Friday Five: Books Read in November (Yes, it's actually just four)

1. The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister (St Martin's Griffin) - This novel blends whimsy, magic realism, coming-of-age self-discovery, fairy tale archetypes and young adult fiction. Emmeline is raised by her father, alone on an island which can only be reached once a month when the tide is right. He has a machine, which can capture scents and print them onto slips of paper, like a Polaroid camera for images. He puts these scent papers into small glass bottles, stoppered with different-coloured wax. The scents do not last forever, and he begins to burn them individually to release memories, until a tragic accident forces Emmeline to leave the island and return to the mainland. Emmeline’s father has educated her through stories, foraging and fishing, sitting her down for a lesson every morning. There is an element of Miranda and Prospero, and her awakening to the brave new world enables the author to indulge in the trope of an ‘alien identity’ discovering and describing technology. She learns to read people through their scent, like a dog does. When rescued and taken to school, Emmeline is bullied for being different and for her intense sense of smell and her natural style – she doesn’t understand falsity and masking. Later, her mother, Victoria takes her to a make-up counter and buys all the products after the ‘transformation’. Emmeline goes to work for her mother creating scents to make people spend money. Often she omits a significant element, to force the body to fill that absence. "And what if that missing thing could make a person need to buy the things around them?” Of course, the skill is used for capitalist gain, but the sentiment is true for art – visual, performance and written – the best leaves something for the audience to do; to provoke a response rather than telling them exactly how they should think and feel. Many aspects of the novel are unconvincing, and it is not enough to pass this off as magical realism when they relate to plot points. Neither is it satisfactory to suggest they don't matter as this is a coming-of-age young adult fairytale, with Emmeline learning to 'be her own person'. Who else would she be?
2. In Memoiram by Alice Winn (Viking) - In Memoriam is reminiscent of Atonement and Testament of Youth as it covers the doomed generation of young men who went to war and never returned, either because they were killed or changed irrevocably. Also discernible are elements of Pat Barker’s Ghost Road novel, wherein, like the WWI poetry we all studied in school with the benefit of hindsight and distance, we can plot the way innocence, ideology and excitement turned to disgust, betrayal, anger and frustration. Our characters transform from schoolboys worried about their families and duty to wounded and embittered cynics whose promise was destroyed by a class system into which they had no input. And at its heart it is a love story between Gaunt and Ellwood, two young men coming of age in a time when homosexuality was still illegal. Winn writes in linear style, with sharp, clear sentences, avoiding excessive adjectives, but with a profoundly moving poetry. There are echoes of Blackadder Goes Forth in the trench talk, where there is resentment of the upper class automatically being made officers and promoted to captains, having authority over men much older and more experienced than them. Meanwhile the men are falling without class distinction in a horrifically mundane manner. “At nine, they went over the top. West’s head was shot off before they had gone two feet. Elwood paused to look at his brains. Pritchard had always said he didn’t have any, but there they were, grey and throbbing and clotted with blood.” The section set in a prisoner of war camp is almost a comic diversion. “It’s astonishing how well an English boarding school prepares one for prison.” All the prisoners are bored, chatty and trying to escape, while the guards are generally good-natured and long-suffering. In Memoriam is Alice Winn’s debut novel. It may not be an original topic, but it is excellently written. She writes captivatingly about things of which she can have no first-hand experience: life in the trenches, male sex, and English public schools with a ring of authenticity. I look forward to her next offering.
3. Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test by Marlene Zuk (W.W. Norton & Company) - Subtitled, How Behaviour Evolves and Why It Matters, this book answers that question immediately. “If we assume that intelligence is predetermined, we are less likely to think interventions, say in the form of social programs to improve learning in children, will be effective. On the other hand, if we assume everything can be altered by our actions, we may blame the victim, as is sometimes seen in the suggestion that those with cancer or other serious diseases could have avoided their plight by diet or exercise, or that people can just think their way out of depression.” The nature/ nurture question is repeatedly addressed as a 'zombie idea' - one that keeps springing back to life no matter how many times it has been disproved. Most recently (in 2017) a New York Times article titled ‘The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido’ argued that we are simply stuck with brutish men who can't or won't examine their destructive sexuality because it's just basic male behaviour. The book also questions the theory of exceptionalism, which puts humans above other species and supposes that other species are intelligent or sophisticated the more they are like us. “It doesn’t make sense to simply pick on an animal, no matter how beloved, and try to rank it according to a scale that only works in a single dimension or on humancentric traits… In other words, dogs are good at things that make sense for dogs to be good at.” The idea of lizard brain is popular because it allows us to classify less-desirable behaviours and dismiss instincts as a holdover from the past. It is simple to understand, doesn't require complicated scientific explanations, and is completely untrue. What is true is that environment and genes interact to produce behaviour; as illustrated in a fairly devastating section on animals kept in captivity, or in the chapter on gender. This book is full of explanations, stories and science, and it is fascinating reading. 
4. Orphia and Eurydicius by Elsie John (Harper Collins) - In this adaptation of the Greek myth, the sex of Orpheus and Eurydice are switched, but it also concerns the story of a true love of equals without society's gender-ascribed roles. Orphia learns fighting from her brother (Apollo) and poetry from the muses; her poems make flowers bloom and waters move. As Calliope, the muse with responsibility for epic poetry, instructs, "No riches on earth compare to the arts. Tell me - what is it to feel, to express, to take delight, to see oneself reflected, to experience the stories of others?" Many of the stories Orphia learns are different from the male-centric myths that have been handed down: Hera, Medea, Atalanta and others all have greater agency. The gods use mortals as playthings and their assistance - like the advice of the Oracle - is to be treated with caution. Orphia plays games with Eurydicius and they converse as equals, as she notes, "He was gentle, and sweet; thoughtful and quietly kind. They were not the qualities that men prized, but I thought they were among the greatest qualities a man could have." When Eurydicius dies, Orphia uses her poetry as a challenge and a weapon in her desire to return to him, and when she goes to the Underworld she refuses to go gentle into that good night. "I will speak the two of us into legend, if I have to draw each letter from my own marrow. I will become poetry as I die." This is a beautiful retelling of a classic myth incorportaing poetry, creativity, unconventional love, and the courage of women who refuse to be silenced. 

