Caroline Baum at the Perth Festival
Even before Shelagh Magadza's first Perth Festival as Director, her program had already almost made budget - a reassuring position from which to start. That meant she could take a philosophical view of the fact that wind sabotaged her plans for Opening Night, which was aborted after the traditional Noongar welcome to country.
But then Magadza always seem calm under pressure. She was former director Lindy Hume's right hand woman and the logical choice to take over the role. Magadza has given the festival a strong intellectual component, instigating an architecture project on sites around the city that calls on Perth to imagine its future landscape - a perfect moment to do it as the city skyline is full of cranes, reflecting the mining boom which is reshaping the place before our eyes (but not fixing the appalling traffic flow).
This week, as the Festival kicks off, plans were released for a Circular Quay-style makeover of the waterfront, complete with a swan-shaped island at its centre. It's Dubai meets Disney. Most people I spoke to believe it will never happen, but then who could have predicted that the culturally disinclined Premier, Alan Carpenter, would give the arts $76million, which he did just recently?
It's been extremely hot in Perth since Christmas, with temperatures soaring into the high thirties and easterlies blowing havoc at outdoor events. But the Music Box, the new temporary stage area on the Esplanade on the banks of the Swan River was definitely an ideal setting on the morning of February 13 to witness the historic apology to the Stolen Generations from Parliament House, Canberra. The festival made the venue available at the last minute when it was discovered that no other arrangements had been made for a shared public experience!
As dawn rose and the sky turned pink, more than 1200 people crossed the parklands to assemble for the historic moment. A welcome to country was interrupted to broadcast the PM's speech to a mixed crowd - plenty of Noongar tears flowed as they cheered and rose in a spontaneous standing ovation for Prime Minister Rudd, then booed and slow clapped Brendan Nelson, until the TVs were turned off. There were hugs of joy and sorrow, and emotions ran very high ...
So it was with great expectations that I went along to one of the most anticipated elements of this year's program: Jandamarra, a Black Swan Theatre Company collaboration with the Bunuba people of Fitzroy Crossing about one of the Kimberley's greatest figures, the so-called black Ned Kelly. The mood and timing were so right, and the work seems to follow on from the remarkable Ngapartji Ngapartji by Scott Rankin, (seen here last year and most recently a huge hit in Sydney at Belvoir St as part of the Sydney Festival) in creating a dialogue between black and white writers and performers to tell stories that we are ready to hear now as a post-apology nation.
What a disappointment. Apart from the stunning set by Zoe Atkinson: a rocky outcrop of Kimberley gorges that becomes the screen on which the audience reads surtitles from the Bunuba language, as much of the work is performed in that language. It also becomes the canvas for gorgeous animation which illustrates some of the spiritual elements of Jandamarra's tragic story.
Yet whereas the eye has much to enjoy, the ear suffers from stilted, pedestrian, banal dialogue, devoid ofpower or poetry. The narrative is plodding and linear and has no energy, so that it fails to engage the audience. At the interval people were leaving, even those who had come with the best will in the world and a commitment to what the show is about and what it represents symbolically in the history of Australian drama. What a waste, what a frustrating waste. Talking to the creative team behind the scenes a few days later at a public forum, I could see that their intentions were impeccable, their motives only the very best. But they were just not up to the material and they have let Jandamarra down.
As Victoria Laurie said in her thoughtful review in The Australian, the piece suffered from being created by committee. It needed much more rigorous dramaturgy and a less reverentially cautious and conservative approach to the material and how it should be presented.Seeing Jandamarra> only serves to highlight what an achievement Ngapartji Ngapartji is, both as a community theatre work and as a piece of writing. It is a template that the Jandamarra team should have studied closely.
But hey, the season is sold out, so why should they care? The box office may appear to vindicate the production, but does not tell the real story.
Away from festival venues, it's hard to believe there's a festival on at all, however, and taxi drivers and café waitresses seem unaware of it, despite banners along St George's Terrace. There is an absence of "vibe" around the place and nowhere pulsates with a festival beat, which is a shame given that the city itself is so small.
There is, however, a very sexy party going on at His Majesty's Theatre, of all places. For an example of a truly original approach to theatre, look no further than UK director Tim Supple's utterly exuberant treatment of A Midsummer Night's Dream.I must admit, my heart sank when I saw this play was in the program, as I don't feel I need to see another version of it- ever. I gather some of the festival staff felt the same too until Magadza persuaded them to give her the benefit of the doubt. And she was right, oh so right!
The process by which Supple brought together a hybrid tribe of performers, dancers, acrobats and musicians from all over India and Pakistan is a fascinating model of multiculturalism at its zenith, and one you wish could be replicated more widely. But I'll leave it to Diana Simmonds to review it from Adelaide (it's also going to Sydney). Suffice to say, go if you can.
Caroline Baum and the Perth International Arts Festival are the focus of episode 58 of Stagecast. To hear the interview with Caroline, click here!
