SIXTEEN WORDS FOR WATER  (A Play about Ezra Pound)
 
By Billy Marshall Stoneking (Published by Harper/Collins, Australia, 1991)
 
 
 
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Excerpts from Preview:
 
Sixteen Words for Water   by Billy Marshall-Stoneking 
Sixteen Words for Water, adapted for radio from Billy Marshall-Stoneking's acclaimed stage play, tells the story of the modernist poet Ezra Pound. Pound, an American citizen, made broadcasts on Italian radio during the Second World War. In 1943 he was arrested by the American authorities and indicted on a charge of treason. In order to escape the death penalty which this charge carried, his friends persuaded him to plead insanity. The court upheld this plea, but instead of releasing Pound, the court confined him for 13 years to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C., an institution that housed the criminally insane. 
 
Using Billy Marshall-Stoneking's powerful and poetic text, the original words of Pound's wartime broadcasts, and the music of George Antheil and Steve Adam, the play explores twentieth century politics, language, and the definition of the self. 
 
Excerpt from Time Out:
 
Theatre 
Sixteen Words for Water 
 
  Billy Marshall-Stoneking's play, 'Sixteen Words for Water' is a literary and poetic tour de force. It follows the poet Ezra Pound, who was persuaded to plead insanity to escape the death penalty when charged with treason on his return to the US after World War II. . Stoneking's play charts the poet's obsessive idealism through the exploration of his relationship with two women: a Justice Department psychiatrist and Betsy, a strange young woman who visits him. The play is the closest thing to Shakespeare we have yet seen from a modern-day playwright and is not to be missed. Presented by the Celtic Mouse Theatre Company, the play stars Vincent McCabe as Ezra Pound, with Gail Fitzpatrick as the psychiatrist and Laura Brennan as Betsy. Until Apr 29, Tue-Sun 8pm, Crypt Arts Centre, Dublin Castle, D2 (353 1 6713387) 
 
 
BILLY MARSHALL STONEKING 
 
Born in the United States (8/31/47) . Marshall-Stoneking has been called "one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Australian literature". He is the author of seven books, including Singing the Snake:Poems from the Western Desert and the internationally acclaimed stage play, Sixteen Words for Water (Harper/Collins). He has written and produced four major documentary films detailing his experiences during the five years he lived with Aboriginal tribal people in Central Australia. In 1988, he was awarded the prestigious Bill Harney Prize for Poetry. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature refers to him as "not only one of Australia's most exciting performance poets. but also one of its best "page-poets."). His poems have been anthologized in Off The Page (Penguin Books), The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse (ed by Les Murray), The Penguin Book of Contemporary Australian Poetry (ed by John Tranter), and were featured in ABC-TVs ground-breaking documentary film, Call It Poetry. His plays have been produced in London, Seattle, Vienna, Sydney, New Zealand, and Dublin. and his books translated into eight languages. 
 
On-line copies of the play SIXTEEN WORDS FOR WATER are available free.  Send email address to [log in to unmask]
 
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From 24 Hours:
 
Baby
Poet and dramatist Billy Marshall-Stoneking is among the most powerful voices in contemporary Australian writing. His play Sixteen Words for Water has been a major success in Australian literary theatre, and another new short play, Baby, is Radio National's Box Seat Wednesday Play this week.