Adelaide Festival. Slingsby/As told by Edgell Juniour. 3 Mar 2023
One Flying Squad of artists, collaborating with Co-Directors Andy Packer and Clara Solly-Slade have taken Vanuatu’s Edgell Junior’ story of surviving Category 5 Cyclone Pam in 2015 and fashioned from it a significant work of community building and awareness.
The River That Ran Uphill is a simple thing of beauty evoking everyday life of Vanuatu’s culture, stories, and complex interactions with Australia and the world at large.
Great theatrical story experiences flow. Packer and Solly-Slade’s production does this superbly.
Edgell Junior is front and centre of the work. His script is alive with one on one, deep hearted conversational spirit scoping up the audience close to him in rapt attention.
Flying Squad artists Alexis West, Delia Olam, Jennifer Stefanidis, Josh Campton and Elleni Karagiannidis flow around Junior, bringing to life the world of Vanuatu fashioned so wonderfully with Set Designer Wendy Todd. Quincy Grant’s score unobtrusively, melodically washes in and out of the action like inrushing, receding waves; sheets of blue hessian as a wild sea; slats of hand held corrugated iron flowing about to construct simple buildings and illustrate destruction. From Lighting Designer Darian Tregenza, a miniature village model scrim projected with a fish tank of water illustrating flooding. Shadow puppetry.
At the heart of this intense experience is the sense of terror and stoic inevitability of dangerous circumstances the environment of Vanuatu regularly confronts its people.
Edgell Junior’s tale is a celebration as much as a plea for greater real understanding and true support for a people where the soccer field he played on as a child has in 20 years disappeared under water. So much more is threatened.
David O’Brien
When: 1 to 6 Mar
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
