QPAC Story Act 2 2019

For the creative & curious

STAY TERRIBLE, MURIEL JANE CARO

NO FILTER LUKE PEARSON

ENCOUNTERS WITH NYC BILL HAYES

KE E P SAKE S : P O S T E R S , P R OG R AM S AN D P R IN T E D E P H E M ERA Q PAC M US E UM CO LLE C T IO N September - December 2019 To ny G o u l d Ga l l e r y, Q PAC

Contents This edition of Story is inspired by QPAC’S July to December 2019 program.

10

12 Encounters with NYC

38

Behind the Scenes SEEDLINGS

BILL HAYES

16

56

Student Politics / Modern Lovers VAN BADHAM

44

60

JUDITH MCLEAN

MILLIE ELLIOTT

24

52

68

JANE CARO

CHRISTOPHER CURRIE

32

54

72

LUKE PEARSON

YEN-RONG WONG

LASER BEAK MAN

The Power of Three DANIELE DALIA VILIUNAS

Stay Terrible, Muriel

No Filter

Mapping the Human Heart

My Dearest Jane

Dearest Nurse

The Killing of Desire

What's on at QPAC

Five Minutes with...

16

44

54

56

Welcome Central to what we do is the curation of

Making connections between what artists

an annual program of live performance.

are exploring and our everyday lives that

From music theatre to drama, circus, opera, works created specifically for children or for lovers of comedy, these performances happen mostly on our stages. But we are expanding, moving beyond our theatres and into digital environments, cities, towns, parks, schools and halls all over Queensland.

What drives us is a belief in the difference art can have in the lives of individuals and of communities.

It’s said a lot, that stuff about how art changes lives. If you’re reading this, perhaps it’s already changed yours.

What is talked about less I think is that the change doesn’t always look the way

encompass work, family, supermarket queues and screen viewing. Story is one of the ways we do this. We collect and commission people from varied disciplines and with lots of different types of experiences to write, photograph, illustrate pieces that stretch our understanding and sometimes expose something entirely new about what’s happening on stage.

Like our program, there will be elements of this edition of Story that grab your imagination immediately and others that might not be your thing at all. Either way I hope you spend some time here and also make some new discoveries.

you thought it might. It can be, but rarely is, transcendent, life altering in an instant. More often it’s the cumulative sum of laughter, shock, singing out loud and tears shed over many years that make us different… more attuned, more empathetic, more inclined to consider alternatives.

The other thing that drives us is a genuine curiosity about people and stories, particularly the ones that have relevance to our time, to this place and that are told by people who live here.

Key to us succeeding in this, and in having really useful conversations with our audiences, is building context for the work we’re presenting.

4

John Kotzas Chief Executive QPAC

In this edition Try to hold desire in your hand.

corner stores – can be in our lives as

Stare too hard and it becomes something

we’re experiencing them or as they live

else. Try to wrap words around it, ignore

on in our memory.

it, ignite it, kill it.

Remember that scene in Muriel’s Wedding

Ask a Freudian for a definition, or a poet,

where Penne Hackforth-Jones’ bridal

a scholar, an activist, or a lover.

store manager character says to Rachel

Have you ever really known your heart’s desire… did you do anything about it?

And what of that most exquisite yet potentially brutal of desires, the one that is cousin to lust and to love. It’s vulnerable to being extinguished by betrayal, time, or sometimes just a passing wind. But then there’s the even more excruciating version of desire and longing… the one that stubbornly won’t die despite your

Griffiths’ Rhonda, “You can’t come in here and threaten brides. I don’t care how unfortunate you are”. Please read as, “You don’t belong here; you are not one of us”. Writer and broadcaster Jane Caro discusses the costly lengths we’ll go to in pursuit of our desire to fit in. Not surprisingly, the spaces others make available for us to occupy, particularly women, are frequently far too small to accommodate and oddly

best efforts to exterminate it.

shaped to hold us.

Desire is a knotty, contradictory kind of a

I spoke with Founder and CEO of

thing. It can be a catalytic force, a driver of addiction, a gateway to the forbidden.

It holds the promise of something more, a way to alter reality. Whole industries are built around it and rely on our relentless

@IndigenousX Luke Pearson about social change and we commissioned photographer Millie Elliott to explore the idea of killing desire. Two of our writers, Yen-Rong Wong and Christopher Currie

commitment to consumption.

take on alter egos (Shakespeare’s Juliet

In this edition of Story our contributors

delicate art of a confessional letter.

navigate a multitude of desires and their associated objects whether they are places,

and Brontë’s Edward Rochester) and the

Oh, and what’s a conversation about

people, treasures or achievements.

desire without a few words from the

American writer and photographer

greatest poet of the 20th century,

Bill Hayes has a love of New York that

Chilean Pablo Neruda.

most sensuous and arguably the

is complex and deep. His 12 Encounters with New York City reminds us just how significant places – cities, buildings,

Rebecca Lamoin Editor rebecca.lamoin@qpac.com.au

5

Contributors

B I L L H AY E S The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and is the author of four books: Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me; Sleep Demons; Five Quarts; and The Anatomist. Hayes is also an established photographer, with credits including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. A collection of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was published last year by Bloomsbury. A former lecturer at NYU, UCSF, and University of Virginia, he also serves as a co-editor of Dr. Sacks’ posthumously published work (Gratitude, The River of Consciousness, and Everything In Its Place).

Hayes, 58, lives in New York City.

CHRISTOPHER CURRIE Christopher Currie is a writer from Brisbane, whose fiction has appeared in anthologies and journals internationally. His first novel, The Ottoman Motel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and the Queensland Literary Awards.

His most recent book is the young adult novel Clancy of the Undertow.

DANIELE DALIA VILIUNAS Dr Viliunas is a psychiatrist who has taught at secondary, tertiary and postgraduate level, in Arts, Science, Environmental and Psychological Medicine; performed regular medical segments on radio and television; served on the Psychologists Board of Queensland, consulted to the Medical Board of Queensland, and provided mentoring and professional supervision. A long-standing appreciation of the subtlety and potency of psychological wisdom enshrined in language and the arts has drawn her to orient her work towards integrative psychiatry, specialist psychotherapy, corporate mentoring and medical ethics.

JANE CARO Jane Caro is a Walkley Award winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, advertising writer, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. She has published twelve books, including three novels Just a Girl, Just a Queen and Just Flesh & Blood, a trilogy on Elizabeth Tudor, and a memoir Plain Speaking Jane. Caro appears frequently on The Drum, Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise and has created and presented four documentary series for ABC Compass.

She and Catherine Fox present a popular podcast with Podcast One, Austereo Women With Clout. Caro also writes regular columns in Sunday Life and Leadership Matters.

JUDITH MCLEAN Professor Judith McLean is the Chair in Arts Education, a joint appointment between Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) where she holds the role of Scholar in Residence.

Judith’s career is distinguished by her breadth and diversity of experience as an arts educator, artist and cultural leader across Australia. She is a member of the Australia Council’s Major Performing Arts Panel and Chair of Dancenorth, a contemporary dance company based in Townsville.

LUKE PEARSON Luke Pearson is a Gamilaroi man, who founded @IndigenousX in 2012. Luke has worked as a teacher, mentor, counsellor, public speaker, collaborator, mediator, facilitator, events manager, researcher, evaluator, reporter and much more. Luke's passion for @IndigenousX stems from his belief in the need to improve Indigenous media representation in Australia and to have a platform for individuals to tell their own stories in their own words.

6

MAEVE LEJEUNE Maeve Lejeune is a local, Brisbane based illustrator and graphic designer. She is currently undertaking a project called Houses of West End, where she is capturing the houses of her local area in a simple, yet highly detailed, illustrative style. Maeve's work explores the concept of place and connection to place. She grew up in West End, an inner city suburb of Brisbane, and has long admired the iconic houses in the area.

She is interested in the history of Brisbane and enjoys working on projects that involve community engagement, art education, creativity, collaboration, and storytelling.

MARIANNA TOMASELLI Marianna grew up in a small Italian town near beautiful Lake Garda before moving to Milan to pursue her passion for art and illustration at Istituto Europeo di Design.

Her aesthetic draws on her Sicilian heritage, love of the sea, plants, travel, tribal cultures and tropical places. Textile designer, advertising art director, freelance illustrator… Marianna’s works explore dimensions of irony, humour, and even the kind of melancholy that refines some of her illustrations. With her illustrations she

STORY TEAM Story Editor:

creates a mirrored image of her own soul: ironic, contemporary and always looking

Rebecca Lamoin

for something new.

(rebecca.lamoin@qpac.com.au).

Story Team Editorial:

MILLIE ELLIOTT Millie Elliott is a British artist currently based in Brisbane. Through her photographic practice she explores the tangible wonders of alchemical processes, and works to push the boundaries of the physical image. Since graduating from

Professor Judith McLean, En Rui Foo, Maria Cleary, Sarah Bond, Phoebe Wowor, Andrea Huynh, Katie Woods

Falmouth University in the UK, Millie has worked to combine images from found

and Judy Worsfold.

archives as well as her own, forming narratives and new truths from their

Digital Team: Jacquiline Fraser,

newfound sequences. Millie’s work is an ode to the photographic album and

Deanne Staples.

the raw physicality of photography’s history.

Creative & Design: Rumble Creative.

SIMON GROTH Simon Groth is a writer and editor whose most recent book is Infinite Blue, a novel

Q PAC

for young adults written with his brother Darren. Other books include a collection of rock music interviews and a ‘remix’ of stories originally from the nineteenth

Chair

century. His short stories and articles have been published in Meanjin, Overland,

Professor Peter Coaldrake AO

and The Lifted Brow. With if:book Australia, Simon created a series of award winning

Deputy Chair Leigh Tabrett PSM

experimental works including the 24-Hour Book, live writing events at writers festivals around the world, and a city wide project to write stories published to digital billboards.

Trustees Dare Power, Susan Rix AM, Leanne de Souza Executive Staff Chief Executive: John Kotzas

VA N B A D H A M Van Badham is a writer, commentator, activist, occasional broadcaster, theatremaker and one of Australia's most controversial public intellectuals. In addition to a weekly

Executive Director – Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: Jackie Branch

column for Guardian Australia, her work has appeared in The Age, Australian Cosmopolitan,

Executive Director – Visitation:

Daily Life, Southerly, Women's Agenda, Britain's Daily Telegraph and in anthologies for UQP,

Roxanne Hopkins

Hardie Grant and Monash University Press. She is a frequent guest on panels for ABC's

Executive Director – Business

Radio National, The Drum and Q&A, Channel 7's Sunrise, the All About Women festival and The Festival of Dangerous Ideas. As a playwright, her work has been performed across Australia and the UK, in the US and Canada, and in Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Germany and Austria.

Performance: Kieron Roost Acting Executive Director – Curatorial: Bill Jessop

YEN-RONG WONG Yen-Rong Wong is a Brisbane-based writer. She is the founding editor of Pencilled In, a literary magazine dedicated to showcasing the work of Asian Australian artists. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Tincture Journal and more. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Deborah Cass Prize for Writing.

The views expressed in Story are those of the individual authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the position of QPAC.

7

SHORT THOUGHTS Brief musings on ideas around desire

BY SIMON GROTH

FEEDING CARNAL DESIRES

chocolate are all about texture or what chefs

While their effectiveness might be suspect,

call – ahem – mouthfeel. But our ancestors

these more exotic aphrodisiacs reveal

Despite a relatively recent explosion in

had their own fascinating ideas of what

much about how desire and sexuality

food culture in Australia, the intertwining

food fuelled our carnal desires: oysters, for

have always been complicated, maybe

of desire and food is as old as sensory

example, are an acquired taste at the best

even intimidating.

pleasure itself. Nowhere is this more

of times; durian is a fruit with a famously

apparent than in the long line of foods

pungent odour. Then there’s casu marzu,

purported to be aphrodisiacs.

a Sardinian cheese containing live insect

A quick delve into the past uncovers a dizzying range of foods that at some point in history have linked gastronomy and sexuality. More modern foods associated with love and desire such as champagne and

8

larvae (yes, I’m talking about maggots) that

If you can overcome your own instinctive sense of revulsion, presumably sensory pleasure awaits.

not only promises to spice up the bedroom

More about casu marzu, if you’re up for it:

but has the added allure of being outlawed

http://bit.ly/qpac11

by the EU Food Safety Authority and so must be acquired on the black market.

THE SIMPLE LIFE

TRANSCENDENCE

THE ENDLESS

In an electronically interconnected world,

Western culture distinguishes between

If Desire appeared in human form,

the detox now has its digital equivalent.

desire and greed. Desire, particularly

what would he/she/they look like?

