Latrobe Workshops
Here are the latest additions to our growing body of work! Enjoy this fabulous collection of reviews from the Latrobe Everyone’s a Critic group.
This is Living – A Review by Jessie McCormack
As part of the 10 Days on the Island festival, Big hART (a company dedicated to making art around Australia in areas where people wouldn’t have much of a opportunity to do so otherwise) put on a production entitled This is Living, which has been described as “a local history of intimacy”, challenging viewers to find answers to questions such as ‘do our elderly often feel invisible?’, ‘what is living for the elderly and dying?’, and ‘why are older people scared of youth, and vice-versa?’
Director Scott Rankin describes it as “much more than a performance piece; it acts as a magnet for creativity reaching back in time through thousands of archived photographs, through oral histories from individuals, families, and organizations, but it also reaches forward through the lives and skills of younger people in each community.”
The entire presentation began even before the audience entered the theatre, with live music from the local brass band and skating demonstrations on the grounds in front of the entrance. Once the audience was seated the play begun at its end, and then flashed back to its beginning so as to fill the audience in on the rest of the story. The plot was told in the centre of the performing space, but there were all sorts of other things going on around the centre, not connected, and yet complimentary to the main story, which gave the whole presentation the feeling of being just one story in a rich, dynamic history.
The cast were divided into three parts; the first being the three actors who were playing the main story. Bruce Myles played Morgan, a recently retired man who once had a passion for photography. When he discovers his forgotten collection of black-and-white photos which he took when he was younger in an old box, he attempts to set up an exhibition, much to the dismay of his wife, Jan.
Jan was played by Anne Grigg. She had always wanted to travel, but instead found herself as a typical housewife cooking and cleaning for her husband. During the production, she became determined not to do it anymore.
Finally, Morgan’s best friend Ron was played by Lex Marinos. Trying his best to keep Morgan out of trouble, Ron attempted to convince his friend that the bowling club is a better option than pie-in-the-sky dreams such as a photography exhibition. Ron had also been to hospital a couple of times for some tests, the results of which aren’t very good for him; and to top it all off, he had a very serious secret which he has tried to hide from Morgan for years.
The performance of each actor wasn’t completely convincing, however this didn’t matter, as the production seems to be more about making a point than putting on a world-class performance, and the acting was still remarkably good.
The second part of the cast was the ‘witnesses’ or ‘ghosts’; elderly people who shared their part in the local history at various points throughout the production. They were the memories of the town, and their stories about their first dance, experience in their father’s butcher shop, favourite tree to climb when they were children, or something similar, were complimented by old photos on screens either side of the stage.
Finally the seemingly oblivious youth situated at the very rear of the stage were the third part of the cast. Their short episodes of skating, moshing, and extremely loud metal music framed the whole presentation, functioning as ‘punctuation’ by separating each scene of the plot.
Also included in the production were The Dunaways, a band that provided the backing music for Jan’s songs, as well as instrumental music which set the mood for each scene very effectively.
Obviously, the main themes of this production are about growing older and making the most of life, but there were also subtle themes which one only realizes when they are deeply thought about. The lighting, for example, was set up to look similar to photography studio lights, which along with the slides complimenting the stories of the witnesses, fitted in with Morgan’s hobby of photography. The stage had been extended with a circular sloping platform. Together with the fact that the plot had started at its end, gone back to the beginning and back to the end again, it hinted at the theme of the cycle of life. This theme was also enhanced by the witnesses at ground level, below the stage and its circular extension in the muted light, representing the faded memories of the past, the main actors in the centre of the performing space, telling the story unfolding right now, and representing the well-defined present, and the young people situated far away from the audience, at the dimly and inconsistently lit back of the stage, representing flickering glimpses of the future. The cycle-of-life theme was brought to an ultimate climax at the very end, with a young child playing her brass instrument as the entire cast left the theatre. As the performing had started outside with the local brass band, we had once again been brought right back to the beginning.
‘This is Living’ from the inside - Mary Kille
An experience as a ‘Witness’.
Apart from an unremarkable performance as a forget-me-knot fairy at the ages of five, (I can still recall the words, and the fear!) I have never appeared on stage.
However, when invited, for unspecified reasons, to turn up at the Railway Institute Hall in Wynyard on a frigid day last September, I found an assortment of people whose commonality appeared to be that they were “elderly” and that they were all, apart from me, accomplished singers.
