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Director's Notes

Welcome to a part of the Discworld that you have never seen before. Most of our beloved author's stories are set in the main city of Ankh-Morpork which has a distinct feel of Ye Olde England about it. This time we are going to Fourecks - The Last Continent. We are still on the Discworld but far away from the narrow winding grubby streets of Ankh-Morpork, home of the City Watch.

Our journey (unlike the Wizards of Unseen University who manage to transport themselves anywhere and everywhere) has been a long time brewing. We have travelled through 18 other Pratchett plays as well as other off-beat comedies like Ben Elton’s “Gasping” and “Silly Cow”, as well as “Star Trek” and “Men Behaving Badly” since Unseen Theatre Company's inception in 2000. These shows have all run to great critical acclaim and usually full houses. Unseen has also gone out of its usual square to produce Brien Friel’s delightfully heart-warming “Dancing at Lughnasa” with a group of WAAPA graduates combined with local Adelaide professional actors, for the 2006 Adelaide Fringe.

We have now arrived at the oldest, but newest Continent on the Disc. One which we are assured "does not" mirror Australia, despite the fact that our reluctant hero who is transported to a hot, dry red desert invents among other things, a brown gooey substance that tastes good on sandwiches and cork hats during his quest to once again save the Discworld.

I am particularly pleased to present The Last Continent to you tonight because it is the first of Sir Terry Pratchett's novels which I have been given permission to adapt from scratch. I am honoured by his trust in me and am sure that it has nothing to do with an idea which he may or may not have that I know more about Australia than he does:-)

To my cast and crew - thank you for all of your dedicated hard work over the past ten weeks - even though I did have to prop you up with pizza?

To some of Adelaide's well loved critics who have been urging me to write myself for some time - here it finally is. Thanks for your confidence in me and I hope you don't find it, like The Last Continent, "mostly held together with spit". Enjoy!

Pamela Munt – October 2009