By Gai Anderson
Terrapin Puppet
Theatre and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
Seen as part of
Ten Days on the Island Festival, 2013.
The Recital
Hall, Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, Hobart .
Theatre at its best is transportative – it
takes you to places outside your self – where you suspend your disbelief and
begin to take part in the alchemy that is happening before you on stage.
Some time its the trickery and spectacle that
does this, sometimes it’s the quirky humor, the depth of story, the uplifting beauty
of the music, the emotional life of the characters, the simplicity and wisdom
of the message. But sometimes you are privileged enough to witness a show that
does all those things and more.
Shadow Dreams is a technical and artistic triumph
by any standards - a superbly crafted, simple, heart-felt story, beautifully
told, of two boys who begin to dream each other’s dreams. It is a colaboration
between Terrapin Puppet Theatre and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, performing
the very beautiful uplifting music of Graeme Koehn live.
The show is staged simultaneously in two
theatres at the two ends of the state using broadband to stream the live
orchestra and vision.
So on the stage in Hobart I could see a
screen divided in half, before which the story of Peter, a suburban white boy living
with his Mum and gran is enacted live.
On the other half of the screen is the Aboriginal
boy Dale with his father and sister in their house on a farm near Launceston. This
was a projection streaming live from the Launceston stage, where they were performing.
But that’s not all, the trickery went much
further than this as layers of animation, detailed landscape captured in stunning
painted backdrops and atmospheric shadow puppetry and other live puppetry
elements were layered to continuously transform the visual story with
incredible beauty.
There was an awful lot going on on-stage sometimes,
which may have been easier to take in in a larger theatre. But that didn’t stop
me from being totally engaged from start to finish with the beauty and
significance of the story.
The boys themselves were a delight, played by
actors Kai Resbeck and first time Aboriginal performer Nathan Maynard. As we
watched their days at school and at home we met two funny characters with the quirky
details of their lives, and where they live, of Bridgewater Jerry, Seven Mile
Beach and Dove lake.
But this story is not just about the boys –
it’s a story about the wisdom of the generations who have been here before and the
shared dreaming for a communal future. For what they dream together is not just
any story, but the Palawa story of the creation of Tasmania and its sacred landscapes.
Eventually it led them to each other when they
met with the families at Dove Lake, and amongst the elders and the wisdom of
culture, they ran and laughed together, dreaming of that communal future.
This is a very important story; a moment of
reconciliation, albeit on stage. It is certainly the first time I have seen the
reenactment of the Palawa story in such a public forum and it brought a tear to
my eyes. Let’s hope every Tasmanian gets to see this show in all its heart felt
beauty.
Thanks to the generosity of the Tasmanian
Aboriginal Community, to the ever inspiring talents of Frank Newman and Finegan
Kruckemeyer and to the huge caste and crew of Terrapin who worked together to
make this incredible show happen.
