QPAC Story Act 1 2020

For the creative & curious

A Good Life A .C . GRAYLING

Home JEANET TE WINTERSON THE PARADISE EDITION

Making Magic PENN JILLETTE

Sondheim: A Musical Tribute, 11 March 1973, Shubert Theater on Broadway

S O N D H E IM O N S O N D H E IM 22 March 2020 Co n ce r t H a l l , Q PAC

Contents This edition of Story is inspired by QPAC’S January to April 2020 program.

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I know where Paradise is

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Making Magic

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Our Library

PENN JILLETTE

JEANETTE WINTERSON

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44

56

LILLIAN CURTHOYS

ALREADY OCCUPIED

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NELL SCHOFIELD

JUDITH MCLEAN

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Good: A philosophical perspective

Beaconsfield Terrace

Behind the Scenes

A.C. GRAYLING

A moment in time

Four People Twelve Questions TIM COSTELLO, MOJO JUJU, JENNY WOODWARD AND FEZ FAANANA

Lotto Dreaming

To Paradise or not to Paradise ELIZA VITRI HANDAYANI

What's on at QPAC

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Five Minutes with...

JONATHAN BIGGINS

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Welcome This edition of Story draws from the

Story allows us to explore the big ideas

first four months of our annual program

that are threaded through our programs

for 2020, marking the beginning of a

and invites a deep connection with our

new year and a new decade. There is

audience as readers.

something in the rhythm and ritual of the change from one year to the next that makes us pause and reflect on what has passed and of course look to the future. A time for new resolutions,

It is fitting that the theme for this first issue for the new decade is paradise – an idea that makes us think about ideals – be they people, places, spaces or times.

plans and hope.

I hope that as you explore these pages,

For us, as construction work begins on

to you.

you find a sliver of paradise that speaks

our fifth theatre – a project that when complete will make QPAC the largest performing arts complex under one roof in Australia – this is also a time of significant change and an opportunity to extend our place, both physical and metaphorical, as a twenty-first century cultural institution.

QPAC is constructed from more than concrete and glass, it is a place of connections and partnerships with communities, other organisations, artists and audiences. As we look to the possibilities of the future, we are anchored by these connections which provide the deep roots that will support continued growth. Connections with our communities and the world around us inform and drive our program, ensuring that the diversity of our audience is represented on our stages and that the stories told here are relevant in local, national and global contexts.

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John Kotzas Chief Executive QPAC

The Paradise Edition It’s almost exactly one year since the

It’s perhaps an unlikely coupling

deadliest wildfire in a century destroyed

but we’ve linked British philosopher

Paradise. Known as The Camp Fire (after

A.C. Grayling and beloved storyteller

the road it started on), the gripping blaze

Roald Dahl. Fine minds both. The UK

obliterated the town of Paradise, California

was in the dying days of the campaign

in the Sierra Nevada foothills. More than

ahead of an extraordinarily contentious

80 people died, there was enormous

general election as my conversation with

displacement and destruction of the homes

Professor Grayling took place. We talked

and communities of humans and other

about duty and pleasure and the nature

animals. Estimated damages exceeded

of ‘good’. He offers us a classical context

$16.5 billion USD. A disaster. Public debate

and a contemporary frame for the well-

raged about the significance of drought

worn idea that good is rewarded and

and climate change. Sound familiar?

bad is punished. If you like, paradise as reward for a virtuous life.

Headlines and hashtags were declaratory ‘Paradise is gone’. I don’t recall seeing it,

For magician Penn Jillette of Penn &

but I assume at least one copy editor or

Teller, paradise is both the street running

media commentator was unable to resist

parallel to the Las Vegas strip and a

‘Paradise lost!’

complex series of problems to solve. For many of us paradise is a specific location

And now, as we go to print, Australia is in

and it’s not always a tropical island. For

the middle of a fire storm and a deluge of

lots of us cities have a glittering, gritty

misinformation.

allure as the place where we just might

Ideas of paradise, in one form or another, are woven through the fabric of much of our program. They lead us to questions about whether paradise is a location, a

capture our dreams. We invited the delightful actor, director and screenwriter Nell Schofield to reflect on her Sydney, the Emerald City.

state of being, an idea, a period of time, a

While we’ve noticed a lot of

reward for a life well lived, or an absence

commonalities when people describe

of something or someone. Does it exist

their paradise – solitude, loved ones,

outside of or within you?

idyllic landscapes – I suspect there are

In the coming pages our contributors consider paradise from its etymological origins – an Iranian word for garden or enclosed park – to its contemporary relevance in the global climate conversation.

as many versions of paradise as there are people to imagine them. I’m not sure I know exactly what my own version is, what it looks or feels like. But for sure it’s filled with animals. I do hope to one day write, as Jeanette Winterson has, that I live in paradise.

Novelist Jeanette Winterson prompted in me both envy and delight before I’d even reached the end of her first paragraph.

To be honest, the delight really began when she agreed to be part of this edition. She is among the most revered fiction writers in the world; we’re thrilled to have her voice as part of this conversation, setting the

Rebecca Lamoin Editor

scene for the rest of the issue. rebecca.lamoin@qpac.com.au

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LILLIAN CURTHOYS

Contributors

Lillian Curthoys is a Brisbane based poet, writer and third year student at Queensland University of Technology. A mid tier soccer player and average social netball player, Lillian writes from home about home, with a family heavy voice that centres itself in Brisbane’s leafier inner city suburbs. She’s a big believer in the truth never getting in the way of a good story, but doesn’t believe that good stories can’t be true. Lillian was a runner up in QUT’s Youth and Children’s Writing Competition with her story Ocean Eyes and was a reader at QUT’s Harmony Literary Salon. Lillian has big plans for when she graduates, like moving to New York, but currently doesn’t want to leave her two dogs at home in Brisbane.

A .C . GRAYLING A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He is the author of over 40 books, most recently The History of Philosophy; Democracy and Its Crisis, and The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind. He was for a number of years a columnist on The Guardian, The Times and Prospect magazine. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC radios 4, 3 and the World Service, for which he did the annual Exchanges at the Frontier series; and he has often appeared on television. He has twice been a judge of the Booker Prize, in 2014 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, Patron of the UK Armed Forces Humanist Association, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.

PENN JILLETTE For over 40 years Penn & Teller have defied labels – and at times physics and good taste – by redefining the genre of magic and inventing their own very distinct niche in comedy. As individuals, they are just as prolific. Penn has written three books, including The New York Times Best Sellers, God No! and 2017’s Presto. He hosted the NBC game show Identity and donned his ballroom shoes for ABC’s hit Dancing With The Stars. Penn also showed his business savvy on two seasons of NBC’s All-Star Celebrity Apprentice.

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.

JO-ANNE DRIESSENS Jo-Anne Driessens was adopted in 1970 and raised in the western suburbs of Brisbane.

Her discovery of her Aboriginal family members was led by an interest in photography which began in her high school years, in the late 80s with Imagery Gallery (situated above where Gilimbaa is now based), followed by a temporary placement with Queensland Museum’s Anthropology Lab (now Cultures and Histories) in the early 90s. This was followed by the completion of a four year Photographic (darkroom) Cadetship at the State Library of Queensland in 1999. She continued to work at the State Library of Queensland over a 15 year period broadening her knowledge, skills and appreciation for Aboriginal family history records and resources. Jo-Anne has learnt, throughout her journey, that she is a Koa person with historical connections to Cherbourg (Barambah), Woorabinda and Yarrabah communities. She currently works at the City of Gold Coast as part of the Arts and Culture team supporting programs and initiatives that assist in the professional development of local artists, and has identified the important balance between being an arts worker and freelance photographer; this allows her to maintain cultural networks and connections throughout her own artistic journey.

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ELIZA VITRI HANDAYANI Eliza Vitri Handayani is a novelist and creator of the art events House of the Unsilenced and Fashion ForWords. Her latest novel is From Now On Everything Will Be Different (Vagabond Press), which explores how free Indonesia really became after the start of democratic reforms in 1998. Her short fiction has been published internationally, including in Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings, BooksActually’s Gold

STORY TEAM Story Editor:

Standard, and the anthology The Near and the Far Volume 2. She is also the founder and

Rebecca Lamoin

director of InterSastra, an independent initiative that provides free and inclusive

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

platforms for creative exploration. Her translations have appeared in Asymptote,

Story Team Editorial:

Modern Poetry in Translation and others. She is currently participating in the Arts

Professor Judith McLean,

Leadership Program with Australia Arts Council. Find links to some of her works on elizavitri.com and reach her via Instagram or Twitter @elizavitri

K A R E N LY N C H Karen Lynch is an Australian artist who creates both digital and hand-cut paper collages, made from vintage magazines, books and catalogues found at thrift shops and secondhand stores. Central to her art is the idea of resuscitating and transforming long forgotten pieces

En Rui Foo, Maria Cleary, Sarah Bond, Phoebe Wowor, Andrea Huynh, Katie Woods, Daniele Dalia Viliunas and Judy Worsfold.

Digital Team: Jacquiline Fraser,

of the past into colourful, surreal, retro-futuristic landscapes. Karen is constantly inspired by

Deanne Staples.

vintage photography, classic French and German cinema, modernist architecture, and the

Creative & Design:

beauty and colour of nature. Many of Karen’s designs have been used as album cover art,

Rumble Strategic Creative

and a career highlight is her nomination for an ARIA Award in 2016 for Best Cover Art for

and Liz Wilson.

Bernard Fanning’s album Civil Dusk.

SIMON GROTH

QPAC

Simon Groth’s forthcoming novel Ex Libris contains chapters whose order is shuffled

Chair

between individual copies. His other books include Infinite Blue, a novel for young

Professor Peter Coaldrake AO

adults written with his brother Darren, and Hunted Down, a ‘remix’ of nineteenth century Australian short stories. His short stories and articles have been published in Meanjin, Overland, and The Lifted Brow. With if:book Australia, Simon created a series of

Deputy Chair Leigh Tabrett PSM Trustees Dare Power,

award winning experimental works including the 24-Hour Book, live writing events at

Susan Rix AM, Leanne de Souza,

writers' festivals around the world, and a city wide project to write stories published to

Dr Sally Pitkin, Georgina Richters

digital billboards.

Executive Staff Chief Executive: John Kotzas

NELL SCHOFIELD Nell is a NIDA acting graduate whose passion is bringing the creative sector and

Executive Director – Stakeholder Engagement

conservation movement together. In 2007, Nell trained with Al Gore as one of his

Strategy: Jackie Branch

Climate Leaders and has worked with The Sunrise Project, Lock the Gate Alliance

Executive Director – Visitation:

and Solar Citizens. For the #StopAdani campaign she produced and directed Guarding

Roxanne Hopkins

the Galilee (2017) and A Mighty Force (2018). Nell produced, directed and presented

Executive Director – Business

Film Crème (2012) for the Ovation Channel; was the Australasian presenter of The Art Club and Hot Spots for CNN International, and was a regular broadcaster with ABC Radio National’s Arts Today. In print, her articles have appeared in publications including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Sunday Herald Sun and Vogue Australia. Nell now

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

manages Jewels on Queen in her family’s historic building in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs while working on other creative projects.

