Come Out 1987 was a testing time for youth theatre. After the sporadic bookings in 1985, directors Malcolm Moore and Kerry Comerford were faced with the task of not only compiling an appealing programme, but also filling theatre seats. They did well on both counts. Also, with ASSITEJ, the international jamboree of youth theatre heavies, being held in Adelaide at the same time, Come Out was on International display.
Director Michael Fitzgerald made it plain that ASSITEJ might turn into a brawl between the European Old Guard and the New World and Pacific Basin delegates and that’s exactly what happened. A recent communique from Fitzgerald gloomily predicts that ASSITEJ will shatter into regional shards due to what Hollywood lawyers call irreconcilable differences.
Those differences were exemplified in the offerings from Come Out itself, raising questions about whether theatre should be for young people or by them. Of course it is not an absolute choice but the division is almost along left and right political lines and can lead to intemperate critical reaction. Many ASSITEJ delegates haughtily walked out of youth performances deriding them as substandard. Audiences are always entitled to say what they think but these people were supposed to be taking a professional interest, not getting their sensibilities in a twist. It is, however, important to generate critical approaches that pay attention to both process and product.
Michael Fitzgerald talked about self esteem being important for young players while David Holman, the playwright, places the authenticity of the theatrical experience high on his list of essentials – he doesn’t like kids putting on false beards and aping adults. Projects, then, must match the capabilities of the players and it is the task of professionals to make sure that happens.
Looking at the Come· Out programme, a number of plays stand out. On the negative side, the Riverland Youth Theatre’s Flood Play was pretty much a wash-out because director Martin Christmas and Writer Doreen Clarke hadn’t tailored the work to the talents of the players. It was too long, too ambitious, and full of clunker lines that gave schools audiences opportunity for merciless amusement. It can’t have been any fun for the players and therefore, surely, an unsatisfactory theatrical experience.
The Unley Youth Theatre’s Seasonally Adjusted by Chris Tugwell and directed by Jo Fleming, suffered from having a vast set from Stephen Curtis which would have better suited a movie studio. In fact the treatment of the piece was clumsily filmic and gave the players little opportunity to develop useful performing skills. Again the professionals did not serve the actors as well as they should have done.
The Multicultural Youth Theatre from the Parks produced an engaging play written by Richard Lawrence and directed by Tessa Bremner. “I’m Not a Racist, But…” turned out to be informative, uncompromising and touchingly honest with a range of Vietnamese and European actors of varying talents working well together.
Perhaps the most exhilarating success in Come Out was the commissioned opera, Frankie, directed by Neil Armfield and written by David
Holman with music by Alan John. With such talents it should have done well but it was their approach to the task which was so heartening. It was, as Holman put it, very much a child-centred project. The issues were real to kids and everyone in it was central to the action, no spear-carriers here. The chorus is the main character because it provides the moral fulcrum. Armfield turned Holman’s account of the conflict between peers and principle into sophisticated and satisfying musical theatre. Certainly Frankie embodied all that Come Out seeks to achieve.
Other shows worth noting include Urrbrae High School’s Conquest of Carmen Miranda and Venetia Gillot directing Troupe’s Young Playwrights’ Season, a unique idea giving full professional treatment to plays kids themselves have written. Magpie gave mixed but lively performances of David Holman’s work and Patch turned it on for the little tackers.
There was nothing quite like the Elizabethan Theatre Trust’s Honeyspot by Jack Davis, a play involving young Aboriginals which was one of the highlights of the 1985 Come Out. Nor did the overseas companies for ASSITEJ – the Honolulu Theatre for Youth and the South Korean Dong Rang theatre really set the Torrens on fire. A B+ for Honolulu’s Song for the Navigator and a D for Dong Rang whose play was authoritarian and mediocre.
Come Out involved a huge number of school students and provided a wide range of theatre, visual arts, music and literature. The acid test to be how readily the momentum and interest can be developed and consolidated in schools and community groups. If that happens, Come Out will not only have worked but it will continue to do so.
“Looking Back at Come Out” The Adelaide Review, No. 39, June, 1987, p.11.