Australian Drama and Theatre - Individual Essay

The experience of an Australian differs depending on their cultural, social, political and religious background. This idea has been reflected in Australian theatre since it was first beginning. The plays A Beautiful Life, by Michael Futcher and Helen Howard, and Stolen, by Jane Harrison, show contrasting experiences of Australian individuals. Though the backgrounds of the characters in both plays were very different, they both posed the question of what it is to be an Australian. We went through this notion in our performance essay, acting out the the experiences of characters from both plays and providing links between them, while asking the audience what the Australian identity means and how our experiences relate to it.

We wanted to start our play with a bang, and our very first line is two Aussie cops shouting, “The Australia Identity has been stolen!” This line is directed at the audience, the cops are yelling right into their faces. The two cops go on to explain to the audience about the current demographics of our country, particularly concerning anyone who is not of white European decent. This opening scene is a segue into the rest of our play. It highlights the open racism and prejudice of our two cops, who call themselves ‘born and bred’ Australians. Their role in our play is not only to fuel the storyline, but they also act as a symbol of the white oppression experienced by characters in both A Beautiful Life and Stolen. They are policemen, and therefore hold a position of power over the two ‘suspects,’ Hamid Parsi and Sandy, who from the plays. We used levels to further demonstrate the power the cops have over their suspects in the opening scenes. With both cases, they grab them one by one and throw them to the floor, standing over them, shouting questions and derogatory terms. Ironically, however, we chose the two shortest people for their roles in the play, reminding the audience that the cops are just little men with big words and have no place in this age.

We move to the next scene, and we follow one of the cops home. Here, we used an opportunity to further demonstrate the narrow minds of our cops. He arrives home and sits to watch the ‘telly’, created using simply three actors bobbing up and down as required. He flicks through channels about issues such as refugees and the pain experienced by the stolen generation, ignoring them. He then flicks to an ad, at which point he falls asleep. We used an ad that would be familiar to the audience to remind them that this is something close to home. The ad was about a comparison between the characters Annie and Ruby from Stolen. Annie’s live was being viewed as better and more worthy as she was being raised as a white Australian, while Ruby was viewed as dirty as she was Aboriginal. The ad ended with the well know, “This message has been brought to you by the Australian government,” further re-enforcing the idea that this is something very close to home.

The next scene began with a news report. Once again we used familiar names and phrases to connect to the audience. The news reported announced

Frances Martin

that there were refugees, or boat people, arriving on our shores. The cop wakes up and gets angry, shouting about how he wouldn’t allow these dirty boat people to reach the shores. He pictures it on stage and around him and the rest of the actors accommodate. We then flashed back to the eighteenth century, when Captain Cook first reached Australian shores, and the Aboriginal natives complained about the boat people. This scene pointed out the irony of calling refugees boat people and insulting them for it, when Australia was founded by boat people.

We then begin to reach the climax of our play. Hamid and Sandy get to defend themselves against the cops. We used fragmented sounds and words to create an atmosphere of fear and dread, their experience were just as worthy as any Australian. Hamid and Sandy confront the cops, and ask them if they do stereotypical Australian things, like visiting Bondi Beach, eating meat pies and throwing shrimps on the barbeque. We used levels to demonstrate the change in power. The cops shrink back and mumble excuses while Hamid and Sandy’s voices grow stronger and more confident. They grill the cops about what is the real Australian identity. The cops, flustered, tell Hamid and Sandy to just leave. We wanted the audience to think about Australia and what it means to them, so we left them with a question, if Hamid and Sandy didn’t steal the Australian Identity, then who did?

A Beautiful Life and Stolen were both heavily influenced by their cultural, social, religious and political contexts. They represent divergent groups of Australia, but both are groups that have been oppressed throughout the years. They both question the Australian experience, human rights, and what the Australian identity has become. These plays show how our Australian experiences are influenced by our cultures and social standings and religious backgrounds. In our group we examined these things, leading our performance essay to question what it really means to be an Australian.

Frances Martin