At this and subsequent sporadic sessions, we were worked upon by Associate Director Chris Mead, and the lovely choreographer Kelly Alexander, and were taught gently, and with humour, to express with our bodies, regret, delight, and grief, either individually, or in groups. Most significantly, we were given encouragement to physically touch each other as a way of showing these feelings.
Great care was taken to ensure we warmed up gently, and did not injure ourselves, but yet were able to develop a relaxed and intimate style and relationship with each other.
We became, over the weeks, a tightly integrated group, caring deeply for each other, and aware of the stresses, difficulties, and minor triumphs we experienced.
Came the performances, and, in spite of all the reassurances and training, we were all taut and challenged.
But some amazing minor moments occurred, as when Terry, a retired policeman, fell from his seat to the floor, so realistically, that I wondered whether one of the nearby medicos in the audience might have leapt to his feet and attempted resuscitation. That would have been an interesting test of the director’s aplomb!
Just before the first show, we had been issued with a form of indemnity from injury and death during the performance process. We were all ‘aged’ and were placed under considerable stress, so the lawyers probably had given reasonable advice!
I, for one, have changed already, in my attitude to the young skaters whizzing along the streets of Wynyard; and I, and others, no longer feel their presence threatening, and are happy to talk with them about their experience in the show. We hope they, too, regard us slightly differently, as people whose memories have validity.
Review by Alastair Yeates
Big hART’s, This Is Living, directed and written by Scott Rankin is a bravely confronting, yet beautiful play in which young and old are brought together to paint a complex picture of life and love in an ageing society.
This Is Living made this reviewer think more deeply about his life than any play has done for quite some time. There were definitely issues in there that I did not want to think about but I was forced to by this play. There is one message in particular that struck me and will continue to do so away for this play: that is, we all get old, there’s no escaping it. Yes, I know that’s a bit obvious but let me finish, some people let it get the better of them, age overcomes them and they just give in to the inevitable, give into the cycle of birth, life and death. But there are others who still have the vitality of youth within them, even though the exterior isn’t really up to scratch.
The linking between the young and the old provided a surprisingly effective contrast with the scene changes masked by artists in the form of beanie-wearing skaters and blasting heavy metal music. Not realising the significance of this until later on in the performance I must admit I was surprised and confused as to what the point of this was. However as the play progressed, it was more obvious that there was “method behind their madness”, as it were. This incorporation shows that even though the age gap is wide the youth of “then” and the youth of “now” are not really that different: they fell in love, we fall in love, they danced, we “mosh”. You can see a pattern forming now can’t you?
The stage design honed in on the very crux of the play. The round was the centrepiece of the set and was striking in its contribution to the deeper meaning of the play. Throughout the performance the idea of a cycle was reinforced over and over again and the stage was defiantly a focal point for this: life is not a straight line, from beginning to end but a circle, birthing, living, dying and then the cycle begins anew.
The lighting designer, Nicholas Higgins, created an ambience that complemented the performance superbly. This play is about unwrapping the stories surrounding someone to find the real person inside and what better way to do that in something as intimate and as revealing as a photo shoot? This was complete with a lighting crane and mobile flash bulbs providing the somewhat dim lighting and I thought this kept some of the actor’s more detailed expressions shrouded in shadow. This would have been a major technical error in many other plays but not this one. It was only minor. It did distance the audience from the characters slightly but it allowed the audience to focus more on the unravelling of the characters’ stories rather than the physical elements of the actors. It is a very fine balance between the two but it just didn’t weigh up in Thursday’s performance.
The highlight of the night for this reviewer was most definitely the gripping performance of the three actors: Bruce Myles playing “Morgan”, Anne Grigg playing “Jan” and Lex Marinos playing “Ron”. However this success was only revealed for the second act. In the very beginnings of the play, when Grigg’s microphone malfunctioned, the confidence seemed to flow out of not only the main characters but the band and supporting actors too.
A highly respected reviewer once said “Great theatre dies as it is born”, unfortunately it wasn’t even born in the first act. Second act, compared to the first was the swan compared to the ugly duckling-stunning.
Grigg dominated the stage as “Jan” and her highlight of the night was her captivating poem, expressing her innermost feelings or wistfulness, grief, happiness and love. However the standout of the night was “Ron”. Marinos played this part with virtuosity capturing his audience in Ron’s struggle to survive, and the slow descent into near immobility due to his debilitating disease. What really stuck me personally in Marinos’ performance was that even in scenes with gut-wrenching sadness, he had the ability to still make the audience laugh at Ron’s roguish nature, which to me is an exceptional achievement.
