STAGES OF EMPATHY

 

 

Stages of Empathy.

A Forum Theatre presentation devised by Rebus Theatre. Cast: Zander Hammer-Wooda. Jay Taylor. Josh Rose. Facilitator Sammy Moynihan. Ralph Wilson Theatre. Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centre. August 1^st. 2025. For tour bookings and free performances in your workplace or organization go to www.rebustheatre.com

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

The cast of Stages of Empathy - Rebus Theatre

To quote the  Stages of Empathy programme: “Rebus is an inclusive company based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country that brings healing and social change across our city, region and country. We work with people who have experienced marginalization to create innovative, powerful performances in workplaces, community halls and theatres.” Rebus’s latest production, Stages of Empathy, has been inspired by the theories and practices of Brazilian director, the late Augusto  Boal. Like Rebus, Boal believed that theatre is a powerful tool for healing and social change. In order to achieve this Boal believed that actors and audience must be active participants in the act of theatre if change was  to be brought about by the actions and voice of the entire community. To this end he created Forum Theatre, which Rebus facilitator, Sammy Moynihan, trained in while  undertaking Boal workshops in Brazil. Boal believed that every member of an audience was a “spectactor” and was invited to change the action and direction of a scene and the attitude of the characters in order to effect change and improve people’s lives through the awareness of empathy and empowerment.

Sammy Moynihan is The Joker

Rebus actors under Moynihan’s guidance, devise a scenario. The scene is played out by the three actors, Josh Rose as Terry, the CEO of a community organization. Jay Taylor as Community Services Officer Lee and Zander Hammer Woods as an employee Alex and also an artist, Jordan, invited to exhibit at an Open Day. As the scene unfolds the audience learns that Terry is authoritarian, Lee suffers hyperactive anxiety, Alex is non communicative and Jordan suffers from a number of phobias and panic attacks.

Each scene is played out, and then rewound. Moynihan takes on the facilitator’s role which Boal termed  The Joker. His role is to encourage the audience to say STOP when they believe that they have a solution to an evident conflict or lack of communication and empathy. They then take the place of the character whom they believe can be changed in attitude or behavior. The scene is then played out with the spectactor in the role. The spectactor may have solved the conflict or they may have to leave it to another member of the audience to suggest a different approach. This process is repeated until different choices effect change. As actors and audience improvise new solutions,  their inclusion in the attempt to reach a solution highlights the theatrical power of theatre to bring about change through shared empathy. 

The stages of empathy are explicit in the effective contributions of the spectactors who become aware of their own commitment to effecting change through the choices they make and the solutions that they are able to suggest. At the performance that I attended it was obvious that each participating member of the audience was thoroughly committed and involved in solving a problem and strive for a positive outcome to that problem, whether it be due to a character’s personality or the general situation.

It is this obvious care for people and commitment to help overcome problems that proved cathartic for performer and audience member alike.

Throughout Moynihan guided actor and spectactor gently, inviting feedback and reinforcing the positive contribution of each spectactor, who was met with spontaneous applause from actors and audience alike. Their contribution was valued in an atmosphere of genuine support and encouragement.  

Rebus’s actors are neither professional nor experienced amateurs. What was evident was their commitment to the role of Forum Theatre in providing a theatrical platform for the inclusion of people with disabilities and the power of theatre to change social conditions and attitudes for the better. If the aim of theatre is for audiences to leave a theatre in some way changed by the experience then Stages of Empathy is a success and an excellent example of Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre.

 

21 HEARTS: VIVIAN BULLWINKEL AND THE NURSES OF THE VYNER BROOKE by JENNY DAVIS

 

21 Hearts: Vivian Bullwinkel and the Nurses of the Vyner Brooke by Jenny Davis.

Directed by Stuart Halusz. Producers Rebecca Davis and Michelle Fornasier. Associate Producer Ali Welburn. Presenting Partners The Australian Government’s Department of Veterans Affairs. Set design by Stuart Halusz. Visual Design by Gneiss Design. Sound designer and programmer Ben Collins. Lighting design by Rowan van Blomestein. Costume design by Ingrid Zursulo. Movement director Rachael Bott. Theme song composer and musical director Craig Skelton. Theme song vocalists Lisa Harper-Brown and Saskia Haluszkiewicz. Theme song musicians Australian Baroque. Stage manager Craig Williams. Assistant stage manager Aaron Stirk. Publicity and marketing Limelight consulting.Photographs by Stewart Thorpe Photography.

Cast: Rebecca Davis, Caitlin Beresford-Ord. Michelle Fornasier. Alex Jones Helen Searle and Alison van Reeken.