JEANETTE WINTERSON Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. Adopted by Pentecostal parents she was raised to be a missionary. This did and didn’t work out. Discovering early the power of books she left home at 16 to live in a Mini and get on with her education. After

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

graduating from Oxford University she worked for a while in the theatre and published her first novel at 25. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is based on her own upbringing but using herself as a fictional character. She scripted the novel into a BAFTA winning BBC drama. Twenty seven years later she revisited that material in the bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? She has written over 10 novels for adults, and her most recent work, Frankissstein was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. Jeanette has also written children’s books, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. Jeanette lives in the Cotswolds in a wood and in Spitalfields, London. She believes that art is for everyone and it is her mission to prove it.

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SHORT THOUGHTS Paradise unrealised

BY SIMON GROTH INFERNO Astronomers in ancient Greece

Such speculation is not as silly as it

solar system. Far from a vision of a

referred to Venus as Phosphorus and

might seem today, after all, for much

lush tropical haven, Venus is probably

Hesperus, morning and evening stars,

of their history, Earth and Venus were

closer to one of the later circles

unaware that they were describing a

twins. Recent studies concluded that

of Hell from Dante’s Inferno. The

single entity. But from the seventeenth

Venus may have had surface water

sturdiest of the various Soviet probes

century, following Galileo’s telescopic

and a habitable condition for billions

sent to the planet in the 1970s and 80s

observations where he noticed the

of years, right up until around 700

lasted a little over two hours before

planet moved through phases like the

million years ago. If correct, this would

the hostile conditions demolished it.

Moon, came the realisation that Venus

have given life ample time to evolve.

We have no more than a handful of

was not an ethereal, heavenly light,

Though more rigorous than science

images taken from the surface.

but a place.

fiction, such pronouncements remain guesswork. We will never know for

So what was it that sent our twin

Right up until the middle of last

certain if fledgling life did indeed

planet off on such a divergent path

century, Venus was widely believed to

emerge on Venus.

from our own? Clues lie in that high percentage of atmospheric carbon.

be conducive to harbouring life: it is

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about the same size and age as Earth

That’s because today’s Venus is a very

Venus’s runaway greenhouse effect

and a similar distance from the Sun

different place. It has no water. Its

should give everyone pause for

in the so-called ‘goldilocks’ zone (not

atmosphere is composed of around

thought as we release ever more

too hot, not too cold). Imaginations

96% carbon dioxide at a pressure more

of Earth’s ancient carbon into our

ran riot about what might lie on the

than 90 times Earth’s (equivalent to

own atmosphere: paradise is a

surface under its thick blanket of cloud.

around a kilometre under the ocean).

fragile thing.

Perhaps in keeping with the planet’s

Its permanent shroud of yellow cloud

namesake, the Roman goddess of love,

cover contains mostly sulfuric acid.

Images from another world:

Venus was frequently imagined as a

Winds average a brisk 300km/h and

http://bit.ly/qpac217

tropical paradise, supporting a rich

the average temperature is a balmy

Venusian jungle-like ecosystem.

470°C, by far the hottest planet in our

NEW AUSTRALIA

THE CROSSROADS

New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay,

You know the story, or at least a version of it. A young

founded in 1893. It was conceived by its leader, journalist

man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi harbours

and prominent socialist, William Lane, in reaction to his

ambitions of becoming a great blues musician. He takes

growing frustration at the Australian labour movement’s

his guitar to a crossroad at midnight. There he is met by

decision to participate directly in federation politics. Lane

the Devil who takes the guitar, tunes it, and plays a few

was looking for something more radical than participatory

songs. When the guitar is returned, the young man has

democracy and, in the Paraguayan government’s offer

acquired a new mastery of the instrument that transforms

of a large area of good land for settlement, he saw an

him from a struggling itinerant musician into a legend.

opportunity to establish a workingman’s paradise.

Robert Johnson sold his soul to play the blues, so the story goes, but the deal came at a terrible price. Johnson died

To outsiders back home, New Australia was nothing more

at around 27 years of age. The cause of his death, like so

than a band of misfits, failures, and malcontents from the

many details of his life, is mysterious and obscured by

left wing of Australian democracy and the colony did little

conflicting accounts.

to change that perception.

Essentially a retelling of Faust, the legend of Robert Problems intensified after a second group of colonists

Johnson, was shared among blues artists for decades.

arrived in 1894, causing a schism that led Lane to take a

Aside from its classic origins, the story persists because it

handful of others 72 kilometres south to establish another

taps into a deeper religious and cultural divide through

colony, called Cosme. Eventually New Australia was

twentieth century music, particularly in African American

dissolved as a cooperative by the government of Paraguay,

communities. For musicians (and their audiences) raised

and each settler was given their own piece of land. Among

in churches, secular music was a temptation away from

those who decamped back to Australia was Mary Gilmore

the divine, with the promise of money, fame, and sex

who would go on to become a celebrated feminist, activist,

via seedy bars and sweaty dancehalls. It’s a story that has

and poet, and such a staunch nationalist that her face and

resonated and reverberated in the decades since through

words are today etched on every $10 note.

rock and roll, the British invasion, heavy metal, hip hop, and even contemporary pop.

That their story is better known in their adopted country says much about how Australia regards one of its oddest

Me and the Devil Blues, one of only 29 songs the

diasporas. If you find yourself in Paraguay – a country

bluesman recorded, succinctly establishes his myth and

with no Australian embassy – it’s possible you may

anticipates his legacy: "You may bury my body / Down

stumble across a school in Cosme named in honour of

by the highway side / So my old evil spirit / Can get a

Dame Mary Gilmore.

Greyhound bus and ride".

More about New Australia: http://bit.ly/qpac248

Listen: http://bit.ly/qpac256

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I know where Paradise is

BY JEANETTE WINTERSON

I know where Paradise is. I live there. It is my stone cottage in a big garden. It is my garden that backs onto a wood. It is the owls, foxes, and deer that live here too. It is clean air and starry nights. It is the quiet that is not silence, because nature is alive all around me, the rustlings, chirpings, calls, twig crackle, tree creak, rainfall, the wind in the trees.

Paradise is the sun in outstretched wings over

day. Even after hours, the blue light of the screen

the top of those trees. It is the moon coming up

accompanies our dreams. No matter what we do

between the trees until she clears the canopy and

in the little space called home, the lights of others

commands the sky.

– the electric lights of others, are always there.

At night, waking up, I see her, and the country

The super-rich can afford darkness; the private

road below, now a narrow stretch of unrolled

estate, the island retreat. Some of the poorest

silver. Deep black margins. And the stars flung in

in the world have no choice but to live with it as

handfuls above me and the pond as mysterious

they always did.

as a disc of mercury, liquid, solid-seeming, reflecting the moon back to herself. Her

I am not rich but I have enough money for what

nightly mirror.

I need. Paradise is knowing what you need, for the sake of body and soul, for the sake of mind

Sometimes I go out for a walk in these

and heart; knowing what you need, then finding

unoccupied hours. There are no street lights.

it, then protecting it. When I protect my little

No cars. I am safe and free. At the top of the hill

patch of earth, I am protecting myself. Here are

there may be a house illuminated far away. A

bees and butterflies and birds. There have been

night-worker, an insomniac, a parent comforting

no chemicals here for 25 years. My soil is rich

a child, someone afraid of the dark. Electricity

dark and nearly edible all on its own. It smells

has made the night unnatural, unnecessary. In the

sweet. The food I grow is abundant and all waste

city there is no night, only artificial versions of

is returned to the land. I grow in colour because

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nature is unfashionable and prefers a riot of

Paradise is an eastern concept. It isn’t Valhalla or

green blue orange red yellow white. Bees love

Heaven. The earthly paradise was the Garden of

purple and so do I. I am a witch in a wood with

Eden in Jewish and Christian myth. A garden is a

the insect equivalent of a gingerbread house. I

mutually beneficial interaction between humans

am a larder for life, and in return, life is a larder

and nature. It is orderly and creative. The Fall is

for me.

our exile from the garden. It is why, in Milton’s Paradise Lost, to be exiled is to live in the Palace

EAT ME! Is the Alice in Wonderland instruction

of Pandemonium – many demons, much chaos.

written on everything that grows in my garden.

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Paradise (para-dis)

Yes, I am a writer, but I write with my feet, my legs, my liver, my blood supply, my working body

relocates to Satan’s city – City of Dis. The garden is gone.

that chops wood and digs the ground. I write

We are haunted by loss. The past looks better

with the whole of me and part of me is this place.

even when it was awful. It looks better because

Together we are in Tao.

people talk about community and nature. People

Taoism is the art of being at one with nature.

say, “we had nothing but we were happy”.

Human beings are bad at this. Unlike the go-get

Most people regret the loss of biodiversity on the

and the get-go of the West, the philosophy of the

planet. (A third of the world’s coral reefs are dead,

East is not about doing, but about being. Anyone

500 mammals have become extinct since 1900.

who mediates knows how terrifying it is when the

A further 12,000 species are at risk.)

teacher says, “nothing to do, just to be”.

Most people have never seen a polar bear in We have mistaken much of this philosophy for

the wild, but we want there to be polar bears in

passivity – which is why we imagine that the

the wild.

princess in the tower in the fairy tale is ‘just’ waiting for her super-active prince to ride by.

And this is the thing about Tao. In Tao, there is

Mythically though, the ogre or wicked witch,

no need to actively protect the polar bear; all

has already violated the flow, or Tao, of life, by

the polar bear needs is for humans not to violate

unnecessary aggressive action. This disruption

the climate to such a degree that the polar ice

has to be righted. The princess remains in

melts. In other words – nature is self-regulating

Tao, just as Hermione and Paulina remain

when left alone. She is in Tao. Humans are not

in Tao; in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale,

self-regulating. We are meddlesome, interfering,

patiently blocking – and eventually redeeming

hyper-active mammals who don’t have the good

– the murderous fallout of the jealous furious

sense to lie under a tree and snooze it off when

King Leontes.

we have eaten our fill.

The past looks better even when it was awful. It looks better because people talk about community and nature.

People say, “we had nothing but we were happy”.

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We never eat our fill because we are governed by greed.

We never have enough. More drilling, more building, more flying, more driving, more war, more waste.

Stop. That is the best advice.

We know that Planet Earth is a paradise in our solar system. Humans can live here – not because we are smart, but because the planet allows us to live here.

Climate breakdown is changing that.

In an unregulated future, few of us will be able to live here, and only then in drastically reduced conditions. We are unable to share the planet with the other creatures whose home it is, constantly evicting and decimating. Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, believes the Amazon rainforest is his to destroy. President Trump is an energetic supporter of the subsidised fossil fuel industry, and a climate change denier. In Australia, the political right aims to deflect focus away from climate issues and towards immigration.

Immigration: Which of us would want to risk our lives in an open boat looking for what? Not paradise. Dry land and a low paid job.

My country, the UK, had an empire.

Immigration is the legacy of empire.

