![]() But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as close as the nearest toaster? Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. Wheelchair accessible, hearing AssistanceĪudio Described: Saturday 6 July at 2pm, Tuesday 9 July at 6.A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial. Queensland Theatre Company, July 29-August 17. Southbank Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, until July 20. Performed by John Batchelor, Tony Briggs and Conor Lowe. ![]() ![]() Puppetry design by David Morton, puppets animated by Emily Burton, Drew Wilson and Ellen Bailey. Set and costume design by Anna Cordingley, lighting design by Matt Scott, composition and sound design by Darrin Verhgen. Storm Boy, by Colin Thiele, adapted by Tom Holloway, directed by Sam Strong. Not the bones of a broken Country, but the harsh mined metals of man, one pastoralist speaking to another. ![]() But sadly, this production of Storm Boy only offers us a polite cup of tea. Storm Boy seems mainly driven by box office aspirations inspired by recent film adaptions, with visions of school children on seats. Theatrical colonialism, replacing truth with prettiness. This beach is mostly bare of plastic ring-tops, bags and bottles and instead of a shed constructed of “flattened sheets of iron from old tins”, the humpy is more like the average rundown garden shed. In a time of climate crisis, another missed opportunity is the broadening of Thiele’s environmental concerns. Hideaway’s anger about breaking this secrecy is real: the law of theatrical colonialism is that we all have our place. This frustration is deepened by the time and emotional energy devoted to a scene in which Hideaway shames Bill for talking to people in the town pub about Storm Boy’s relationship to Mr Percival, his pelican best friend. In June 2019, when 21 Australian women have already died at the hands of an abusive partner, the violence and reclusiveness of Hideaway makes me wonder if Storm Boy’s mum died at his father’s hands.Īnd, with Stolen Generations running through my family, I call shame that while Fingerbone Bill is present on stage, there is no gift of deeper understanding to the audience about the circumstances that brought him to a life in a humpy without family or kin. Holloway’s superficial dialogue is frustrating: for example, there’s the merest mention of a dead wife. Slapstick, the theatrical coloniser’s smoke and mirrors. Tony Briggs is Fingerbone Bill, the Aboriginal figure whose connection to Country is overshadowed by the flippancy of dad’s jokes and his efforts to form a bond with Storm Boy and Hideway. On occasion, the quirky nuances of the birds’ movements get louder applause than their human counterparts.Ĭonor Lowe plays the lithe and kind Storm Boy, while John Batchelor is his paranoid, secretive and angry father, Hideaway Tom. Huge mechanical wingspans soar across the stage, bi-pedal wheels squeak and scuttle around it. The puppeteers’ chic black outfits are a call to contemporary cool, and an invitation to embrace awe and the human qualities in the birds’ behaviours. The puppets are designed by David Morton, with Ellen Bailey, Emily Burton and Drew Wilson bringing movement and personality to the birds. The birds are boned, bared and reconstructed. The bleaching of Justin Harrison’s videos offer a nostalgic warmth that summons the naivety of 1970s innocence, a sharp contrast with the blade-like animated metal bird skeletons which represent the birdlife that inhabits the coastline. Their block-colour clothing and shoes are clean and unscuffed against the filmic landscapes projected as backdrops. The cast appears on the sandy, undulating landscape of Anna Cordingley’s set like models in a menswear catalogue. With its robotic bird skeletons and daggy dad jokes, it turns Thiele’s elegant tale of a boy growing up in pristine paradise into a carnival of theatrical colonialism and missed opportunities. Directed by Sam Strong, it’s the second production after the Sydney Theatre Company’s premiere in 2013. Tom Holloway’s adaptation for stage opened last week at the MTC’s Southbank Theatre. Fundamentally, it’s a timeless story about the human impact on our environment. ![]() Storm Boy, the 1964 YA novella by Colin Theile, is packed with glorious language that describes the breathtaking Ngarrindjeri coastline, its inhabitants and the “cruel and stupid” humans who trespass with guns to conquer and kill. 3.2K The stage adaptation of Colin Thiele’s beloved book Storm Boy is ‘a carnival of theatrical colonialism and missed opportunities’, says Monique Grbec ![]()
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