Until Justice Comes

Photography Book Review: Brian Rope

Until Justice Comes (Fifty Years of The Movement for Indigenous Rights. PHOTOGRAPHS 1970 – 2024) I Juno Gemes | First Nation's Resistance Photography | Large format flexibound, 284×234mm, 348 pp

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Islander People as The Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout our Nation.

Cover of Until Justice Comes

Until Justice Comes is a most significant and important book which, undoubtedly, will become a valuable resource for teachers and leave a significant legacy. It is a landmark publication based on collaboration, and reveals the true history of Australia.

The author Juno Gemes was born in Hungary in 1944 and emigrated to Australia with her parents in 1949. A performer, theatre director, writer, publisher, photographer and activist, she was one of the founders of Australia's first experimental theatre groups, The Human Body. As an Australian activist and photographer, she is best known for her photography of Aboriginal Australians.

Gemes is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary photographers with many achievements. In 1982 she exhibited photographs in the group shows After the Tent Embassy and Apmira: Artists for Aboriginal Land Rights. She created a unique visual document of the historic Uluru Handback Ceremony 26 October 1985. In 2003 the National Portrait Gallery (Australia) exhibited her portraits of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reconciliation activists and personalities, Proof: Portraits from the Movement 1978–2003, and has since acquired many of her photographs.

Using both words and images she has spent over fifty years documenting the changing social landscape of Australia, and in particular the lives and struggles of Aboriginal Australians, a process that culminated in her being one of just ten photographers invited to photographically document the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in the Parliament of Australia on 13 February 2008.

This book’s photographs cover crucial moments in Australia’s history including the Redfern Revolution, land rights campaigns, the aforementioned National Apology, the election of eleven Indigenous Members to the 47th Federal Parliament, and the preparations for the 2023 Referendum on the Voice to Parliament. The powerful collection of over 220 photographs brings Gemes’ current and continuing work together with her unique living archive. It portrays her career witnessing and advocating for change.

Elders from Aurukun - Denny Bowenda and Countryman Laurie Pantoomba have a meeting beside the flag on the bora ground, Mornington Island, QLD, 1978 ©JUNO GEMES

Terribly civilized, Aren't you? Photomontage published in Photo-Discourse, Sydney, NSW, 1981
©JUNO GEMES

At the 50th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Matriarch activist Jenny Munro was first at the Tent Embassy in 1972: now her children and those of her sister Isabel Coe and founders Billy Craigie and Paul Coe take responsibility for running the Aboriginal Tent Embassy into the future, 26 January 2022
© JUNO GEMES

Sammy Wilson, Mutitjulu Community Leader, welcomes members of the Referendum Working Group to sacred sites at Uluru, 2023 © JUNO GEMES

This visual uncovering of an often-invisible history has been at the heart of Gemes’ engagement with the First Nations people she has known and worked with throughout all these years. The book shows us both well-known and lesser leaders, intimate community events, and activism. It includes new writings and poems by various contributors.

Gael Newton, a former Senior Curator of Australian and International Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, has said Until Justice Comes is the first fully retrospective testament to a woman universally revered for her artistry, activism, engagement and collaboration. It also shines with the warmth, wry side glances, acuity and determined end game that fill her images with life and hope.

Why did I say true history at the end of my opening paragraph? Because we are one nation. We are all Australians - Indigenous first people, descendants of those who established a British colony here in 1788, or those (including me as a young migrant child) who arrived later from numerous parts of the world to make Australia their home are part of our nation. My parents were. My children are. Juno Gemes is. Most people reading this will be citizens of Australia. Together we comprise our one nation and are all part of the true history of our nation. That was acknowledged by a banner displayed at the Tent Embassy on its 50th anniversary in 2022.

We have all contributed to the making of our one nation. All Indigenous first people from the very beginning until right now have contributed in many ways. The convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settler who arrived in 1788 and all their descendants added more. The migrants from many different cultures who have come over the years since have also brought different skills. Together everyone has played a part in making Australia what it is today.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

An abbreviated version has been published by Canberra City News here.