We don’t talk about that. We don’t talk about the Iraq war that destabilised the Middle East. We talk as if everything is now – that

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there is no history, no consequences of history –

Vows and promises are non-physical temenos.

just as we will talk about our loss of this beautiful

We put ourselves inside a rule. The old monastic

planet as something that ‘happened’.

orders were called ‘rules’ for a reason. These aren’t laws, like gravity, or even the law of

We throw up our hands in passive disbelief at

the land. They are voluntary restrictions or

the bad stuff – like the global financial crisis

agreement of action. They are promises to

of 2008. We are like naughty children who

ourselves as well as to others. There is a necessary

insist ‘it wasn’t me’.

discipline that humans need. We don’t talk about

But if you make anything – and I make books,

that either.

and I make a garden and I do both of these things

The earthly paradise in the east was raised on a

every day – then you know it is you, that it is

triple terrace, so that even when the earth flooded

always you, both in the endeavour of making,

– (see the story of Noah and his Ark) the deluge

and the ‘stand back and let it happen’ that is the

could not reach it.

strange secret of the creative process. It is also the truth of our interaction with nature; the moment

During that flood Noah and his family were

when you have prepared the ground, planted

saved. The rest of humankind drowned in the

and protected the crop, and now nature takes

rising water.

over. This is harmony. This is responsibility.

We know that story. This time it is called climate

This is Tao.

breakdown. The waters are rising. They will go The Greeks had a different word – temenos.

on rising unless we cool our feverish planet.

This is an enclosed space – maybe a sacred

Who believes in Hellfire anymore? We all should.

shrine, a grove, or a magic circle. Inside the

Look at California this year. Look at the cities in

temenos there is energetic and creative energy,

Europe that heated up past 40 degrees in August.

things will happen, but nothing can be forced, there must be harmony and alignment.

Alignment of inner and outer is the first rule of magic, and of religion, the first rule to observe, (note the verb – observe – not a crazy running around verb), and the rule whose violation brings about no end of trouble.

Air conditioning just makes the problem worse.

We are the generations who must act, and not act.

Do more and do less. Every morning there is still time. For now.

I am lucky because I live in Paradise.

The Greeks had a different word – temenos. This is an enclosed space – maybe a sacred shrine, a grove, or a magic circle.

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All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in.

- Toni Morrison Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist (1931-2019)

Good

A philosophical perspective

A regular visitor to Australia, British philosopher and author A.C. Grayling is known to audiences here through his writing and rock star like appearances at writers’ festivals (a standing ovation at Byron Bay last year). He may also be familiar to you from his frequent appearances on ABC’s Q&A where he invariably brings a certain rational calm to heated debate.

Grayling has written more than 30 books on not only philosophy but biography, the history of ideas, human rights and ethics. There’s certainly something enigmatic about philosopher as a job title and Grayling has many stories about people requesting an answer to the meaning of life upon hearing of his profession. He is the Master of the New College of the Humanities in central London where he was just beginning the day when Rebecca Lamoin had this chat.

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RL: YOU WROTE 'THE GOOD BOOK: A SECULAR

on ourselves or that we agree to with others in

BIBLE', AS WELL AS 'WHAT IS GOOD?: THE

our moral lives – we do them better if we also

SEARCH FOR THE BEST WAY TO LIVE'. COULD YOU

acknowledge that pleasure is an important part

SLIDE US INTO THIS DISCUSSION WITH A SHORT

of life.

OVERVIEW OF WHAT YOU MEAN BY ‘GOOD’?

The pleasures of companionship and of learning ACG: Important values that we care about. We talk

and enquiry, of relaxation, of the enjoyment of

about the ‘good’, meaning something which, in all

beauty, of the encounter with things that give us an

its implications and all its connections has genuine

opportunity to grow as personalities. So, in my own

value for us. Genuine value in a way that we care

personal view there isn’t a conflict. Rather, there is

about and that we always seek to realise if we plan

a question of balance and a judgment about when

what we do and how we organise our lives.

we should really focus on our duties and when we should allow ourselves the pleasures that make

RL: THE TENSION BETWEEN DUTY AND PLEASURE

life good.

– ASIDE FROM BEING A VERY EFFECTIVE NARRATIVE DEVICE – IS A DIVIDE IN ETHICAL

But in the traditional debate, they’ve been regarded

THEORY. CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW?

as the polarities. Beauty versus pleasure, the danger of pleasure subverting beauty.

ACG: Yes, this is a trope which was discussed very, very intently from classical antiquity right up until

RL: PARADISE IS OFTEN FRAMED AS A REWARD

the modern period. The tension, or alleged tension,

FOR THE VIRTUOUS. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF

between duty and pleasure, is the idea being that

THE IDEA THAT GOOD GETS REWARDED, BAD

to do your duty you have to accept that you’ve got

GETS PUNISHED, AND HOW DO YOU THINK THAT

to defer or set aside the possibility of pleasure and

HOLDS UP IN A CONTEMPORARY WORLD?

that by embracing pleasures you are altogether too likely to fail to do your duty.

ACG: It’s so interesting isn’t it that the concept of paradise, which of course originally means garden,

Think of the endless paintings of the so called

implies that it’s an escape from the suffering and

Choice of Hercules – this is where Hercules is

struggles and demands of a life of difficulty.

approached by two women, one very beautiful and voluptuous who tried to seduce him away to a

So, the idea that paradise is a reward, that it’s a

night of pleasures, and the other a tall, stately, grey

good thing to be free from making an effort, is in

eyed lady who said that as the son of a God he must

itself questionable. Step back a pace or two and

fulfil his duty and his destiny. As if the choice were

think about it. The life of endeavour, the life of

an absolute one; that you can’t do your duty if you

always trying to move forward, getting things done,

ever had pleasures, or you can’t have pleasure if

changing things and so on, is intrinsically in itself a

you’re going to do your duty.

life of very great value.

In my view, people are quite likely to do their

But leaving that aside, in a way it’s kind of obvious

duty better in life. The duties that we impose

that having all things good – having as much as you want to eat, having leisure, having repose, not being

19

'...people are quite likely to do their duty better in life‌ if we also acknowledge that pleasure is an important part of life.'

cold or too hot, being in a delightful place such as

Sometimes people go to the philosophers –

the garden – has always struck people as being a

they go to Plato, they read about Socrates – and

lovely kind of reward. They fail to recognise that

they’re looking for the recipe. They’re looking

after a while they would get incredibly bored.

for the advice or the instruction which tells them how to do it. But what Socrates effectively says

But it’s obvious that good and easy and pleasant

to everybody is that you’ve got to work it out

things would be a reward for toeing the line. For

for yourself. This is something you’ve got to

being virtuous according to whatever conception of

think through.

virtue is in play, and that if you don’t do that, if you don’t toe the line, if you don’t do the things that are

It’s going to be predicated on your best efforts to

virtuous, then of course you’re going to suffer pains

understand yourself and to think sympathetically

and torments and terrors.

and generously about other people. To recognise that as social beings, social animals, at the very

It’s a very natural thing to think, that reward and

heart of whatever we do there are going to be

pleasure has to take those types of forms. It’s

collections of other people that make a difference

interesting, because again, if one takes a few steps

to us. And therefore, good connections, good

back and thinks about it and looks at it clearly, one

relationships are going to be really central to the

recognises that many of the things that people

kind of life we choose to live, given our own talents

think are part of punishment – that is, endeavour,

and capacities will make life good and flourishing.

effort, striving for something – are actually in themselves a reward in life. So, this contrast

It’s very much an individual endeavour and it is not

between reward and punishment and how they are

something which once you take it, like a pill or like

conceived sometimes blurs the picture about what

an injection, transforms you. It is a work. Living is

really matters.

a work. And if it’s a journey that is directed towards things that you care about deeply and that you

RL: YOU OFTEN QUOTE SOCRATES’

value, then it is going to be a good work.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRIES "WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE SHOULD WE BE?" AND HOW SHOULD

So, that is what the Socratic challenge is about.

WE LIVE? HOW DO THESE KINDS OF INQUIRIES

The minute that anybody understands it, the

TRANSLATE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIVES?

minute anybody reads that and understands it, immediately the opportunity to be living that

ACG: Well, they have a very, very direct effect.

kind of life – the Socratic life, the good life, the

The interesting, subtle thing about the Socratic

life of self-creation, the life of finding and seeking

challenge – the challenge to think and to provide

answers, which may not come quickly or easily, but

ourselves with an answer to the questions, how

the very process of looking for them – is what it is

should we live and what sort of people should

to be living that kind of life.

we be – is that each one of us individually has to provide that answer individually. Because it’s going to be a different answer for each of us.

FA N TA ST I C MR FOX 9 - 18 January 2020 P l ay h ous e , QPAC

C H A R L IE A N D TH E C H O CO L ATE FACTO RY From 18 March 2020 Ly ri c T h ea tre, Q PAC

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See the world from the other side of the

Mirror

CI RCA'S PE E P SH OW 14 - 25 January 2020 Crem orn e T h eat re , QPAC

A moment in time

BY NELL SCHOFIELD

Queen Street, Woollahra is part of my white girl song line. In the late 1960s, I scrawled my name in wet cement outside our home there, marking my territory, asserting my existence.

Every day I walked up and down what was then very much a working class street with my younger twin sisters, to and from Woollahra Demonstration School. We were demonstrating good learning techniques and teacher education in a Sydney eastern suburb whose Indigenous name means ‘camp, meeting ground or sitting down place’.

Pottery, woodwork, spinning and weaving were all on the curriculum and we were allowed time out to rehearse Jesus Christ Superstar in the playground shed for no other reason than we were obsessed with it.

We took tap dancing classes after school and sometimes our babysitter would pick us up in her gold glitter beach buggy, much to the envy of our classmates. Her husband was importing them and, it transpired, a whole lot more besides! Then one day he disappeared.

We didn’t talk about it. Nor about the fact that my father’s friend Roderick suddenly became Ros. These were just the sort of things that happened back then.

Dad was a local heritage activist and occasionally I’d be allowed to take a day off from school to demonstrate in another capacity to save an old building from demolition. My best friend Hannah was Germaine Greer’s goddaughter so we’d also march with her for Women’s Liberation whenever she was at the helm of a protest, which was exhilarating. But by far the most thrilling thing we did was to accept an invitation to ‘Step Into Paradise’ at the 1975 matinee of Flamingo Follies.

The invitations were addressed to our respective mothers, but we managed to wrangle our way into the matinee of this fashion parade by Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre. Gorgeous girls frolicked in frocks made of colourful silk and chiffon while others wore hand painted arty dresses and retro beach wear. The music

26

was hip and everyone, both on and

performer and her co-star Kate

and after school to immerse myself

off stage, was having a ball. This

Fitzpatrick, it was a wild expression

in that fabulous feeling of strength

was a seductive, playful vision of an

of the unleashed mood of our elders

and freedom. It made me think that

Australia we wanted in on.

and we looked up to it in awe.

anything was possible. And when I

The progressive politics of Gough

Aussies were taking renewed pride

and scored the lead in Puberty Blues

Whitlam’s Labor leadership had

in their country and Sydney, with

I knew it was true.

created a world where the arts were

its sparkling new Opera House, was

thriving. Australia was expressing

blasting off on a modern tangent.

With my first pay cheque I went

a bold and optimistic cultural

Bondi Beach was a particularly

straight to Linda Jackson and

voice that left the conservatives

sunny epicentre where, at 13, I

she made me a fabulous bush

quaking in their sensible shoes.

taught myself to surf. There were

print coat with the words ‘Wanna

We were rocking a very different

only a handful of other girls jostling

Gunna’ printed in gum leaves on

look including Peter Tully’s Oz Pop

for a spot in the lineup and there

the back. So cocky! I still have it.

jewellery and replicas of Little Nell’s

certainly weren’t any surf schools.

