She Said Theatre. Live From TandanyaTheatre. 2 Mar 2016
“We were brought up to believe we were orphans.”
Brought up to believe living, breathing, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers were strangers or dead. Brought up to believe a connection to flesh and blood family and community did not exist. Brought up to forget what memories there were.
HART leaves the politics of this issue at the door, instead inviting inside very human social realities, experiences, and value of family which are absolutely universal. Performer/co writer Ian Michael’s solo performance gives voice to the stories and experiences of three Noongar men, including Michael’s.
A point to consider: This reality applied to young English children sent to Australia during World War II, who never returned to England in many cases. Those that did on realising their family were still alive, heading back to reunite, were too late.
The reality of those young English children from one small parcel of history is still being dealt with by children of Australia’s first peoples.
The Stolen Generation ‘label’, rightly describing a cyclical process of destructive social engineering experienced over decades, has limited capability to encapsulate fully the evil resulting from the destruction of family bonds, community union and a secure sense of place and being. It is something all people and cultures take as a central right of their existence, as evidence of the wholeness of life. HART fills that need.
Designer Chloe Greaves’ simple but so powerful set of a white ochre circle with a chair in the middle, and Shannah McDonald’s exquisitely balanced lighting, gives the production a uniquely blended sense of traditional ceremonial space and Greek amphitheatre.
Herein Michael’s proudly and passionately clothes his being in the stories of others and his own.
The Greek theatre allusion continues, in that this production offers one of the most brilliant prologues to the main body of work. It allows Michael to directly invite the audience into an experience, give them permission to catch the sense of feeling and loss he is charged with communicating, and to allow themselves not to worry about what point in time, or whose story is being related.
Michael’s and co-writer Seanna van Helten’s text is respectfully and beautifully crafted. In performance, Michael is so strong, so true, so giving and spiritually honest. He marries his experiences and those whose lives of which he tells with a sense of the common value of family shared by all.
There is no hate. There is anger tempered sadness - as there should be. There is hope as well, and above all, an invitation for his family, his community to be at one with ours as we can together heal the wounds of this shameful time in history not yet fully dealt with.
David O’Brien
When: 2 to 13 March
Where: Live From TandanyaTheatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
