Live Acts On Stage (1996)
• Up Here (2004)
• The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, adapted from the novel by Henry Handel Richardson (2004)
• Toy Symphony (2007)
• Once in Royal David's City (2014)

External links

• Internet Movie Database - Michael Gow
• titles on www.australianplays.org