A digital detox treats our devices, our

of the romantic variety, is frequently

smartphones and computers, as the equal of

celebrated on stages and in literature and

hamburgers and thick shakes, advocating for

music. Greed is associated with gluttony,

the benefits of complete abstinence.

consuming resources beyond what we might consider reasonable, particularly

Claimed outcomes include reduced stress,

if it’s at someone else’s expense. Desire is

better social interaction, greater worldliness,

refined. Greed is ugly.

and a deeper connection with nature. In a sign of the times, ‘digital detox’ is also

The clarity of such attitudes towards

a registered trademark of an American

desire and greed, however, masks the

company offering high priced retreats,

wicked complexity of determining where

workshops, and corporate programs,

exactly to draw a line between them.

presumably on the assumption that you can acquire newfound worldliness more efficiently with cold hard cash.

This idea that our real world interactions with each other are terminally compromised because of our screen addiction is overstated (and reheated, after all similar things were said about television, cinema, books, and even theatre). But it’s also true that phones and social media have rapidly captured a good chunk of our finite free time.

Social media connects us, but also demands our attention and contribution. It’s relentless and noisy. Anecdotally, many of us have felt the relief of pulling back from our digital lives for a time. Our desire to connect with

For his celebrated series of graphic novels, The Sandman, writer Neil Gaiman constructed a rich world of gods and mortals, centred around ‘The Endless’ a group of seven characters who embody powerful forces or aspects of the universe: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium.

The Endless are presented as a dysfunctional family of siblings who have existed since the dawn of time, though

In the Christian tradition, thinkers

like any family they have a hierarchy of

from St Thomas Aquinas to C. S. Lewis

‘eldest’ to ‘youngest’. And although their

distinguished what they termed ‘natural’

physical forms shift and change, their

desire, separating the universal desires

underlying traits remain.

and needs that drive human existence across time and cultures – food, companionship, justice, and so on – from artificial or material desires that are the building blocks of capital G greed.

In contrast, the Buddhist concept of tanhā – roughly translated as ‘craving’ – holds that desire in any form is the cause of suffering and pain. To desire something

Gaiman’s Desire is androgynous – capable of appearing as a man, a woman, or neither – with a cruel streak and a sharp tongue. Desire is also a twin to Despair, though, perhaps inevitably, Desire is considered the elder of the two.

More on Gaiman’s work: http://bit.ly/qpac15

passionately is considered a hindrance or even a poison that must be transcended in everyday life.

each other is strong, but it is balanced

A deep dive into the philosophy of desire:

with a desire for simplicity and,

http://bit.ly/qpac17

sometimes, solitude.

Maybe a better balance between those desires is all the detox we need.

No high priced retreat necessary.

But just in case, keep this up your sleeve: http://bit.ly/qpac13

DISCOVER MORE STORIES AND READ RELATED ARTICLES AT QPAC.COM.AU/STORY

9

8 T H AV EN UE P HOTOGR A P H ER : BI LL H AYES

10

12 Encounters with New York City

BY BILL HAYES

01 02

New York at 8 am: I throw open the windows.

Malik shakes my hand and pulls me in for a hug.

Cars and cabs are already lined up at the gas

“You stay strong in New York, nigga’! Stay strong!”

station and I swear I can smell the urine on the sidewalk eleven stories below.

There is a young black woman singing, headphones on; really singing; beautiful voice –

04

I have a dream about Oliver, the first since he died: I see him opening the door to the coat closet in our apartment. He has his shirt off and his soft pajama trousers on. It seems as if he is

on an uptown 6 train. The car is packed. Packed.

looking for something that’s gone missing, as he

She faces the door, watches her reflection in the

often was, and I hear him murmuring softly to

glass, and sings. Suddenly, she stops: "I'm sorry

himself "... Now where is it?..."

for the noise!" she yells loudly enough to quiet the entire car. All the passengers around her

I come up from behind and wrap him in a big

shake their heads, shrug: No, not noise.

hug, startling him – "Oh!" But he realizes it is me, and even though I can’t see his face, I can

"I've heard way worse," a man next to me says.

03

feel Oliver smiling. His body goes from tensed to relaxed in my arms. He keeps looking for whatever he was looking for, reaching up to the top shelf, while I keep hugging him.

I see Malik panhandling on 14th Street. We first met four years ago, the day after he’d been let out of prison. He’s been in halfway houses, 'threequarter' houses, homeless shelters, and I don’t know where else since. I have taken dozens of street portraits of him over the years; I always give him some money, clothes, food, Metro card, whatever I’ve got on me. Now he’s moving to Georgia. One of his kids lives there – he thinks.

“What about you? You gonna stay here or you gonna go?” he asks.

" ...The important thing is stay active," Oliver says.

I run a hand over his shiny head. Then I wake up.

05

Standing at a streetlight at 6th and Greenwich Avenue, I hear a young couple next to me talking about a large apartment building opposite, a prewar brownstone probably 25 stories high.

They are gazing skyward, smiling and in awe – “Oh, look at those windows! And the ceilings!”

“I’m gonna stay.”

11

“Wouldn’t it be great to live there?” I say to them.

He declines immediately. “I’m waiting for the sun,” says the man sitting on a hydrant in the shadows.

The light changes green.

I’m waiting for the sun: such an interesting “It would!” they say in unison as we set out.

response. Did he misunderstand my question?

“Let’s,” I add, “let’s live there.”

Or should I be waiting for the sun too?

“Okay,” says the boy.

“Yeah, definitely,” says the girl.

“We’ll just get, like, 30 people, cool people like us — normal — to go in on it, and then we’ll be able to live there,” the boy adds, as if just

08

A very tall man, 6'4" or more — my age at least; handsome face — stands on the subway platform with a very small girl (four, maybe five years old); she doesn't even reach his knees. She is

clarifying the arrangements.

immaculately dressed, all in bright greens and pinks, and her hair is a garden of blooms, each

“I’m in. You?”

fixed with a light pink ribbon.

“Definitely,” he says.

“But only the best place in the building,” I add.

His skin is the color and sheen of coffee beans; hers

“The one with turrets,” she says.

is caramel with lots of cream. She holds his hand; it must be her grandfather, I think to myself. The

We’ve come to the other corner.

subway is delayed. He distracts her by dancing,

I point to myself: “Billy, I’m Billy.”

taking both her hands in his and dancing; music

“Rachel,” says the girl.

in his head. She giggles. When he lets go of her

“Adam,” says the boy. “We’ll be in touch, Billy,

hands, she keeps dancing on her own and now he

we’ll be in touch.”

laughs; a little girl dancing freely on the subway

We never get around to exchanging numbers.

platform, so sweet but also fascinating: you can see

They go to the left; I keep going straight.

how rhythm is built into the body.

“Good night,” I call to them over my shoulder.

A subway arrives, and he ushers her on, holding her cat-sized hand in his giant paw. They sit across

06

from me; the tiny girl is pinioned safely between the big man's knees.

I wake in the middle of the night. I pass the window and notice a man in a white dress shirt running at full speed up the middle of 8th Avenue, and he is holding a white bag in his hands. He is gone in a flash. I wait to see if he was being

I have six daughters. Viv here is my youngest."

What was in the white bag?

The man smiles, a touch rueful. The little girl looks

So many different scenarios go through my mind.

07

A beautiful Sunday: clear, brisk, even chilly, and a feeling of letting go, relaxing.

Walking up 9th Avenue, I see an older man with a wonderful, deeply furrowed face. I approach and ask if I can take his picture.

12

— did you do that for her?"

He nods, like it's no big deal. "Had to learn how.

chased, but no.

It takes an hour to fall back asleep.

"She is adorable," I can't help saying, "and her hair

up at her dad. He opens a small bottle of water and holds it to her mouth. She takes a drink of water.

09

I stop by the smoke shop down the block. It’s about 6 o’clock. Ali has arrived for work just as Bobby is leaving for the day. I’ve hardly ever seen them here together; it’s either one or the other behind the counter. They are talking about something with great vigor and animation — at least, that’s how it appears to me. I can’t understand a word they’re saying.

IL ONA IN B L ACK-A ND- W HI TE PH OTOG RA PH ER: B IL L HAY E S

“Gentlemen. Gentlemen?” I can hardly get their

“Yes?” says Ali.

attention, they’re so enthralled. Finally, I have to

“Mr. Billy, what we can do for you?” says Bobby,

interrupt: “Hey, what are you two arguing about?

feigning seriousness.

And, which language are you speaking?”

Now I can’t even remember what I came in here for, “Punjabi,” says Ali, ignoring my first question. Bobby

so I change course. “Teach me a word in Punjabi,” I

has walked away, into the back somewhere. Ali calls

say. “Just one word.”

after him, as if getting in a final jab. He can’t disguise his delight. He is a cat waiting for the mouse to

“Okay,” says Ali.

return to play.

“All right,” says Bobby.

Moments pass. Bobby is back at the counter, as if nothing had passed between them, and I have to smile: Here they are, side by side, these two from whom I’ve been buying Sunday papers and rolling papers, bottles of water and Kit Kat bars for the past eight years: one Muslim man, one Hindu, matching

They stare back at me, waiting for a prompt.

“Hold on, let me think. What is — um, what is the Punjabi word for beauty?”

They look at one another.

“Sohni,” says Bobby.

mischievous grins on their light brown faces.

13

Ali nods, “Yes,” then adds, “but it’s sohna if

“Three nights is rough — what’s

you’re talking about a man — sohna, not sohni.”

going on?”

Ali: he knows me all too well.

He looks at me in the rear-view, black circles

“That is very helpful — thank you, Ali,” I say.

under his eyes. “I’m in love.”

“You’re welcome, my friend.”

“You’re in love?”

10

I spot a kid on the corner holding one of those signs for a 'Furniture Warehouse Sale' someplace. The sun is blazing. He is just 18 or 19 and has a pale, freckled face, already sunburned. After I take his picture, we start talking and I notice the tattoo on his forearm

He nods.

“What a good reason for insomnia,” I say.

“Yeah, but… I got such a bad headache — my whole head.”

He puts his large, sexy, light-brown hands to his temples.

Love’ll do that, I think to myself.

— a crest of some sort; it looks fresh.

“So, is she here? Is this why you’re not sleeping "It's cool," I say.

— like, she’s in your bed and you’re not used to

"I'm adopted," the young man

that, or — ?”

tells me, unprompted. “ — No, no, just met, two weeks, back home; I don't know what I expected him to say,

just got back a couple days ago.” He sighs.

but I did not expect him to say that.

“Didn’t expect it. I’ve known her family so

"My family is the best. The best.

They raised me like I'm theirs."

"You are theirs," I say.

11

long. I’m thirty-five…” His voice trailed off.

Funny: he’d listed three excellent conditions for falling in love, it seemed to me, not for it to be unexpected.

Early evening: I see a handsome white guy in

“Where’s home?” I asked.

a suit and tie puzzling a long time over the too

“Pakistan.”

many choices at a bodega flower stand. I notice he wears a wedding band.

We ride for a while.

“Need help deciding?” I ask.

“People there — they’re more reserved than

“That would be awesome, man,” he replies.

here. Stuff like this, love at first sight — it’s crazy, man, doesn’t happen…”

I steer him away from the roses and toward more interesting, wilder species.

12

Stuck in sluggish traffic on the way to JFK — getting out of town for a few days. Running late — more bored than stressed — I ask the driver what his plans are for tonight.

“Sleep. Get some sleep. Haven’t slept

“Not crazy, trust me — it happens with cities too.” The driver glances back at me, and I ask, “So, what’s next? You go back there, or…?”

“No, I bring her here — to New York.”

“Congratulations.” I give him my card and ask him to invite me to the wedding.

“I’ll take photos,” I say.

three nights — ”

B R IS B AN E O P E N H O US E 13 - 14 October 2019

14

Q PAC a n d B r isb a n e wid e

SLEEPERS IN T H E PA R K # 1 PH OTOG RA PH ER: B I L L HAY E S

15

THE POWER OF THREE

BY DANIELE DALIA VILIUNAS

Can we possibly know what we want before we know ourselves?

17

Desire is a hollow drum, throbbing ceaselessly, promising all but delivering nothing of substance.

The hot air of short term relief followed by the insistent return of the beat of discontent.

We want safety and control, but not a boring life. Approval is lovely, but not at the expense of individuality. We want to be free to follow our purpose and passions, but we don't want to be alone. We want to be at the top of our game, but our excellence might need witness.

Paradoxically, the more we individuate, the more we want a group, even a virtual one.

We don't want falseness, we yearn for genuine connection, but let us not be entrapped.

We want to see the truth of things so we understand, because we believe that this will solve our problems. But we don't want our prejudices to be assailed by inconvenient truths. Finally, we want uplifting, even transcendent experiences, whether in church, with our devices, or in the garden, provided they and we remain normal.

