Staging Asylum

Version ., Victoria Carless, Ben Eltham, Emma Cox, Emma Cox

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781925004465
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

'While the theatre stands up for the despised, Australian culture and decency are not yet dead.' — Thomas Keneally%##CHAR13##% %##CHAR13##%The first of its kind, this timely anthology brings together six contemporary Australian plays that offer a range of narratives and perspectives on asylum seekers. A vexed issue within the Australian community—particularly among politicians, who often use asylum seekers to further their own ends—this collection contributes to Australia's ongoing discourse on unauthorised asylum seekers, immigration detention, border control and the right to belong.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%This eclectic collection includes CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) by version 1.0, a smart, ironic verbatim work that deals with the Children Overboard Affair and the SIEV X disaster; The Rainbow Dark by Victoria Carless, a surreal domestic satire about immigration detention; The Pacific Solution by Ben Eltham, which takes armchair cricket commentary as a point of departure for a farce about the Howard government's excision of migration territory; Halal-el-Mashakel by Linda Jaivin, which looks at the friendship between two detained asylum seekers; Journey of Asylum – Waiting devised by Catherine Simmonds, a series of vignettes based upon the personal experiences of asylum seekers and refugees living in Melbourne; and Nothing But Nothing by Towfiq Al-Qady, an autobiographical play about childhood and war.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%With a main Introduction as well as separate introductions to each play by editor and drama lecturer Dr Emma Cox, Staging Asylum recognises the crucial role that theatre has played—and continues to play—in one of Australia's most hotly debated and urgent contemporary issues.

The Pacific Solution Characters

JOHNNY, a young man, short and balding but powerful, with big eyebrows and glasses, who runs a petrol station in suburban Australia.

MANDY, a slightly overweight, frumpy young woman who works on the front desk of the local Centrelink. She speaks with a suburban accent and likes wearing shirts with loud prints and riotous colours.

PHIL, a tall, thin, pale, serious young man who is studying law. He is from a rich suburb and is President of the local University’s chapter of Amnesty International.

ASIF, an Iraqi refugee.

Design and Setting

The living room of a typical Australian share-house in June 2005.

There are three large, shabby couches which surround a long, crowded, messy coffee table. On the coffee table is an Orchy-bottle bong, a chop bowl, scissors, a large bag of hydroponic marijuana, several remote controls, coffee mugs and glasses, ashtrays, men’s magazines and sports sections of newspapers. There is a television—always on—which the characters stare towards, and which the audience can’t see, but which sound effects tell us is tuned constantly to Fox Sports 1.

Along the back wall, left, is the front door of the share-house. Stage left represents the corridor to the kitchen, toilet and bedrooms of this 3-bedroom brick bungalow house. There is also a door to a small closet or cupboard, near the front door to the house.

On the couch, centre, sits JOHNNY holding the remote control and drinking a stubby of Carlton Draught beer. He is watching Fox Sports 1. Beside him, on the right couch, sits MANDY, methodically chopping marijuana into the bowl.

There is a soundtrack to certain moments of this play, and that soundtrack is a thirty-second loop of television cricket commentary from a boring part of a day’s play. (This loop can be recorded and manufactured easily by anyone who has access to cricket on radio or television.) The lights should stay up and this commentary loop should play for about forty-five seconds in the breaks between scenes.

A note about lighting: there should be no follow-spots or special stage lighting in the play. Any lights that are used should represent normal 60W or 80W household globes, and they should stay up all the time.

SCENE ONE

TELEVISION COMMENTARY: Coming up later tonight… The Ashes! See every ball live on Fox Sports 1.

JOHNNY: Woo-hoo! You bewdy!

MANDY: You bloody ripper.

JOHNNY: Bloody unreal. [Pause.] I’m so excited.

MANDY: Are you going to stay up all night watching cricket again, Johnny?

JOHNNY: Mate. Ashes. Cricket. See—every—ball.

MANDY: Fuck. You’re going to be tired tomorrow.

JOHNNY: Beer—cones—cricket. Beer—cones—cricket. Ashes cricket. Bretty Lee throwing ’em down at 90 miles per hour Mandy, Lords, the home of cricket, look it’s got everything absolutely everything and I wish I was there.

MANDY: What time’s your shift tomorrow? Isn’t it 6 o’clock?

JOHNNY: C’mon Mandy, grow some fucking balls.

Pause. MANDY doesn’t answer; she’s busy chopping marijuana.

It’s the First Test in living memory that might actually be bloody interesting. Harmison mate. Freddy Flintoff. Simon Jones with the reverse swing later in the innings. Even Hoggard...