Memory is a tricksy companion at the best of times. Even more so when tragedy strikes and lives are shattered or erased.
Grief swirls in unexpected directions, consuming us all of a sudden. In pushing us further forward or pulling us back to where we started, the details get lost, washed away like sand on a beach, then reformed all too painfully clear.
So it is with Australian playwright Tom Holloway’s confronting puzzle of a memory play, Beyond the Neck. Subtitled ‘A Quartet on Loss and Violence,’ it was written as a collective trauma response to the Port Arthur massacre and the indiscriminate slaughter of 35 lives, horrendously injuring 23 more.
Drawing on survivor stories using some of the techniques of verbatim-style, the work is a reckoning with how well-meaning media gags on reporting the aftermath and the court case stunted the recovery process for many survivors and opened the door for rampant conspiracy theories.
Ooft, this sounds heavy. Should I brace myself?
Look, there’s heavy stuff in here, undoubtedly. But Beyond the Neck is also a hopeful and occasionally hilarious play that reminds us that, even when we are lost in the labyrinth, we can find our way back by following those memory threads.
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First performed at Hobart’s Peacock Theatre in 2007, nearly a decade after the disaster that reshaped Australia’s gun laws, Holloway’s bracing work still holds sway.
This Theatre Works restaging, coming so soon after the atrocity at Bondi Beach, is...
If 2015 was the Australian Ballet’s ‘year of beauty’, then 2016 delves into darker (yet no less ambitious) territory, with classic and contemporary works depicting turbulent romances, supernatural forces and a tortured genius. “Ballet has the ability to transform,” says McAllister. “This is a richly dynamic and diverse season which I am proud to present.”
An anticipated highlight of the season will be the Australian premiere of Nijinsky (Sep 7-17) an emotional tribute to the Ballets Russes prodigy, lauded as one of the greatest dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. Created by master choreographer John Neumeier and first performed by the Hamburg Ballet in 2000, Nijinsky tells the story of the dancer’s meteoric rise to fame, the controversy around his sensual choreography, and his battle with mental illness that eventually saw him pass away in a mental institution in 1950.
Following the huge success and critical acclaim of 2015’s 20:21, contemporary ballet will again come to the fore with Vitesse (Mar 11-21), which will featuring new works by three world-famous choreographers: Christopher Wheeldon, Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe.
On the other end of the spectrum are lavish productions of ballet classics. Stephen Baynes’ traditional staging of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (Jun 7-18), created by the resident choreographer for the Australian Ballet’s 50th anniversary in 2012, will return for an encore run, complete with Edwardian set design by the masterful Hugh Coleman.
The talented Stanton Welch, who is both a resident choreographer with the Australian Ballet and artistic director of Houston Ballet, will bring his much-loved production of Romeo and Juliet (Jun 30-Jul 9) exclusively to Melbourne. Rounding out the season will be the family favourite fairytale Coppélia (Sep 23-Oct 1).
