LIGHTEN UP

LIGHTEN UP, Bali Padda and Griffin Independent at the SBW Stables Theatre, 30 November -17 December 2016. Above and below - Nicholas Brown and Sam McCool

Nicholas Brown graduated from NIDA with the warning that his whiteboy name not only didn’t match his Anglo-Indian looks but that he wouldn't find it easy to work in a country whose attitude to race is progressing just slightly faster than tectonic plates – and often with similarly explosive and dangerous consequences.

And if you’re doubtful about that, just consider that Australia’s ancient soapie Neighbours made news in October when a couple of tinted folk moved in to Ramsay Street. They’re not the first – and none have stayed long – but it’s telling that Takaya Honda and Tim Kano are deemed newsworthy because they’re non-white. And presumably the Canberran and the Kiwi from Wellington are cast as twins because both were born with the epicanthic fold. Oh happy day. 

Lighten Up, is a new play that had a preliminary work-out in early 2015 at the STC’s Rough Drafts program as #27. It was described then as “... a deceptively ‘light’ comedy about cultural identity, which juxtaposes Australia’s obsession with being bronzed and tanned with India’s obsession for being 'fair and lovely.'  This first play by actor, Nicholas Brown and comic Sam McCool, tells a universal tale of identity, cultural assimilation and bleaching your bits.” 

Since then further work has been done on the play and it’s now in the “independents” slot at Griffin. You’ve probably worked out from the above why and how Lighten Up came into being. And all the reasons are worthy and good. But the play is not. It’s neither good nor is it worthy of the Stables stage nor a paying audience.

On a simple set drenched in the lush cacophony of colour that says Bollywood (set and costumes: Tobhiyah Stone Feller, lighting: Christopher Page) there is another less pleasant racket and it’s actors in search of meaning bellowing their lines into the night. Writers Brown and McCool are the only members of the cast to appear confident of their roles and purpose, which shouldn’t be a surprise but is unfortunate. 

There are at least two plays fighting to get out in the 2+ hours including interval. Brown has said he originally wrote it then asked comedian McCool to join him to make it funnier, and you can see and hear how that’s happened. The “comedy about cultural identity” is potentially interesting with Brown playing John Green, an Anglo-Indian Aussie actor who’s desperate to score a role in a famous soap, Bondi Parade. See Neighbours (above) to work out why that’s not happening.

There is much lecturing and exposition, however, and the result is clunky and didactic where it should be airy and sharp. If that’s not painful enough, there is also a lot of the bleeding obvious in the cliche department. For instance, rather than the ditzy blonde beach babe Janelle (Bishanyia Vincent), John favours an Indigenous girlfriend Sandy (Katie Beckett) and that causes his mother conniptions. Mother Bronwyn (Vivienne Garrett) has her own dark little secrets – not shared with John or daughter (Julie Goss) as well as an unhealthy obsession with the fitness freak version of Olivia Newton John...

All that aside, the “comedy” comes in the form of many and ever more desperate puns that would embarrass even Kathy Lette. The groans from the on-side opening night audience were good natured but were groans nevertheless.

There is a possibility that with a great deal more work (Shane Anthony is credited as director and dramaturg) – especially to cut the script to 80 minutes straight through – Lighten Up could live up to its blurb. As it stands, the less said about it the better.