Review: Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen

As published in the Sun Herald.


Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 29 August
Tickets $30-50
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


The days when children were seen and not heard died about the same time as the baby boomers started to have their first offspring.

Now their grandchildren are in their teens and this new generation will not only be heard but will be heard loudly.

The brazenly titled Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen, from the Belgian group Ontroerend Goed, proves that what seems like teenage anarchy is quite simply ritual – a ritual we have all experienced. Maybe it’s a ritual we wish we could have over again.

Entering the space to the sound of the 13 performers who are hidden behind the walls screaming and banging memories come flooding back of mad bus rides home in the back seat and playground antics.

To the guitar riffs of the Velvet Underground, the teenagers enter the stage in a frenzy of pubescent energy, filling the space with youthful celebration.

With balloons, plastic bags, bottles of water, cups, string, roller skates and other everyday props, a scene is created that may seem chaotic but is orchestrated with absolute precision by director Alexander Devriendt. What the group shows is less about what happens but is more about flourishes in mood and tone as you have moments of love, affection, playfulness, naivety, strength, leadership, loneliness and belonging.

A bell then goes off, the teenagers retreat and the scene is once again played out and your eyes are drawn to any action on stage you may have missed earlier.

Then it is re-interpreted again in a multitude of parades, giving you the time to appreciate how you can see in each young face the child being left behind and the adult coming into focus. Ultimately, however, you start to see a reflection of yourself in days gone past.

But this isn’t just teenage kicks. In a scene more Radiohead than Jose Gonzalez, the ensemble dive deep into the fear of drugs, violence and addiction. It’s a fear for ourselves, for them and, by default, our community. The play then returns to the youthful abandon it began with.

Ignore the Board of Studies and their tired syllabus because this is the type of theatre that every student and teacher in Sydney should be made to go and see.

For those in their teens, as much as for those who are older, it is a delicate and beautiful offering that captures the spring awakening of the next generation and reminds us what it was like to be young.

Count it. One Billion Dollars.

In today's paper;

"THE State Government has agreed to fund a $1 billion project to finally bring the Sydney Opera House in line with its designer's vision.

"Although a deal has yet to be signed with the Opera House board, Treasury officials indicated two weeks ago that the Government was willing to provide the money needed for the restoration."

One billion dollars. That's one expensive photo opportunity.

The saddest part of this is that only two months ago the State Government through their funding agency, Arts NSW, signed off on the death of four major regional music festivals - the Bellingen Jazz Festival, the Tyalgum Festival, the Bangalow Festival and the Camden Haven Music Festival.

To give this some perspective, the Bellingen Jazz Festival last year received $11,000. Similar amounts were cut from these other festivals.

At the time, director of the Camden Haven Music Festival Alvena Ferguson said, "while the Sydney Festival, which engages mainly overseas performers, received in excess of $4 million, many regional events such as ours, which contribute so much to the economic and cultural life of country communities, have not been supported".

No doubt Mrs Ferguson will be breathless at today's announcement.

Just imagine for a second what you would do with $1 Billion. We all know there are major problems at the Opera House which need to be rectified. We all know of the importance of this cultural icon which is recognisable around the world. But at a time when household income is dropping and a recession is about to take hold, wouldn't this money be better spent on community, regional and grass roots arts and music programmes?

$1 Billion could go to Carriageworks to assist them in properly paying young artists for their festivals.

$1 Billion could go to every independent theatre production in the state to assist them in staging costs thereby increasing the share of box office revenue for co-operatives.

$1 Billion could reinstate the role of regional performing arts organisations such as the Northern Rivers Performing Arts to create and tell local stories.

$1 Billion could assist Councils across the state to implement programmes of creative renewal such as the one now happening with Renew Newcastle.

$1 Billion could be filtered to local community theatres like ShopFront to expand their youth contemporary arts programmes.

$1 Billion could finance the renovations and rebuilding of theatres such as Marian Street and the New Theatre.

$1 Billion could see visual and performing arts programmes implemented in every youth centre in the state.