Hub Fest 2025

 

Hub Fest Play Festival.  ACT Hub at Causeway Hall, Kingston.  February 16 – 22, 2025.
Hub Fest was devised by Lachlan Houen for ACT Hub

The Bestiary - An Interlude by Hannah Tonks
The Forsaken by Oliver Kuskie

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Feb 16



The two plays in this first Hub Fest are interesting, having in common serious criticisms of today’s social culture presented in short-form theatre.  The Bestiary is an Orwellian satire in 30 minutes of the world’s shifting towards authoritarianism at government level.  The Forsaken shows the breakdown of social norms at the personal level.

In theatrical terms, The Bestiary’s half-hour is more successful than The Forsaken’s 70 minutes.  

In both plays characters make a series of polemical statements which slow down the drama.  

In The Bestiary, the statements made by the rebellious terrorist artists serve to increase the dramatic tension about what they will do with the focus character: the hypocritical woman Minister for Aesthetics.  Their punishment – making her create a work of art – then results in her execution because she has broken the very law she is responsible for.  Just as she had had Wolf executed.  The shame is that Wolf’s partner, in bringing the Minister to justice, is herself shot by the firing squad as well.

In The Forsaken, the social issue about the isolation of the elderly and the impossibility of this old man’s ever being able to do anything practical about the family violence (on one side of his thin walled flat) or about the poverty-driven drug-driven theft and profiteering by the flat-sharing young (on the other side) is as powerful a theme as the issue of the need for government support of creative artistic freedom in The Bestiary.

But sitting listening to the old man’s recording of his frustrations, though very well performed, and faithful to my own feelings (like him I am in my 80s), started to feel a bit interminable.  The breaking away to the short scenes in the other flats – in the foreground on stage – took the dramatic action away from that central character.  We saw what was happening and understood his frustration and even fears, but there needed to be much more emotional interaction beyond just the peripatetic popping-in by the wild-haired young man from the share flat, before the effective scene with the wife from the family side.

Perhaps, as The Bestiary showed, maybe 40 minutes of intense interactions could have got the message through more strongly.

In the end, of course, the value of ACT Hub’s Hub Fest is exactly this – that for a small price you can make such comparisons and appreciate the creativity of the theatre arts, without being executed!

See https://www.acthub.com.au/production/hub-fest-play-festival

 

 

 

 

Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Directed by Jordan Best. Lakespeare/The Q. Various locations Feb 12 - Mar 1 - see www.lakespeare.com

This is a tightly done  Shakespeare that survives the open air, the wheeling crying birds at sunset and the coming of night. (If you look at the performance schedule you’ll find both indoor and outdoor performances.) Outside specialists Lakespeare have joined forces with director Jordan Best and The Q for this year’s show and it’s a sharp version with clarity and drive. 

There’s a Macbeth (Isaac Reilly) and a Lady Macbeth (Lainie Hart) who are lean and hungry for the power they think a bit of murder will gain them. How their certainties are undone is the fascination.  Reilly and Hart  nail the unravelling of a brisk marriage between two morally blind people with a degree of ruthlessness and a twist which I will not reveal. 

They are backed up in this well paced show by a small but flexible cast that  includes a couple of thanes who look as if they could actually wield weapons. Max Gambale’s Duncan has a good royal authority, Lachlan Ruffy’s Banquo has honesty, Caitlin Baker as Malcolm has a youthful directness that plays well and Paul Sweeney as Macduff  is moving in his grief and rage. Then there’s Jane Ahlquist as an authoritative Ross (but also splendid as a nasty goblin of a Porter) and Annabelle Hansen wonderfully disturbing as a terrified Lady Macduff.

The concept of the witches (Caitlin Baker, Annabelle Hansen and Paris Scharkie) who are veiled and horned and glide around unsettlingly underplays their presence in a way that is much more sinister than a bunch of cackling hags might be. 

Seeing this haunted play under cloudy skies  with its climax at sunset and the chance of some serendipitous performances by the local crows made for an unsettling show on opening night. This tight production of The Scottish Play will chill  no matter which of its season’s venues, indoor or outdoor, you see it in. 

Alanna Maclean

BUBBLE BOY - Queanbeyan Players.

Rylan Howard (Jimmy-Bubble Boy) - Christina Philipp (Ensemble)

Book by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio – Music and lyrics by Cinco Paul.

