Hart
Concept and performance. Ian Michael. Text by Ian Michael and Seanna van Helten. Directed by Penny Harpham. Composition and sound design by Raya Slavin. Set and costume design by Raya Slavin. Lighting design and technical management by Shannah McDonald. Produced and tour management by Anna Kennedy. AV Design by Michael Carmody. She Said Theatre. Tandanya. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2016. March 2 – 13. 2016
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Ian Michael in Hart. Photo by Gabbi Briggs |
At the end of his moving homage
to those of his people who became known as the Stolen generation, aboriginal
performer and graduate of the Western
Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Ian Michael told his audience, I dedicate this performance
to the 10 year old girl who committed suicide yesterday.”
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| Clloe Greaves' set design for Hart. Photo: Julie Zhu |
Hart is a moving, disturbing
account of the atrocities perpetrated against the aboriginal people with
specila reference to four of his Noongar people who suffered under the
heartless and ignorant policy of removal
of young children from their parents and families, ostensibly for their own
good. It was in fact a systematic act of abuse and destruction of aboriginal
culture and custom. Performer, Michael with co-writer Seanna van helten and
director Penny Markham have created a powerful piece of verbatim theatre,
drawing on the experiences of Sam Dinah, Paul Parfitt and Hart, as well as
Michael himself. The performance moves back and forth through time from the
early 1930sin Western Australia to the 1980s when Michael was a young boy.
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| Ian Michael in Hart |
Performing within a circle of
flour and with only a chair for furniture, Michael recounts the forced
maltreatment of indigenous people, a treatment that continues to the present
day. Familiar and disturbing images of aborigines in chains or being dressed in
mission clothes or with a mother from whom the baby child was snatched and
taken to an institution, flash upon the screen. A sound track juxtaposes the
repentant Sorry speech by Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd or the groundbreaking Redfern address by Prime Minister Paul
Keating with the bigoted, facile remarks of shock jock Alan Jones. It is both a horrifying indictment of the
white man’s cruel and unjust treatment of the people and a voice of hope in the
words and deeds of those who strive to restore dignity and justice to the
nation’s traditional owners.
All this and much more is performed
in an atmosphere of non- judgmental storytelling. The experiences speak for
themselves, and Michael’s performance resonates with sincerity and compassion.
At times the circle of flour is disturbed to create a vapour through the air, a
symbol of the dirt, recalling Gough Whitlam’s reconciliation with traditional
landowner Vincent Lingian when he poured soil through his hand in 1975. We are
still reminded of how little has been achieved since then. Michael besmears himself with the flour to represent
the boy painting to express the rituals and commemorations of a proud and
unified race. The tragedy of its
decimation is only too poignant, but Michael’s performance under Markham’s
sensitive direction is never accusatory.
The past is behind us, and yet it
is ever present. Michael recounts his own experiences as an actor. At auditions
he may be regarded too white for one role or too dark for another. In his own
industry perceptions run deep and preconceptions cloud the truth that we are
all human, with feelings and desires. In an hour, Michael transgresses the past
to paint a portrait of a present that still bears the yoke of a cruel and
misunderstanding past. There is no overt pronouncement of blame, only the implicit
plea to understand, to reconcile and to amend the injustices of the past that
still permeate the conditions of the present. The stories are told with passion
and humour and Michael’s relaxed and appealing performance style only serves to
heighten the contrast between the ideal and the iniquitous.
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| Ian Michael in Hart. Photo by Julie Zhu |
Indigenous senator and outstanding Australian Olympian, Nova Peris has called the 10 year old’s suicide incomprehensible. I have found the cruel treatment of the aboriginal people since the white invasion of 1788 equally incomprehensible, made even more so by the excellent performance of Hart by Michael. And yet, there have been advances and Hart is a cry rom the heart that hopefully will offer hope for a better future for the land’s original people and the ideal of reconciliation.
Hart is a compelling and
unifying experience for all Australians. It truly is a show no to be missed.