[Tom Murphy, later known as Tommy Murphy, went on to become a significant Australian playwright. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Murphy_%28Australian_playwright%29]
"I'll stay with something till I find something good in it," said 18 year old Tom Murphy over chips and gravy at the Central Cafe, Queanbeyan. For the young playwright, recently back from a United Nations Youth Association forum in The Hague, and visits to New York, Sweden and Norway, there was no incongruity. The world may be an oyster, but Murphy knows that a young blade needs to be determined to open it up.
The UNYA trip seemed to be accidental. They needed a boy to represent the ACT at the national meeting, and Tom put up his hand - and then was selected for Holland. The Cultural Centre Queanbeyan (CCQ) came in on the back of the UN, asking Murphy to explore similar young people's theatre and media organisations, largely following up CCQ's contacts in Europe and USA through their inimitable director, Gunnar Isaacson.
Murphy, already having had a successful production of For God, Queen and Country directed by Garry Fry and become the Shakespeare Globe Centre's Young Shakespearean of the Year in 1997, as well as completing his Year 12 - feeling a little guilty for being too busy to help much at CCQ - has agreed to be a roving promoter especially now that CCQ is taking on a new and already well-loved teacher, Allan Wylie.
But the nub of Tom Murphy now is a new script, as yet in first draft, growing out of his experience finishing school and finding himself alone and travelling. He met media directors and observed productions: "Of course Tom Murphy will be welcome"; "He is just great"; "He seems like a very nice guy". Email provides instant responses across the world, while Tom is sending back messages about the Media Factory in Sweden: "They send their regards and look forward to future contact with us. They provide a wonderful service to the community, the young people and to art here. It is somewhat of a dream for CCQ because of the range of people it reaches. I will explain more on my return but I hope this will help the vision of CCQ. Thank you for everything. I cannot express how amazing this is and has been. I have seen so much and met so many inspirational people."
For CCQ's Intima Theatre, The House on the Hill has been written to help Murphy resolve, through a group of characters more or less his own age, touring Parliament House today, in Paris and in a Museum of the Future, shadowed by their "minds", how he feels about his options as the world opens up before him. Each character represents each of the different approaches Murphy can imagine; each "mind" shadow is like his own capacity to reflect on his potential choices. Though he lives in this crowded scene, the least determined among these characters - currently named Troy - the most apparently settled, the one most unlike the organised always-going-somewhere Tom Murphy --- just disappears.
Felicity: I wonder what ever happened to him.
Ben: We always will.
Murphy is, to my mind, at core a writer. He is excited by writing. He is worried about the writing. He intends to go to university to see what good he can find in the study of literature, history and philosophy. Why philosophy? Because it's all about questioning. What is life about? You achieve things and there are things you don't achieve, but then you look at all these things as experiences you can use - and you look for the next thing you can stay with "till I find something good in it". This year "I'm examining what my process is - I'm training myself before I get any training".
Unlike Troy, Tom Murphy won't disappear. He'll extract every drop of juice from the Shakespeare Globe Centre in London in June. He'll chip away with his sharp strong blade. I wouldn't be surprised if he achieves his aim of becoming a theatre professional in the seven years he has set himself. Yet somehow he is like Troy. While others lock themselves in to the conventions of achievement - the next paper qualification - Murphy will move to the next necessary thing rather than merely satisfy an obligation. Slippery as an oyster, he can disappear from one scene to another. I suspect the rest of us will gain from the experience.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
No comments:
Post a Comment