Friday Five: Bits of Theatre Reviews

1. Away - Canberra Repertory Society, Theatre 3: This is considered an Australian classic, and it is treated as such, with weighty moments and dragging pauses. It tells the story of three internally conflicted families holidaying on the coast for Christmas, 1968 and, according to Wikipedia, is one of the most widely produced Australian plays of all time, being on the school curriculum in many states. It incorporates several moments of Shakespeare which don't so much subtley enhance the story but profoundly crash into it to try and suggest merit. This production doesn't hang well together, with some self-indulgent drama school moments (the storm at the end of the first act is enacted by cast practicing physical theatre in the way that non-theatre people is typical am-dram), but the sound (Neville Pye) and lighting (Nathan Sciberras) are excellent with a multitude of notes, techniques and colour to enhance the production. A variety of acting styles speak of a lack of cohesion - Callum Doherty excudes a flamboyant melodrama as Tom, a teenager with leukemia trying to experience all he can while he is well enough, while Andrea Close as Coral portrays the ups and downs of someone medictating through grief with great sincerity. The stage is not used to its full extent and scene changes are uneven - some of the cast remain in character to perform them; others don't. The play-within-a-play is appropriately intimate, and the half-painted scene for the 'beach' in the second act is evocative, although some of the kodak screen images are poorly projected and detract from the overall ambience. A stronger vision from director Lainie Hart communicated more clearly to all cast and crew might have helped this play find an even keel.
2. Work But This Time Like You Mean It - Canberra Youth Theatre, Courtyard Theatre: A play about young people's first experiences in the workplace explores subjects such as trying to survive and have a good time on a minimum wage, dealing with demanding customers and irritating colleagues, and the realisation that this might be all there is for the endlessly foreseeable future. Written by Honor Webster-Mannison, the script won the 2022 Emerging Playwright Commission, and this production is really not as bleak as that might sound. Working in a fast food outlet (no names but it is red and yellow and the actors dress in chicken suits at one point), the characters are simply called after their positions, such as Shift Manager, Drive, Deep Fryer, Kiosk, etc. and perform repetive gestures, throwing and catching balls in synchronised movements. The young actors are mainly self-satisfied and have little rapport with their fellow cast members, with the possible exception of Kathleen Dunkerley as Register 1 (good range of pace and emotion) and Sterling Notley as Food Prep (measured and generous performance providing a foil to other actors). The set (Kathleen Kershaw) is the highlight of the piece, marking the transition between childhood (a soft play centre) and the slippery slope of post adolescence with a bright and obvious visual metaphor of a ballpit. Multiple overlapping voices, recorded speech, video games projections and dance breaks all add to the anarchic feeling, as directed by Luke Rogers, but each one of these elements could have been explored more thoroughly, instead of too many ideas appearing under-realised. The play has interesting moments and deliberately descends into chaos, but the unstructured disorder soon becomes tedious and looses the audience engagement.



3. Play Me Something - Green Oak Theatre, Belconnen Community Centre: Four short plays with no apparent direction (although Shaylie Gillies is credited) or cohesion. INT.THEATRE by Amelia Chittick is a play about actors preparing to do a play, while Sir Harry vs, The University by Bart Meehan is a well-written comedy about a disgraced actor who applies for a job at a university only to sue for discrimination when they don't get the role. I was surprised to see that Blame by Shaylie Gillies is about the effect on the community of the Aberfan disaster, until I was told that the event featured heavily in the TV hit show, The Crown, which would explain why people in Australia suddenly know about it. The last play on the bill is The Bridge, also by Bart Meehan, which deals with family loss, grief, difficult relationships and distorted memories. Due to the changing sets required, these were necessarily perfunctory, although the use of sheets in Blame is interesting, and the Greek chorus effect adds a much-needed diversion. I also admire the decision not to make the cast attempt Welsh accents. Actors performing in different pieces are at best competent and have clear favourites, interpreting these and mumbling inaudibly through others. For example Chazelle Cromhot plays Professor Turner with solid gestures in Sir Harry, obviously relishing the role, while leaving unnecessary pauses and being almost completely uncommitted to the role of Daughter in The Bridge. While I applaud the motivation to bring short plays to the stage in search of a wider audience, the performance feels under-rehearsed and could be considered a drama exercise, but not a finished product. The poster is a highlight.