This is Living - Review by Kelcie Meldrum
(Editor’s note: there was a technical hitch in the opening scene of the performance seen by this reviewer – main actor Anne Grigg’s audio microphone failed for a short period causing some confusion for both tech crew and the audience: a point referred to by Kelcie Meldrum in this review)
Big hART in collaboration with Ten Days on the Island has returned to the stage yet again with the performance This is Living, a confronting and thought provoking play. Written and directed by Scott Rankin this play explores the concept of living and the contrasts between the youth and elderly in today’s society.
On par with Big hART’s regular tradition, the performance involves a mixture of local community members from around the North-West coast of Tasmania and semi-professional actors. This touring production, as the title suggests, delves into the issues raised from the question: what is living? The confronting but everyday situations that are enacted by this skilled cast cause the audience to reflect on their own lives and how they would respond to what has been put before them. The emotional connection between the actors and the audience is enhanced because they witness an issue that could have been their own.
The set construction was artistically construed with the use of a circular stage representing the cycle of life while adding a different dimension to the show by incorporating something unlike the everyday stage. Memories are like snapshots of your life imprinted in your brain, thus explaining the use of photography throughout the show and the remainder of the set being symbolic of a photo-shoot of the actors’ lives. The two large light bulbs flashing when memories are recalled, and the overhead crane casting shadows on the actors as these memories fade. The overall effect of the lighting increased the intensity of the mood in moments of stress; however the minor flaw with this lighting outlay was that it detracted from the actor’s expressions portrayed on the actor’s faces and sometimes caused difficulty in differentiating who was speaking.
The final form of setting used is the community members, who played shadows wandering around the cycle of life, being so close to the living yet not disturbing it in any way. The concept of the setting was beautifully thought out and in nearly all elements added to the feel of the show. The only criticism would be that, at times, the setting became overcrowded which made deciding on the focal point a hard task for audience members.
The live music from The Dunaways became an essential part of the performance despite the minimalistic slip of overpowering the actors at the beginning of the show. This was soon corrected however and the music was exquisite for the remainder of the show adding to the overall mood felt; especially a feeling of intimacy between the cast and the audience.
The first half of the performance lacked emotional connection due to the cast morale falling slightly due to technical errors which resulted in a safe first half. To the cast’s credit they recovered well for the second half and regained their connection to the audience which resulted in tangible emotion felt in the theatre.
During this second act, the performance of the three main characters played by Annie Grigg, Bruce Myles and Lex Marinos was a definite highlight. The high intensity of the characters emotions encompassed the audience shrouding the room in a stunned silence. Grieg’s defining moment in this performance was when she expressed her emotions, baring her soul in her heartfelt poem. Despite this, the standout of the night was Marinos as ‘Ron’: his struggle to survive this character’s problems was hauntingly captivating. His control and courage in playing ‘Ron’ was an outstanding credit showing his obvious talent.
Credit must also go to the writer of the show as the dialogue used was ideal in portraying the issues the show raised, while also being cleverly written as to imply incidents which are open to audience interpretation without openly stating what has occurred.
This is Living offers a strong, emotional and thought provoking performance. The cast and crew have done a magnificent job in pulling this together and it is a show that I would recommend for the younger and older generations of our society as it presents a fascinating insight into life.
‘This is Living’ critique by Mary Kille
Wynyard 2009
So, what was in the mind of writer and director Scott Rankin when he embarked on the production of This is Living (‘a local history of intimacy coming to a town near you?’
I had seen his earlier show, Love Zombies at the Wynyard High School in November 2008, and so was prepared for a complex and arresting combination of lighting, sound, choreography and highly unusual theatrical devices.
However, even after five months of increasing involvement as a ‘Witness’, and even after the dress rehearsal, I was still in the dark as to his intentions.
Only when the first night revealed the mix of street theatre and high drama, and, most significantly the role of two alienated sections of society, the teenagers and the old, did I feel that this was an important and life-changing experiment.
Here were represented the past, present and future: the past, a group of drably-clad, detached, dissimilar elderly people, ‘the Witnesses’, acting as a Greek chorus in a play by Aristophanes, subtly recalling their own personal memories but powerless to control the present, and with no understanding of the future.