Be careful what you wish for, is the caution in such fables for the young. The 'winners' of the three wishes asked for what gratified them, not for what might have changed them, their lives or their world. At the end of the story they are regretful but remain as they were.

Our artists are the biographers of our psychology and also the keepers of our conscience.

Much desire here. Does it all boil down to control and freedom, money and status, sex and love, knowledge and power?

Our artists say, no, it doesn't. Along with scientists, they contend that none of the above create happiness.

Our artists are the biographers of our psychology and also the keepers of our conscience. We watch and wonder at people who win wealth, and those who have it thrust upon them, and we wonder about ourselves. What would I choose?

Are desire and self-knowledge separable?

Can we possibly know what we want before we know ourselves?

18

If it's true that our artists chart our psychology, then the answer again is, 'No!' Through the history of story runs a pattern: the three wishes. For example, a fisherman and his wife are offered three wishes by a magic fish. They waste the first two boons carelessly or foolishly. They spend the last undoing the consequences of the first.

The nineteenth century was given less to introspection than to changing the world.

Oscar Wilde, aesthete by nature and dilettante by indulgence, was a contemporary of Charles Dickens. Although they shared a desire to illuminate the social injustices and hypocrisies of their time, Wilde was not moved to sympathetic appreciation of Dickens' work.

Both contemporaries had enjoyed childhoods free from want. Dickens' father was a bankrupt and imprisonment exposed a ten year old Charles to the realities of poverty and to what justice looked like for the poor. As a journalist and novelist, he exposed his society to itself.

By contrast, Wilde enjoyed privilege and ease.

Yet, while provoking Society with his wit and style, he wrote penetrating and uncomfortable social criticism, especially in his collection of gentle, whimsical and moving short stories, which included The Young King.

"You would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without bursting into laughter," Wilde notoriously quipped of one of Dickens' most sentimental and well loved deathbed scenes. (As Shakespeare observed, two suns hold

19

not their course in one sphere.) Yet both Dickens and Wilde have written stories with a common structure and theme.

Both the better known A Christmas Carol and Wilde's The Young King follow our old friend, the tale of three wishes. Each starts with a protagonist who reflects the author.

Scrooge, the richest, meanest and most disliked man in the city, donates only to the prisons and workhouses where the needy poor presumably belong.

Scrooge embodies Dickens' heartless money man who is heedless of the consequences to others of his choices.

He takes a grim comfort in his stance and is certain of its rightness when challenged. He requires in his life nothing but the accumulation of wealth through success in business.

He knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

The Fisher couple of old who wasted their three wishes may have been informed by the moral of their fable, but they have not walked the Hero's Journey and nor did we in their company.

Dickens and Wilde present characters who do not know themselves. They are so distracted by desire for something outside of themselves that they forget themselves: forget who they are, and what they truly need.

The possession of what is powerful or beautiful does not nourish them.

Dickens and Wilde present characters who do not know themselves.

Scrooge has closed his heart, lost his love and squeezed joy from his life. When his self-deception is dissolved through being shown three horrendous perspectives, he suffers the pain of regret, steps into repairing his damaged relationships and begins to offer love. Only then can he receive love.

Wilde's Young King, raised in obscure poverty, has been restored to his now entitled wealth. At last he is able to follow his, and the aesthete's great love, Beauty. This is not love of beauty in people but love of beautiful things which must then be possessed and displayed. He knows their value but not their cost.

The Young King, worshipped Beauty, but was blind to the human cost of its demanded creation. He too required three confrontations with the suffering he caused. His new heart compassion brought him courage to stand his ground before both crowd and peer disapproval for the sake of a higher call to true Kingship in service to his people.

Good stories and performances draw us into a world where anything can happen. They have transformative power. Fishes grant wishes. Ghosts take us on rides to show us the past, present and future outcomes of our choices. Dreams confront us with realities which in waking life we avoid and ignore.

Scrooge and the Young King are transformed. By final curtain Scrooge still makes money, the Young King still rules his kingdom, but now there is heart in the mix.

They live from more of the whole of themselves. They are changed, as are their communities and their world.

Their hearts deepest wish has become their desire.

20

SL I NG SBY’ S TH E YO UN G KIN G

A C H R IS T M AS CAR O L

23 - 27 July 2019

From 29 November 2019

C r em or n e Th ea tr e, Q PAC

P l ayh o u se , Q PAC

1 0 0 % E L E C T R I C

Introducing Australia’s first 100% electric small SUV. Say goodbye to the petrol station and hello to the future. With a 100% electric battery, the Kona Electric has a range of up to 449 kilometres,[R1] instant acceleration and produces zero emissions.

All that combined with comfort, style and the latest technology and safety features. hyundai.com.au/kona-electric

Highlander variant shown. [R1] 449Km range: Figure based on WLTP static laboratory testing. Real life driving results will vary depending on driving style, vehicle configuration and use, battery age and other conditions.

21

DON’T TELL ME HOW GOOD YOU MAKE IT;

TELL ME HOW GOOD IT MAKES me WHEN I USE IT. - LEGENDARY NEW YORK ADMAN LEO BURNETT

Stay terrible, Muriel

BY JANE CARO

The desire to fit in is directly opposed to the desire to stand out.

This is one of the essential human conflicts. We all want attention, to be noticed and acknowledged.

To see ourselves reflected in other people’s eyes is a fundamental way that we confirm we exist.

Watch any small child and the demands they make on parental attention. “See me!”, “Hear me!”, “Touch me!”, “Feed me!” are among our earliest commands. It is a banal observation that children who are denied positive attention will seek negative attention in preference to none at all.

Loneliness is an expression of how existential the desire for people to see us and respond to us actually is. We feel invisible when we move through crowds of strangers who pay us no mind. This can be a pleasant experience if it is rare, but for many in our community it fills them with despair and a sense of how utterly unimportant they are.

They, perhaps, ‘fit in’ too seamlessly, to the point where they no longer appear to actually have a separate existence, or not one worth noticing anyway.

24

Women, it seems to me, try hard to fit in because they are

human women are ugly sisters, forced to cut off parts of

likely to be punished if they seek to stand out. Women

themselves to fit the acceptable stereotype.

are praised, particularly when young, for being modest, quiet and well behaved. Indeed, the term ‘well behaved’

None of us are immune to that pressure. When I was

is all about fitting in. A person who earns such an epithet

young, I sought endlessly to be the kind of good girl I saw

obeys the conventions of social intercourse. They comply

around me. The girls who were neat and tidy, who always

with what is expected, they behave as they should. As girls

had their desks and pencil cases in good order. The girls

grow into women, ‘well behaved’ morphs into ‘ladylike’.

who had always done their homework and were the first to

The suffix of the term gives the clue. Women aspire to

be nominated as monitor, class captain and prefect. I never

be ‘like’ ladies. They must distort their actual selves to fit

achieved any of those lofty goals. No matter how much

that narrow, rather prim description. The idea of being

I berated myself, no matter how much I was berated

a ‘lady’ is the human equivalent of Cinderella’s glass

by others for being a show off, pushy, and talking-too-

slipper. It is fragile, transparent, impossibly small and

much (it was a constant in my school reports), I could

cripplingly uncomfortable. Unlike good girl Cinders, real

not defeat my equal and opposite desire to stand out.

25

Nor my careless, messy, slapdash approach to neatness and tidiness. I did not fit in. My image of myself as a child is that I annoyed and irritated people. I was not what a little 1960s girl should be and I mourned my lack of likability.

I hated primary school. I was a bookish, long-word-using, mathematically illiterate, noisy, cack-handed, un-co child in a world that worshipped sport, maths and conformity.

My lifelong antipathy to team sport of any kind – but especially that niminy-piminy girl’s game netball – was formed at the hands of a multitude of good girls who took pleasure in excluding me for my inability to obey the rules or catch a ball. Good girls are not necessarily nice girls. The mental contortions they have made to make themselves fit in are not without cost and they revenge that pain, I think, on those who either will not or cannot make the same sacrifices. I wasn’t without friends, but we were clearly the leftovers and misfits, clinging together for comfort. I was the smallest girl in the class, looking years younger than I was. One of my closest friends was the tallest in the whole

Good girls are not necessarily nice girls.

The mental contortions they have made to make themselves fit in are not without cost and they revenge that pain, I think, on those who either will not or cannot make the same sacrifices.

school. She looked like a fully grown woman. What an odd, ill-fitting pair we must have made. In high school – a place where I felt a much greater sense of belonging – I solved my dilemma by meeting up with a bookish outsider like myself. Our friendship (it continues to this day) not only nurtured us, it made us less threatening. We were allowed to hover around the edges of the cool group because we posed no threat to anyone else. Friendship is often provisional and transactional among those who are desperate to fit in. Do you help me feel accepted? Or do you make me stick out awkwardly even more? Those who stand out live in dread of being cast out. This fear can last a lifetime.

Even as adult women the desire to fit in remains selfprotective. We have watched the women who are determined to stand out and we have seen what happens to them. US President Donald Trump and his supporters still chant ‘lock her up’ at the mention of Hillary Clinton’s name. Almost 25% of the handful of women who have led countries over the last few years have been accused of corruption, impeached for corruption or jailed for corruption. Our lone female Prime Minister was not immune and investigated for a so called slush fund from her time as a young lawyer. The scandal faded away completely once she lost office. While she led us, however, we watched her being eviscerated for her effrontery on a daily basis. And we got the message – by refusing to fit in, Gillard put herself beyond the pale. In 2016, many

26

Americans stayed away from the ballot box entirely and

votes when she stood for the top job. Julia Gillard was a

among those who didn’t, a shameful 52% of white women

beloved Deputy PM who became a figure of vicious hatred

voted for a pussy-grabbing misogynist rather than for a

when she toppled – as so many men have done before and

woman. In the face of the relentless barrage of scorn and

since – her Prime Minister. The current crop of Democrat

abuse aimed at the only serious female candidate for the

women who have declared their candidacy for the 2020 US

Presidency so far, white women allowed their desire to ‘fit in’

Presidential campaign are already starting to hear the word

to overwhelm everything else. Perhaps that was why, to their

‘unlikable’ whispered in their ears. We do not like a woman

credit, American women of colour had no such qualms and

who stands out. Perhaps this is why women are so quick

supported Clinton so comprehensively. They gave up any

to deflect compliments and spread any praise onto others.

hope of fitting in long ago.

They sense the danger that accompanies any implication

One of the most common explanations otherwise

that they deserve to be singled out and noticed.

reasonable people gave for voting for a kleptocrat like

Interestingly, American author and research Professor Brene

Trump was Hillary Clinton’s lack of ‘likability’. Loud were

Brown believes the opposite to ‘fitting in’ is not standing out,

the cries of “I’d love a woman President, just not this

but ‘belonging’. She believes that what we really yearn for as

woman.” Really? It seems we easily love a loyal female 2IC

we contort and discipline ourselves to be more like others

– Clinton herself had a 69% approval rating and was the

is to feel we belong. We are herd animals, after all, and our

most popular woman in the country when she finished her

survival is dependent on our connection with one another.

term as President Obama’s Secretary of State. Julie Bishop

She also argues that the more we try to ‘fit in’ the less likely

was a much admired deputy leader of the Liberal Party and

we are to feel we truly belong.

foreign minister but she could muster only 11 party room

27

Indeed, as our female political leaders have shown, it is

party that best reflected their worldview only to find all their

hard to belong as a woman in a male dominated world.

efforts in vain. One of the ways they have had to try and ‘fit

I have watched young, forthright women experience this

in’ was to disavow feminism. This is annoying for feminists

lack of belonging when they face off with older, often

like me, of course, but I believe it is much worse for them.

conservative men on panels or on social media. Many of the men take instant umbrage if their young female opponent

Feminism exists because many women have understood

voices her disagreement. Perhaps it is unconscious, but

that they would never be fully accepted by men and that

men, particularly older men, were brought up to expect

their efforts to ‘fit in’ to the small spaces they were allowed

all women to defer to them, but especially those who are

to occupy under patriarchy were self-defeating. They gave

young. When a young woman or a woman of colour insists

up trying and formed their own outspoken female support

on her right to an opinion, she is refusing to ‘fit in’ with a

group. They formed their own club, or friendship group,

convention that has existed for centuries. Her reward, as

to which they could truly belong – despite ructions, debate

Yassmin Abdel-Magied discovered after posting a seven

and differences of opinion. Feminism has no interest in

word anti-war tweet on Anzac Day, is to risk being cast out.

glass slippers or ‘fitting in’. At its best, it has no interest in

Abdel-Magied was hounded out of the country.

conformity or obeying the rules. It exists to support women become more fully themselves, to assert their full and equal

This lack of being able to feel we belong may be why

humanity, to insist ultimately that women can belong to

Australia has one of the most gender-segregated workforces

human society just as they are, just as much as any man.

in the western world. Exhibit A is the Federal Liberal Party where we have watched senior women leave the parliament in droves when overlooked for promotion or disendorsed for their seat in favour of a man. Worse, many have left complaining vigorously about a culture of misogynistic bullying. Women such as Julie Bishop, Kelly O’Dwyer and Julia Banks have tried hard to ‘fit in’ with the parliamentary

M UR IE L’S W E D D IN G T H E M US ICAL From 19 September 2019

28

Ly r ic Th e a t r e , Q PAC

Experience it We embrace excellence and diversity, values which are also celebrated within the arts community.