$1 Billion could see more community access to major arts events and productions off-setting the ticket price for those on lower incomes.

$1 Billion could see the purchase and up keep of the diminishing amount of arts spaces and studios in the inner city.

$1 Billion could finance a state-wide Don Dunstan style of public art programme throughout the state.

$1 Billion could provide musical instruments for every kid in every primary school.

$1 Billion would totally revolutionise the way the arts and music are created and consumed within our state.

Where would you like the $1 Billion to go?

Are independent artists left out... again?

Independent, non-mainstream and youth theatres look to have again been bypassed with the announcement today that the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG or read union for the establishment) are launching a 'Performing Arts Industry Advocacy Campaign'.

AMPAG in association with the Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett, as well as Live Performance Australia, MEAA, Australian Children's Music Foundation, Australian Performing Arts Centres Association and the Australian Network for Art and Technology are launching the campaign at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday.

Independent performance artists and venues, again, have been left out in the cold with no organisation, no unified voice and no representation leaving the major performing arts groups (who get all the government and private funding by the way) to determine the agenda.

It leaves me breathless and oh-so-slightly annoyed that BSharp, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, the Old Fitzroy, Griffin Stablemates, the Storeroom and countless other vulnerable independent organisations around the country, still haven't united under some banner with shared values.

The fact that a campaign is being launched to promote the needs of the performing arts sector and they don't have an organised representation is quite unbelievable.

It just beggar's belief that these organisations haven't come together with some lobbying, fundraising, sponsorship and marketing union to create a powerful voice for what would represent an enormous amount of artists.

So that some media might attend on Wednesday, the launch has a line-up of talent that will be there to endorse the campaign including Brendan Cowell, Don Spencer, Leah Purcell, Tara Morice, John Bell AM, Michael Gow, Richard Evans, William Barton, Craig Pearce and Brett Sheehy.

Not particularly diverse is it.

REVIEW: Constellations

Constellations - PACT Theatre
Downstairs Theatre, Seymour Centre

It’s night time. The downstairs theatre at the Seymour Centre is transformed into an urban space that could be any city in the world where we find six characters loitering in the shadows.

There is one person cross-legged on the floor, another few leaning against the wall, and another standing at a single microphone. Slowly these urban creatures emerge into the night sky and as the lights go down, one by one they light sparklers and come forward to face the audience.

We are introduced, face to face, with the six performers (or storytellers) of Constellations, a piece that was developed out of the creative powerhouse of PACT Theatre. Originally commissioned in 2005, this is the productions 3rd incarnation and it is no wonder why.

Each of these young performers has a story to tell. They are stories that are humorous tales of living in the city, with moments that delve into the despair that can emerge from living in a metropolis of hurried people. But it’s not just any metropolis – it’s Sydney in the 21st century.

We are introduced to an insomniac who expressively explains the agony of insomnia. “Do you know what it feels like not to sleep for fourteen days straight?” There’s a young Palestinian troubled by family expectations who disapprove of his homosexuality as well as a young Sri Lankan ‘metaphysical footballer’ trying to marry his two loves of sport and art.

Then there are the painful stories of a young ‘coloured’ South African who escapes apartheid and has to deal with the consequences of exile from those she loves. There’s the young Aboriginal boy coming to terms with his identity and there are the brilliant anecdotes of a lesbian living it up in Newtown.

Each of these true stories are inspired by the young performers own experiences and are simply and beautifully intertwined into a performance that is not only relevant but evocative. They never play the victim, delivering the stories with a truth that is disarming, for these six actors are my neighbours and I am delighted they shared such a personal journey with me.



This is the full text version of the review that appeared in The Daily Telegraph.

What?! Another forum...

Yes ladies and gentlemen - when one isn't sure how to do something, having a forum on it seems to be de rigeur in Sydney at the moment.

And I hereby announce another forum - yes another one - but this time with the Shadow Arts Minister, Mr Peter Garrett.

Here is the article I wrote in Arts Hub today:

Shadow Arts Minister Peter Garrett's nationwide artist forums will make their way to Sydney after a successful session in Melbourne last Sunday, where over 200 practitioners and stakeholders gathered.