I then hooked up with fellow film

gold glitter tap shoes. The Rocky

It was trial by dumper and blood

star Baz Lurhmann and we started

Horror Picture Show was a major

was spilt but the empowerment it

our own theatre company. Linda’s

influence at the time, expanding

offered when that perfect wave was

partner Fran did the publicity and

our ideas of sexuality somewhat.

caught went straight to my head.

put us in touch with Harry M. Miller

With its Australian director and cast

I was at Sydney Girls High by this

who helped us with the opening

members, like the aforementioned

stage and would go surfing before

night extravaganza guest list. The

finally finished all those HSC exams

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following year we got into NIDA

I could to try to do something about

It seemed no one in the city was

and created a short play called

it. Linda, Fran and her business

prepared to give an inch. All they

Strictly Ballroom which we toured to

partner Lydia and I bought a block

cared about was their mortgage

Bratislava behind the iron curtain

of land in the bush in an attempt

and the latest episode of Masterchef.

causing a revolution among the

to future proof ourselves. But three

Disconnected from the land,

Soviet theatre students. It was all

years later, in 1991, our little piece

from the very environment they

too, too exciting.

of paradise came under a coal

were intrinsically a part of, many

exploration licence. A neighbour

Sydneysiders became increasingly

But something happened around

told us that the state government

superficial. Despite the privilege

1988 that changed the whole

had sold the rights to a foreign

of living in a little flat overlooking

mood of the city. It was Australia’s

company to explore for and by

the ever sensuous harbour, I found

Bicentennial year and it was

association dig up everything but

myself fleeing the Big Smoke for the

like a balloon being blown up to

the topsoil.

country at every opportunity.

endless economic growth, it simply

Beating my head against the anti-

And then nature itself became

couldn’t go on like this. Or could it?

coal face became my default for

unsettling. Rivers dried up, fires

Amazingly, that same year, I scored

many years thereafter, trying to

ravaged the landscape. Wild winds

a journalistic assignment for Vogue

protect not only our magical valley

evaporated what little water we

Living to travel to Antarctica and

but the entire climate we all rely

held on this, the driest inhabited

report back on these new cruises

on. I trained as a climate leader

continent, as big agri-business

that were taking tourists there. It was

with Al Gore and spoke publicly

sucked up the rest. In the city, we

a dream come true.

about the urgent need to change

continued to flush drinking water

maximum capacity. Like the idea of

our ways. But people didn’t want

down the toilet and on out to sea as

Linda made me a penguin print

to hear. They didn’t want to meet

if it wasn’t precious. Our leaders, far

padded coat and a glacier dress

with their MPs and be dismissed

removed from the ideals of Gough

to wear there but once onboard I

as I had on so many previous

and his gang, lacked any vision

heard about this new thing called

occasions. Why should they reduce

to give us hope, and continued to

climate change which stopped me

their energy consumption when

flagrantly wreck the favourable

in my exuberant tracks. Expert

their representatives on both sides

conditions for life on our home

lecturers said that rising carbon

of politics were so embedded in

planet for ourselves and all the

dioxide levels in the atmosphere,

the coal industry? I met with a

other incredible species that we

caused largely by burning coal, were

Director of the coal company that

share it with.

heating up the planet and causing

was threatening our land, hoping

the ice to melt both here and in the

to appeal to her role as a mother of

As an activist, I turned my back

Arctic. And were on track to make it

children whose future was imperiled

on art, thinking it was a frivolous

melt a whole lot more.

by her unabashed advocacy of our

luxury in the face of climate chaos.

nation's prime fossil fuel export.

Now I’ve embraced it, believing it’s

Upon my return I became involved

“I’m not giving up my oven!” she

the only thing that can inspire more

in the environment movement,

barked at me.

love and respect for the incredible

signing up to every organisation

place we call home. As philosopher

Linda made me a penguin print padded coat and a glacier dress to wear there but once onboard I heard about this new thing called climate change which stopped me in my exuberant tracks.

28

and former US soldier Roy Scranton

the major galleries of the world,

of gorgeous home grown jewellery

writes in his book Learning to Die

spread an inspirational message

in the 150 year old building that

in the Anthropocene, “The fate of the

and a powerful positive vision for

my father saved and restored with

humanities, as we confront the end

everyone to hold close in these

the idea of creating, among other

of modern civilisation, is the fate of

crazy times.

things, a local performance space.

humanity itself.”

This space hosted the 1978 Flamingo The NSW state government plans

Follies and I’m revisiting dad’s

Almost 45 years on from that

to move the Powerhouse Museum

dreams to include more inspiring

wondrous Flamingo Follies fashion

out of our city to Parramatta and

shows in the future including a

parade at the Bondi Pavilion, the

redevelop the site for residential

celebration of my mother’s fiftieth

Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has

purposes. No major city in the world

anniversary in the jewellery business

staged a retrospective exhibition of

removes a cultural institution in its

here. My name is still vaguely

Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee’s work

heart, especially not one initially

discernible in the concrete gutter

called ‘Step Into Paradise’. Spanning

established in 1880 to house our

outside and the other day I noticed

their collaborative and independent

applied arts and sciences. Its loss will

that another placemaker has carved

creations over more than four

impoverish us. But the ever inflating

a new message in the cement ‘A

decades, the show celebrates a vision

balloon keeps getting filled with hot

Moment In Time’. It certainly was.

of Australia that gives us, if not hope

air ignorantly blown by politicians

And in this era of hard surfaces and

for redemption, at least a cathedral

who care not about the value such

even harder hearts, we need to make

in which to contemplate all that we

institutions impart to its citizens

each and every moment matter

have – the blood red life force of our

through exhibitions like ‘Step Into

more than ever.

waratahs, the rich rainbows of opals

Paradise’, let alone the ultimate

fossilised in rock, even the penguins

impacts of our coal exports.

of our Antarctic Territory, all interpreted in wonderful wearable

So now I’m surrounding myself with

art. I may be biased but this is an

creativity and beauty again. I’m back

exhibition that could, if toured to

in Queen Street, curating exhibitions

E M E R A L D C ITY Q U E E N S L A N D TH E AT RE 8 - 29 February 2020 P l ay h o u s e , Q PAC

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30

31

Four People Twelve Questions Tim Costello, Mojo Juju, Jenny Woodward and Fez Faanana discuss their identities, beliefs and cultural habits, offering us insights into their slices of paradise.

We connected with them through questions based on neuroscience and neuropsychology research.

Here’s what our four new friends shared with us!

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TIM COSTELLO CHIEF ADVOCATE OF WORLD VISION AUSTRALIA, ACTIVIST AND BAPTIST MINISTER

A bit about you…

A bit about paradise…

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST FAVOURITE STORY?

IF THE SENSE OF A HEAVEN IS WITHIN US, WHAT

It’s Peter Pan. The playful, adventurous world, the

GETS YOU THERE?

companionship with Wendy and Tinker Bell was a picture

This takes discipline, meditation, prayer and solitude.

of paradise. The story reminds me of innocence, beauty

It takes facing your inner shadows and seeing the

and my loving, playful childhood.

resentments and the envy of others; comparing up, never comparing down. It’s really dealing with the

WHAT MUSIC MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE LIKE NO

nasties in you rather than just the nasties in the world,

ONE’S WATCHING?

or in other people.

I love black soul and gospel music. I love Aretha Franklin, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Holmes Brothers.

WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT OF IT?

There’s something about music that has come out of

Me not attending to the things in me: things that are bad

suffering, but still has hope.

out there can only get you riled and disturbed if you are not going inward and thinking about how blessed you are

WHAT’S LEFT THAT YOU WANT TO DO / THE NEXT

and keeping it in perspective.

THING ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? I really want to become a person who’s now a mentor to

WHAT GETS YOU BACK?

the next generation. Stepping sideways and investing in

I think the most important thing in life is perspective.

the next generation of advocates and activists – people

That breeds gratitude. Perspective that says, “No, I’m

who want to make a difference and change the world.

actually blessed, and therefore I can be grateful for what I am”, is what gets me back.

WHAT EXPERIENCE, PERSON OR WORK TOUCHED YOU DEEPLY AND LEFT SOMETHING PRECIOUS WITH YOU?

WHAT DOES YOUR PARADISE LOOK LIKE?

Going to Uganda over the past seven years with friends

A horizon. When I can see the sky meet the sea there is

who have generously built four or five hospitals in

this lifting of my spirits. I know that I’m small and that

Northern Uganda, where 13 women a day were dying in

gives me a sense of transcendence; a sense that I’m not the

childbirth due to insufficient healthcare facilities. The

Messiah and I can’t do everything. It’s deeper than me.

joy of these rural communities celebrating the opening of a health clinic for a whole day is joy like I have never

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?

experienced. It’s what I call the law of increasing returns,

Centred and gaining perspective.

not diminishing returns.

WHO IS WITH YOU THERE?

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN?

I believe that there is – let’s use the word God – there

I really want to learn to be a good cook. I remember this

is something great in the universe that I’m not just a

started when I saw a lovely film, Babette’s Feast, a film

biological freak in a cosmic zoo, that I’m just an accident.

about this poor woman who cooked a feast for people, just

Why I exist rather than I don’t exist, means that there is

because! I can cook basic things but I can’t do a feast and I

some deeper presence, being, purpose. I connect to that.

want to learn.

WHAT OR WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU? I was inspired as a young person by the writings of Martin Luther King and his refusal to demonise even enemies. Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister, and it’s one of the reasons I became a Baptist minister. I even named my youngest son Martin after him.

33

MOJO JUJU SONGWRITER, MUSICIAN, STORYTELLER

A bit about you…

A bit about paradise…

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST FAVOURITE STORY?

IF THE SENSE OF A HEAVEN IS WITHIN US, WHAT GETS

The first thing that comes to mind is Epaminondas.

YOU THERE?

The reason I remember it is because of the comic

I think that comes down to authenticity, knowing who

element of it. I think there’s something really

you are and having conviction is a really big deal. I think

endearing about the character!

that how you treat other people and how you nurture your relationships is definitely going to make that easier.

WHAT MUSIC MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE LIKE NO ONE’S WATCHING?

WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT OF IT?

I have two criteria for music: It has to either move me

Anxiety, and anxiety usually comes from fear, and I think

on a physical level, or move me on an emotional level.

mostly fear of being alone.

If it can do both at the same time then incredible, but it has to do one or two of those things.

WHAT GETS YOU BACK? Reach out to people you love. It can be a really big step

WHAT’S LEFT THAT YOU WANT TO DO / THE NEXT THING

and really hard to do. Also, therapy is really good.

ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? So much left that I want to do. I want to keep pushing

WHAT DOES YOUR PARADISE LOOK LIKE?

myself to make better art. What I’d like to be remembered

It probably looks similar to the Philippines, in a way –

for is as a songwriter mostly – that’s my passion:

slow days in tropical locations.

songwriting, more than performing.

WHAT EXPERIENCE, PERSON OR WORK TOUCHED YOU DEEPLY AND LEFT SOMETHING PRECIOUS WITH YOU? One of the most emotional and moving voices – Billie Holiday. There’s so much conviction in her voice and the way she sings, and you believe everything she’s saying. It also reminds me so much of my grandparents.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? I’m pretty curious just in general. If I could be anything in another life, I’d be a dancer. I also have a deep love of conspiracy theories.

