Time Control by Canberra Youth Theatre Company. Artistic Director: Estelle Muspratt. Workshop Directors: Barbra Barnett, Liliana Bogatko, Emma Bossard, Robin Davidson, Matthew Marshall, Alannah Pentony, Murphy People, Natalie Power, Kelly Somes, Karen Yaldren. October 3-20.
The most important image for me of this presentation of a mythic narrative in 6 chapters, each workshopped independently by Youth Theatre's 8-12, 12-15 and 15-24 year old groups, was a month's worth of applause last Saturday at sundown, and the immediate formation of groups of parents, friends and the actors and crew all talking excitedly about the experience of Time Control.
Each chapter was created in a style belonging to its workshop group. Often work which was focussed on scripted speech seemed to me too melodramatic to sustain the possible depths of the story of Old Timers who are running out of dreams and so devise a Dream Link where they can steal the dreams of the New Timers, making them effectively the Old Timers' slaves. From here a kind of Dr Who story centred on the Supreme Dreamer, the only New Timer who was not affected by the Dream Link, and who devised the way to destroy it.
Chapter 3 was perhaps the most theatrical, with its use of movement and circus, but it was also the least easy to follow in terms of the narrative. The Grand Finale, Chapter 6 at Weston Park, devised by the older group but using all 74 young actors, told its story clearly, taking the audience around from site to site, and with the use of fire the final battle and ceremony of destruction of the Dream Link was quite strong dramatically.
In the end, however, the point is the value of young people devising their own theatre, experiencing how their ideas can be given expression, how to work together, and how much satisfaction there is in completing a project, even knowing that the next project can be even better. Youth Theatre have put together in Time Control a celebration of community, in the long tradition of Canberra groups from Blue Folk to Splinters and CIA.
Authoritarianism, violence, fire and death may seem a lot for young people to bear, even in a theatrical myth - but we only have to look to our Old Timer politicians to see how we all need to retain our dreams.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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