Experience it with us as the Principal Partner of the QPAC International Series.

Principal Partner of the QPAC International Series.

minterellison.com

Isaac Buckland Graduate (and ballet dancer)

Our people are a diverse bunch and have many talents beyond the law.

DO YA THINK I'M SEXY? What gives each of us the tingles is very personal. Seducing through song is quite the skill.

What tunes would you include on your seduction mix tape?

No filter WITH LUKE PEARSON

The @IndigenousX Twitter account was launched on 15 March 2012 and has more than 34,000 followers.

Each week it has a different Indigenous host that has included actors, activists, authors, academics, politicians, teachers, doctors and students. The vision is to create a media landscape where Indigenous people leverage the power of digital platforms like Twitter to share their knowledge, opinions and experiences.

FOUNDER AND CEO LUKE PEARSON, A GAMILAROI MAN, VISITED QPAC AHEAD OF DELIVERING THE MABO ORATION IN JUNE 2019.

WHAT DRIVES YOUR PERSONAL

INDIGENOUSX STARTED IN 2012

from Indigenous people. And that

AMBITION FOR CHANGE?

AND WAS BORNE OF A DESIRE FOR

Indigenous audiences don’t have a big

CHANGE. WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE

enough audience to care about, so the

SOME OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT

only ones who want to hear that are

CHANGES WE’VE SEEN SINCE

other Indigenous people. They’re only

IT STARTED?

3% of the population.

I needed and sharing it with other

LP: One that IndigenousX has

What IndigenousX has been part of in

Indigenous people who needed what

been directly involved in is more

the rise of social media is showing that

I had is not a new idea. It was actually

recognition that Indigenous people

we do have an audience, that we do

one of the cornerstone foundational

can tell our own stories, in our own

have stories to tell that matter, and that

principles of Indigenous existence.

way and not just through paintings or

we have opinions outside of the stories

Mine was just applied to a new thing.

plays. We’ve had amazing Indigenous

that are told about us.

LP: Common sense. So much of what I do is obvious, to me at least.

Even with IndigenousX… the idea of having something that was more than

theatre spaces and art spaces, but Nothing I’m saying is new, you can find

when it comes to sharing opinion,

I was on the radio earlier today and

versions of it going back as far as you

particularly political opinion, we’re

brought up that point. When it’s an

can manage to find. What’s different

always seen through the lens of a

issue like change the date, or whatever

is we’re doing it in online spaces that

non Indigenous journalist, editor

it may be, a journalist rings me, they

have no white lens dictating what we’re

or interviewer. Social media really

ask a question, I answer it. Then people

talking about, or how.

created the tool for individuals to build

go, “There are more important things

their own platforms, to affect change

to talk about!” Well, they didn’t ring me

in their own way; to create their own

and say, “What’s the most important

personas, to tell their own stories and

thing you want to talk about?”, they

to build their own audiences.

rang me and asked “What’s your

A lot of things we talk about are things that Indigenous people know commonly amongst ourselves, even if we disagree about them. A lot of non

opinion on Invasion Day?”. So I told

Indigenous Australians just never knew

I think a big myth in the media space

them my opinion on Invasion Day. If

some of these things. We’re making

has always been that non Indigenous

I was on a free stage I might have also

them visible just by the nature of how

people might want to hear about

talked about a million other things.

these platforms operate, and by being

Indigenous issues in these narrow

in these spaces.

lens frames, but no one wants to hear

33

IndigenousX was our first project and I

on IndigenousX who might be well

of Indigenous voices and decide which

still think one thing we’re best known

known in their own field and then

ones you agree with. You can’t use us

for is the rotating account on Twitter.

they talk about something you didn’t

as your scapegoat for not having an

You’ve got someone who is not on a

know about them. We’ve had business

opinion on things.

stage so, for people who aren’t public

owners who talk about being a mum,

speakers, they’re not intimidated by

or cooking because they love to cook.

We’ve been living together for 200

an audience. You’re just sitting there,

I love that about IndigenousX.

plus years. We’re not new, this isn’t

living your life with your phone and computer and you’ve got this platform for a week, and a willing audience who aren’t bombarding you with questions, but want to hear what you’ve got to say. For a lot of people that’s not something they get to experience, ever, and it’s not how media operates. Usually, you’ve got a 15 second sound bite. Or you might chat to a journo for 20 minutes and then they use two quotes. Whereas IndigenousX, it’s yours. You can have a full conversation about one thing and then that night talk about something completely different. It’s a space that really humanised Indigenous people.

IndigenousX isn’t for white Australia.

We have a lot of white people who follow us, a lot of non Indigenous people who aren’t white and we love that. That’s great, but we’re not spoon feeding them. We’re not dumbing everything down for them. We’re not saying it in ways where we make sure we don’t upset people, we’re just saying things that are true and it’s your job to go, “OK, that’s what this person thinks”. The host before might have thought something different. They’re not there as the spokesperson for all Indigenous people. They’re not Elders sitting on the mountain top handing down nuggets of wisdom.

A lot of times a journo reaches out looking for an Indigenous person who has this experience, or this perspective, or this job. It sounds like they’ve already written the story and they just want a body to put in it. Whereas we can have someone

34

new, none of this is. There’s nothing SHOWING A DIVERSITY OF ASPECTS

that a white person can say that will

OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AS

shatter your view of what whiteness

WELL AS TRADITIONAL?

is. Whiteness, we understand to be complex and multifaceted and not

LP: Yes. Whatever you think we are,

one individual can ever speak on

we’re more than that. People who are

behalf of all, but we somehow, we’re

living that traditional culture and want

still framed that way. That’s even

to talk about traditional stuff, that’s

when you see an article that says

great, but that’s not all we are. Even

‘Aboriginal leaders’. What leaders? By

someone who is doing that, that’s not

what way? Which way? We don’t have

all they are either.

a central leadership so maybe they’re

When we look at whiteness in Australia, we have heroes and villains and mundane people who can just have opinions on anything, but they have a completeness. There’s no white opinion where you’re like, “That’s not what white people should think”. Whereas we have this sense in Australia that this is what Indigenous

a leader of an organisation, or maybe they’re just a prominent individual, or whatever, but it perpetuates that belief that we have central leadership.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE AMONGST THE MOST URGENT SOCIAL OR CULTURAL, POLITICAL ISSUES THAT REQUIRE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA?

people are, or do, or should be. When

LP: The most pressing issue for any

we aren’t that, or we’re more than that,

person is the most pressing issue for

people are confused and sometimes

that person. For Indigenous people

threatened by that.

– 700,000 people, hundreds of nations – it’s really hard to pinpoint.

I think particularly white Australia (not

In the broadest of terms, for me, self-

just non Indigenous Australia because

determination and Indigenous rights,

I think a lot of the time we say non

most succinctly defined through

Indigenous people, we’re talking about

the right to determine for ourselves

white people) have these views of what

our status and our future, and to

it is that we should be, what authentic

have social, cultural and economic

Indigenous experience is, or reality or

opportunities to pursue that. That

issues are.

involves the right to make mistakes.

Even well meaning people, when you

When it comes to Indigenous affairs,

ask “What’s your view on treaty?”

every year the government’s like “Yes,

they say “I just want to do whatever

we suck, we stuffed up, we’re doing it

Indigenous people want to do”. It’s like

all wrong but we’re going to do better

this person wants this, and that person

this time”. They get another chance

wants that, and this community want

and another chance. Whereas look

this. You can’t do that on any issue.

at the justification for killing ATSIC,

You actually have to listen to a range

considered the failed experiment of

self-determination. “We let you

ongoing process. The right for

spaces over time. Whereas if we

try it and it wasn’t perfect so

self-determination, what one

have one government that says,

screw you.”

community or what one individual

“Yes that sounds great”, and then

determines today is what’s best,

the next government says, “No

We need the ability to explore, to

that might change tomorrow. To

it’s not”, then back and forth we

challenge, to redefine and recreate.

have protections around that,

go, which is very much what we

For some people that will be very

that’s when you start to look at

see in politics today. There’s not

much along the lines of traditional

legal frameworks.

necessarily one government that’s

reclamation and rebuilding

exceptionally great when it comes

language, looking after culture.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS

to the right of self-determination.

For other people, that will be other

REQUIRED FOR THAT, MORE

There is certainly an ebb and flow.

things. We need to not be limited

SYSTEMIC CHANGE?

A constant one step forward, two

by all of those definitions that are

steps back.

imposed externally on us. We need

LP: We know that the Western

to be embraced and allowed and

legal system is very flawed and

So much of the Australian political

given the opportunities to pursue

very open to change. I think we

focus on Indigenous issues is

these things, whatever that looks

need conditions in Australia where

still at base level, premised on

like. That can come through treaty,

people recognise that the right of

assimilation, Close the Gap, we

or it might have something to do

Indigenous people to have self-

want everyone to be the same,

with voice.

determination is an inalienable

to have equal opportunities. Of

right and needs to be supported

course, issues like life expectancy

For me there’s many ways that

and sustained. Once you have that

are important, we don’t want to

these things can be achieved.

attitude and that belief then it will

die young, but that’s not all it looks

It isn’t a destination, it’s an

correct itself through changing

like. Recognising Indigenous

35

self-determination is so much more

empowerment post invasion has been

much emotional labour. Working

and it doesn’t hitch our wagon to the

about activism. Rights have never been

with those people to just say "no, stop

rest of Australia on everything.

handed to us. The white version of that

that" and just sit and listen to the host,

is “we said sorry, and we gave you the

respect the host, support the host.

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CONFUSING

right to vote”. No, we took that from

You’re there for them, they’re not there

FAIRNESS AND SAMENESS?

you, kicking and screaming. You did

for you.

LP: Yes. For us, when we talk about Indigenous, people respond with “You just want something for free,

not want to give us any of those things, they were not benevolently

So many people have been responsive

handed down.

to the philosophy of IndigenousX and what it is that we’re trying to do. That

you want special treatment." Yes, we

I’m a big believer in change from

has been really great and that has

do. We’re the sovereign people of this

the outside rather than within. At the

helped the community maintain itself

nation. It’s not special. You say it like,

same time the change that it creates

and manage itself. I think if we didn’t

“Ooh, special treatment”. No, we have

necessitates people on the inside. We

have that philosophy it would have

a unique status in this nation, we have

need Indigenous doctors, and teachers,

been a much harder road. Working

a unique history. It’s not just to make

and politicians, and whatever, but they

with people to get them to understand

amends for the atrocities suffered, it’s

alone do not necessarily bring change.

and not to bombard someone with

because we are the Indigenous peoples

I think they all work in tandem. We

questions, especially questions that

of this land. That brings with it certain

need that multiplicity of engagement

aren’t for that person. If there’s a

things that aren’t just because you did

and involvement, and we need the

teacher hosting, ask them about

all these horrible things to Indigenous

community holding the nation to

teaching don’t just ask them generic

people. It’s not about white guilt or

account, but also itself to account.

questions that you can Google yourself

white appeasing, it’s not about white

It’s not, “that’s not how you do it,

or work out on your own time.

people at all. It’s about our status as the

this is how you do it”. It’s all part of

Indigenous peoples of this land. That

a bigger puzzle.

Whether you support us or not, you can’t stop us, we’re just going to keep

means something, and whether or not that something is recognised doesn’t

Working outside a system seems to be

doing it. The only thing that could stop

stop it from meaning that.

a great catalyst for creating awareness

us is if people said, “you’re not relevant

around the need for change, but then

anymore”. If our own community just

CHANGE CAN COME FROM

the implementation and sustainability

said “IndigenousX was great back then

REVOLUTION AT ONE END OF

of change needs to happen on the

but now we've got this IndigenousZ”,

THE SPECTRUM OR FROM SLOW

inside as well.

then we'll go OK and I'll pop off and

INCREMENTAL SHIFTS AT THE OTHER. WHERE’S INDIGENOUSX ON THE SPECTRUM?

I'll do something else. As long as we’re WHERE HAVE YOU

relevant and we’re doing good things

ENCOUNTERED RESISTANCE?

and people want us around, then we’re

LP: Change looks like many different

LP: No, everyone loves it! It’s taken

things in many different ways…

time, working even with our own

and then those things change. One

audience and even the well meaning

thing I will say is that the history of

white ally who brings more problems

Indigenous rights and Indigenous

than they do solutions or take up so

going to stay around.