WHAT OR WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU? My grandparents were a huge inspiration. I tell a lot of their stories on Native Tongue. My grandmother always said I live every day like I’m lucky to be alive because she believes that. They were a huge inspiration to me.

34

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? Calm and secure.

WHO IS WITH YOU THERE? All the people that I love and I care about. But I think you should be able to be at peace with yourself and on your own. It’s very important to have a strong, healthy relationship with yourself – that takes a lot of work.

JENNY WOODWARD JOURNALIST, TV PRESENTER, A WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS

A bit about you…

WHAT OR WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU?

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST FAVOURITE STORY?

example, the reality show Project Runway. The participants

I have always loved the story of how my parents met. The

are extraordinary! They create the most beautiful gowns a

tale has permeated my childhood and become part of

lot of the time in a ridiculously short space of time. I mean I

family history! Mum was on holidays at Coolangatta with

sew, so I know how hard that is, especially having to fit it on

some girlfriends. It was just after the war. Dad was still in the

another person rather than yourself.

army and he and some mates were in uniform driving an

A bit about paradise…

Army Jeep down the road. They stopped and asked the girls directions to Kingscliff. The girls cheerfully said “we’ll come with you and show you the way.” It later transpired the boys didn’t need help with directions, but they all had a great day at the beach and that was the start of a long romance. Of course Mum said times were different then and they only went along with it because the boys were in uniform!

WHAT MUSIC MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE LIKE NO ONE’S WATCHING? If it’s got a good beat and you’re in a good mood, then anything. A good loud sing around the house is fun too!

WHAT’S LEFT THAT YOU WANT TO DO / THE NEXT THING ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? I would like to see the northern lights or the southern lights.

Whether I’ll ever get an opportunity, I don’t know. That’s kind of something you can plan for, but there’s no guarantee that it’s going to happen! Another thing I’d love to see is the Morning Glory cloud, which comes across the Gulf of Carpentaria. The glider pilots sort of surf along the cloud to a certain extent. But that’s also something you cannot plan for!

WHAT EXPERIENCE, PERSON OR WORK TOUCHED YOU DEEPLY AND LEFT SOMETHING PRECIOUS WITH YOU? My parents giving me permission to pursue what I wanted

I take inspiration from things and concepts around me. For

IF THE SENSE OF A HEAVEN IS WITHIN US, WHAT GETS YOU THERE? It’s always got to be the people who love you. Them knowing you and loving you gives you an enormous amount of confidence and comfort, which provides inner strength and acceptance. Once you accept who you are and the passage of growth you are on, and if you are happy with that, you have contentment which leads to inner paradise I suppose.

WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT OF IT? Distractions in our lives – we have a lot of noise around that’s constantly competing for our attention. If you want to be distracted or allow yourself to be distracted, you can be jolted out of it.

WHAT GETS YOU BACK? Contentment is key to a happy life. It is okay to want more, and you need to understand the distinction between wanting more for growth, or wanting more just for a grab.

WHAT DOES YOUR PARADISE LOOK LIKE? I don’t know that it has a look but I guess that place for me is full of colour. My husband and I extract a lot of joy by being surrounded by colour. It would be pretty messy too!

to do. That’s a really precious gift to get. They recognised

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?

my interest in creative arts and supported that. Without that

Warm and family-focused, contentment and joyfulness.

sort of permission from the people you love, it’s a much harder battle.

WHO IS WITH YOU THERE? My family and my dear friends... the people who love and

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN?

support me every day. And my gorgeous dog, Dakota!

I’d like to be able to retain information better. I’m open to learning lots of things about new topics all the time yet I don’t feel I have a particularly good retention of information.

I’m not quite sure how you go about doing that. I suppose concentrating more when you read it the first time would be a start!

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FEZ FAANANA SAMOAN CHIEF, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF 'BRIEFS FACTORY' AND DRAG ARTISTE

A bit about you…

WHAT OR WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU?

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST FAVOURITE STORY?

high school. I was so baffled by, and annoyed with,

Something that resonated with me as a child was

her limitations as a leader. Her desire to cultivate ugly

Monkey Magic. It was based on a sixteenth century

ideologies and uneducated concepts made me feel

Chinese novel which made its way into Australian homes

unequal. At the same time, I was inspired to understand

as a staple after school viewing ritual in the early 80s.

the history of Australia as a priority, my place in it as

It celebrated a culture in a really sophisticated way. It

well as acknowledge the inhumane treatment of First

was so forward thinking and some seriously diverse

Nations Australians.

TV programming for that era.

A bit about paradise…

WHAT MUSIC MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE LIKE NO ONE’S WATCHING? I really latched onto hip-hop and R&B growing up.

Dirty-grindy and predominantly female hip-hop. Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly is my favourite album. Timbaland is a genius and his album with Magoo, Under Construction Part II is timeless!

WHAT’S LEFT THAT YOU WANT TO DO / THE NEXT THING ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? I got an indoor sky diving voucher for my fortieth last

Pauline Hanson. She hit the scene when I just finished

IF THE SENSE OF A HEAVEN IS WITHIN US, WHAT GETS YOU THERE? I am not sure if the sense of a heaven is within us. Maybe looking for it will get you there… That was really deep.

WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT OF IT? Giving up on looking.

WHAT GETS YOU BACK? Being content with looking.

year. I’m going to give it a go and try not to break my now

WHAT DOES YOUR PARADISE LOOK LIKE?

41 year old body.

A combination of my partner Mark's family property in

WHAT EXPERIENCE, PERSON OR WORK TOUCHED YOU DEEPLY AND LEFT SOMETHING PRECIOUS WITH YOU? Mama Winmill, who was my kindred spirit and whom I

the Clarence Valley in northern New South Wales, and my parents’ villages Fagamalo and Palauli in Samoa, with an endless supply of Sizzler bread.

was very tight with. I have been with Mark Winmill for

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?

18 years now. We suddenly lost Mark’s mum last year,

It feels fresh, simple, rich, fruitful and cheesy.

which was really sad and traumatic and a great loss was felt. She left me with a lifetime of precious memories and

WHO IS WITH YOU THERE?

hilarious moments.

The goats, the dogs and someone handing out the Sizzler bread. I suppose I should invite the family. Oh and the

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? I want to learn more about the practice of law, understanding our legal system and its relation and impact on equality, quality of life and human rights.

Oh, I would also love to learn how to fabricate props and set pieces with fibreglass.

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Making Magic Story writer Phoebe Wowor secured an interview with Penn Jillette, one half of the world’s most famous magic acts – Penn & Teller. When she discovered their conversation would take place just ahead of that night’s Las Vegas show, she imagined him roaring down Route 66 in a Cadillac wearing dark sunglasses with a levitating white rabbit in the backseat. But of course…

PW: YOUR AGENT MENTIONED YOU’D

PW: WHY IS THAT?

BE ON THE ROAD. THERE’S A HUGE

you certainly need to have obstacles to overcome. I think paradise for me

PART OF ME THAT’S HOPING YOU’RE

PENN: I think because they’re trying to

would be incredibly hard problems

ON YOUR WAY TO VEGAS, DRIVING

make money, and people like the idea

that didn’t hurt anyone else, but I

DOWN THE FREEWAY IN SOME

of paradise!

would eventually be able to solve.

PW: WHAT ABOUT FOR YOU PENN?

PW: THAT IS A VERY GOOD SEGUE.

WHAT’S YOUR PARADISE?

'THE NEW YORK TIMES' ONCE

SORT OF CONVERTIBLE. ARE YOU EN ROUTE TO THE SHOW? PENN: [Laughs] In some sort of Trans Am with a big pile of money in the back seat?! No. I have arrived. I’m in the parking lot of a coffee place. I’m going to go in before I go pick up my children from school. I am in my car,

PENN: I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, the short stories I’ve been reading, and some stuff I’m working on. In tenth year of high school, my teacher asked, “If you had the choice to

DESCRIBED YOU AND TELLER AS “A BRAZEN ASSAULT ON THE TEMPLE OF MAGIC”. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TREAD THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED IN THE INDUSTRY?

be happy all the time, would you make

PENN: There was a thing written by

that choice?” Everybody of course in

an avant garde man in San Francisco

PW: I’M GOING TO HIT YOU WITH A

the class smelled that it was a trick

called the Woztok Manifesto that said if

BIG QUESTION STRAIGHT UP. WHAT

question and said, “Well, no, I like to

you don’t like supermarket music, for

IS PARADISE TO YOU? A PLACE? A

be excited!” and so on. I said, “Well

Christ’s sake stop making supermarket

STATE OF MIND?

yes,” and the teacher said, “But you

music. If you’re going to start a rock ‘n’

need downs and ups, and happiness

roll band, you should come in disliking

PENN: Well, actually, paradise is the

and sadness, to make your life full and

the Rolling Stones, shouldn’t you? You

road that runs parallel to the Las Vegas

end up happy”. I said, “Yes, and what

should find something else to do!

strip. Everything is deemed paradise in

you guaranteed was happiness, so

Las Vegas, both the name paradise, but

that should be included in your very

PW: THAT’S WHEN YOU HEADED

also the pun of ‘pair of dice’. Both of

question”. I argued about that and now,

INTO THE WORLD OF MAGIC?

those things pop up. I probably see the

50 years later I seem unable to let it go.

word paradise as a ‘pair of dice’ more

I still want to keep that fight going.

but I am not moving.

PENN: I hated magic, I mean, really hated it. I thought that’s the idea

than anyone else you’ve ever talked to.

Everything here in our corner of the

Clearly the position is that joy can only

of lying to people. I met Teller

Mojave Desert is named paradise. It’s

be seen like light in the background

when I was 17 and Teller and I got

a very common name for roads and

of darkness. I find that for a rich and

into discussion through a mutual

shopping malls and everything here.

truly happy life, to live in paradise,

friend and Teller said that magic was

39

essentially intellectual. It’s a little bit

Doug Henning and David Copperfield,

Whenever a magician comes up and

like somebody saying to me Donald

it was like a greasy guy in a tux and a

goes, “You know, if I had real magical

Trump was intellectual, it seemed like

lot of birds, torturing women and I

powers this is what I’d do”, all I want

an insane thing to say.

really hated that. Teller and I wanted

to ever say is, “Mother fucker, cure

to come up with everything that Teller

AIDS”. If you have real magical powers

Teller pointed out that although in

loved about magic and not do the

let’s get rid of malaria, there’s a lot of

music and the other forms of theatre

things I didn’t like about magic.

starving children to deal with, there’s a

performance, you have the strong

lot of suffering, let’s get rid of that. We

visceral sense, in magic you need to

Many years have passed since those

don’t give a fuck that you want to float

understand things before you can be

conversations and I now love, love,

a woman in the air.

amazed. People will enjoy that a little

love magic, but I still dislike the parts

bit more as they get older.

of it that were all of magic to me

My thinking is magic is beautiful and

when we first got into it. The idea of

wonderful because you know there’s

Teller also said that he felt that magic

studying how we ascertained what was

deception. It’s why the word trick is so

could be done honestly. At the time

truth, what was real in an honest way,

beautiful to me, and the word illusion

we were talking about this magic was

is fascinating to me.

is so ugly.

