By Kylie Eastley
Festival of Voices 2012
Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
 |
| Dean Stevenson |
As clichéd as it may be, there is a time for us all when
we feel the need to revisit our past, reflect on our present and, depending on
what we find, determine what our future will be. Cynics may call it a mid-life
crisis, while Jungians may call it a transition period which requires patience
and compassion for oneself as well as those around us.
After
the house has lost its fullness, the pub has lost its history, the chairs have
lost their comfort and tea has lost its heat, you find yourself doing the most
dangerous thing-measuring the man you are, without the woman who left you.
Tasmanian playwright Finnegan Kruckemeyer has written a
familiar tale. A man who when faced with the break-up of a relationship travels
back through his history; the family home, his childhood friendships and loves
to ‘find himself’.
He wrote the story and left space for the accompanying songs
that were written and performed by Hobart musician Dean Stevenson. On the final
night of the season as part of the Festival
of Voices I sit behind Finnegan, who is seeing the finished work for the
first time. An opportunity to gauge the authors response as well as my own.