C L AN C E S T RY – A C E LE B R ATION O F CO UN T RY 16 - 30 November 2019

36

Q PAC a n d o t h e r ve n u e s

home

(n). the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family

Proud to call Queensland home.

Call 13 14 22 or visit heritage.com.au Heritage Bank Limited ABN 32 087 652 024. AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 240984.

Behind the Scenes SEEDLINGS As part of QPAC’s First Nations programming, Seedlings provides creative development opportunities to artists and creatives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) heritage.

Consisting of four strands, Sparks (writing), Footprints (dance), Blakbeats (Music) and New Works, the program has so far brought together 17 artists to explore, seed new ideas and challenge forms of expressions.

Each session of creative development commences with a deep dive into the artists’ cultural backgrounds through the State Library of Queensland's research service. These instigate conversations on how culture informs creative practices.

Seedlings is about the artist and their practice; how and why they create and the coming together of First Nations people in a culturally safe place where their voices can be nurtured, shared and heard.

L EFT TO RIG H T ( FROM MA IN IMAGE) : D EREK ORA M ( FOREGROU ND ) , A NDR E W TO BY ( B ACKGROU ND ) ; LU KE PEACOCK; A LINTA MCG RA DY ; KAY L A H T RU T H , J H I N D U - P E D R O

38

L AWRIE, J OSH KILROY , A LINTA MCGRA DY , L U KE PEACOCK, J OSEPH COL L I N S ; JO S H K I L R OY.

IL L U S TR ATI ON S BY A N DREW TOBY. IM AGES C ENT RE & BOT TOM RIGH T : LU KE PEACOCK ( FOREG ROU ND ) , J HIND U- P ETR O L AW R I E (BAC KGROUND); ANDREW TOBY.

PABLO NERUDA (1904 - 1973) NOBEL PRIZE WINNING CHILEAN POET AND DIPLOMAT

MAPPING THE HUMAN HEART

By Judith McLean

PERHAPS being able to know our deep desires is only possible in hindsight

PERHAPS our deepest desires are always unconscious as Freud suggests, “we can never be masters in our own homes”

PERHAPS art is the best way to demonstrate desire as a concept. Examples used in the piece – Julian Barnes’ novel Levels of Life, Christoph Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Both physicalise and map desire, revealing it through the curves and contours of relationships, time and space

PERHAPS arts purpose is to trace our desires to map the topography of the human heart

45

Desire as a concept, an abstraction, is fiendishly

longer physically present, how losing the desired

difficult to articulate, let alone understand

object intensifies desire. Rather than being light

cognitively, for it’s a chameleon, altering its

and joyous the chameleon appears as a dark,

shape, texture and colours repeatedly throughout

mysterious, buried absence.

our lifetime.

For Barnes, the loss of his wife and his inability Perhaps it’s best described as a psychic process,

to know how and where to place his aching desire

recognised in everyday life by emotions and

torments him. He rationalises his grief: “grief is

feelings, often unseen and yet represented by a

the negative image of love; and if there can be an

vast glossary of words and

accumulation of love over the

meanings. Its presence is

years, then why not grief”?

often beyond awareness, masquerading variously as needs or wants, or lack, or wishes, or yearning, or even grief. What Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis teach is as humans we are constantly in the process of deceiving ourselves, pretending that feelings don’t exist or allowing them to support our delusions. Freud’s proposition that we are not masters in our own house points to the difficulty of ever really knowing who we are and what

“Grief is the negative image of love; and if there can be an accumulation of love over the years, then why not grief?”

him again, if not in person at least in his consciousness.

He is after all, “her chief rememberer” a title he carries with bitter tenderness.

His deep internalisation of Patricia’s absence gives the reader a corporeal sense of his loss revealing how his chameleon manifests as omnipresent, never satiated, existing instead as a deep interminable aching and longing.

Paradoxically for Barnes

we really desire.

the aching longing for his

The work of British writer Julian Barnes helps

beloved and his compulsion to reminisce

navigate the maze of desire. When Barnes’ wife

reveals both an irrational endless desire and

Pat Kavanagh died after 29 years together, he

simultaneously helps him rationally accept the

wrote of his complete devastation, his grief,

impossibility of such a desire. Respite comes one

his suicidal desires to join her in the afterlife.

night at a London cinema watching the story of

Levels of Life sheds light on the visceral qualities

Orpheus, a legendary musician and poet who falls

of desire, how it appears and disappears

deeply in love with Eurydice, a daughter of Apollo.

chameleon-like by concurrently reflecting on

They marry, Eurydice dies and is taken to Hades.

his own loss and the ancient myth of young

Barnes explains:

lovers Orpheus and Eurydice.

46

He yearns for her to be with

I went to a London cinema for a direct broadcast from

Both stories echo one another exploring what

New York’s Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Beforehand, I

happens to desire when the love object is no

did my homework, listened through the piece, libretto in

hand. And I thought: this can’t possibly work. A man’s

cinema the miraculous trickery of art happened again.

wife dies, and his lamentation so moves the gods they

Of course Orfeo would turn to look at the pleading

grant him permission to go to the underworld, find her

Euridice – how could he not? Because ‘no one in his

and bring her back. One condition, however, is applied:

senses’ would do so, he is quite out of his sense with love

he must not look her in the face until they are back on

and grief and hope.

earth, or she will be lost to him forever. Whereupon, as he is leading her out of the Underworld, she persuades

For the psychologically minded what the two

him to look back at her; whereupon she dies; whereupon

stories share and speak of is the raw material

he laments her again, even more affectingly, and draws

of desire – love, loss, desire, grief and absence

his sword to commit suicide; whereupon the God of

pointing to Adam Phillips idea that “there is

love, disarmed by this display of uxoriousness, restores

something catastrophic about being a person”.

Euridice to life.

At the end of the opera Barnes is initially

born at all, in our being condemned to death; in our

disbelieving, finding the myth implausible. Yet on

vulnerability as organisms, or in our cruel injustices as

reflection as he brings his own narrative of grief to

political animals; in the scarcity of our natural resources,

the story, he rethinks his opinion and wonders at

or in the greedy depredation of them; in our Fall, or in

the power of art to act as a catalyst and transcend

our hubris.

his own lived experience.

48

The catastrophe is located in various places: in our being

According to clinical psychologist and author

I had quite underestimated Orfeo the opera most

the late Stephen A Mitchell, desire and the

imaginatively targeted at the griefstruck; and in that

possibility of falling in love relieve the catastrophe

of being human, making it liveable, bearable.

For all its improbability, the opera almost magically

Mitchell believed that despite the inevitable loss

makes perfect sense. He enters the artwork,

of love and desire, it is these two abstractions that

possibilities open up that help alleviate his grief

make life worth not only living, but also worth

and heartbreak. His pain and desire is validated,

cultivating and savouring. However Mitchell warns

it’s acknowledged, witnessed in the strange world

that the consequences are also often constraints,

of heightened emotions. Barnes comments that it

fleetingness, transitoriness as both Barnes’ and

is the putative form of opera that intentionally sets

Orpheus' stories demonstrate.

out to break your heart.

It is the time and constraints that Barnes questions

If breaking hearts is what love and desire promise,

when he asks himself whether given the choice of

then the opera form is a perfect container for

losing his life by looking back as Orpheus does what

Barnes to place his grief. Orpheus and Eurydice

he would do. He is unequivocal in his reply.

physicalise and make public what until now has been a totally private

You lose the world for a glance?

Of course you do. That is what the world is for: to lose under the right circumstances. How could anyone hold to their vow with Euridice’s voice at their back?

Barnes questions the very possibility of desire ever being anything but irrational.

His elegy suggests that as humans we live under the giant misconception that we’re

experience for Barnes. In

... desire and the possibility of falling in love relieve the catastrophe of being human ...

Greek theatre terms Barnes experiences catharsis and instead of suffering by being exposed to the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, it reconnects him to life. Perhaps it’s arts purpose to trace one’s desire to be able to map the topography of the human heart.

Dictionaries tell us that desire is a strong feeling of wanting

capable of acting rationally

to have something or wishing

where love and desire are

for something to happen.

present. He describes how the

Tracing the etymology of the

implausibility of the opera suddenly fell away, and

word is where things get really interesting. The

the irrationally of it made sense.

Latin desidero, comes from de + sidus – wait for what

Now it seems quite natural for people to stand on stage

the stars will bring.

and sing at one another, because song was a more primal

Perhaps in the age of scientism, where the unifying

means of communication than the spoken word – both

belief is that we can know everything, love and

higher and deeper… yes I thought that’s how life is and

desire exist to remind us that some things in life are

should be, let’s concentrate on the essentials… Opera cuts

unruly, disruptive and often uncontainable.

to the chase as death does.

O R P H E US AN D E URY D IC E O P E R A Q UE E N S L AN D 24 October - 9 November 2019 P l ayh o u se , Q PAC

49

“ BECAUSE YOU

DON’T LIVE NEAR A BAKERY DOESN’T MEAN YOU NEED TO GO WITHOUT CHEESECAKE HEDY LAMARR, GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS,

”

SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR. HONOURED WITH A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME IN 1960 AND INDUCTED INTO THE NATIONAL INVENTORS HALL OF FAME IN 2014.

D ITA VO N T E E S E : GL AM O N AT R IX 24 November 2019 Co n ce r t H a l l , Q PAC

My Dearest Jane, How strange to be writing your name, after all this time. Pray forgive the words that are to follow; I fear they lag too far behind the mind that forms them. This short stanza itself has taken me a long and aching evening. I wish to give proper weight to my thoughts, of course, but I do not know if I have the patience nor strength to draft them again.

This letter, my Jane, is the thing I wish to do in secret. The rest; the rest is the happy fact that we are each other’s lives. We have been one from the moment we met, which is why I must undertake this most personal task alone. An attempt to make clear what my life has been. Not a reckoning, perhaps, but certainly a balancing of my account.

To be clear: I have been forever and an age an abomination. Am I a self-formed bête noire, or an echo from a stone cast long ago? I have long anguished this knowledge.

I suppose, now, it does not matter. I have made my choices. I have had the privilege and the position to delay their consequences. Know, though, Jane, that all I have done in life has been in order to answer or avoid one question of particular indistinctness: where is it that I hope to best belong? I could never answer for a simple reason: I was not yet my whole self.

To any observer it would appear much of my account was settled the night Thornfield burned. To any observer I lost my money, my reputation, my future, my sight and touch in that acre of vagrant flame. The real consequence was far more fitting. My penance was, of course, to remain alive. To be left with just enough to truly know what I had lost.

But Jane, the universe did not count on you. For who could know that the most of myself was not there in the fire but instead some forty miles hence. Jane Eyre.

My truest point. My many senses. You returned to complete me.

Desire is what has made us, Jane; this much I know. Desire is what has sustained us.

Desire, as I once thought I understood it, was a denial of consequence. You taught me desire as an acceptance of love.

I have never told you this, but the largest parts I love of you are those formed by who you have had to become. Your fortitude; your resolution. Elements of yourself you had no

JANE EY RE 18 October - 9 November 2019 Cremorn e Th ea tr e, Q PAC

BY CHRISTOPHER CURRIE

choice but to become. Would you were spared the suffering of your youth, I fear you would not be my Jane. You would not be your spirit.

I cannot imagine a Jane Eyre whose temperament was a mere average of her feelings, whose strength was not an irrepressible will, whose beauty impels the best in us all. This thought, that you would be in any way altered, is so deeply frightening as it would mean I would cease to exist. And so, I take pleasure in the way your life has been. Desire is selfish, Jane. Never forget this.

I must say these things, Jane, so you may return to them. My utmost, honest truth.

Mr Carter reserves a little time each visit to gently, privately, loosen the knot of my hope. I feel in his surgeon’s hands the uncertainty of sudden age. Never had it occurred to me until these past weeks that in his patient he felt the same uncertainty. Trauma, he informs me – our own, and of others – makes rapid parataxis of a body’s faculties.

You know, of course, that my body sings with pain, but I do not tell you the worst is reserved, perversely for the blank air where my left hand once was. I carry my energy now as if within the most shallow saucer.

I see from one eye whenever a devil lets me. What peculiar agony to be offered glimpses of your life, but never the ones you want. Never my wife in her moments of unguarded laughter. Never my son as his face quietly forms new thoughts. I live now, Jane, in a novel where only the page numbers are visible. I can see just enough to know I am nearly at the end.

It is quite conflicting to prepare for life’s longest and easiest journey. After life’s fitful fever, perhaps I shall indeed sleep well.