PW: WHY DO YOU THINK PEOPLE

PW: CAN YOU DEFINE THE MAGIC

Teller and I set out really, with the

WANT TO BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

BETWEEN YOU AND TELLER?

total purpose of our relationship, to

PENN: I don’t think they really do. I

PENN: Teller and I have really a purely

Within that we’ve had a fairly stormy

think that it’s a shortcut for something

intellectual relationship. You talk

relationship artistically. We argue

else that they’re saying. Like

about teams that have worked before,

about every second of every show,

Christopher Hitchens – who I think is

whether you’re talking about Martin

but it’s a very, very businesslike and

one of the greatest writers of all time –

and Lewis or Lennon and McCartney

polite relationship, personally and

used to say that when people said they

who were of course known all over

emotionally.

wanted to believe in God he would

the world. Those relationships, as a

always respond it’s a little bit like

matter of fact, most of your artistic

In 44 years neither one of us has ever

wanting to live in North Korea. I think

partnerships, start out with affection,

even threatened to quit. In 44 years

when people say they want to believe

start out with love. I think it’s very,

we have never had a drink of alcohol

in magic they want to believe in a very

very clear that Lennon and McCartney

or any drug. In 44 years I can say, not

specific kind of sloppy thinking of

were head over heels in love with one

literally but essentially, neither one

magic. If we actually had powers that

another, so when they no longer got

of us has ever been late for a meeting,

took away the rules of physics or the

along it was heartbreaking.

never fucked up a show. We are very,

explore intellectual theatrical ideas.

rules of the universe, I believe all fun

very reliable. The combination of

goes away. The only fun we have in life

Teller and I did not have any sort

being personally reliable and having

is the fun of discovery, the fun of new

of huge affection. Our relationship,

the same morals or work ethic, and

experiences, the fun of ‘ah ha’, and the

when we first met, would have been

views about money, morality, religion

fact that we have these rules built in

the same if it was sent in letters. There

and ethics, coupled with very different

that gives us something to think about

was no sense of wanting to be around

views of art, gives you what I was

and play with and enjoy and gives us,

each other, we just wanted to talk to

talking about earlier, which is paradise.

albeit possibly an illusion of, free will.

each other and get ideas together.

41

PW: TO BE HONEST, YOU DON’T

someone’s doing, I follow everything

Randi, who I know has done a lot in

HEAR THAT A LOT IN THIS INDUSTRY!

they do. I have been a very, very hard

Australia, for scepticism, he was an

core fan of Bob Dylan from the time I

inspiration. Christopher Hitchens,

PENN: No, and I must say this because

was 12 right up until now at 64. There’s

my friend Richard Dawkins, for

my daughter gets very angry if I

nothing that Bob Dylan’s recorded

philosophy.

don’t… Teller is my BFF.

that I haven’t heard.

When my children were born he was

Then there are the people that I like

IN AUSTRALIA AT THE MOMENT

the first one to meet them, after my

politically: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the African

FOR YOUR SHOW 'FOOL US'. HARRY

wife and I of course, and the doctors.

Dutch freedom fighter writer, she’s

HOUDINI ONCE SAID, “NEVER TRY

When our parents died they were

always a big inspiration to me. My

TO FOOL CHILDREN, THEY EXPECT

the first ones we talked to. All of that

favourite writers are Nelson Baker

NOTHING AND THEREFORE SEE

kind of stuff is of course very, very

and Melville… I am crazy for Melville

EVERYTHING”. TRUE OR FALSE?

important and we are best friends. But

and Moby Dick. I am always reading

in terms of socialising, almost never.

Moby Dick. I finish it and I start it again,

PENN: Absolutely true! This goes

The exception of course is when we’re

that’s what I do.

back to my point that magic becomes

PW: YOU’RE PARTICULARLY FAMOUS

writing, we needed a coffee place, a

more enjoyable as you get older.

Starbucks or something, and then we’ll

PW: I HAVE THAT SAME

To children, because there’s not the

sit there together. Everybody around

RELATIONSHIP WITH JANE AUSTEN

intellectual plot they see moment by

our neighbourhood in Vegas knows

AND 'PRIDE AND PREJUDICE'. I DO

moment, their intellect does not lead

where Penn and Teller do their work,

THAT EVERY SIX MONTHS.

them astray. Richard Feynman, Nobel

that they go to coffee places to sit in and they know we’re working on bits.

PW: YOU’RE WORLD FAMOUS FOR BREAKING BOUNDARIES. IS THERE SOMEONE OUT THERE THAT YOU ADMIRE FOR THE SAME REASON? PENN: There’s a kind of person who is a fan, and I am a fan. When I decide that I’m interested in the work that

Prize winner, and who is a friend of PENN: You’ve got to have those books.

ours… the people that we have done

In jazz, I listen to a lot of Miles Davis.

magic for who are brilliant tend to

Our mentor, who died last year,

be very easy to fool. With Richard

Johnny Thompson, who for 20 years

Feynman all you had to do was do the

worked with us in everything we did,

same trick two different ways and you

the greatest magician of my lifetime,

fucked him sideways, he just could not

worked with us on everything, and

accept the fact you would change the

he was certainly an inspiration,

rules that way on him.

professionally, artistically, and personally. James Randi, The Amazing

I think Houdini’s exactly right.

Everybody around our neighbourhood in Vegas knows where Penn and Teller do their work, that they go to coffee places to sit in and they know we’re working on bits.

42

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Beaconsfield Terrace

BY LILLIAN CURTHOYS

This I will remember The sound of rain on corrugated iron, drumming as though it were impatient to fall A cellophane sky crackling I will remember the smell of mangoes in the kitchen, in the fruit bowl we’ve had for years Fruit flies whisking the air to make meringue Sometimes the bananas were rotten I will remember the way we cut caterpillars from the leaves of the Lilly Pilly, and put them in jars on the verandah And when we woke up It was a moving forest of black and white Hundreds and hundreds of legs all moving I will remember putting away 5c pieces into a silver money bank, And running to the store when you left the house Remember the mint jubes and melted ice cream I remember

LOTTO DREAMING

BY JUDITH MCLEAN

Great literature offers us many insights into metaphysical questions.

American novelist Ursula K. Le Guin uses the theme of paradise to explore questions of morality in her short allegorical tale The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas published in 1973 .

In this article I’ve annotated the fable with contemporary media fragments to reflect on the relevance of her tale today.

Every week my friend and I buy a lotto ticket, we’re not extravagant or stupid, we understand the odds are against us and yet the momentary exchange offers us a respite, an opportunity to dream of personal paradises. For her, it’s a private jet to New York to set up an animal refuge.

For me, it’s building a garden overlooking water to be sustainable.

I use this seemingly banal exercise often when I facilitate leadership

Yorker quoted something she

workshops and the responses and discussions are surprising similar – buy

said when accepting the Medal

a house, pay off the mortgage, look after the family, travel. Occasionally

for Distinguished Contribution

though someone moves beyond their own orbit and offers a more

to American Letters in 2014 –

selfless suggestion – an offering like my friend who wants to set up an

"Resistance and change often

animal refuge. These discussions inevitably lead to more existential

begin in art."

conversations about the ‘good life’, and the deeper philosophical questions of egalitarianism and morality.

Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk, who has thoroughly analysed

In the work The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Omelas is a utopian

the world of bankers in London,

city. The people are normal – they’re not 'simple folk' neither are they

argues that bankers can behave

'barbarians'. The narrator assures us that they’re “mature, intelligent,

amorally because they only

passionate adults whose lives were not wretched” encouraging us to

check whether their behaviour

identify with them as people just like ourselves. However, they’re different

is permitted by law. Yet they

in a unique way. The people of Omelas live lives free from the emotion of

definitely do violate the moral

guilt

basis of law.

, creating a kind of paradise. Guilt as a concept, a state of being, a

behaviour simply doesn’t exist, echoing the state of bliss that existed in the

In a 2016 piece in The Guardian,

original garden of paradise, Eden.

he said, “banking staff working

We initially meet the townspeople as they celebrate their annual festival.

“With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea.” The experience is described as: “Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of Omelas?”

46

When Ursula K. Le Guin died in January 2018, The New

in risk and compliance, the legal department and internal audit told me the question is always: How can we game the system within the rules?”

Remember the distinguishing feature of this city is that guilt is non-

A family of Tamil asylum

existent. If you’re beginning to sense that all isn’t as it seems in Omelas,

seekers from Biloela,

trust your instincts, for the narrator soon reveals the exorbitantly high

Queensland have been held

price paid to live in this city of bliss.

on Christmas Island since August 2019 after a court

It is revealed that the prosperity and joy of the city of Omelas is

ordered an injunction against

contingent on the perpetual misery of one child. All Omelas citizens are

the government removing

aware of this terrifying trade off, with children inducted into the horror at

them from Australia back to

around age seven or eight when they “can understand”.

Sri Lanka.

The situation is abject, a child living in a squalid basement alone, one child

Priya, her husband,

suffering so that the rest of the population can live in joy. Many Omelas

Nadesalingam, and their

people are deeply affected by the child’s existence yet ultimately, to live

Australian born children,

with joy and without guilt means the child must be sacrificed – promoting

Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, are

utilitarian values. Almost all agree to live silently alongside the horror.

awaiting a court decision about

“They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their

whether the government has properly considered whether the youngest child, Tharunicaa, is owed protection. The rest of the family has had their claims rejected. The Guardian, Josh Taylor 27 November 2019.

harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery.”

Le Guin’s catalysing question demands that we as readers consider our own paradoxes between paradise (or comfort) and the consequences – exploitation, environmental destruction, inequality, poverty. She asks who is the child in our basement?

But while there’s despair in Le Guin’s story there’s also hope. Some Omelas citizens refuse to witness or take part in the horror and walk away.

Leaving the city and embarking alone with their moral code as guide.

"Each one goes alone, youth or girl man or woman. Night falls… they go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back… But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

Unquestionably, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a fable for now urging us to reassess the injustices that sneak unguarded into our morality,

47

that create an inner numbing that tolerates deafness, silence, looking

Cardiff University’s

away, living alongside others misery without feeling guilt or a need to

Steve Westlake investigates the

take action

role of leading by example to

.

change social norms in relation In hindsight the lotto dreaming game mightn’t be as banal as first

to the environment. In a piece

thought. For when desires are more than solipsistic (gardening and

in The Conversation in April

looking after animals), they can contribute to more than self-indulgence,

2019 focused on the climate

literally and metaphorically. Co-opting French philosopher Voltaire’s

emergency he reflected on the

belief that gardening – any act of compassion – and enlightened social

debate about personal versus

reform are part of the same project. The project for Paradise according

collective action. “…This is a false

to Voltaire is an aligned inner aliveness where we use our intelligence to

dichotomy: individual action is

promote egalitarianism. Here Paradise is an ethical project.

part of the collective. So, while

Incidentally, I’ve decided I don’t need to wait to win the lotto to create my paradise and my grandkids and I have started building a garden.

We’ve planted tomatoes, capsicums, some salvia and a passionfruit

you won’t save the world on your own, you might be part of the solution.”

vine. Together we’re tending, tilling and growing, buoyed by Voltaire’s philosophy that to cultivate one’s garden is to make this world, right here and now, a little better.