"There was an excellent turn out of local artists and the discussion was lively and passionate, just as you would expect," said Mr Garrett.

"A number of key points were made by artists and we'll certainly be looking to incorporate that feedback into our policy deliberations over the coming months."

In what has been deemed by many as the first serious engagement by a Federal minister with artists from the ground-level, the forums hope to give artists and arts advocates the opportunity to voice their concerns and hopes for the future of Australia’s cultural life.

The forum in Sydney follows a successful City Talk hosted by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore that looked at the creative future vision for the city. That event attracted over 1000 people.

Garrett said the forums were an important component of the Australian Labor Party’s programme of connecting with artists and involving practitioners in determining arts policy.

After previous ALP policies, particularly Creative Nation which received criticism from both within and outside the artistic communities, it will be vital that these forums inform the Shadow Arts Minister of the changes required to further advance the artistic industries.

"As the Shadow Arts Minister it's vital to hear what artists working in our community have to say on the issues that affect them," explained Garrett. "'Your Shout' is a chance for those artists to have their opinions heard and considered."


** This forum has been postponed until further notice**

Well... it's a forum...

Here is a little news article I wrote for ArtsHub that I reckon might be of great interest to all you theatre and arts punters out there.

I know that the last forum I recommended was totally underwhelming, but maybe, just maybe this might be worthwhile.

"What will Sydney’s creative future look like in 2030? That is the question to be asked at the first City Talk presented this year at the Sydney Town Hall on 24 July.

Presented by the City of Sydney and the Sydney Morning Herald, the talk will be compered by 702 ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast host Adam Spencer who will be in discussion with Sydney Festival Director and Chief Executive Fergus Linehan, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor and Company B Artistic Director, Neil Armfield.

'Sydney is the cultural capital of Australia,' Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said, 'and obviously this is a position we would like to keep up to 2030 and beyond.'

This panel discussion with three of the most influential cultural figures of Sydney will look at the future of the city’s creative and cultural life as part of the City of Sydney's Sustainable Futures 2030 project. The outcomes of the public discussion will be then used by the City to further develop a vision for the future.

The Lord Mayor is encouraging public involvement saying, 'this is your opportunity to be part of the discussion about our city's future. Where do we want to be creatively in 2030?' Ms Moore said.

The City of Sydney prides itself on supporting a diverse range of major cultural events including the Sydney Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Art & About, Sydney Writers’ Festival as well as smaller community events.

It has centred much of its support around the City of Villages concept which seeks to create cultural hubs within many of the different sectors of the city. In November last year it announced the Live Lanes Program to ‘breath new life into CBD laneways with a range of creative initiatives to encourage more activity’.

The first City Talk is a free event and will be held on Tuesday 24 July at 8pm at the Sydney Town Hall from 6.30pm.

For more information, CLICK HERE."

Image: City of Sydney Media

So good looking, but like, just so annoying

When I arrived in Slovenia, I was enrolled as a student at the Akademija za Gledališče, Radio, Film in Televizio, I was provided with a card - an Izkacnica Gostujocega Studenta - a Visiting Student Card.

The benefits of this card, enrolled as a student at the Academy were two-fold. I benefited from all the conditions of a full-time enrolled student (as any other Slovenian would), and I would also enjoy the conditions associated with being a student of The Arts. And thats The Arts, with a capital T and a capital A.

As a plain old student with a card, I would receive coupons each worth around AU$2-4 which would entitle me to a three course meal in any restaurant ensuring that I ate properly and I would get free public transport.

As an Arts Student, I would receive free entry to any gallery, massively discounted tickets to the cinema and free entry to any theatre, opera or dance production.

There was a catch, though. You would show your arts student card to the front-of-house and they would let you in to stand on the sides of the stalls. Two minutes before the show was to begin you would get the signal and any student waiting was invited to fill any seat that was vacant in the theatre.