4. The Inheritance Pts 1 & 2 - Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub: Seen over two nights (or for a solid six hours on a day with a matinee), this is a massive work of friendship and death, intended to be a re-imagining of E. M. Forster's Howard's End. It deals with homosexuality in the 1980s, so of course the promising young men are struck down by AIDS, in that decade's anthem for doomed youth. This is an intergenerational piece as the contemporary couple, Eric Glass (James McMahon) and Toby Darling (Joel Horwood) deal with the inherited trauma of that era through their privileged existence in Eric's family-owned apartment in New York. They are surrounded and embraced by a coterie of quasi-intellectuals, who shuffle bare foot across the boards, offering metaphorical foils if not rapier-like wit, and draping over each other to produce carefully posed tableaux. Self-referentially enough, Toby's semi-autobiographical novel is due to be adapted for Broadway, and he involves himself in the writing and the auditioning of himself through the character of Adam McDowell (Andrew Macmillan). It's full of in-jokes and meta-theatrical references, and it's actually quite hard to like these characters as they lounge about the stage reading and pontificating as though their every utterance holds weight. It doesn't. It's didactic and preachy and finishes with a monologue from Margaret (Karen Vickery), the only woman of the thumpingly male show, who loves all the rogues and scamps. And yet. Director, Jarrad West has done wonders with the material, not least in finding twelve men of solid acting ability. Joel Horwood's petulance is compelling, James McMahon's brooding presence is powerful, and Duncan Driver delivers an excellent commentary as the unfairly criticised E.M. Forster (why didn't he make his sexuality public?). There are simulations of sex and abuse, but the moment where an actor leapt into the arms of his acolytes who failed to catch him, leaving him crashing into the stage, was the one that really brought tears to my eyes.
5. Bloody Murder - Canberra Repertory Society, Theatre 3: Canberra Repertory traditionally stages their final production of the year as a fun night out in which audience and actors main purpose is to have fun. This is achieved in Bloody Murder, written by Ed Sala and directed by Josh Wiseman. The premise is that the characters in a quintissential country house murder mystery get fed up with playing the same old roles and turn upon the author (and the audience) to forge new ground and subvert their sterotypes. Antonia Kitzel is the matriarch of the house, Lady Somerset; Glenn Brighenti is her nephew, Charles, waiting in the wings to inherit her fortune, Steph Roberts is the maid in the ridiculous sexy French maid outfit favoured of male directors while delivering a Sybil Fawlty-esque performance, Arran McKenna is the war bore, an uptight mayor from India via central casting, Stuart Roberts is Devon Tremaine, the alcoholic has-been actor, and Holly Ross is Emma and the Countess, with a variety of accents with which she has a lot of fun, although I would caution that self-satisfaction on stage doesn't always equate to enjoyment from the audience. This is an ensemble piece so there are not meant to be stand-outs, but Aaron McKenna and Stuart Roberts both excel in their commitment to harmonious performances, never pulling focus, remaining pitch perfect in vocal and physical delivery, and offering supportive presence demonstrating superior textual understanding. The technical details all serve the play well, particularly the sound where Neville Pye is in his element, heightening atmosphere in an ironic manner from creaking floors to sensuous foreboding mood music. When it remembers not to take itself too seriously, this play is a lot of fun.

Townsville’s Palmetum

When we learned a good friend had died, we had been expecting it, but were still devastated. We were in Townsville at the time and we went to the Palmetum to reflect. It's a botanic garden displaying one the largest and most diverse public collections of plams in the world. Botanic gardens make me feel calm - there is a reassuring sense of life, growth and continuity. It was what I needed to find peace.

I haven't really got words, so I will just share images. 

In the avenue of Bismarkia nobilis

The Xerophytic Zone is the sort of desert area, which receives irrigation only while plants are being established or during extremely long dry spells. The flowers are bright, but the stalks are spiky and often covered in insects.

I find spirals and circles comforting as they return to their beginnings and intimate infinity. 

Some of them remind me of corals and marine plants and animals - I suppose nature uses similar formations throughout all environments. 

These green ants are found throughout tropical northern Australia from the western Kimberley through northern NT to central eastern Queensland. They are called gulguk by the Larrika people, who harvest them ethically in Arnhem land. They are mainly orange with a bright green abdomen, which is edible, with a powerful taste of citrus and coriander seed. As they are high in protein, Vitamin C and iron, and also contain amino acids, Zinc, Magnesium and B12, they were traditionally used in the Indigenous diet and medicines, to combat coughs and colds. They are now increasingly found as a garnish and a flavouring for everything from cheeses to boutique gin.   

And then we return to a cool spot with a water fountain, because water is life.