Directed by Tijana Kovac – Musical Direction by Sally Taylor

Set, Costume and Properties design by Remus Douglas

Lighting design by Eve Perry – Sound Design by Telia Jansen

Presented by Queanbeyan Players – Belconnen Community Theatre Feb.14 -23.

Opening Night Performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Aleisha Croxford (Jimmy's Mother) - John Potter (Jimmy's Father) - Rylan Howard (Jimmy- Bubble Boy), Kay Liddiard (Chloe) and ensemble.

Queanbeyan Players has come up with another winner with its latest production "Bubble Boy" which opened in the Belconnen Community Theatre last night.

Although based on a potentially serious premise about a boy born without immunities forced to live in a plastic bubble room by his over-protective mother, the musical is given a playful, cartoon-like production, by first-time Queanbeyan Players director Tijana Kovac.

The tuneful music and lyrics of Cinco Paul’s songs are unabashedly derivative, while the comic-book style storyline by Paul and Ken Daurio delights in its own silliness.

Kovacs has embraced the possibilities offered by this approach by utilising colourful two-dimensional props and minimalist settings and successfully harnessing the exuberance of her large, predominately youthful cast to achieve a disarmingly entertaining evening of feel-good theatre.

Aleisha Crosford (Jimmy's Mother) - Rylan Howard (Jimmy - Bubble Boy)

As the bubble boy, Jimmy Livingstone, whose education in isolation consists of reading his mother’s copies of Better Homes and Gardens, Ryland Howard is immediately likeable and delightfully goofy.

His naiveness is cleverly contrasted by Kay Liddiard’s portrayal of Chloe, the girl-next-door, and the object of Jimmy’s affections, as a resourceful, confident young woman easily able to thwart the tactics of Jimmy’s controlling mother, portrayed by Aleisha Croxford.

To describe the obstacles Jimmy and Chloe meet on their path to true love would risk spoiling the fun, but suffice to say their journey offers endless opportunities for delightfully outrageous cameos, among them, Mark and Shawn the doltish best mates, Mark and Shawn, enthusiastically portrayed by Andrew Taylor and Sam Thomson, who miss out on the girl but discover each other instead, and Lorraine and Todd (Emilie Martin and April Telfer) the terrifyingly cheerful leaders of the Bright and Shiny Cult.

Valeria Arciniega Vidurrizaga is a stand-out as the biker, Slim, who offers Jimmy some useful advice, as is Roya Safaei as Pushpa, who hits a cow with her ice cream truck before stopping the show with her solo "It’s an Elk".

Throughout the large enthusiastic ensemble obviously delight in executing Sally Taylor’s quirky choreography while singing up a sometimes-ear-piercing storm to the enthusiastic accompaniment by Adam Blum’s funky six-piece on-stage band under the musical direction of Tara Davidson.

Despite the clunkiness of some of lighting and sound technicals, and some out-of-tune singing on opening night, Bubble Boy still succeeded in providing a remarkably entertaining evening of theatre in which director Kovac and her company’s embrace of the goofiness of the piece out-trumped any perceived lack of finesse.

                                                    

                                              Images by Damien Magee




       This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 15.02.25

BUBBLE BOY

Book by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio

Music and lyrics by Cinco Paul

Directed by Tijana Kovac

Musical Direction by Tara Davidson

A Queanbeyan Players production

Belconnen Community Theatre to 23 February

 

Reviewed by Len Power 14 February 2025

 

Most musicals we know had a typical Broadway start, but ‘Bubble Boy’ is a musical that first appeared in a production in New Jersey, USA in 2013. A cast album was then released, and the show became available for subsequent productions.

Somehow, the clever people at Queanbeyan Players found out about it and, even though audiences here would be unlikely to have heard of it, they’ve had the courage to take a gamble and give it a local production.

Based on an equally obscure 2001 film of the same name, it’s about a boy who was born without immunities and has had to live in a plastic bubble room. The show explores the idea that we’re all in our own limiting ‘bubbles’ and need to break out of them to reach our full potential.

Director of this production, Tijana Kovac, has given the show a comic look and feel.  The set and properties design by Remus Douglas is minimal and deliberately ratty and Sally Taylor’s choreography is based on simple movement. Their apt choices all contribute to the show’s overall sense of fun.