Never forget me, my dearest Jane. Always know our desire has become in its final form a most irrepressible force. Our love is the dust that quietly and eternally gathers. Our life, Jane, is ours forever.

Yours Always,

Edward

Dearest Nurse, I know we have not been on the best of terms lately but seeing as though we will not be together for very much longer, I write this letter in an attempt to explain myself as best I can. I know it may be insufficient, but I feel like I owe it to you to at least try.

This rush I have been feeling since I met Romeo is indescribable, yet it courses through my veins. Sometimes it is red hot, hot enough to make me want to rip my skin off just to cool down, but other times it is a soft rush, like the way I feel when I brush my hands through a bed of flowers. I can feel him with me even now, even though he is far away, and not to return. It is something I have never felt before.

Sometimes I feel like it is unsustainable, that I cannot possibly endure another day of such rolling emotion. And yet I relish in it. I did not know love could exist in such forms, twisting and turning and knotting together; all these feelings binding Romeo to me and me to him.

My family keep telling me it is impossible for me to be in love, let alone with him.

They do not say his name, as if saying it out loud would be poison on their tongues.

They tell me I do not know what love is. They assume I will come to my senses eventually, as if I am not already in control of my senses now. These are the same people who seem to have planned out my life for me already, people who think they know who I am, but have not bothered to talk to me or even ask me how I feel.

Is this how the world works? If so, I do not want any part of it.

I have been a good girl my whole life. You know this, I think. I hope. I have not wanted for much, except for this. You have been the keeper of my burdens, my dreams, my secrets. You have been a better mother than my mother has ever been – being the lady of the Capulet household seems to be more important to her than her own daughter. I crave her attention, which she doles out in ever smaller portions.

I want her to see me, to really see me, but I fear all she sees is what I am worth to her in terms of her social standing.

BY YEN-RONG WONG

I want for so many things. A wooden jewellery box to replace my old, worn one, a white dress embroidered with purple flowers, a new necklace. Yes – you have called me spoiled.

But now, I am beginning to realise that the things I really want are those that money cannot buy: affection, kindness, love, freedom.

I want to be free. Free from my parents, from my duties as a Capulet daughter.

I want adults to listen to me, instead of dismissing my thoughts and feelings like they are nonsense, like I do not know what I’m doing. I am young, yes. This does not mean I do not deserve to be heard, especially when it comes to important decisions regarding my future. Sometimes I feel as if I have as much freedom as the kitchen maids, with the extravagance of our clothes the only difference between us.

But nurse – Romeo makes me feel free. I feel like I can do anything when he is with me, and that is how I know I will see him again. I do not know where or when, but I know in my heart that we will end up together. What is it they say?

Love overcomes all odds. I know our love is strong enough to overcome anything.

I am not foolish; I know freedom often comes with a cost. This cost may be high, but I am willing to pay it. My resolve will not waver. Even as I grieve for Mercutio and Tybalt, my kinsmen by marriage and blood – I am, perhaps selfishly, jealous that they had the freedom to make the decisions that led to their demises. That is all I want – to be allowed to choose my own path, to create my own destiny. I want to see the world for what it truly is, not this tidy version where everything is timed and planned to perfection. I want to make mistakes, to fall, to get back up, to try again. I know this will all be possible, eventually, when Romeo is by my side.

Oh, nurse, I wish you could come with me. At least, I wish I could save you from the pain that is to come.

Know that I will never forget you.

All my love,

Juliet

R O M E O & J ULIE T Q UE E N S L AN D B ALLE T 28 August - 7 September 2019 Ly r ic Th e a t r e , QPAC

STUDENT POLITICS / MODERN LOVERS B Y VA N B A D H A M

“Student politics is so nasty,” Henry Kissinger said, “because it matters so little.”

We were student politicians, and we had this emblazoned on our factional t-shirts, with the slogan ‘doing numbers for the revolution’ and a propaganda cartoon of a nuclear family marching forward, holding hands.

My children’s corner of the left were

Oh, communism was over… but it

doing numbers for the revolution in

sure wasn’t hard to hate capitalism.

1993 because the great revolutionary

The difference between our radical

projects of our century had tried

generation and the glamorous

earnestness and uprising. They’d

one that preceded it – battles on

had red armies and guerrilla wars

the streets of Paris in long, leather

and street occupations, they’d

jackets, riots in Chicago in brightly

seized the means of production

coloured, patterned shirts – was

and the apparatus of the state – and

that our forebears, at least, could

they’d failed. Millions had suffered,

still imagine ‘the alternative society’.

millions had died. The Berlin Wall

The best we could conjure was

fell down in 1989, the Soviet Union

a parallel one, where – between holding down the new underpaid,

It was ironic in that way you can

unstable ‘McJobs’ Doug Coupland

only manage when you’re half smart and young and droll enough to pick a political side, but not actually a team. Our faction was an impossible coalition of radical independents; we called ourselves ‘the non-aligned left’. Years later, I read a Martin Amis novel where a fictional novelist names her book The Ironic High Style and I finally got the joke.

But, back then, in the early 1990s, when I was an undergraduate who’d grown out of acne but not

We did ‘numbers for the revolution’ when the concrete shape of the goal was imperceptible and persisted while the blurry object was impossible.

described in Generation X – we might amass in the odd empty warehouse or decaying rental to mosh like the crowds in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video, and there defy the increasingly airbrushed world for sale outside by bruising our bodies for free, with slamdances and headbanging, drunken stumbles, cheap weed and experiments with heroin. The tribe that spawned our faction dyed unbrushed hair every chemical shade of yellow, burgundy

childishness, humour was something

or black and drank bourbon and

to take very seriously. The spirit of

vodka, gripping the bottles in fists

the times was to resist engagement,

that yet nursed cigarettes, fingers

with social movements or with

was over two years later. What lay

hope. Nirvana had just toured

under dreams of a realised socialist

festooned with silver rings.

Australia, their bleak anthems

paradise turned out to be a crappy

Our political materialisation was

had one unifying message: if you

authoritarianism that could always

just as rough and cheap and largely

must engage, do so with sarcasm.

guarantee secret police, but never

improvised: guerilla drops of snarky

The most interesting activists I’d

toilet paper – yet its replacement

zines that satirised anything that

met personally then were ‘culture

was not freedom. It was a new

could be jammed into photocopier,

jammers’ who went around cities

McDonald’s in Moscow and a

adrenalin fuelled graffiti runs and

changing all the ‘B’s on signs for

David Hasselhoff concert at the

paste-ups late at night, lock-ons,

banks to ‘W’s.

Brandenburg Gate. An East German

street protests, occupations. Every

child interviewed on TV told the

time we hit the streets, we threw

It may have been the golden age of

world what she was looking forward

ourselves at the inevitable cops and

ironic high style.

to the most was buying a Barbie doll.

their batons with the same nihilistic

57

58

enthusiasm we brought to the moshpit.

report on them. Our opposition on

We fucked them, of course. The

What the cops didn’t understand was

the campuses were the disciplined,

seductions were as detached, ironic,

that the spilled blood, split lips and

careerist social democrats of the

loveless, nicotine stained, frantic and

broken fingers weren’t deterrents –

then-in-government ALP. They

chemical as the decade in which they

they were what brought us back. When

were seeking of the student unions

took place. I was wearing a dress made

a cop dislocated my shoulder at a

CV-defining titles that might lead to

from a paisley bedspread when a boy in

demo, I wore the agony like a laurel.

jobs as staffers or for unions – Paul

a baseball cap, jeans and a pair of RMs

It was just so nice to feel something.

Keating’s children, they did numbers

touched up my leg while we drunkenly

In other parts of the student left, the

not for revolutions, social democracy

smoked cigarettes and pretended to

tendency ran in the opposite direction:

or any other reason than there were

drink tea – rutting erupted in a brick

comrades died of heroin overdoses.

numbers out there to be done. In the

walled room down the hall, my dress

elections, they standardised tactics like

was torn. When these modern lovers

We ran for election to the student

pissing in ballot boxes to spoil votes.

were spent, there was no exchange of

unions because we wanted access to

We retaliated with midnight missions

numbers, nor even goodbyes.

the photocopiers and student press,

at conferences to plant unspeakable

and to get our hands on phones that

things in their food. Though they wore

Consistent reports suggested similar

could activate a telephone tree that

fewer rings and rarely dyed their hair,

fraternisations shared this last-night-

could mobilise quick mobs to protest

our mirror reflected bleakness back to

on-earth and grubby quality. My

politicians, right-wing priests or

us. Their black t-shirts said: “Clowns to

friend Nadia took her own cap wearer

fast food outlets, or a fax machine

the left of me. Jokers to the right. Here

into her body against the walls of the

that could dare the adult media to

I am – stuck in the middle with you.”

Sydney Uni quadrangle, her tie dyed

slip dress pushed up to her waist, her

knew them and entirely redraw the

and persisted while the blurry object

Doc Martens boots – still-laced –

whole world’s expectations of the

was impossible. We were not the first.

hauled high in the air. In Melbourne’s

new century. And he didn’t realise

Draw a bow from Spartacus to Wat

Exhibition Gardens, Jules gave her

that the fringe prophets soothsaying

Tyler, the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the

breasts to the eager hands of another

environmental catastrophes were, yes,

Movement 2 June, an arrow shoots

one of these boys, dirty mouth

wild and dramatic – and right. Neither

straight from the tradition of political

smeared to mouth in the leafy dark

did we.

rebellion in the west to what appears

within stumbling distance from the

to be a perfect definition… of lust.

pub. He was engaged to marry a girl

So, reflecting on that time, I think of

from his home town, too, that boy.

our young bodies hurling themselves

I remember the hard kisses of my

And he did.

into thrashing seas of police, risking

enemies and the rubber gloved punches of cops as identical

If we fucked like the world was ending, it wasn’t because we actually believed it. No – the Cold War was over, and the more terrifying fear left in its wake was that we’d woken up doomed to a world that would remain the way it now was, forever. Perhaps we all felt obliged into intense, personal dramatics just to keep our generation’s political story interesting. Neoliberal at the time, philosopher Francis Fukuyama had just published The End of History and the

ministrations. “Student politics is

I survived with my politics intact because I learned young how the dynamics of political activism match those of a sudden and loveless fuck

so nasty because it matters so little”, but when the nastiness touches you – whether from the right or the left – it’s the reminder it delivers of your smallness that teaches exactly how power is an exercise of wielding superior mass, weight and/or volume.

Instrumentalised by another’s desire to control is how we come to understand what it is to desire and control. Some of us learn this within the social arena

Last Man – a tome as brutal as any

– from conflict to jobs, riots to election

beating by cops or turned-back-

campaigns – some learn it in places as intimate as a single kiss, broken heart,

farewell from a one-night lover. With the death of communism, Fukuyama

arrest with spraypaint in hand, the

or penetration. Some don’t learn it at

declared the triumph of the market

interchangeable brutality of sex and

all, and it’s hard to imagine how those

economy and liberal democracy would

dancing and I have to ask myself: were

people survive. So many don’t.

be ongoing and perpetual. We in

we merely a subculture with our own

radical student left denied it, chastised

specific rituals for masochism? Were we

But I survived with my politics intact

the analysis, derided the man… but,

just in it all for some kicks? Or is there,

because I learned young how the

at night, the thought did gnaw at our

indeed, an instinct the human world

dynamics of political activism match

bones, and an old song became a

fosters in those who are both powerless

those of a sudden and loveless fuck.

generational earworm:

and capable of desire to yearn and

It fails to ever satiate what it feeds.

fight – blindly, mutely even hopelessly

It’s elusive at its most close. At its

“Is that… all there is?”

– for an ideal beyond reach, beyond

most gentle, the blows remain tough.

“Is that… all there is?”

even distinctness? We defined our lives

Powerlessness is the first lesson of power.

Fukuyama had not foreseen that only

by this compulsion, we decided our

a few years later that two planes flying

actions on its basis – we did ‘numbers

into the twin towers of American

for the revolution’ when the concrete

capital would shatter cities as we

shape of the goal was imperceptible

The ironic high style.

T H E G O S P E L ACCO R DING TO PAUL 9 - 13 July 2019 C r e m o r n e Th e a t r e , QPAC

THE KILLING OF DESIRE

BY MILLIE ELLIOTT

Turn from the longing.

Satisfy the want.

Release the wish.

Crush the hope.

Cease the yearning.

Sigh. Repeat.

SENTIMENTALITY. BROKEN CONNECTION. 60

CHERISHED. TORN. 61

FINGERPRINTS & MEMORIES.

HIDDEN TRUTHS, FORBIDDEN.

HANDS, PROTECTION, ADDICTION.

63

Swipe Right

Roxie Hart Age: Are you supposed to ask a gal that question?

About me: Newly single, ready to mingle!

Then: Mississippi girl, a long way from home, chasing the showbiz dream.