The Slovenian Government supports national theatres in every major centre of the country. I just logged into the Slovensko Narodno Gledališče Drama Ljubljana (Slovenian National Theatre Ljubljana) website to have a look at what sponsorship arrangements they have. None. And ticket prices in the best seats for any show in the mainstage theatre are €20,86 (AU$34) and for the small stage theatre €18,36 (AU$30). There is even a public holiday called Culture Day.

Back to Australia and I see an article in yesterday's Australian Financial Review profiling what the performing arts can expect in Tuesday's Federal Budget. The title of the article is 'Performers hold on for $39m boost'.

Immediately, I get excited. Maybe the Federal Government is starting to take notice and starting to get serious about the industry. The article by the ex-News Limited arts writer, Katrina Strickland starts:

Performing arts companies are expected to get a $39 million funding boost over the next four years in two packages the sector hopes will be announced in Tuesday's federal budget.
It is believed the major performing arts companies will be given an extra $20 million over four years, the result of an exhaustive review of the model on which their funding is based.
The small to medium-sized companies which sit beneath them are believed to be in line for an extra $19million, also to be spread over four years.

My mind goes through the maths. Click, click, click. So, $20 million divided by 4 equals $5 million per year. Divided by 28 companies equals... equals... equals... quick, get a calculator... $178,571 per company per year.

And the small to medium sized... $19 million, divided by 4 equals $4.75 million per year. Divided by... well how many small to medium performing arts companies are there? I know that there are at least forty dance companies nationwide and there are a total of 50 small to medium companies in Victoria alone. So, a coservative guess at maybe 150 companies nationally would equal $31,666 each per year.

It all looked so good when I started reading the article Katrina! You used words like 'boost' and 'exhaustive'. You made it sound positive!

But that's what arts funding is in Australia. It's just like that person in the pub you spot from twenty yards away, through your smoke filled eyes. The beautiful hair, the beautiful eyes, the beautiful face, the confident walk. You wander over and you strike up a conversation. But they can barely string a sentence together and they just gag. Their voice grates your nerves and you quickly find a way to leave the room.

If this country was serious about its cultural activities, its film, its art, its theatre, its writing, its music and its youth, there wouldn't be a constant dribble coming from the mouth of the Treasurer, year in and year out offering yet another band aid for the community.

To give you perspective, during the 2006/7 financial year alone, the Federal Government proudly spent $50 million "on measures to improve the retention and recruitment of Australian Defence Force Personnel."

If this country was serious, it would start to make a long-term investment in its artists, it would start making the arts financially accessible for all communities and start investing in youth cultural activities instead of trying to keep a few defence personnel from leaving their dead-end jobs.

If Katrina's article is true this announcement in Tuesday's Budget is a disgrace. Don't get swept away by the spin. No one should get excited about it. No one should be complacent about it and no one should treat it as good news. It isn't good news. It's more of the same and now its starting to not even look good.

Emo Theatre

Over the last week, the media suddenly got wind of a small sub-culture of adolescents known as Emo. This came about after the tragic double suicide of a young 16 year old girl and her friend, who were found in a parkland region of Melbourne.

The Emo culture which has probably been around for at least ten years, is your typical youth angst culture that can probably be most associated with the goths. They have a leaning towards dying their hair black and wearing black clothes.

There was a touching article in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald by Neil McMahon, a writer in Melbourne who not only covered the reaction to the girls deaths but also gave a comprehensive overview of the culture, the school bullying and their communities.

In the piece, McMahon spoke to the Editor of street magazine Drum Media, saying:

An emo, broadly speaking, dresses a certain way, listens to certain music, and is inclined to gloom. "It's become a derogatory term," says Andrew P. Street, associate editor of The Drum Media, an alternative music paper and website. As an insult, it's crudely dismissive: "You're a mopey little teen." What started as a musical genre in the 1980s - an offshoot of hard-core, says Street, noted for "songs with loud guitars and lyrics about girls who didn't like them" - has a far less definable musical core these days. "It's become a culture more than a genre."
The music is no longer exclusively self-pitying, and if it has a common theme it's the inclination to "eschew the political for the personal" - a statement, as Street notes, that could apply to 99 per cent of mainstream pop music.

