This one's a keeper.(Theater Review)

VIVIENNE WALSHE GOD'S LAST ACRE CURRENT THEATRE SFRIES, CURRENCY PRESS, SYDNEY, IN ASSOCIATION WITH PEAYBOX THEATRE, MELBOURNE, 2003.

How many theatre programmes do we have to buy before baulking at the horrendous price and crying 'Nevermore! Nevermore!'. Currency Press in conjunction with Playbox have come up with a neat alternative in their Current Theatre Series; small books containing the entire play and first performance notes, cast details and information about the Playbox Theatre. Pretty much everything you would get in a theatre programme without all the ads.

The version of the text is as it is presented on day one of rehearsal, and any changes that are made as a result of further workshopping can be incorporated into new editions published by Currency, if the author so wishes. As a lover of scripts, I find this a generous solution to the emptiness and disposability of today's programmes, and the small format is a joy to store. You can't always assume that your treasured programme collection will turn up on Antiques Road-show with a huge memorabilia value tacked on. Besides, any move to that groovy minimalist inner-city warehouse apartment will demand that papers etc., will be the first to go. But not these little Currency Press books. They'll survive on my shelf up there to the right of the Shakespeares, Shaws, Synges, and it will be these that I will …