The Australian War Memorial Theatre. July 24 – August 3 2025. Bookings www.awm.gov.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

The cast of 21 Hearts:
Vivian Bullwinkel and the Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

On February 16^th 1942, 22 nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service turned their backs on the rifles and the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers and walked, chins up into the lapping seawater of Radji Beach on Indonesia’s Bangka Island. The gunshots rang out behind them and 21 of the nurses fell dead into the crimson water. One alone miraculously survived by playing dead after being shot. In playwright Jenny Davis’s profoundly moving tale of courage and survival, love and hope in the face of the horrific atrocities of war, Davis has created a riveting account of the experiences of the surviving nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel (Rebecca Davis).

Rebecca Davis as Vivian Bullwinkel

Under Theatre 180’s Artistic Director Stuart Halusz  21 Hearts: Vivian Bullwinkel and the Nurses of the Vyner Brooke assumes epic stature.  Davis’s play is a portrait of aspiration and dedication, of dreams hoped for and dreams destroyed  and man’s inhumanity to man. Vivian Bullwinkel’s story is a tale of survival against the odds, of sacrifice in the face of adversity, of love and compassion and ultimately of determination to honour and preserve the memory of the twenty one nurses murdered on the beach and others who died while in the Japanese POW camps before the liberation on August 25^th 1945.

Halusz’s excellent cast bring to life with powerful conviction the ill-fated nurses of Bangka Island, and apart from Davis in the title role, the other actors double up as Bullwinkel’s mother, the nurses in the POW camp, a young British girl whom Bullwinkel befriends  and her grandmother. They enact the songs sung by the choral members of the prisoners’ choir and voiceovers provide the characters of allied soldiers. The small touring cast of six take the audience along on a rollercoaster of emotions.

After the opening scene with Bullwinkel on the beach in 1993 to lay a memorial to her murdered companions, Davis’s play sweeps us along through moments of fun and laughter in Singapore before the fall to the Japanese, to the fear and uncertainty of impending invasion, and the  sinking of the S.S.Vyner Brooke to the capture and brutal murder of the nurses , Bullwinkel’s escape in the company of a wounded soldier and arrival at the camp. The drama then focuses on life in the camp, the cruelty of the captors and the struggle to survive the horrors and deprivation of imprisonment. 

Davis’s artful, skillfully researched storytelling is a tectonic plate of different emotions. There are moments of humour, the healing power of song, the collapse of human dignity, the crippling paralysis of fear, the powerful force of caneraderie and the tearful catharsis of empathy. For two hours Theatre180s excellent cast of actors and creatives  relive the story that needs to be told. “Why am I here?” Bullwinkel cries. That is why, lest we forget. That is why she must testify at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. It is why the girls from a local college needed to come to the performance today.

Lest we forget.  Jenny Davis’s 21 Hearts and Theatre 180’s outstanding production claim full merit as the inaugural production in the Australian War Memorial’s impressive new theatre. The Memorial is not merely a custodian of military history. It is an account of the experience of real lives, of good and evil in the human condition and of the noble virtues of courage, love, sacrifice and compassion. That is why a play as remarkable as 21 Hearts: Vivian Bullwinkel and the Nurses of the Vyner Brooke performed by the finest of actors and staged with imagination and purpose  warrants the full house that it played to with rapturous acclaim today. The Australian War Memorial is to be commended on staging 21 Heart: Vivian Bullwinkel and the Nurses of the Viyner Brooke. It will stay with you long after you leave the theatre.  

 Photos by Stewart Thorpe Photography

Stages of Empathy - Rebus Theatre

 

Stages of Empathy presented by Rebus Theatre.  Opening night at Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra.  July 31. 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone

Artistic Director and Joker: Sammy Moynihan – He/Him 
Project Manager: Harry Bhangu – He/Him
Wellbeing Officer: Verity Kimpton – She/Her
Accessibility Manager: Yenn Purkis – They/Them

Cast – Opening Night
Terry: Krystle Vicencio – She/Her
Jordan: Mark Polhuis – He/Him
Lee: Emily Smith
Alex / Sam: Zander Hanmer-Woods – He/Him

Cast – August 1
Jay Taylor – She/Her plays Lee
Josh Rose – He/Him plays Terry and Sam
Zander Hanmer-Woods plays Jordan


Sammy Moynihan tells me of his experience in Brazil where he was inspired by Augusto Boal’s approach to making political change.  AI is useful for summarising about Theatre of Oppression:

AI Overview
Founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, playwright Augusto Boal, a Brazilian theatre practitioner, developed the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) as a form of popular education using theatre to address social and political issues. Forum theatre, one of the techniques within TO, specifically focuses on empowering audiences to actively participate in the performance, influencing and changing the narrative to explore solutions to oppression. Boal's work, particularly his concept of the "spect-actor," encourages audience members to become active agents of change, stepping into the performance to explore alternative actions and resolutions to the presented conflict.