48

T H E WOR L D ACCO R D IN G TO K EVI N M cCLOU D

M OT H E R

20 February 2020

C re m o rn e Th ea tre, Q PAC

Con ce r t H al l , QPAC

4 - 14 March 2020

For

reat the c

ive &

curio

us

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To Paradise or not to Paradise

BY ELIZA VITRI HANDAYANI

TO LIVE OR NOT TO LIVE

50

My grandmother has been bedbound for years. She

she liked, I’d read them to her; what movies she

says everything hurts, including eating, so she only

liked, we’d watch them together. Finally she said,

eats very little. Even though her mind remains

“Give it up, Eliza, I don’t enjoy anything anymore.

sharp, her body continues to wither – to the point

Everything hurts.” “So we’ll just talk,” I said. “Talking

that it hurts to look at her, a mere skeleton wrapped

hurts,” she said. As the nation around her obsesses

in dried skin. Her seven children take turns taking

about getting halal certification on their shampoo

care of her every day of the week, and over the

and refrigerators, renouncing music, dating, or

years when I visited I bought her new clothes and

whatever else the latest sensational YouTube ustadz

jewellery, anything to spark her interest in life, in

tells them to, my grandmother doesn’t seem to care.

getting better. Nothing worked. I asked her what

If there is a heaven, paradise, surga, or jannah, she

music she liked, I’d make her a playlist; what books

only wants not to be.

Maybe it’s not about how can I reach paradise, but how can we – how can our world become paradise?

TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE As a child, I was taught that if I perform my daily

garden with flowing rivers – and to enter paradise

prayers, fast during Ramadan, honour God and my

one only needs to have faith and do good deeds.

parents, give alms to the poor, and do more good deeds than bad deeds, then I could go to heaven, or

I of course asked “Having faith in what, and what

paradise as we say.

deeds are considered good?” If I was to embrace any religion at all, then I must believe that the essence of

As a young woman, I was told that for women to get

all religion is goodness. And thus, I take it to mean

into heaven, we must remain chaste, stay at home,

that I must have faith in goodness. But, what is

obey our husbands, and we must never say no when

goodness then?

our husband wants us for sex.

Since paradise is described as gardens with I lost interest in paradise. I thought: if we can only be

rivers, and they say we reap what we sow, maybe

happy either in this life or in the afterlife, at least let

goodness is much more than performing rituals,

me be happy in this one – for I know this life is real.

about bringing value to other humans, beings, and nature, and living in such a way that allows for life

As my family and surroundings become more and

everlasting – a green and lush planet that nurtures

more conservative, I’ve decided to restudy religion

all creatures, and a global society that understands,

so that I can have conversations with them. I found

instead of destroys, one another.

that paradise is mostly described in the Quran as a

51

TO THINK OR NOT TO THINK God says, "Read!" God says, "Think!"

If so, then is your God nothing but a tyrant? If so, why would you ever want to go to that paradise?

Men say, "It’s easy to be pious, don’t think and

True paradise is without paradism.

just follow me."

If your God orders you to kill your son and leave your family in the desert, would you do it?

Would you do it to get to paradise?

If you do it, does that mean that you fail to do good?

Or, does that mean that you have faith, that God would not order you to do something evil? That something worse would happen if you don’t do it?

But how do you know that the voice who claims to be God is not the Devil’s or your own twisted mind’s?

What does it say about one who commits violence and abandons their family to get into paradise?

Is paradise a place for those who obey, not

Paradism: the belief that morals, compassion, justice, equity, and goodness are irrelevant or secondary to some perceived commandments or rules, which if followed will get the observers into paradise; the belief that humanity and compassion is secondary to the rules of getting into paradise.

for those who are good?

TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE In 1965 a man wanted to create a nation in his

And the people protest in thousands banging

image and killed millions who stood in his way.

at the parliament’s gate. The police shoot water

He erected a paradise of development and

cannons and tear gas at them, and the men in

became a king in all but name – skyscrapers

power SEAR our forests to create a PARADISE

and rice fields grew from the blood-soaked

for themselves and hell for everyone else.

ground. You choose not to see, but people DIE in PARADISE.

Paradise, it seems, is created by excluding, repressing, or turning a blind eye to some people,

People from all over the world flock to this

those the dominant ones consider as ‘others’:

paradise of white sandy beaches, clear blue seas,

a place without sinners, the poor, the queer,

and terrific tax breaks. Their wastes choke bays

without critical voices, without communists,

and wilt corals, and their heaving desires crush

liberals, without those who are different, or

women and children. They choose not to see,

those who disagree…

but there is RAPE in PARADISE. We all seem to need a paradise of our own, but Now the king is gone, and a new group wants to

can your paradise ever be mine as well? Will I

create their own nation, a heaven on earth where

always be lonely in paradise?

no queer people and nonbelievers are allowed to enter. They choose not to see, but there is always PRIDE and PARADE in PARADISE.

52

TO CARE OR NOT TO CARE If good people go to paradise and the bad ones

And yet the prince and the swallow didn’t do what

burn in hell, would the people of paradise feel

they did to get into paradise. I feel the prince

any compassion for those who are suffering just

finds meaning in helping the poor seamstress,

outside the pearly gates? Would they help those

poet, and the little match girl. The swallow had

in hell, even if ordered not to? And if they obey,

imagined spending the winter in a sun-kissed

are they still considered good?

paradise, but instead he helped the prince create a paradise of golden rain for the city’s children.

This thought brings to mind Oscar Wilde’s

Maybe paradise isn’t for us to chase, for it will

The Happy Prince. In his lifetime the prince lived

only move away from us like the horizon or the

in the palace of Sans Souci – “where sorrow

swallow’s dreams of a warm Egypt.

wasn’t allowed to enter” – and he never looked beyond his palace’s walls.

After death, they turned him into a golden statue, soaring in the middle of the city. With his sapphire eyes he finally saw how the people were suffering, and that his pleasurable life was only possible by keeping the people poor and out of sight.

With the help of a little swallow, the prince gave away his jewels, his golden covering, and his sapphire eyes to the poor. After the swallow died

Maybe paradise is not a perfect place where sorrows aren’t allowed to enter, and birds aren’t allowed to die. Maybe it’s about filling our lives with moments of meaning and joy – momentary, shared paradises – a kiss on the lips, listening to a friend in need, looking into your beloved’s eyes as she lies beside you.

If there is a heaven, paradise, surga, or jannah, I only want to be.

from the winter’s cold and the prince’s now plain statue was demolished, an angel brought the prince’s heart and the swallow’s body to paradise.

TH E H A PPY PR IN C E AU STR A L IA N B A L L E T 25 - 29 February 2020 Ly ri c T h ea tre, Q PAC

53

Our Library Some of the books on our paradise shelf…

PARADISE LOST

CHARLIE AND THE

THE ONES WHO WALK

JOHN MILTON,

CHOCOLATE FACTORY

AWAY FROM OMELAS

FIRST PUBLISHED 1667,

ROALD DAHL,

URSULA K. LE GUIN,

SAMUEL SIMMONS

FIRST PUBLISHED 1964,

FIRST PUBLISHED 1973

ALFRED A KNOPF INC.

IN NEW DIMENSIONS,

One of the most influential works in the canon of English literature, Milton’s epic poem explores the loss of paradise from multiple perspectives.

In over 10,000 lines of text (originally published in 10 volumes) Paradise Lost tells the biblical story of the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

More than 350 years after it was first published, it remains a hugely influential work and an unparalleled consideration of man’s fallibility and desire for redemption.

A modern children’s classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in the US and became an immediate bestseller. A darkly comic morality tale featuring a cast of fabulously flawed characters who succumb to temptation as they tour Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory alongside unlikely hero – 11 year old Charlie Bucket. The book has inspired two film adaptations and most recently a stage musical.

Paradise Lost TH E GOOD BOOK

FRANKISSSTEIN 54

VOLUME 3 (ANTHOLOGY) Le Guin’s short story explores and challenges notions of utopia. The moral ambiguity at the heart of the story – a utopian city where everyone is permanently happy on the condition that one child remains locked away living in misery – asks us as readers to consider the cost of perfection.

Although first published in an anthology of science fiction and fantasy, the story defies conventional genre definitions and has been described as a work of philosophical fiction. Le Guin famously noted that the name for her fictional city Omelas came from seeing a sign for ‘Salem, Oregon’ backwards in a car mirror.

A LOT WITH A LITTLE

THE GOOD BOOK

FRANKISSSTEIN

TIM COSTELLO,

A.C. GRAYLING,

JEANETTE WINTERSON,

AUGUST 2019,

FIRST PUBLISHED

MAY 2019, JOHNATHAN CAPE

HARDIE GRANT BOOKS

MARCH 2011, NEW YORK:

Tim Costello is one of Australia’s best known public figures, commentators and activists. He has worked as a solicitor, a Baptist Minister, Mayor of St Kilda and as CEO of World Vision Australia and his work has been recognised through numerous awards and honours. In this memoir he considers the place of faith and power in the context of contemporary global challenges.

WALKER & COMPANY; LONDON: BLOOMSBURY A secular alternative to the Bible from renowned British philosopher and author, The Good Book draws on classical secular texts, reworking them into what has been described as a “manifesto for rational thought”.

A literary tour de force, The Good Book explores the fundamental challenges of being human.

In Frankissstein, literary superstar Jeanette Winterson pays homage to Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein in a post-Brexit world. A book that challenges us to consider our perspectives on being human in a world where smart technology, artificial intelligence and biotech increasingly blur the boundaries between human and non‑human beings.

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

A LOT WITH A LITTLE THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS

55

Behind the Scenes ALREADY OCCUPIED

QPAC’s Clancestry – A Celebration of Country is a three week program of performances, gatherings and creation of new work, honouring the significant role First Nations voices play in shaping the cultural landscape of Queensland.

As part of the 2019 program, Quandamooka artist Libby Harward created a series of installations across various locations at QPAC in her ongoing art project Already Occupied.

Asserting Aboriginal sovereignty through temporary installations on Country, Libby uses hi-vis and everyday traffic signage, employing humour, language and materiality to spark conversations about Country and her connection to it. Already Occupied explored the relationship between exploited land and the material from which colonialism is constructed as she turns tools of occupation into a vocabulary of resistance.

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Libby’s project prompted the question… ‘a paradise lost?’ To which Libby responded:

“The work of seventeenth century English politician and puritan John Milton, whose epic poetry told the story of the war for heaven and of man’s expulsion from Eden, proved portentous. Australia – Europe’s great unknown south land – was to become Hell on Earth for Britain’s convicts. As the 250th anniversary of Cook’s fateful voyage of discovery approaches, Australia’s First Peoples continue to remind the colonisers that ours is a stolen land, and continues to warn all of the dire consequences of the ongoing maltreatment of the lands and waters that sustained us from time immemorial.”

