Tuesday Lesson- started module 1 (Stolen)
"And the people would know. And the people would never forget" (pg.11)
in the performance (we have yet to see) the actor breaks the 4th wall and it hits the audience directly, showing how the effect of the stolen generations till effects indigenous Australian people today. A very powerful directorial choice.
Role vs. Character.
Role: represent a group or a collective - relatable & familiar (commedia del arte) e.g. Brechtian theatre.
Character: represents an individual. audience knows a lot of the story of that individual.
- This play follows the lives of 5 individuals who were forcibly taken from their families.
- The play was commissioned to tell as many stories as possible and follow the idea that not all Koori people were the same.
- it addresses the effects of racial identity - "the play is not about blame, its about understanding and acceptance" (Jane Harrison).
- Put in place for Indigenous children to be forcibly taken by law by an officer and raised separately.
- 1910-1970 (raised in church/state) 100,000 taken.
- Many were subject to abuse; emotional, physical, sexual.
- Motive was to assimilate aboriginal people into european society.
- ongoing psychological damage.
- In 1995 an enquiry was set up 'bringing them home report' - completed 1997.
- Kevin Rudd's apology speech.
Themes and Motives
- HOME
- Belonging
- Resistance
- Identity
- Racism
- Cultural loss and its effects
- Grief.
Dramatic Structure and Form
- Play is episodic and disjunctive (transformational actors).
- Disrupted narrative - tries to display the effect of assimilation.
- Non linear - jumps around a lot
- 5 clear different narratives
- Past and the present resonate clearly -links audience and actors to story and current political states.
Characters
- Jimmy: fun loving child - commits suicide
- Ruby: quiet child - suffered abuse and loses her mind.
- Shirley: strong character- doesn't give up.
- Sandy: never finds home - restless.
Research
- Look at section 3 (first and second paragraphs)- social ramifications.
- Bringing Them Home Chapter 10 "Most of us girls were thinking white in the head but were feeling black inside. We weren't black or white. We were a very lonely, lost and sad displaced group of people. We were taught to think and act like a white person, but we didn't know how to think and act like an Aboriginal. We didn't know anything about our culture.
- We were completely brainwashed to think only like a white person. When they went to mix in white society, they found they were not accepted [because] they were Aboriginal. When they went and mixed with Aborigines, some found they couldn't identify with them either, because they had too much white ways in them. So that they were neither black nor white. They were simply a lost generation of children. I know. I was one of them." Confidential submission 617, New South Wales: woman removed at 8 years with her 3 sisters in the 1940s; placed in Cootamundra Girls' Home.
I could not even imagine what these poor Indegenous Australians had to and still do have to go through! the fact that it was government situated makes it even worse... thats breaching humanity.
Reflection
I read the whole book today in my double free after our drama lesson (incl. profiles, writers notes & background) and was amazed.
Firstly by the extent of which the writer (Harrison) has researched a part of her culture that she once didn't know to write this play. Secondly that this was her first piece of theatre - incredible staging and symbolism used, but more to the point, there was so much that each director would be able to pull into this piece of work and make it their own. This play is very episodical and jumps around the narrative a lot- but very cleverly so it all still makes sense. i cannot wait to start looking at this play in depth as the background information is also interesting. one of my favourite parts was when one of the characters was telling a dreamtime story to the others as children. I cannot wait to go and see the archival footage!!