The oppressed people Moynihan is concerned about are those with disabilities who are excluded unfairly from activities and decision-making positions in workplaces, often because of  biased views about disabled people.

Rebus Theatre has always been about involving disabled members of the company performing theatre in the standard way – for an audience to watch and become aware of the actors’ capacities, and so for the abled to learn to recognise, perhaps intuitively, their biases against the disabled.

In Stages of Empathy, Moynihan and his team take us to the next stage in a cleverly devised form of Forum Theatre.  As a one-time drama teacher, I see this work as a form of educational drama – as enjoyable and as much a learning experience that I hope my classes were.

The politics is at the personal relationship level rather than at Boal’s governmental revolution level.  On a day-to-day level in the office, especially here in a public service town, learning how to make fair and more effective approaches to decisions for and by other people – disabled or not – is what Stages of Empathy is all about.

The Rebus actors play a shortish couple of office scenes in an organisation supporting artists – in this case visual artists, drawing, painting or sculpting.  The CEO is explaining to a new recruit in the management that for this year’s upcoming exhibition, Jordan’s artwork should be included because it is excellent, but Jordan should not be allowed to be present to talk to the public, especially the media, because last year he was an embarrassment, going into some kind of explosive panic attack which showed the organisation in a bad light.

The CEO Terry is insistent; Lee, inexperienced in her new management role, wants to offer an exciting sound-and-light show, and needs to please her boss; Alex is one of the artists, already very successful, who tries to push Jordan along.  But Jordan has a disability because of which loud sounds and bright lights will overwhelm him – the cause of the panic attack last year.

After the performances, Sammy takes on what I saw as the teacher role, inviting members of the audience to stop the action as the actors begin to repeat the performance, and to come on stage to take over one of the characters and show how that character could have made a better decision towards not just being fair and supportive to Jordan at this point in planning the exhibition, but to help make the relationships warmer, less bureaucratic, leading to a successful exhibition for Jordan and also for the organisation as a whole.

Usually, Rebus is working for this kind of relationship development in a workshop training situation.  It needs an intimate space for a theatre presentation for the general public.  

The theatre at Gorman House, suitably named after one-time Principal of Canberra High School, Ralph Wilson – famous in his day for his support of the arts and particularly drama – plays the role perfectly.  As did Rebus’ actors.

And, as it should, the show on opening night became an evening of lively action and thoughtful discussion by everyone no longer just in the “audience”.  A very successful Rebus project indeed towards unbiassing people towards disability.

Rebus Theatre - Stages of Empathy
The actors ready for action

 

 Frank McKone's reviews are also accessible at www.frankmckone2.blogspot.com

 

 

MARROW

 

MARROW

Concept and Direction, Daniel Riley, Choreography Daniel Riley with Australian Dance Theatre’s Company Artists.Artistic Associate Brianna Kell. Project Elder Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner AM. (Kaurna/Ngarrindjeri). Design and Lighting Matthew Adey of House of VnHoly. Costume Design Ailsa Paterson Sound Design James Howard (Jaadwa). Production Manager/Puppet Maker. Ninian Donald.  Stage and company manager Katya Shevtsov. Technical manager Ellen Demaagd.  Performers Joshua Doctor, Yilin Kong, Zachary Lopez, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. July 31 – August 3 2025. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Karra Nam in Australian Dance Theatre's MARROW

 

I first saw Daniel Riley’s compelling dance work Marrow at the 2024 Adelaide Festival in the intimate Odeon Theatre. Last night’s opening performance in the Canberra Playhouse was a startling revelation. The performance has lost none of its intensity and integrity. It continues to confront the challenges that face the marginalized, the oppressed and the neglected people in our society. The bone marrow of the human body produces the blood cells that feed the skeletal system of the body. The smoke of the smoking ceremony, performed by First Nations people offers spiritual ,cultural and physical healing. Marrow restores healing to a nation and a people still hurting from the bitter rejection of the Voice in the 2023 referendum. Time has passed but the pain persists and Riley’s work expounds the anger and the defiance at past wrongs with a promise of hope for the healing power of reconciliation and compassion. 

