“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” – James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Fiona’s Score: 4 Silent Screams
Twenty years ago, at the turn of the millennium four Australian writers: Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves and Christos Tsiolkas got together in Melbourne with composer Irine Vela and wrote Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, a seminal play that captured the mood and sentiment of urban Australia. It was gritty, funny, shocking and had a lot of heart. It is still frequently performed and has been made into the feature film Blessed. Twenty years later, after dazzling careers in theatre, music and literature they have come together again to take the pulse of the nation and things are looking grim.
At the beginning of Anthem a crisp British girl (Eryn Jean Norville) argues with an expat Australian man (Thuso Lekwape) on the Eurostar during a train disruption. The conversation is personal, political and philosophical; there is no solution to the problems in the world. The full stage then reveals Marg Horwell’s set of an underground railway with dark grey concrete, slender platforms and shafts of light – sinister and sexy all at the same time. The full chorus of performers board the train and the commute from the outer suburbs of Melbourne into the city establishes the stories we are about to see.
The stories, like our current cultural climate are brutal and disparate. There is an outstanding array of talent on stage and the performances are consistently strong, as is the direction by Susie Dee and input from the creative team. Jenny M. Thomas and Dan Whitton on strings provide the haunting musical framework for the play including Ruci Kaisila’s intertwining performance as Charity, a busker whose incredible voice powers through the songbook of cringe worthy Australiana tunes while demanding we “pay up”. Carly Sheppard, Reef Ireland and Osamah Sami are frighteningly convincing as three rough nuts travelling into town. They jump around the carriage in a wildly unpredictable way and threaten to kick the shit out of anyone who dares look at them. Amanda Ma is poetic in her portrayal of Chi, a tired cleaner who meets her former employer Elaine on the train. Elaine was once wealthy but is now broken and travels the trains with her belongings in tatty bags, as she clings to Chi the violence and cruelty of their working relationship is revealed. Maria Mercedes and Tony Nikolakopoulos play the elderly Greek couple who are disillusioned and disappointed by life.
Sahil Saluja evokes pity in his portrayal of international worker Lachy. In 7-11, A Chemist Warehouse… A Love Story he wins back his girlfriend Lisa (Eryn Jean Norville) through a Pulp Fiction inspired rampage on corporate Australia that doesn’t go to plan. It is the only moment of lightness in the play and even then use of hostages makes us apprehensive to laugh. Eva Seymour and Reef Ireland switch roles into a young couple running playfully across the platforms. His unexpected, silent, brutal attacks on her are disarming, as is the understanding that none of the other characters on the train will come to her aid. The only scene of tenderness in Anthem is between two mothers, expertly played by Eva Seymour and Eryn Jean Norville. It is an intimate portrayal of the pain of a young mother struggling with a kid and the difficulty that the kindness of strangers raises in our rigid class system. Eryn Jean Norville completely steals the show in each of her roles, she is a chameleon and allows us into these lives with openness and clarity.
Nobody is let off the hook and nobody is likeable. We are a sad, rage filled society with an epidemic of violence against women, a seething push towards decolonisation and an overwhelming anxiety at corporate greed and political corruption. At the end of Anthem there is no hope, it has been replaced by nihilism, suicide, misery and fury. This is not an easy night at the theatre but it is an important one. Overall the weight of the artistic expectations of the work don’t allow it to breathe to its full potential. Here’s hoping that we change our ways and oscillate for a fairer, kinder more connected society that these artists can gather together and reflect upon in another twenty years’ time.
Fiona Hallenan-Barker, Theatre Now
15 – 19 Jan 2020
Venue: Roslyn Packer Theatre
Theatre Company: Performing Lines in association with Arts Centre Melbourne.
Duration: Approx 150 min
Ticket Prices:
$50–$79 + BF
plus booking fee
By Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela.
Directed by Susie Dee.
Twenty-one years ago, four playwrights and a composer came together to create Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, a powerful, critically-acclaimed portrait of Australia in the Howard era.
While Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? gave voice to characters and individuals clinging to existence in the margins of society, after a series of decades where the Australian populace radically transitioned from mostly working class to mostly middle-class, Anthem casts its net wider, looking at what divides and unites us as a country in 2020, and whether we truly do “sing with one voice”. The answer, resoundingly, is no – we do not.
Over four interwoven vignettes, the writers take us inside four stories of characters you could encounter on any public transport journey: an overworked, minimum wage, gig-economy couple planning a Bonnie and Clyde style rampage of revenge against neoliberal capitalism; a sophisticated Louis Vuitton and Chanel toting woman who has been reduced to homelessness by divorce, gender and a lack of financial independence; and Christos Tsiolkas’s contribution, which explores sibling tensions when a successful brother returns from overseas to try and “better” the lives of his family.
The Guardian called it “tough, funny theatre with an urgency to its purpose and no comfortable answers. It can’t say everything about modern Australia, but what it does say rings true.”
Designer: Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer: Paul Jackson
Music Director and Sound Designer: Irine Vela
Movement Consultant: Natalie Cursio
Assistant Director: Sapidah Kian
Aboriginal Cultural Dramaturg: Bryan Andy
Cast
Maude Davey, Reef Ireland, Ruthy Kaisila, Thuso Lekwape, Amanda Ma, Maria Mercedes, Tony Nikolakopoulos, Eryn Jean Norvill, Sahil Saluja, Osamah Sami, Eva Seymour, Carly Sheppard, Jenny M. Thomas, Dan Witton
