Performed by Emily Taylor, Sal Sharah, Tanya Schneider and Meg Dunn
Understudies: Carla Jane McCallum, Richard Bligh, Mary Helen Sassman and Stephanie Panozzo
Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 10
Director: David Williams; Dramaturg: Paul Dwyer
Lighting Designer: Nick Higgins; Sound Designer: Gail Priest
Set & Costume Designer: Isabel Hudson
 |
| Grace Under Pressure Photo: Isabel Hudson |
Grace Under Pressure
is theatre, plain and simple. Apart from the microphones, stage
spotlighting and a quiet amorphous background recorded soundscape, these
could have been four from our community who have come forward around
our campfire to tell us their stories of what happened on their long
arduous journey. Sometimes one takes the foreground; then two may tell a
story together; or someone listening may ask a question, and get a
couple of different responses. There were times of worry, times of
success, times of friction and others of happiness, until all four come
forward together to tell about the end: about the beauty and practical
reality of dying.
Perhaps this is how theatre began, telling such
stories honestly and openly, without performing for effect, maybe
300,000 years ago in Africa as our species found their voice. And still
today, in The Q, the elemental drama of telling stories works
wonderfully.
The purpose of the storytelling is ostensibly to
“open a broader public conversation about some of the persistent
workplace issues facing health workers”, using verbatim material from
“around 30 people – physicians, surgeons, interns, registrars, nurses, a
paramedic, a hospital administrator and even a union official” ranging
in “ages (from mid-20s to early 70s) and experience levels (from medical
students to recently retired)”.
So each of the four performers
take on many different “characters” as they reproduce the interviewees’
stories. There is no clear storyline, but the drama is created by the
way the stories have been selected and often interrelated, so that the
mood and our feelings change through the 85 minutes of determination,
worry, unexpected humour, success against seemingly impossible odds,
fear and insecurity, and yet, finally, warmth and a tremendous sense of
the humanity and self-sacrifice of those who do so much for everyone
else’s benefit.
Grace Under Pressure presents us
with the drama of life and death. It is not a politicised campaign for
better conditions but a revelation of reality more powerful than
confronting street protest or petitions. The tour across the country
“has been assisted by the Australian government through the Department
of Communication and the Arts’ Catalyst – Australian Arts and Culture
Fund…and assisted by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE)
Fund – an Australian Government initiative.”
We can only hope that Members of Parliament have their eyes opened by Grace Under Pressure,
and find creative ways to legislate and fund what is needed to make
these stories able to focus more on the satisfaction and success side of
the equation than on the worry and how to cope aspects of these
extraordinary real life performers.
Perhaps the tour should include a performance in Parliament House. I will suggest it to my local member.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
No comments:
Post a Comment