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GORGE '09 - NO PLAIN JANE REVIEW: DAY 1 by Jane Howard
Conflict Under An Australian Quilt is about a couple which hook up at a club and go back to the woman’s room, where they have sex on a quilt of the Australian flag. When the lights turn on and the woman (Tamara Lee / Rachel Mendham) discovers the man (Sahil Choujar / José Gonzalez) is a “darkie”, she tells him to get out of her room and out of her country, and when he fails to leave before he finds his pants, they each call the cops saying they have been assaulted. When the cop (Mondli Makhoba / Glen McCurley) shows up, he proceeds to interrogate the man about Australian culture, despite the fact he has been living here for eighteen years. In the discussion after the read through, Zavarce and the audience talked about how, although the piece was written as a (very funny) satirical farce, there was a real sadness and hurt under the laughter. Zavarce, who moved to Australia from Venezuela in the early 90s, talked about how he doesn’t feel like Australia is a racist country – for the most part, he feels welcome and this is home – but sometimes there are racist people, or an ugly nationalism, or a feeling of ‘other’ towards him. He also discussed how part of the reason he wrote on these themes was to open up the discussion about something which is often not talked about, and it was great to be in a theatre discussing these issues. Clarke’s version of the play took the farce of the piece and stretched them to the absolute extremes to create a fantastically funny interpretation. The flag quilt covered the entire performance space, the woman wore ugg boots and flag underwear, and in a brilliant twist, the cop himself was an immigrant from Africa. The interrogation scene became a nightmare, as the man was covered in Australian iconography: everything from a lifesaver’s cap, to barbeque tongs, to a Kath and Kim apron. In contrast, Munn’s production took the underlying sadness and hurt in the play, and made them the overlying themes. Working as a choreographer rather than a director, and with dancers instead of actors, Munn found the natural rhythm lying in Zavarce’s text, and added dance to the words. While the humour could still be seen, for much of the play the audience sat in stunned silence, as words which had made us ache with laughter just moments before made us ache with pain. The brutality of the woman and the cop’s words really hit home, and the careful dance (ranging from a sexy waltz, to careful avoidance, to a fight between the man and the cop) emphasised the themes in the play. The two interpretations were truly amazing – if I had only seen one of the productions, I would never have thought it could’ve existed as the other version. The discussion opened up by the interpretations and the text itself was interesting, exciting and provoking. While neither production was perfect, and there were a few moments in the script which need work, the brilliance of seeing and talking about two very different productions was something not to be missed. Bring on night two! Gorge 09 runs until Saturday, with a different author and performance companies each night.
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