Now: Now? Well… I’m the name on everyone’s lips ;) Vaudeville extraordinaire and style influencer (my hairstyle featured in some of the hottest salons!), looking to meet a fella who can keep up with the hustle and bustle of the jazz and gin life.

Are you up for being my lifelong funny honey?

Follow me at @QueenofHarts

Velma Kelly Age: 25-40

About me: A passionate performer who will show you a spectacular time… and all that jazz.

Having grown up in the limelight, I am competitive by nature. I equip myself with a bag full of tricks, including my signature spreadeagle.

Up for gin and games? Ready for me to take center stage? Then come explore a day in the life of an acrobat…

DATING IN THE WINDY CITY

Billy Flynn Age: 45 Mama Morton (You Can Handle) Age: 45 Amos Hart (Mr Cellophane) Age: 40

About me: I’m an open book, you can see right through me, I’ve got nothing to hide: I’m an auto-mechanic. Fiercely loyal, dependable, would be a great father. Recent divorcé, so this whole dating game is new for me.

I want out of the spotlight of Chicago city (my friends call me not-so-famous-Amos for a reason) – a home-cooked meal and a snuggle in front of the TV is the ideal night out for me.

I’ve been hurt before, so swipe left if you’re not looking for anything serious…

About me: Are you ready for some Razzle Dazzle?

I hate to sound brash, but you probably will recognise my face.

And you’re probably thinking… what’s this guy doing on a dating app? I get it.

This is going to sound real corny… but I’ll go ahead and say it anyway.

It’s my business to take care of a lady. I ‘represent’ women for a living. Women who’ve fallen on hard times because of some shmuck of a husband.

I gotta say, if it’s my day-to-day business to look after a lady, just think about how much I’ll look after you at home.

Where will you find me when I’m not fighting the good fight for womankind? I love to dance… I got a real thing for tap.

About me: Mama hen looking for someone to rule the roost with.

My friends know me as an entrepreneur. I work hard but play harder, and you should know that I love to play.

I’m looking for someone to share the love with. It’s all about give and take. Whatever you need, Mama’s got it baby… you just gotta share the gravy. Stroke my back and I’ll stroke yours.

HMU if you’re in the Cook County area.

C H ICAG O From 2 November 2019 Ly r ic Th e a t r e , Q PAC

Brisbane Festival brings a world-class program of shows to QPAC this September.

Book your tickets now at

B R I S B A NE F E S TIVA L .CO M. A U O R Q T IX 1 3 6 2 4 6

REVEL ONE DAY. REVELATION THE NEXT.

KATE MILLER -HE IDKE

S S M E N DI: DA N C IN G TH E DEA T H D R I L L

WE L I V E H E R E

5 – 8 SEPT

Created by a team of highly-skilled young circus

WE L I V E H ER E

CA L WI L SO N : G I F T E D UN D E RA C HI E VE R

CA L WIL S O N: G IF T E D UND E R A CHIE V E R

18 – 21 SEPT

performers from Flipside Circus, We Live Here is an

Cal’s been at this whole life thing for a while now, but

inspiring show that celebrates the memories and

she still hasn’t quite nailed it. Join her for an evening

moments that make a life.

of asking the big questions: Has she done enough with her life? Does anyone eat brussel sprouts by choice?

SS M E N DI : DA N C I N G T H E D E A TH D RI L L

5 – 7 SEPT

This powerful and moving celebration of life at the moment of death retells the tragic story of the sinking of the SS Mendi in 1917. Poignantly beautiful and darkly funny, this extraordinary work combines

ANNE EDMONDS: WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?

18 – 21 SEPT

Anne Edmonds (Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Project) is one of Australia’s most exciting

masterful song, dance and drama.

stand-up, character and banjo-playing comedians.

JOH N SA FR A N , J E W D E TE C TI V E : SA R C A SM I S NOT A C RI ME

righteous grumpiness will have you giggling days later.

Hilarious, surprising and completely on point, her

11 – 14 SEPT

Skinheads side by side with Jews; immigrants against immigrants; Shermon’s promise of a far-right hajj – this is a case for John Safran, Jew Detective. Join him as he spills the beans on his career as a writer, comedian and natural-born troublemaker.

BR IE F S : CL O S E E NCO UNT E R S

11 – 15 SEPT

They’ve come from the future to test the limits of masculinity and decency with their iconic brand of circus, drag, burlesque and comedy. Expect interstellar aerials, incredible artistry, sharp social commentary and warp-speed strippers from outer space.

TR EVO R A SH LE Y I N D OU B LE D’S : TWO DEC A DE S OF D I VA D OM

13 SEPT

Expect songs and stories from Les Misérables, Hairspray,

YA NG L IPING’S R IT E O F S PR ING

and Priscilla, plus special appearances by several

From China’s superstar choreographer and dancer

well-known divas as Trevor recounts some of his favourite moments of his career, accompanied by a ten-piece band.

I ’ M A P H O E N I X , B I TC H

25 – 28 SEPT

Yang Liping, Rite of Spring follows the success of her previous work, Under Siege, which was a spectacular hit at Brisbane Festival 2017.

18 – 21 SEPT

Acclaimed UK performance-maker Bryony Kimmings

K A T E MIL L E R - HE ID K E

27 SEPT

returns to Brisbane following her sold out season

Fresh from her epic Eurovision performance, pop-icon

of Fake it ‘til you Make It (2015). Combining personal

Kate Miller-Heidke presents a special reimagination of

stories, epic film and original pop songs, Bryony

her music that effortlessly melds indie, pop and opera.

creates a powerful, dark and joyful masterpiece about

Don’t miss Australian music’s brightest star in a

motherhood, heartbreak and finding inner strength.

performance unlike any other.

W H AT ’ S O N

QPAC

JULY 2 - 3 JU L

BOLSHOI BALLET – JEWELS

LYRIC T HEAT RE

3 - 5 JU L

C R E AT IVE F U S ION S

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

4 - 7 JU L

B OLS H OI B AL L E T – S PARTACU S

LYRIC T HEAT RE

5 - 6 JUL

CAB AR E T D E PAR IS

PL AYHO USE

9 - 13 JU L

T H E G OS PE L ACCOR D IN G TO PAU L

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

11 - 2 1 JU L

QU E E N S L AN D B AL L E T & QU E E N S L AN D MUSIC FEST IVA L – T HE L IT T L E GREEN ROA D TO FA IRYL A ND

PL AYHO USE

FROM 1 2 JU L

S C H OOL OF R OCK

LYRIC T HEAT RE

13 JUL

Q U E E N S L A N D M U S I C F E S T I VA L – T H E G E N I U S O F J O H N R O D G E R S

CONCERT HALL

17 - 2 2 JU L

M Y U R R WAI

STUDIO 1

19 J UL

QU E E N S L AN D M U S IC F E ST IVAL – T H E NIGHT PA RROT

C R E M O R N E T H E AT R E

20 J U L

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR C H E ST RA – T HE GREAT SYMPHO NY

CONCERT HALL

2 1 J UL

S OUT H E R N C R OS S S OLOISTS – M AP S A ND JO URNEYS

CONCERT HALL

2 3 - 27 JU L

T H E YOU N G K IN G

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

28 JUL

VE R D I R EQU IE M

CONCERT HALL

29 JUL

TOM M Y CAL DWE L L AN D K EVIN J OR G ESO N L IVE O N STAGE

CONCERT HALL

2 9 J UL - 1 7 AU G

QU E E N S L AN D T H E AT R E – STOR M B OY

P L AY H O U S E

30 J U L

AU ST R AL IAN B R AN D E N B U R G OR C H E ST RA – HA ND EL 'S A NT HEMS & FIREWO RKS

CO NCERT HA L L

1 AUG

C H OIR OF K IN G ' S COL L EG E , CAM B R IDGE

CONCERT HALL

3 AU G

S OWE TO G OS PE L C H OIR

CONCERT HALL

3 - 31 AU G

QU E E N S L AN D T H E AT R E – L 'APPART E MENT

C R E M O R N E T H E AT R E

4 AU G

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR C H E ST RA – SO UND S FRO M T HE D EEP

CONCERT HALL

6 AU G

S N OW PAT R OL – L IVE AN D ACOU ST IC

CONCERT HALL

7 - 8 AU G

L E T IT B E

CONCERT HALL

9 - 10 AU G

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR C H E ST RA – T HE NEW WO RL D

CONCERT HALL

11 AUG

N ICOL E CAR IN R EC ITAL

CO NCERT HA L L

15 AUG

T H E PIN K F LOYD EXPE R IE N CE

CONCERT HALL

16 AU G

T RYST – KAT E C E B E R AN O & PAU L GR A B OWSKY

CONCERT HALL

17 AU G

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR C H E ST RA – L AT IN A MERICA N GA L A

CO NCERT HA L L

18 AUG

B R IS B AN E S IN G S 201 9

CO NCERT HA L L

19 AUG

AU ST R AL IAN C H AM B E R OR CH E ST R A – LUMINO US

CO NCERT HA L L

2 1 AU G

A S ALUT E TO R OY OR B IS ON

CO NCERT HA L L

2 3 - 3 1 AU G

B AN G AR R A : 30 YE AR S OF S IXTY F IVE T HO USA ND

PL AYHO USE

24 AUG

QU E E N S L AN D YOUT H SYM PH ON Y – A L PINE

CONCERT HALL

2 8 AU G - 7 SEP

QUEENSLAND BALLET – ROMEO & JULIET

LYRIC T HEAT RE

29 AUG

C A M E R ATA – S I S T E R S

CONCERT HALL

31 AUG

Q U E E N S L A N D P O P S O R C H E S T R A – T H AT ’ S S H OW B U S I N E S S

CONCERT HALL

AUGU S T

SE P TE MB ER F RO M SEP

K E E P S AK E S: P OST E R S , PR OGR AM S A ND PRINT ED EPHEMERA

TONY GOULD GALLERY

5 - 7 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – S S M E N D I: DA NCING T HE D EAT H D RIL L

P L AY H O U S E

5 - 8 SEP

BRISBANE FESTIVAL – WE LIVE HERE

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

6 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – JACOB COL L IER

CO NCERT HA L L

8 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – ST M AT T H EW PA SSIO N

CO NCERT HA L L

11 SEP

DARA O BRIAIN

CONCERT HALL

V I S I T Q PAC . CO M . AU O R CA L L 1 3 6 24 6

68

F O R B OO K I N G S O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N .

I N F O R M AT I O N CO R R E C T AT T I M E O F P R I N T I N G .

11 - 14 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – J OH N S AF R AN , JEW D ET ECT IVE – SA RCA SM IS NOT A CRIME

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

11 - 15 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – B R IE FS: C LOS E ENCO UNT ERS

PL AYHO USE

12 SEP

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST RA – RO MA NCE A ND REVO LUT IO N

CO NCERT HA L L

13 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – T R EVOR AS H L EY IN D O UB L E D'S: TWO D ECA D ES O F D IVA D O M

CO NCERT HA L L

14 - 15 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – B R AT K ID S CARNIVA L

P L AY H O U S E

15 SEP

A FAR EWE L L TO D OR IS – STAR R IN G MEL INDA SCHNEID ER

CONCERT HALL

17 SEP

F R OM B R OADWAY TO L A S CAL A

CONCERT HALL

18 SEP

J OE B ON AM AS S A

CONCERT HALL

18 - 2 1 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – CAL WILS ON : GIF T ED UND ERACHIEVER

C R E M O R N E T H E AT R E

18 - 2 1 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – AN N E E D M ON DS: WHAT ’ S WRO NG WIT H YO U?