I have taught a lot of theatre to Emo kids, and they are intuitive students who take the classes seriously and provide intelligent feedback constantly.

Recently I took a class that devised performances based around the influence of technology on young people and the social affects felt by them as individuals and as a collective. To be honest, most of the feedback I received is centred on an absolute disgust of the commercial, advertising driven consumer community that they live in. It is a deep distrust of government, advertisers, big business and flagrant nationalism.

Most of the performance that they devised was extremely humourous - darkly humourous - but what came through all of the performances was a deep concern for their community. One would almost say, too concerning.

It is such a shame that Emo's have a grave intolerance aimed towards them within schools or within their own community. There is a great amount of misunderstanding and it is a tragedy that it took the deaths of two of their sub-culture to bring this understanding and appreciation to the mainstream and for people to start taking notice. They are typically adolescent, but with a touching and (emo)tional outlook on the world that anyone can relate too.

There is a large emo culture in the Campbelltown area of Western Sydney. What will be interesting over the coming years is how these kids start to express themselves in a more defined and creative way.

There is now a huge creative arts complex in its finishing stages with galleries and a small performance space in the Campbelltown area. It would be an extraordinary thing to see this sub-culture flower and take their creativity and insight further through an expression of film, music, writing and art. Whether they can be engaged through the space, however, is another thing entirely.

If they can take it out of the youtube and myspace world it would provide their peers and the people around them with an even more beautiful and opaque window into their ideas, thoughts and share the frustrations common amongst the young people of Sydney. It would lift a cloak on this most misunderstood group and properly portray it before the marketeers and profiteers start to devise their own version of it and they end up becoming a victim of the very thing that they most despise.


Image: from youwantoknowme.blogspot.com and wearmalachai.com

The Emerging Artist

It's good to see that Tom Keneally still considers himself as an emerging writer.

An article in today's SMH from US Foreign Correspondent Michael Gawenda opens with:

He is the author of more than 30 books, an internationally renowned novelist who has won a Booker Prize for Schindler's Ark, the Holocaust novel which Stephen Spielberg made into the award-winning film Schindler's List. Yet Tom Keneally, at 71, says he feels like a rookie learning what this writing caper is all about.

It goes on:
Given that apart from a couple of forgettable efforts in the 1970s and '80s, Keneally was a novice playwright, so he decided to send his draft of Either Or to theatre companies in the US rather than in Australia or England, where he thought the standards expected of him might be too daunting.

But what Keneally has really done is give us all a new benchmark. Now, you can still be emerging at the age of 71.

The support for emerging artists is an extremely important element in the funding structure for the arts and provides an opportunity for those beginning the steep climb up the tree of rejection letters.

But 'emerging' is one of those words that funding bodies and institutions have started to exploit when they need an excuse to pay less than the proper amount for an artists work or to only give sporadic work to artists usually under the umbrella of some marketing gimmick.

The way that the word 'emerging' is bandied around arts funding bodies and institutions, one would think that you could spend your entire creative profession, emerging.

Indeed, so many people do and the question starts to arise (somewhere around their mid-30's, early 40's) - how long do I have to emerge for?

At least the Australia Council for the Arts stops grants for Emerging Artists at 30. But that doesn't appear to stop the rest of us using the term to describe anyone that doesn't receive a regular paycheck.

On the National Association for the Visual Arts, they believe that the definition of an artist is vital:
The way that you are defined as an artist has a direct relationship to the kind of exhibition and funding opportunities available to you, and to your status in terms of taxation. Statistics collected about artists is used by government and the art industry and effects the activities, reports and policies of numerous organisations.

That trusted source dictionary.com defines 'emerging' as:
1. to come forth into view or notice, as from concealment or obscurity: a ghost emerging from the grave; a ship emerging from the fog.
2. to rise or come forth from or as if from water or other liquid.
3. to come up or arise, as a question or difficulty.
4. to come into existence; develop.
5. to rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition.

