By Ian Robinson. La Mama and Cicero’s Circle Theatre Company. The Street Theatre. 25 Mar 2015
While the debate around asylum seekers in Australia rages on for another year, many human beings remain trapped within this highly politicised space. The Process gives us a taste of what life is like for those living at the centre of this complex web.
Rajoo Mahalingham (Ezekiel Day) is an Oxford educated Sri Lankan Tamil who has arrived in Australia ‘illegally’ by boat, seeking asylum after enduring horrific experiences at the hands of his government.
Somewhat naively for a character written as so well-educated, he comes to Australia with milk and honey dreams of being welcomed with open arms and beginning a better life. However, Rajoo quickly learns that in reality he’s landed in hostile territory, with his desire to resettle in the country aggressively blocked at every turn.
His circumstances go from bad to worse when he is on one hand found by his lawyer (Jessica Muschamp) to be a genuine refugee, but also a security risk – meaning he is now stuck in an intractable legal limbo.
What we then witness is a spirited and hopeful man become systematically broken by the chronic uncertainty and inhumanity of a policy designed to deter people from reaching Australia’s shores.
While the public would now sadly be familiar with accounts such as these, the impact of this play was found in Rajoo’s story unfolding alongside a provocatively blunt translation of the Government’s refugee narrative.
Via the Ministers of the day (both played by veteran Australian actor Sean Scully), media spin is replaced by a satirical, Tourette’s-like honesty regarding the Government’s rationale – not so subtly pointing out the perversities surrounding this issue.
Ezekiel Day is captivating as Rajoo, and brings him to life with a passion and wit that is befitting. You are entirely with him on every step of his journey and he evokes a feeling of being genuinely distraught at his predicament.
Sean Scully playing the melange of Government representatives seemed stilted as first, but in retrospect I think this may have been deliberate to heighten the tension. He possessed a unique dryness that allowed him to pull off this rather cynical line up of characters, but I was especially impressed at his professionalism when the show was briefly delayed due to an emergency within the audience.
Jessica Muschamp, as both the skittish but well-meaning legal aid lawyer and the stone faced psychiatrist, was the perfect embodiment of bureaucracy. She and Day played off of each other beautifully and really served to demonstrate the sense of isolation and hopelessness that can escalate within this unforgiving environment.
All in all, The Process isn’t about offering solutions to this long-standing problem, but is rather a frank contextual piece that offers a bird’s eye view of an issue that is so often fragmented and manipulated for point scoring.
This is intelligent and culturally mature theatre that reflects back to the audience a very different view of Australia to the public image of our nation that we have cultivated and cherished over the years: this is a story of a country that’s both at a crossroads and trapped within a social and political gridlock.
Deborah Hawke
When: 25 to 28 Mar
Where: The Street Theatre
Bookings: thestreet.org.au