Rylan Howard (centre), the Bubble Boy, Jimmy, with members of the cast

The large youthful cast attack the material with gusto and enthusiasm right from the opening number and keep that energy level high throughout the show. The 6 piece band play the music very well.

Kay Liddiard (Chloe) with Ryan Howard (Jimmy, the Bubble Boy)

You could criticize certain aspects of the show – there is some flat singing and over-acting at times and the music for the show isn’t all that memorable – but, honestly, the rough edges of this production work in its favour and the cast’s enthusiastic delivery overcome any short-comings, making this a very enjoyable two hours of musical fun.

Once again, Queanbeyan Players have shown that you don’t always have to look to the well-known Broadway musicals to have a good show.

 

Photos by Damien Magee

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

  

MACBETH

 

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

 Directed by Jordan Best. Fight choreographer Annie Holland. Choreographer. Jodi Hammond Costume construction Gaia La Penna. Jig sound designer. Patrick Haesler. Production /Stage manager. Sophia Barrett. Cast Isaac Reilly, Lainie Hart, Caitlin Baker, Lachlan Ruffy, Max Gambale, Paaul Sweeney, Annabelle Hansen, Paris Sharkie, Jane Ahlquist, Sterling Notley, Kirana De Schutter,  Ensemble: Isaiah Prichard, William Best, Joshua James.  Aunty Louise Brown Lawns at The Q. Lakespeare and The Q. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre February 13^th At various sites. Bookings and information: www.lakespeare.com

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Lakespeare has joined forces with The Q Theatre to produce its first tragedy in the open air. In the past Lakespeare has gained an enviable and well-earned reputation as a popular presenter of Shakespeare’s comedies and history plays for audiences at its open air festivals at various Canberra venues from Glebe Park to the amphitheatre at the ANU and the Patrick White Lawns at the National Library. This year Lakespeare in association with The Q Theatre and under the inventive direction of Jordan Best has decided to take the bold step to present Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. It is a bold and risky move. Shakespeare’s tale of a noble warrior’s fall because of  his fatal flaw of  “vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on ‘tother” is a gruesome tale of ironic prophesy, bloody regicide and violent murder. Director Best understands the power of storytelling and at the Aunty Louise Brown Park adjacent to Queanbeyan’s Q Theatre, the audience on the grass and in chairs at the back sat transfixed as three ethereally costumed witches (Caitlin Baker, Annabelle Hansen and Paris Sharkie)lead Macbeth (Isaac Reilly) along a predestined  path to retribution at the sword of noble Macduff (Paul Sweeney ).

Isaac Reilly )Macbeth) Paul Sweeney (Macduff)

The success of an open-air production relies on the ability of a company to tell the story. Macbeth is Shakespeare at his most economical. His Elizabethan audience for the most part were superstitious and believed in ghosts and portents. There is no subplot of note to distract or confuse and Best’s actors have understood the power of the telling by speaking the speech trippingly on the tongue and clearly suiting the action to the word and the word to the action. It is all done to entice an audience. They needed no better gauge of success than the spontaneous applause of their audience as Macduff exacted his just revenge. 

It would be easy to dismiss Macbeth as a propagandist thriller to please England’s Queen Elizabeth and assure favour. Shakespeare is too clever and great a writer to deny the significance of tragedy on the human condition. Macbeth is a noble brave and highly respected soldier of honour who, because of a fatal flaw allows himself to be persuaded by the ambitious and loving Lady Macbeth.  In Best’s production motive and action are clear enough, and delivered by an enthusiastic and talented cast. However, the open air and amplification make it often more difficult to capture the nuance or subtlety of the occasion. Best’s production is more sound and fury than introspection but this is probably to be expected in the open air in daylight hours with black birds flying high above. It may be a different matter when the production moves to the ACT HUB theatre in Kingston later in the season.

Lainie Hart as Lady Macbeth

There are fine performances from the diverse cast. Reilly’s Macbeth is the caged beast, trapped by supernatural forces to play out his destiny against his nature. It is the action of a man trapped and desperate to combat the consequences of his evil deeds. Hart does give a sensitively nuanced performance of the loyal and loving wife, driven to succeed in her ambition for her husband and yet too fragile to accept denial of her rightful role as partner in the deed with the tragic consequence of Macbeth’s rejection. From viperish vixen to tormented outcast, Hart elicits a performance that evokes a tinge of empathy during the sleepwalking scene. Usually, her death is not witnessed, and it is interesting that Best has decided to show a violent end.

