In 1922 the writer Katherine Mansfield went to the guru Gurdjieff in Fontainebleau hoping that he might ‘cure her soul’. In present day Sydney, a young man awakes in hospital to find a world dominated by women. As each struggles to discover their true identity, their separate stories intriguingly interweave.
Alma De Groen’s The Rivers of China is a daring re-examination of the female artist which challenges the threshold of modern sexual politics and theatrical form.
Winner of the 1988 NSW Premier's Literary Award - Play Award.
ALMA DE GROEN'S early plays feature in the history of some of Australia's most iconic and ground-breaking theatre companies such as Nimrod in Sydney, and The Pram Factory in Melbourne. Her plays, apart from Chidley and The Afterlife of Arthur Cravan, focus on female emotional identity in works such as The Sweatproof Boy, The Joss Adams Show, Perfectly All Right, Going Home, Vocations, The Rivers of China, The Girl Who Saw Everything, The Woman in the Window (included in Lucy Kerbel's 100 Great Plays for Women) and Wicked Sisters. Along with cities throughout Australia, her work has been seen in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Asia, the Czech Republic and Poland. She has been writer-in-residence at universities in Queensland and Western Australia and Rollins College in Florida. Television writing includes Man of Letters, After Marcuse, Singles, and Rafferty's Rules. Her writing for radio includes Available Light and the Australian 1996 Prix Italia entry Stories in the Dark (with Ian Mackenzie). Awards include AWGIES for theatre and television, the NSW Premier's Award for Drama and the Louis Essen Prize for Drama in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. She was the first playwright to receive the Patrick White Literary Award.
| Cast Info | 3F, 4M |
| Genres | Surreal/magic realism |
| Themes | Gender diverse themes |
| Audiences | Adult, Secondary: Years 10-12 |
| Extent | 82 |
| Edition | Standard |
| Size | 123 x 206 mm |