Overland 254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today. Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life.
Shaun Charles is a produced and published playwright. His play Rio Saki and Other Falling Debris won the George Landen Dann Award for Queensland playwrights, and is published by Playlab Press. Other works include Paradise the Musical (published by Playlab Press) and the stage adaptations of two Andrew McGahan novels, including the Miles Franklin Award winning The White Earth and Last Drinks (both adaptations are available from Playlab Press). He has also written a libretto for Opera Queensland, Dirty Apple. In the past, he has written various arts articles for The Courier Mail and The Australian and has taught playwriting and theatre studies at Griffith University for a number of years.