There are some notable performances. Max Gambale’s bombastic King Duncan lends credibility to the fact that he could only have been murdered while asleep. Lachlan Ruffy gives an excellent performance as Macbeth’s offsider Banquo. He is the suspicious witness to the prophesy and hapless victim of his knowledge. There is an authenticity  to Caitlan Baker’s performance of the king’s son and heir, Malcolm. Paul Sweeney’s Macduff is hugely impressive ranging from his performance of the strong and loyal soldier to the poignancy of the grieving father and husband of  Lady Macduff. In a play of unrelenting violence Jane Ahlquist’s quirky porter lends a touch of comic lampoonery.

I have seen more productions of the Scottish play on stage and screen than I can remember. Lakespeare's and The Q's co-production is a feat of riveting storytelling. As the sky darkened over the Aunty Louise Brown lawns and Shakespeare’s psychological and political thriller hurtled towards its prophetic denouement, I found myself rapt in the company’s artful storytelling. It’s a ripping good yarn that will keep you wanting to see what happens however well you know that  something wicked this way comes.

Photos by Photox

 

 

MACBETH - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre & Lakespeare.

Lainie Hart (Lady Macbeth) - Isaac Reilly (Macbeth) in "Macbeth"

 

Written by William Shakespeare – Directed by Jordan Best

Stage Manager: Sophia Barrett – Sound Design by Paris Scharkie

Fights staged by Annie Holland –

Jig Composed by Patrick Haesler – Choreographed by Jodi Hammond.

Costumes by Jordan Best, Sophia Barrett, Gaia La Penna.

Aunty Louise Brown Park – Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre -February 12^th – 16^th Feb.

Performance on 12^th February 2025 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Isaac Reilly (Macbeth) - Paul Sweeney (Captain) in "Macbeth"

The opportunity to experience one of William Shakespeare’s most intriguing plays in an atmosphere not dissimilar to how it might have been presented originally, proved surprisingly engrossing in this clever outdoor staging by Jordan Best.

Blessed with a balmy summer evening, a single black tent provided the only setting.  Repurposed op-shop style costumes provided often lavish spectacle and differentiated the characters created by the fourteen strong cast approximating an itinerate Jacobean acting troupe.

Clever directorial flourishes and the power of Shakespeare’s extraordinarily powerful language proved all that was necessary to captivate the opening night audience for this production of his blood drenched drama of murder and revenge.

Such was the power of the central performances that even the lack of theatrical lighting to differentiate night and day, or time and place, the gender-blind casting, or gremlins in the otherwise excellent sound system during the second act, seemed of little consequence.      

While the necessity to have actors play multiple roles sometimes proved perplexing for those unfamiliar with the text, Best’s innate sense of theatre ensured her direction kept the action moving at a compelling pace, punctuated by engagingly staged set-pieces, enhanced by atmospheric sound design and amplification that allowed the nuances of Shakespeare’s quote-infused dialogue to be relished and weave its magic.  

Magic was in the air at this performance, as unexpectedly, a flock of ravens created an unforgettable moment when they flew in and settled on the surrounding buildings just as a character sounded a warning as to the meaning of their presence. Then later a flock of chattering corellas, settling in for the night, created a strangely foreboding atmosphere for the battleground scenes.  

Performing as Macbeth, Isaac Reilly offered a compelling interpretation. His initial, superbly phrased speeches hinting at the insecurities which would eventually lead to his downfall. Matching him as Lady Macbeth, Lainie Hart created an intriguing characterisation at various times warm, manipulative, controlling and finally terrified. The director’s decision to have her murdered in full view of the audience provided a stunning moment.

The obvious attention paid to line delivery and phrasing paid off in particularly powerful, performances delivered by Paul Sweeney as Macduff, Max Gambale as Duncan, and Jane Ahlquist as both Ross and Porter.

Harkening back to the itinerate acting troupe theme, the performance concluded with the entire cast participating in a merry jig to dissipate any gloom induced by the events portrayed in the play.

Following this outdoor season at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre this production will be performed both indoors and out at various locations around Canberra. Full details can be found on the Lakespeare website.  

                                                               Images by Photox