C R E M O R N E T H E AT R E

18 - 2 1 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – I' M A PH OE N IX , B ITCH

P L AY H O U S E

F RO M 1 9 SEP

M U R IE L’ S WE D D IN G T H E M U S ICAL

LYRIC T HEAT RE

20 - 21 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – T E T R IS

STUD IO 1

2 2 SEP

GUY S E B AST IAN – R ID IN ’ WIT H YOU TO UR

CO NCERT HA L L

24 - 27 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – A N OT S O T R ADIT IO NA L STO RY

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

2 5 - 2 8 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – YAN G L IPIN G ’ S RIT E O F SPRING

PL AYHO USE

26 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – F L AM E N CO F IRE – VEINT E A ÑO S

CO NCERT HA L L

27 SEP

B R IS B AN E F E ST IVAL – KAT E M IL L E R - H EID KE

CO NCERT HA L L

30 SEP

P OST M OD E R N J U K E B OX

CONCERT HALL

1 - 2 OCT

DAM E E D N A M Y G OR G EOU S L IF E

CONCERT HALL

2 - 5 OCT

L AS E R B E AK M AN

P L AY H O U S E

3 OCT

DAVID CAM PB E L L : B AC K IN T H E S WING

CONCERT HALL

4 OCT

L IF E WIL L B E T H E D E AT H OF M E: C H E LSEA HA ND L ER'S STA ND UP CO MEDY TO UR

CONCERT HALL

5 O CT

T EX PE R K IN S – T H E M AN IN B L AC K

CONCERT HALL

10 O CT

M AKS IM M R VICA

CONCERT HALL

11 - 12 O CT

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST RA – RAY CHEN RETURNS

CO NCERT HA L L

13 O CT

M IR U S IA & T H E OR IGIN AL S E E K E R S

CONCERT HALL

13 - 14 O CT

B R IS B AN E OPE N H OU S E

Q PA C A N D B R I S B A N E W I D E

16 O CT

T H E G L E N N M IL L E R OR C H E ST R A

CONCERT HALL

18 O CT

T H E M U S IC OF JAM E S B ON D

CONCERT HALL

18 OCT - 9 NOV

JAN E EYR E

C R E M O R N E T H E AT R E

19 OCT

QU E E N S L AN D P OP S OR C H E ST R A – T H REE A MIGO S

CO NCERT HA L L

21 OCT

AU ST R AL IAN CH AM B E R OR CH E ST R A – INT IMAT E B ACH

CONCERT HALL

24 O C T

AN EVE N IN G WIT H S IR M ICH AE L PAR K INSO N

CONCERT HALL

24 O C T - 9 N OV

OPE R A QU E E N S L AN D – OR PH E U S & EURYD ICE

P L AY H O U S E

26 OCT

QU E E N S L AN D YOUT H OR CH E ST R A – FINA L E CO NCERT

CONCERT HALL

27 OCT

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR C H E ST RA – TOYS A ND PUPPETS

CONCERT HALL

OCTO BER

NO VEMBER 1 N OV

Q U E E N S L A N D S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A – T C H A I KOV S KY A N D B E E T H OV E N

CONCERT HALL

F R O M 2 N OV

CHICAGO

LY R I C T H E AT R E

3 N OV

S O U T H E R N C R O S S S O L O I S T S – LY R I C A L R E F L E C T I O N S

CONCERT HALL

9 N OV

LEA SALONGA IN CONCERT

CONCERT HALL

1 0 N OV

KAT H E R I N E J E N K I N S

CONCERT HALL

1 3 - 1 6 N OV

E XP R E S S I O N S D A N C E C O M PA N Y – M AT R I X

P L AY H O U S E

1 5 - 1 6 N OV

QUEENSLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – TIMELESS

CONCERT HALL

1 7 N OV

MEDICI CONCERTS – PIERS LANE

CONCERT HALL

1 8 N OV

A U S T R A L I A N C H A M B E R O R C H E S T R A – B R A H M S & DVO Ř Á K

CONCERT HALL

1 6 - 3 0 N OV

C L A N C E S T R Y – A C E L E B R AT I O N O F C O U N T R Y

Q PA C A N D VA R I O U S V E N U E S

24 N OV

D I TA VO N T E E S E : G L A M O N AT R I X

CONCERT HALL

2 8 N OV

C A M E R ATA – W H E N T H E WO R L D WA S W I D E

CONCERT HALL

F R O M 2 9 N OV

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

P L AY H O U S E

3 0 N OV

Q U E E N S L A N D S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A – C I N E M AT I C

CONCERT HALL

2 - 4 DEC

DY L A N M O R A N – D R C O S M O S

CONCERT HALL

6 DEC

B O H E M I A N R H A P S O DY L I V E

CONCERT HALL

7 DEC

QUEENSLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – MESSIAH

CONCERT HALL

13 - 21 DEC

QUEENSLAND BALLET – THE NUTCRACKER

LY R I C T H E AT R E

15 DEC

L L OY D C O L E

CONCERT HALL

20 - 21 DEC

SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS 2019

CONCERT HALL

28 DEC

THE ANGELS – SYMPHONY OF ANGELS

CONCERT HALL

30 - 31 DEC

Q L D P O P S 2 0 1 9 : N E W Y E A R ' S E V E G A L A VA R I E T Y C O N C E R T S

CONCERT HALL

DECEMBER

69

Image credits INSIDE COVER

PAG E 4 & 5

PAG E 8 & 9

Cremone 1921a Tony Gould Gallery Collection

John Kotzas, Chief Executive, QPAC Picture: Mindi Cooke

Images: iStock and Unsplash

Rebecca Lamoin, Story Editor & Director – Learning & Public Engagement, QPAC Picture: Judith McLean

COVER Boredom: The Desire for Desires Illustrator: Marianna Tomaselli

PAG E 1 0

PAG E 1 3

PAG E 1 5

PAG E 1 6

8th Avenue Photographer: Bill Hayes

Ilona in Black-and-white Photographer: Bill Hayes

Sleepers in the Park #1 Photographer: Bill Hayes

Boredom: The Desire for Desires Illustrator: Marianna Tomaselli

PAG E 1 9

PAG E 2 2 & 2 3

PAG E 2 4 & 2 5

PAG E 2 6 & 2 7

Fish Magig Artist: Paul Lee

Illustrator: Gin Poppelwell

Photographer: Henri Silberman

Former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard Image: Greens MPs Hillary Clinton Photographer: Brett Weinstein flic.kr/nrbelex

PAG E 2 8

PAG E 3 0 & 3 1

PAG E 3 2

PAG E 3 5

Photographer: Lindsey LaMont

Illustrator: Gin Poppelwell Photographer: Allan Hartley

Luke Pearson Photographer: Rob Shaw

Luke Pearson and Rhianna Patrick Photographer: Sam Luck

PAG E 3 8 & 3 9

PAG E 4 0

PAG E 4 4

PAG E 4 7

Footprints/Blakbeats Photographer: LaVonne Bobongie Photography

Sparks Illustrator: Andrew Toby, captured by Aidan Rowling

Sparks/Blakbeats B &W pictures: Kaylah Truth

Blakbeats Picture: Aidan Rowling

Love Burns I & II Artist: Lora Zombie LoraZombie.com

Orpheus and Eurydice (1864) Artist: Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton

PAG E 4 8

PAG E 5 0 & 5 1

PAG E 5 2 & 5 3

PAG E 5 4 & 5 5

Orpheus and Eurydice Artist: Gaetano Gandolfi (1734-1802)

Hedy Lamarr Image: Getty Images

Photographer: Allan Hartley

Photographer: Allan Hartley

PAG E 5 6

PAG E 5 8

PAG E 6 0 & 6 1

PAG E 6 2 & 6 3

Photographer: Allan Hartley

Nirvana - 1992 Picture: davetoaster

Artist: Millie Elliott

Artist: Millie Elliott

PAG E 6 4 & 6 5

PAG E 7 2 & 7 3

Illustrator: Maeve Lejeune

Laser Beak Man Artist: Tim Sharp Picture: Dylan Evans

Sparks at SLQ Pictures: Sharyn Swanepoel

QPAC Photographer: Darren Thomas

What modern day superhero do you look up to?

Laser Beak Man hands the interviewer a crumpled newspaper clipping, it is from an unnamed New York newspaper.

“Following his recent court case, this paper has been asking the

FIVE MINUTES WITH

questions, ‘Who is Laser Beak Man?’ and ‘What is his relationship

Laser Beak Man

In that case it was alleged that Laser Beak Man, standing at an open

with other superheroes?’ Laser Beak Man has rarely been pictured in the company of other superheroes. The most reported time was in New York City when artist Tim Sharp provided court room drawings for the case Spider-Man versus Laser Beak Man.

window on the 37th Floor of an unnamed building on Broadway, used a pair of razor sharp scissors to cut Spider-Man’s web, as he swung from building to building through the streets of New York. Laser Beak Man’s defence team successfully argued that Spider-Man was nothing but a public pest and had been causing unnecessary traffic congestion in the busiest city in the world.

The charges were dropped when Spider-Man revealed that he had attention seeking syndrome, easily identified by the ridiculous upside-down kiss, and admitted he needed help.

Laser Beak Man kindly offered to pay for Spider-Man’s therapy for that disability once Spider-Man’s body plaster and neck brace were

LASER BEAK MAN IS THE COLOURFUL SUPERHERO C R E AT E D B Y A U S T R A L I A N A R T I S T T I M S H A R P .

Drawing has been Tim’s favourite way of communicating since childhood. At age three, he was diagnosed with autism which affects

removed. In a handwritten statement under cross examination the defence lawyer asked, ‘Are there any superheroes you look up to?’

Laser Beak Man wrote the words…

“We are all equal. We are all super heroes.”

everyday life and impacts most on the ability to communicate and form relationships.

In 1999 at aged 11, Tim created Laser Beak Man and drew him every

We hear you’re travelling internationally soon.

Where are your dream holiday locations?

day. Over the last two decades, the humour and joy of Tim and Laser

Putting on his hibiscus patterned cape it is revealed that Laser

Beak Man have won fans all over the world through art, an animated

Beak Man’s next holiday destination is Hawaii. He then takes from

television series, numerous documentaries, a best-selling book and

his suitcase a crown and a set of bagpipes, and with a big thumbs

live theatre production.

up reveals that his biggest dream would be to visit London and Scotland and hit the stages of the United Kingdom before taking

Even though he does not speak…

over the stages of the rest of the world.

Laser Beak Man shared some of his thoughts with us…

When did you first realise you could shoot lasers from your beak? That must have been a game-changer!

You’ve come across a few baddies in your time, like Peter Bartman and Emily Evil… what do you think drives people to be evil?

Laser Beak Man takes a small black book from his zipped

Laser Beak Man shakes his head in a ‘no’ and covers his eyes with

secret pocket and shows the interviewer page number three.

his hands. He sees no evil.

The book is titled The Laser Beak Man hand book of by-laws for being a super hero. (a) Never talk about your super powers (b) A real super hero doesn’t talk it, they just do it.

What is your heart’s desire?

Using hand gestures and facial expressions Laser Beak Man makes a peace sign with two raised fingers. Using two hands he joins his

Why did you want to become a superhero?

fingers together to make a heart. Then a gigantic smile appears on his face. His heart’s desire is clear. Peace, love and happiness.

Laser Beak Man has no comment on this.

Fact Check: From all available information recorded about Laser Beak Man it appears that he has always been a superhero. It was not

DISCOVER MORE AT QPAC.COM.AU/STORY

a choice. He was born that way. He has never tried to change who he is. Even from kindergarten he always stood up against bullies and bad guys as witnessed in scene one of Dead Puppet Society’s theatre production of Laser Beak Man when he takes on his nasty childhood nemesis Peter Bartman. He is purely and simply Laser Beak Man, just the way he is.

72

LASER BEAK MAN 2 - 5 October 2019 P l ayh o u se , Q PAC

A B O U T Q PAC

C O N TA C T

Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) is one of Australia’s

PO Box 3567, South Bank, Qld, 4101

leading centres for live performance. Welcoming over 1.5 million visitors to approximately 1,300 performances each year, we embrace the best in live performance – the world renowned alongside the emerging, local and new – and connect to the stories and ideas at the heart of each production. Through the warmth and expertise of our

(07) 3840 7444 | qpac.com.au/story ABN: 13 967 571 128

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

staff, we have become a trusted curator, presenter and host; a place

The Queensland Performing Arts Trust is a statutory body of the State

to come together to relax, reflect, share stories and celebrate.

of Queensland and is partially funded by the Queensland Government.

OUR VENUES

The Honourable Leeanne Enoch MP, Minister for Environment & the Great Barrier Reef, Minister for Science and Minister for the Arts.

QPAC has four theatres suitable for a range of performance styles: Lyric Theatre (2,000 seats) is designed primarily for opera,

Director-General, Department of Environment & Science: Jamie Merrick.

ballet and large-scale theatre events such as musicals; Concert Hall

QPAC respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the

(1,600 seats) is a versatile space, designed primarily for orchestra

Lands across Queensland and pays respect to their ancestors who

performances and also used for contemporary music, stand-up

came before them and to Elders past, present and emerging.

comedy and presentations; Playhouse (850 seats) is primarily designed for theatre and dance; and Cremorne Theatre (277 seats) is an intimate and versatile black box theatre space.

CONNECT Story is published by QPAC. Printed in Brisbane, Australia. Contents of Story are subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publication of editorial does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of views or opinions expressed. The publisher does not accept responsibility for statements made by advertisers. All information was correct at time of printing. Story welcomes editorial contributions or comments.

They should be sent by email to story@qpac.com.au. Printed in July 2019.

P U B L I S H E D B Y Q U E E N S L A N D P E R F O R M I N G A R T S C E N T R E A S PA R T O F Q PA C ’ S P U B L I C E N G A G E M E N T & L E A R N I N G S T R AT E G Y

qpac.com.au | #qpacstor y