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. Annies 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

Frances Martin

Aboriginal. The ad ended with the well know, This message has
been brought to you by the Australian government, further reenforcing 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 that there were refugees, or boat people,
arriving on our shores. The cop wakes up and gets angry, shouting
about how he wouldnt 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 Sandys 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 didnt
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