Coastal forest with bowls and a small theatre, 20 April, 2020

The architecture of ancient Greek and Roman theatres has preoccupied me for decades, working with an excavation team in Cyprus. 'Theatron' in Greek means 'a place for seeing', a place where the people of a town could congregate to cycles of plays with exagerrated versions of people they knew in everyday life such as the  lustful old man, the young woman sometimes of dubious morality,  the young man, fool in love, and the old woman as harridan.  Here in the Illawarra, the stage is set, but with trees as the main protagonists, trees filling the cavea or auditorium of the hills, waiting for action in the curved orchestra, the sea.  When you live on an island, change comes from the sea. The environment itself (or herself)is now the main character in the ongoing drama.

Diana Wood Conroy, 'Coastal forests with bowls and a small theatre' Watercolour on Arches paper, 15 x 21 cm, 20 April, 2020.