So, who decides whether you as an artist, actor, director, writer has arisen from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition??

It appears that many are making the decision themselves, sick of emerging and constantly coming forth into view or notice from concealment and departing.

There was a wonderful article in last weekend's Sydney Morning Herald profiling a photographic book that profiled hundreds of artists who had left Australia. Musicians, writers, gallery managers, you name it - there were scores of them in cities from Calcutta to New York.

Part of me feels that many of them are probably sick of emerging and want to get down to the nitty-gritty of actually just doing it... doing what they know and developing themselves on the long journey of artistic creativity.

What we don't have is a definition of an artist once they can't 'emerge' any longer, but still don't have any regular income. They aren't a part of the institutional crowd, but they are still welcome to show their wares within some emerging festival somewhere in the country.

At least now Mr Keneally has thrown down the gauntlet.
He's 71 years of age and has spent two years developing his play:
It has taken Keneally two years and countless rewrites to get his two-hour two-act play to the point where he feels he has begun to master the form.

He certainly knows how to emerge in style.


Image: From McMaster Canada Online

Review: RAW - Shaken & Stirred

RAW - Shaken & Stirred
Shopfront Theatre for Young People
6 March 2007


My friend and long time colleague's girlfriend said to me, 'Come on. We're going down on Friday night. Why don't you come and check it out?'

He was a directing mentor for a bunch of students who were honing their skills at Shopfront Theatre for Young People in Carlton. From what I knew, it was an evening of short skits and experimentation that would eventually lead to a more comprehensive show towards the end of the year.

I hadn't been to Carlton, in the heart of Sydney's southern suburban sprawl, for the longest time. An old colleague of mine had been the artistic director there and I had regularly made the journey down to see what the young actors and directors were getting up to. But since her departure, I have been out of the loop.

If you have never been there before, the theatre is out the back of a converted shop and home just next to the train line that stretches from the centre of Sydney all the way down to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and beyond. There's a barbie out the back, an outdoor loo and a fantastic black box theatre that provides a palate for all these young creatives to gel and create.

It really is a magnificent venue that is the home to the yearly intake of young talent, throwing ideas around, putting on shows, attending classes, making sets, costumes and above all else... theatre.

We all pile in the car, ready for the drive through the bumper to bumper Friday night traffic of King Street and straight down the Princes Highway. In twenty minutes we are there. A crowd is loitering in what appears to be an old garage, hugging polystyrene cups of tea and chocolate wrappers.

On the left of the makeshift box office is an art installation that you can see through a window, as the light pours out, casting a blue and red light over the car park. A quick visit to the bathroom through the kitchen and out the back to where the performers are getting ready and smoking a few cigarettes. There isn't any pretension here.

We all go in. The smell of a freshly painted black floor and walk in music of some new release lounge music.

At first, I was a little ambivalent. What are we going to be fed tonight? You often assume that youth theatre is kind of like the audition theatre that many actors try and produce.

The surprise is that from the moment it started I was drawn in. Astonishing creativity, originality and risk taking theatre that pushed boundaries of bodies in space and played with the theatricality of ideas.

My mind flickered back to an event I went to in Slovenia, just after I arrived to start my year or so of study. A youth theatre festival that brought together troupes of young performers from Romania, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary. A week long event that celebrated theatre and performance and showed the best of the best from each country, converging together to showcase their ideas and concepts.

And yet, here I was seeing the same originality and bold decisions that made that festival in Slovenia such a highlight of my time there. The type of performance that opens your minds to the possibilities of complicated ideas, executed so beautifully in a celebration of simplicity.

Each of the performances were directed, devised, written and acted by all the young members of this theatre. And they attacked their subject matter bravely and with beautiful results. Each was no longer than about five or ten minutes long and many of them contained unique voices in theatre.

Certainly, some of the ideas didn't quite work and certain character based confidence needed to be injected into some of the performances, but if this is the next generation of directors and performance art devisers, Sydney's theatre scene has a bright future. I'll happily go back to Carlton and see what they do next.


Image: Courtesy STYP