Thursday 25 May 2017

LONG TAN (the play)


This is after the event and now out of sequence – Hilary’s post about the upcoming Seven Stories (3rd June) should be read first!

I had promised the rest of 7-ON that I would post about Brink Productions’ presentation of Long Tan in Adelaide in April of this year. But…sometimes a show will leave a tidal wash in its wake and then it takes a while to get back to normal life. After three years working on this piece, and the responsibility of accurately reflecting survivor testimony without lessening the complexity of the material in play, it’s taken me a while to get my nose out of that big surf.

So… I won’t go on. The moment for immediate reflection has gone. But I can say that the experience of making this show has probably changed my life and certainly the direction of my career. And how bizarre for that to happen at this time in my life! It was completely wonderful to have some of the veterans of the battle at the show on that first night, and to receive their approbation. We – any show this big – 12 actors, creative team, technical exercise of the presentation being by way of headphones, implies a ‘we’ – it’s a collective commitment – received some fantastic responses, and reviews. So here’s a picture or two (both taken by photographer Kate Pardey) and a link to a couple of the reviews – though for the one in The Australian you might need to be a subscriber to that paper.



Verity


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