The present dominated the stage, a challenging, tilted wooden oval, on which three professional actors, Bruce Myles, Lex Marinos, and Anne Grigg, played out a triangular story of tragedy, not of epic proportions, but of fairly ordinary people making life-changing decisions.
At a higher level, behind the black veil of a curtain on the conventional stage, was our future: the teenagers, many accomplished skate-boarders, recruited from the streets and persuaded that their role was of the highest importance. They played a very exacting part, having to remain still and silent for most of two hours, but ready, on their cues, for instant response, with exuberant displays of their wild, balletic art.
The music of the Dunaways, haunting and beautiful, complemented every aspect of the play, as did the sound, designed by Andrew Poppleton, and the lighting by Nicholas Higgins.
I was so privileged, as were all the amateur actors, to play a minor part in such a significant production.
The effect on the citizens of the four towns, so fortunate to host this event, Wynyard, Latrobe, Glenorchy and Franklin, will last for a long time, as it indeed fulfilled the director’s perceived intention, to change lives.
This is Living
A Play by Scott Rankin with Big hART
Review by Mrs Elizabeth Curtis
Adam and Eve and the Serpent were the perpetrators of the ‘Eternal Triangle’. In legend, as in real life, it has been a contentious issue in every society throughout the ages.
In his play This is Living, Scott Rankin has treated it in a novel manner. The central characters are an ageing married couple and a man who is a long-time friend of both husband and wife.
The complex nature of the relationship is revealed when there are a number of crises which affect them all. In addition, there is an undercurrent which hints that: ‘Things are seldom what they seem.’ This is made manifest by some good ‘by-play’, when the two men reminisce over some old photographs.
The quality performance of all three actors - by both voice and manner - clearly defines the characters they are portraying.
The arrangement of the set is unique, as is the deployment of the other players - old and young - and their respective activities, which symbolise time: past and present.
The music is appropriate, adjusting in tone and volume to suit the mood of the moment. The off-stage sound effects are electrifying!
The unforeseen resolution of their problem followed by the reconciliation, leads to a satisfactory ending of the play. This is a thought-provoking experience of theatre to savour.
THIS IS LIVING
A review by Angela McDermott
31/03/09
‘This IS living!’ Scott Rankin: you’ve hit the nail on the head. Around and around it goes, the cycle of life, like the broad wooden disk on which Anne Grigg, Bruce Myles and Lex Marinos remind us what it’s all about.
Premiering as part of Ten Days on the Island 2009 and presented by Big hART, This Is Living takes a look at intimacy in its various forms.
The Latrobe Federal Band greeted guests with classic tunes and skateboarders entertained the audience with their daring skills outside the Latrobe Memorial Hall
The program represents a roll of film and the set, a photographer’s studio, designed to depict a theme of history in pictures. Images of life are revisited, recalling vivid memories and awakening intense emotions. You may be drawn into a vortex of reflection only to be tossed out again to face the reality of now.
The sloping circular stage suggests a camera lens through which we can see into the lives of the characters. A level centrepiece serves as a dais, a desk and a seat for a smooch. Hidden within are secrets and memories of a life linked to newsworthy moments of local history.
Like interlacing loops, the plot paves a path you’d find in any town. It is your option to skate over the top or stop, and peer into the nooks and crannies. You may recall a place or a time, because this is your life, your town and these are your people.
Framed by the naivety of youth and haunting memories of days gone by, a couple breaks the seal on secret and suspicion; a snapshot of life as it is now, always was and always will be.
Anne Grigg gracefully voices song and poem equally with ease. Lex Marinos once again excels in his art, depicting his character rich in light and shade. Bruce Myles completes the ménage a trios, successfully complementing the other two participants. Inclusion of local elderly and youth in the production certainly gives a genuine touch along with research into regional history, photos and locations.
The Dunaways weave felicitous tunes through the two acts, contrasted with brief blasts of youthful metal music breaking the scenes to remind us of who is watching.
More than once I was distracted by painful flashbacks when snippets of my own history were wrenched from their slumber in shattering sound and agonising graphics because this is my life, my town, and yes, these are my people. Don’t let that possibility stop you seeing the play – the point is we may all suffer in varying degrees but we are not alone.
Gratefully, I was transported again to a time of joy with humour when happy recollections were revisited. Mention of familiar haunts stirred the occasional stifled chuckle of ‘been there, done that’.
by Angela McDermott
