Hi Rob,

Intriguing review and great perspective. I saw it on opening and we had Katherine Neale on the panel – she initiated the original game project ( http://www.whatdidshethink.com/2019/05/return-to-escape-from-wimmera-live-art.html ) so I think we got more discussion on the game itself and how they developed it in close consultation with actual inmates. I say in my review that the audience experience will probably depend on who is on the panel each night and your review reinforces this thought for me. The audience was also quite engaged in the game play early on because people kept losing all hope and the next player would then build on the lessons learnt by the previous player which got us all quite excited. I am intrigued to see what Appelspiel will take from this venture into their big project in the future – what they have learnt and what directions may have been spawned by these discussions. FYI I also liked the gender commentary in that it was a woman who was the game technician and MC and it was the men just sitting there doing the talking. To me it read as the women being technically capable and leading the artistic integrity. Semiotics are always intriguing!

mmm, dunno if its a male/female thing. Maybe it is. Might also be a reflection of our own individual pessimisms/optimisms.
Either way, I’m not convinced that the sacrifice the Whale makes changes the outcome of the play either. To me it’s too late to be like the Whale. Whale has already lost her children at the hands of humanity’s boats, and then beaches herself to rescue one human while the rest of us can only stand by and watch. But i have subsequently heard from a some of the audience that they felt more uplifted (is that a good description?) than i was. I think my experience was informed more by the structures of participation than the characters or the narrative. The metaphor for me was one of being told we have agency but not really having any, which is a pretty accurate representation of the hopelessness i feel in the face of the problem.
But I’m really glad that not everyone else has given in to despair.
R

Great article Rob. I have been saying for years a written play is more than just what is performed on stage. I don’t know what the prospects are regarding lost canon but it would be great if we would start putting energy into recognising the current canon. So much of what we know about the history of so many cultures comes through their written stories so if we don’t preserve ours how will people ever understand who and what we are, what we struggle with and what we admire, what mistakes we make and what we do well if noone preserves the writings of our current artists. And, yes, a priority on staging our own work rather than the work of everyone else in the world would be appropriate too… 🙂

Westside Story
Robert Reid’s quibbles about the acting (‘generally flat … not quite reaching the emotions’) and dancing (‘moves lack precision’) are probably accurate – although from my point of view as a very occasional musical-goer, it generally came off beautifully. In fact I’m amazed at how a group of people can make such a lovely fist of so many accomplishments. At least Robert was pretty happy with the set, with its NY skyscrapers and its ‘glowing gradients of colour’.
Robert’s main dissatisfaction is a common one with works which gain some of their power from dealing with contemporary issues: how do you counter the power of nostalgia? What really have the Jets and the Sharks to do with our millenial issues?
But then … what really have the Capulets and the Montagues to do with us, in the story of four centuries ago, and set by Shakespeare in a different country and time to his own?
The answer of course is ‘plenty’. Issues of race, power, violence, tribalism, honour, love, right and wrong, anguish are universal; we are all affected and moved by great works of art that explore them, irrespective of their setting in time. The circumstances change endlessly, but the human issues maintain their potency. As (perhaps) a great work of art, I feel that Westside Story holds up pretty well in expressing these issues.
Robert was left ‘wondering how it might be possible to … sharpen the show to explode its complacent nostalgia.’ I’m not sure what he had in mind in ‘sharpening the show’ – perhaps he was also left with some nagging doubts along the lines I’ve suggested above! Certainly, giving the Jets mullet cuts and Harley Davidsons isn’t going to do anything useful.