Australia has the Great Australian Play just like America has the American Dream and England has the Great British Bake-Off. These iconic stories endure as myths of national identity and minimised imperialism that keep the masses rallying around idealised, constructed figures of power and triumph. But pretty soon the truth will crawl out from where it’s been buried to wreck havoc on the artists and audiences still buying into the centuries-old lie.
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This review comes from Night Writes guest reviewer Gabriella Florek
Just as the title of Martin Crimp’s 1997 play can be interpreted in different ways by an innocent reader, the script itself is left open for the the artists involved in its staging. With little direction from the playwright as to how many actors should perform and who speaks the lines, making creative decisions becomes, arguably, an even more precarious task than usual.
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The last few years have felt particularly prophetic as the global timeline twists in on itself with the rise of fascism in the west, the collapse of democracy in Hong Kong, the civil rights movement of Black Lives Matter, and the “unprecedented” times of COVID-19 which saw responses from political leaders uncannily similar to the AIDS crisis and the 1918 flu pandemic. So it’s not surprising to see artists turn to the well-worn narratives of George Orwell as an imperfect mirror for the cycle of oppression and revolution we’re living through.
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