Scene descriptions - R21A
Arriving’:
Adult Flashes:
Cleaning Routine:
Hiding Sandy:
It Rained The Day:
Line up 1:
Chosen:
Jimmy Being Naughty:
It Rained the Day:
Ruby Comforting Her Baby:
- Actors enter as actors- we see the transition to child characters in front of audience- all characters on stage
- Removes illusion of realism
- Standing in diagonal line
- Opening mirrors closing scene.
- Actors – Children (compared to actors.
- The style of the opening scene foreshadows the style of the rest of the play; breaking of the traditional western theatre conventions, audience/actor relationship, character transformation.
- Form used to set up relationship between the audience/actor and highlight contemporary social issues faced.
- Issues- forced to make judgement on people we do not know.
- Mirroring also enables to establish the shift in judgement from start to end of play
- Episodic structure .
- Character transformation
- Audience/actor relationship
- *lighting, directorial notes
Adult Flashes:
- Provides insight into where play might head.
- Tones of atmosphere and optimism in Shirley’s story balanced with feelings of anger and despair in jimmy’s- conflicted as and audience- exploring a number of different perspective
- Innocence
- Loss of innocence
- The idea of home
- The feeling of story telling
- Refuge and displacement
- Actors standing individually on stage addressing audience- seen that it is 5 individual stories going to be portrayed throughout the performance
- Engages audience
- All characters carrying a suitcase (prop)- symbol
Cleaning Routine:
- This story is immediately seen as different to the audience members’ childhood stories.
- Smell of cleaning products (phenol) wafts into the audience to bring the gap between actors and audience.
- Insight into types of annual labour children were subjected to and expected to complete.
- The ringing of the bell.
Hiding Sandy:
- Introduced to Sandy’s story of always being on the run.
- Contrasting image of the cleaning routine paired with Sandy fishing
- Anxiety
- Confusion
- Positive body language
- Voice over of mother
- Frequent urges and movements
- Chant of “always on the run”
- Repetition of circumstance to show power of fate
It Rained The Day:
- Shirley recounting memory of being driven away from her mother in car- extends her story.
- Jimmy and his mum also present in the scene
- Jimmy’s memory of stealing the eggs
- Shows connection between Shirley and jimmy throughout the story- transformational acting of Shirley into Jimmy’s mum
- Jimmy’s section blends the connection between past and present.
- Questioning
- Anticipation
- Contrast of young mischievous jimmy with struggling adult jimmy (the before and the after)
- Audience given small pieces of the puzzle that then give the power to fit together- begin to draw connections; changing perspectives
- Flashbacks to jimmy - requires audience to use their own imaginations to create dramatic meaning
Line up 1:
- Submitted to authority - children try to sell themselves
- Use of lighting becomes the symbol of non-indigenous.
- Matron - symbol of non-indigenous Australian authority - kept intentionally ambiguous.
Chosen:
- Whilst Anne is talking about her experience - we learnt that she has more of a positive tore with is seen by the way that she reacts with he audience.
- Her parents want to give her the best experience. "new Pyjamas", "more food". speaks to her and treats her as a child.
- Anne had a good upbringing but still struggles with her loss of identity and culture.
- Disconnect between Anne and er parents but also highlights that feeling of her not completely connecting with her parents.
- Typical Australian house is projected onto the white screen.
Jimmy Being Naughty:
- Jimmy stealing apples form an orchid and other children eating them.
- Stage directions are clear "other children eat the apples like they have never eaten apples before"
- We have to assume that the orchard owner is white. Nameless voice - doesn't have a character. non indigenous characters were generalisations of a stereotype and face/name - less. Each indigenous had their own character "Sandy's Mum.
- We can see something is wrong through Ruby's body language.
- Childs 'chanting' game highlights the difference in Ruby.
- She doesn't seem to want to play all of the time of the game "what else did you do?" - "i promised not to tell" which shows her loss of innocence.
- Strong connotation between the doll and sexual abuse. show me on the doll....
- All of the children realise something is wrong and are oblivious.
It Rained the Day:
- This is her storey of when her son, Lionel, being taken. (spoken by Adult Shirley)
- As a child and an adult is just as powerless and shown through the similarity between the storey of her being taken and her child being taken.
- The connection between Ruby and Shirley is their lack of ability to communicate about their difficult issues through words.
- Repetition of the theme of entrapment- key phrases "it rained the day", "big black Car". The lives of Indigenous people were government laws.
Ruby Comforting Her Baby:
- Ruby calls the doll ruby and speaks to it as a mother.
- Then slips back into her childhood character showing her instability. Lack of care and nurturing in her life. she can't recover her mothers presents or a substitute and then she starts crying.
- Doll is just as easily discarded just as easily as some of he children.