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58

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WHAT ’S ON

QPAC

JAN U NT IL 22 FEB

BITTERSWEET: THE RISE OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL

TO NY GO UL D GA L L ERY

3 – 4 JA N

OPE R AT ION OU CH ! L IVE ON STAGE

CO NCERT HA L L

3 JAN – 1 4 FEB

T H E B OOK OF M OR M ON

LYRIC T HEAT RE

7 – 11 JA N

ST IC K BY M E

STUD IO 1

7 – 18 JA N

WOL FGAN G’ S M AG ICAL M U S ICAL CIR CUS BY CIRCA

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

9 – 18 JA N

FAN TAST IC M R FOX

PL AYHO USE

13 JAN

AN EVE N IN G WIT H DAVID S E DAR IS

CO NCERT HA L L

14 – 25 JAN

C I R C A’ S P E E P S H OW

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

15 JAN

T H E B E AT L E S TWIST & S H OUT

CONCERT HALL

18 JAN

TOM S EG U R A : TAK E IT D OWN U N D E R TO UR

CONCERT HALL

19 JAN

DAN IE L TOS H

CONCERT HALL

2 2 – 2 5 JA N

B AL L E T T H E AT R E QU E E N S L AN D – S WA N L A KE ACT II & GRA D UAT IO N B A L L

P L AY H O U S E

2 9 – 3 0 JA N

H AN N AH G AD S BY – D OU GL AS

CO NCERT HA L L

31 JAN – 1 FEB

DAVID S U C H E T, P OIR OT AN D M OR E – A RET RO SPECT IVE

CONCERT HALL

4 FEB

T H E B L IN D B OY P OD CAST

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

5 – 8 FEB

M I:WI

STUDIO 1

6 F EB

YU N D I L I S ON ATA WOR L D TOU R 2020

CONCERT HALL

7 FEB

R AN DY N EWM AN

CONCERT HALL

8 F EB

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST RA – P OWER A ND GLO RY

CONCERT HALL

8 – 2 9 FEB

QU E E N S L AN D T H E AT R E – E M E R AL D C ITY

P L AY H O U S E

11 F EB

G L ADYS K N IG H T

CONCERT HALL

12 F EB

R U PAU L’ S D R AG R AC E – WE R Q T H E WO RL D TO UR 2020

CO NCERT HA L L

12 – 15 FEB

CO_ EX _ EN

STUDIO 1

14 F EB

IL IZ A S H L E S IN G E R

CONCERT HALL

15 F EB

J OR G E M AS VIDAL

CO NCERT HA L L

16 FEB

G E N E K E L LY – T H E L EGACY

CO NCERT HA L L

17 F EB

AU ST R AL IAN CH AM B E R OR CH E ST R A – B EET HOVEN 1, 2 & 3

CO NCERT HA L L

18 – 22 FEB

F LOWE R

FUNCT IO N RO O M

19 FEB

KAT E T E M PE ST

CO NCERT HA L L

20 F EB

T H E WOR L D ACCOR D IN G TO K EVIN MCCLO UD

CO NCERT HA L L

2 1 F EB

JAS ON AL EXAN D E R – M AST E R OF H IS D O MA IN

CONCERT HALL

2 2 F EB

IN CONVERSATION WITH MARGARET ATWOOD

CO NCERT HA L L

23 FEB

SOUTHERN CROSS SOLOISTS – THE TRUMPET UNLEASHED

CONCERT HALL

25 – 29 FEB

THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET – THE HAPPY PRINCE

LY R I C T H E AT R E

26 FE B

T H E AU ST R AL IAN B AL L E T – B E H IN D THE SCENES

LY R I C T H E AT R E

26 FE B

CON C H ITA W U R ST & T R EVOR AS H L EY IN CO NCERT FEATURING KAT E MIL L ER- HEID KE

CONCERT HALL

27 F EB

R U S S E L L B R AN D – R ECOVE RY L IVE

CONCERT HALL

2 8 FE B

THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET – THE MUSIC OF THE DANCE

LYRIC T HEAT RE

2 8 – 29 FEB

AN H D O – T H E H APPIE ST R E F U G E E L IVE! !

CO NCERT HA L L

2 9 FE B

T H E AU ST R AL IAN B AL L E T – M CAL L ISTER IN CO NVERSAT IO N

LYRIC T HEAT RE

FE B

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MARC H 1 M AR

M E D IC I CON C E RTS – JAYS ON G IL L H AM

CO NCERT HA L L

3 M AR

AU ST R AL IAN B R AN D E N B U R G OR C H E ST RA – VIVA L D I’ S VENICE

CO NCERT HA L L

4 – 8 MAR

S E N IOR M OM E N TS 2 – R E M E M B E R , R E M EMB ER

PL AYHO USE

4 – 14 M A R

M OT H E R

CREMO RNE T HEAT RE

6 – 7 M AR

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST R A – MUSICA L SO RCERY

CONCERT HALL

11 – 12 M AR

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST R A – B EN FO L D S: T HE SYMPHO NIC TO UR

CONCERT HALL

12 – 14 MA R

QU E E N S L AN D B AL L E T – L ADY OF T H E CA MEL L IA S

P L AY H O U S E

14 M ARCH

QU E E N S L AN D YOUT H OR CH E ST R A

CONCERT HALL

15 M AR

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST R A – T HE B A L L ET B EAUT IFUL

CONCERT HALL

F RO M 18 M A R

C H AR L IE AN D T H E CH OCOL AT E FACTORY

LY R I C T H E AT R E

18 – 19 MA R

R OL L IN G T H U N D E R VIE T N AM

CONCERT HALL

20 M AR

C H AT 1 0 LOOKS 3 L IVE

CO NCERT HA L L

20 – 2 8 M A R

QU E E N S L AN D B AL L E T ’ S 6 0T H AN N IVE R S A RY GA L A

PL AYHO USE

25 – 29 MAR

WOR L D S CIE N C E F E ST IVAL – 2020 EVE N TS

CO NCERT HA L L & CREMORN E TH E ATRE

30 M AR

AU ST R AL IAN CH AM B E R OR CH E ST R A – ARVO PÄ RT & SHO STA KOVICH

CO NCERT HA L L

31 M AR

C E L E B R AT IN G N IN A S IM ON E – F E ATU R ING L ISA SIMO NE

CO NCERT HA L L

1 – 4 APR

AU ST R AL IAN DAN C E COL L ECT IVE – T H R EE ( L IST ER, L A NE , SHECHT ER)

P L AY H O U S E

2 APR

CAM E R ATA – COM PAS S ION

CONCERT HALL

3 – 4 APR

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST R A – MOZA RT ’ S JUPIT ER

CONCERT HALL

7 – 18 APR

T H E C H OIR OF M AN

P L AY H O U S E

18 APR

QU E E N S L AN D P OP S OR CH E ST R A – S IM PLY T HE B EST O F T HE P O P S

CONCERT HALL

19 APR

S IN G-A- LON G S OU N D OF M U S IC

CONCERT HALL

2 1 – 26 APR

U M B IL ICAL B R OT H E R S – T H E D IST R ACT ION

PL AYHO USE

2 1 APR – 3 M AY

CAR L B AR R ON – S KAT IN G R IN K FOR F L IES

LY R I C T H E AT R E

2 2 APR

DAN IE L S LOS S

CONCERT HALL

24 + 26 A PR

QU E E N S L AN D SYM PH ON Y OR CH E ST R A – O PERA GA L A

CONCERT HALL

2 8 APR – 2 M AY

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

P L AY H O U S E

2 8 APR – 9 M AY

MEDEA

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

30 APR

S PIR IT OF T H E DAN C E

CONCERT HALL

APRIL

VI S I T Q PAC .CO M . AU O R CA L L 1 3 6 24 6 FO R B O O K I N G S O R M O R E I N FO R M AT I O N .

I N FO R M AT I O N CO R R ECT AT T I M E O F PR I N T I N G .

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Image credits INSIDE COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

PAGE 4 & 5

Sondheim: A Musical Tribute, 11 March 1973. Shubert Theater on Broadway.

Image: Getty Images

Sydney Image: iStock

John Kotzas, Chief Executive, QPAC Photographer: Mindi Cooke

Corner store Photographer: Lillian Curthoys

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

PAGE 8 & 9

PAGE 10

PAGE 13

PAGE 15

Planet Venus Image: Alamy Stock Photo

The Garden of Eden Artist: Erastus Salisbury Field

Alice Par John Tenniel Artist: John Tenniel

Walled Garden Artist: Lucy Panes

PAGE 16 & 17

PAGE 18

PAGE 20

PAGE 24 & 25

Image: Alamy Stock Photo

A.C. Grayling Photographer: Chris Boland www.chrisboland.com

Hercules at the Crossroads Artist: Paolo de Matteis

Actor Lupino Lane Playing Piano Upside Down Image: Getty Images

COVER Summer Skies Artist: Karen Lynch

Dame Mary Gilmore Image: Alamy Stock Photo Crossroads Image: Alamy Stock Photo

PAGE 27

PAGE 29

PAGE 30 & 31

PAGE 38

Nell Photographer: Nell Schofield

Bondi Pavilion Image: Shutterstock

Paradise Image: Alamy Stock Photo

Penn Jillette Photographer: Francis George

PAGE 40 & 41

PAGE 44

PAGE 47

PAGE 4 8

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign Image: iStock

Parking at rear Photographer: Lillian Curthoys

Money Tree Image: Shutterstock

Garden Image: iStock

PAGE 50 & 51

PAGE 56 & 57

PAGE 58 & 59

PAGE 64 & 65

Hands & Waterfall Images: iStock

Already Occupied Photographer: Jo-Anne Driessens

Already Occupied Photographer: Jo-Anne Driessens

Jonathan Biggins as Paul Keating Photographer: Brett Boardman

Penn & Teller Photographer: Francis George

QPAC Photographer: Darren Thomas

Jonathan Biggins is many things including actor, singer, writer, comedian and director.

But onstage in The Gospel According to Paul he’s pure PJK – wit, intellect and ego. It’s like he’s inhaled his essence.

If you sat with him for long enough you would probably forget that Biggins is not actually Paul Keating. But we’ve only got 5 minutes…

DESCRIBE YOUR VERSION OF PARADISE? My family has a shack by the Allyn River in the Hunter Valley, NSW, just on the edge of a state forest park. Paradise is the swimming hole, sitting on the rock looking back up the river.

But like all paradises, it’s hard to find the time to go there.

WHAT DO YOU THINK PJK MIGHT SAY IF WE ASKED HIM THE SAME QUESTION? Paradise cannot exist for PJK because he knows there is no such thing as perfection. But I’m sure a close second would be living in Paris in that sweet spot of history between Robespierre and Napoleon; all the intellectual stimulation of the Enlightenment but with paracetamol, antibiotics and decent dentistry.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU REMEMBER THAT MADE YOU LAUGH? I have trouble remembering what happened yesterday but I daresay it was something that makes every child laugh – watching a sibling falling over or getting into trouble.

'THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PAUL' IS VERY POPULAR WITH AUDIENCES. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS REALLY LANDING FOR THEM?

FIVE MINUTES WITH

Jonathan Biggins

Even to those who opposed his politics at the time, Paul Keating represents two things that are conspicuously absent today: leadership and vision. It’s not nostalgia, more a despairing recognition of what we’ve lost in our political discourse.

Balanced by the fact that he’s very funny.

PARADISE IS OFTEN DESCRIBED AS AN ABSENCE OF THINGS. WHAT THREE THINGS WOULD YOU REMOVE FROM THE WORLD TO MAKE IT MORE LIKE PARADISE? One: awful to say it – and I don’t know how you’d begin to choose – but three quarters of the human population. Not because they’re unpleasant, there’s just too many of us. Two: social media, greatest threat to democracy yet devised. Three: lists.

DISCOVER MORE AT QPAC.COM.AU/STORY

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PAUL 28 April - 2 May 2020

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P l ay h o u s e , Q PAC

ABOUT QPAC

CONTACT

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 January 2020.

The mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven.

- John Milton, Paradise Lost

PUBLISHED BY QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

qpac .com.au | #qpacstor y