Augustine The Way at Villanova
Published: 3 June 2018
Throughout 2018 events are taking place to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of Villanova College.
Augustine The Way: available as a CD.
With this in mind, the Hanrahan Theatre on the campus of Villanova College at Coorparoo (Brisbane) was the venue of a ground-breaking concert on Friday and Saturday evenings, 1 – 2 June 2018. The concert is named The Way, or more formally Augustine: The Way. Songs of Love, Loss and Liberation. The stage production is the fruit of twenty-five years of creativity led by Mr Tony MacPherson, who was a Villanova teacher for twenty-seven years (1984-2010).
Curtain call at Augustine the Way. Villanova College, 1-2 June 2018.
The concert featured seventeen vocal compositions by Tony, which together portrayed Augustine’s life and loves in a way that captures his humanity and emotions. Various stagecraft techniques were used to engage the audience: song, music, lighting, movement, visual effects and voice-over. This combination led the audience to experience the life, the passion and the sheer potency of Augustine as sensed in the writings of his “Confessions” from which key excerpts were interspersed throughout the concert.
The performances at Villanova in June 2018 were different from the original production there a year ago on Friday, 19 May 2017 because this year’s presentation featured on stage a father and son combination; St Augustine and his son Adeodatus were played by Simon Hyland (a Villanova past pupil) and his son, who is following in his father’s footsteps and developing a history of performance in professional musical productions.
Copies of the CD Augustine: the Way may be ordered from Villanova for $20, with $10 being contributed to AFAS Elders, Villanova’s overseas development project. Contact by e-mail villa@vnc.qld.edu.au or phone (07) 3394 5690.