On the Playhouse stage the work has matured. James Howard’s composition reverberates with percussive force. Matthew Adey’s lighting magnifies the evocative impact of the dance. Riley’s dancers are sinewy and lithe, muscular and flexible. The dancers are members of the original production and their ensemble work is mesmerizing. Bodies intertwine, separate and reunite. Riley’s patterns of separation, unison, rejection and attraction create a sculptural landscape of changing emotions,  conjuring images of power and oppression and shifting images of contrasting status that give rise to the struggle. The choreography is inspired, an intricate and lucid tapestry of the human psyche underscored by Howard’s incessant rhythms and pounding percussion and Adey’s use of colour and stark spotlighting. Marrow is a gripping display of technical brilliance and choreographic storytelling. 

Marrow holds you in its thrall. It challenges the intellect, inviting visceral response to the anguished dance, the moments of  bonding, the alienation and the restoration of hope. It is a swirling kaleidoscope of human need and the search for identity and hope. As smoke soars upwards and the  red lighting creates a border on the stage we are reminded that where there is smoke there is fire and where there is fire there is cleansing and with the cleansing comes the healing. Marrow reminds us of past darkness and eventually offers hope for the future.

Artistic director Riley and his outstanding ensemble of beautiful dancers and creative team of Howard on sound design, Aisla Paterson on costumes and Adey on lighting have created a work that is testament to the stature and significance of Australian Dance Theatre in its Jubilee Year. Marrow is a must see experience.     

  In 2024 I wrote in summary”

“Australian Dance Theatre’s   production of Marrow is born of a burning passion. It is a dance work that is both raw and complex. Artistic director Daniel Riley once again brands his work with anger, with grief, with loss and the cry for change. James Howard’s opening sound design pulses with unrelenting protest, loud and forceful, echoing through the theatre as the dancers appear driven by an inner obsession and then, contorted, writhing, ghosts of the past, spectres of torment and victims of history. Riley’s choreography is uncompromising, compelling in its anguish as a pattern of interactive movements and solo moments express a struggle that is eternal. His dancers move in perfect concord with a theme of spiritual resurgence. The grim vision of a hanging black figure and Karra Nam’s long solo performance to restore life to the wrongs of the past and the perils of the present offers a glimpse of hope for a better future.”

 

           Tonight’s performance presents a company, assured in its mission, highly accomplished in its artistry and worthy of the accolades that are rightly attributed to a company of commitment and spellbinding talent. Marrow reminds us of the wrongs of the past but offers the promise of hope for the future.  He all too short season of this impressive work by Australian Dance Theatre is an experience that is not to be missed,

 PHOTOS BY MORGAN SETTE     

MARROW

Concept and Direction by Daniel Reilly

Choreography by Daniel Reilly with Australian Dance Theatre’s Company Artists

Composition and Sound Design by James Howard (Jaadwa)

Australian Dance Theatre

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre to 1 August

 

Reviewed by Len Power 31 July 2025

 

“What if we all went home, to Country, unplugged from social media and took a break from the political news cycle for an extended period of time?” First Nations journalist, Stan Grant’s words were the inspiration for this bold new work by Daniel Reilly and the Australian Dance Theatre company.

Composer, James Howard, set the mood with a driving electronic soundscape, like the heartbeat of the nation, that you could feel as well as hear.

On a cavernous, dark setting, designed by Matthew Adey of House of Vnholy, the dancers swirled around the space, their individual lives caught up with the same pressures and emotions. With a return to Country, there was peace and time to heal, gather strength and contemplate the future. Moments of high emotion, deep discussions, feelings strongly expressed, and the influences of the past gave hope to moving forward with a renewed and shared optimism.

Australian Dance Theatre's company of dancers

Daniel Reilly’s vision for this work was superbly realized in this haunting and fascinating work. His six dancers - Joshua Doctor, Yilin Kong, Zachary Lopez, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak – gave a clarity to the emotional aspects of Reilly’s choreography while dancing with precision, individually and in groupings.

Australian Dance Theatre's company of dancers

As well as the music, there was an excellent lighting design by Matthew Adey that added a strong atmosphere to the work. The clever and imaginative use of smoke effects by the dancers gave the work a supernatural feel at times.

Australian Dance Theatre is Australia’s oldest continuing contemporary dance company. Founded in Adelaide in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, it was established with the aspiration of “expanding the boundaries of dance”. It was good to see Dalman in the audience at this performance of “Marrow”.

Daniel Reilly and the Australian Dance Theatre have produced a thoughtful, haunting and memorable work with a strong and appealing message.

 

Photos by Morgan Sette

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/.