| WALKABOUT THE SET
Commentary
by Peter England (Set Designer)
"Mourning" from Rations. Photo: Danielle Lyonne
"In Rations Fran is looking at a period in Australian history where western culture set out, quite aggressively, to usurp traditional culture. This was done by providing little tidbits of processed shelter, food, and even religion in exchange for a denial of 'old ways'. The piece looks at how, despite the apparent dependence on those rations, there was always a constant connection to, and survival of, a much more ancient spirit. The set is very simple. It's in an empty black space which allows the audience to imagine locations and predicaments in quite a surreal way. We start off with a ring suspended in the space - the ring represents a meeting place, a centre, a sense of a heart, a spiritual contact, an idea that hovers above their day to day existence. The ring is made of raw and natural materials, it has a hand made feel. Then in contrast to this metaphorical piece, we introduce literal ration elements - flour bags, blankets and galvanised iron sheets. There is a fine balance between these objects supplying instruction vs the dancers instructing the objects. I think the latter is more interesting from a design point of view. All of these elements are there for a story telling and dance purpose rather than any old fashioned notion of scenery or decoration. I think Rush is, at least on first appearances, a very different look and feel for Bangarra. On a simple level because it is predominantly a white space - something that hasn't been done with this company before. The piece itself is particularly strong. It's taking the Bangarra audience to another level - an audience that has come with Bangarra on a long journey of exploring known images, reflecting on remembered and perhaps more secret images. Rush is more of an assault on that imagination and confronts some of those things we might find a little more difficult to digest. In many ways Rush is a distant relation to the Spear section of Bangarra's past production Skin. It takes place in a fully western looking environment and then takes you on a journey back to a true and original set of cultural ideas. 
| "Hope" from Rush.
Photo: Danielle Lyonne |
The white space in Rush looks like an institution, a washroom, a toilet block or shower - it is a place where things are cleaned en masse. It has an industrial feel to it. There's a white floor and a wall of white tiles with a single tap and a pipe. Above that is a huge, heavily textured white wall. The textures allude to the traditional scarring that men in some clans and tribes use to show signs of maturity and development through their life. The slashes and scarring on the wall also have a resonance of aggression, oppression and an allusion to substance abuse. Poisons that can invade a sense of the individual and culture. In Rush the audience travels a harsh and yet ultimately rewarding journey of purpose. Into this white space we inject a series of dark liquids, black fluid, black mud or black dirt that gets dragged across the floor, that gets scraped across the tiles, that can run down the textured white wall. While there is a visual power in turning white to black - symbolically, it is much more complex than a comment on skin colour. What does 'clean' mean? What does 'dirty' mean? It exposes this presumption that because something is different, it needs to be cleaned. What seems to be a method of cleaning can in fact be a method of poisoning. The irony that this 'cleanliness' can actually make you filthy. Ultimately there are a whole series of images and metaphors which will be decided upon by each audience member as they react to the piece. In Walkabout my objective is to work with Stephen and Fran and allow the freshness of their stories come through for the audience, like when I was told those stories for the first time. My job is to provide a platform that allows that to happen in an exaggerated, provocative and powerful way." back to top 
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