>Philip K. Walsh's film of Round the Boree Log was released in 1925, just as
>American films were flooding into Australia and the industry was starting to
>take off. nobody saw the film; in fact, many exhibitors refused to screen
>it. in this sense, Americanisation was a saviour. people were so turned off
>by sentimental bush tales and what some titled "Roman Catholic propaganda"
>that when Walsh's next film, "The Birth of White Australia", was released in
>1928, it was hounded by audiences. the film's subject matter stressed the
>importance of stemming the tide of Asiatics which threatened the
>"submergence of the white race".
Thinking here also of the strong nationalisms which energised Australian
theatre in the 1960s/70s, the APG and Nimrod - necessary nationalisms one
might say, but how that surge of energy was also hugely international -
not only the Williamsons, Hibberds, Romerils as conventionally cited but
also performers like Sue Ingleton, playwrights like Arabal, Handke - and
how over time that diverse energy became nailed down into an image of
Australian theatre as this loveable knockabout larrikin "physical
theatre" and most of it simply elided (there is no history of the APG -
the overviews that do exist are for a number of reasons woefully
inadequate, and I've garnered most of the history I know _orally_ ). In
the 80s this became a schlerotic orthodoxy which simply cut out
international influences - to the detriment of Australian theatre
culture, which acted as if it was a sub division of London and
off-Broadway, while bruiting of this exciting theatre culture (in reality
reactionary and derivative) we were supposed to have. There were a
number of indigenous plays and productions happening at the time, eg the
beginnings of Bangarra, and Jack Davis' production of No Sugar - which
was among the most politically energised and theatrically interesting
work around.
It has often seemed to me that a true cultural regionalism (if I could
hijack that word, John) can only exist in a context which is consciously
and permeably international. There are certain counter-influences now
happening in various places - the studio theatre at the STC for example,
or in various individuals like Barrie Kosky - and my observation now is
that there is a sense of stasis in such crisis that it is beginning to
spill into flux: it would be nice to think so. But there are strong
bureaucratic structures in place which which mitigate strongly against
many of the energies now present.
My investigations of these movements in the 80s and 90s was where I
started thinking that what existed in Australia was an "official
culture", such as you read about in the newspapers, and then what
actually happens, which the wider population is not privileged enough to
hear about. Ie, a bottleneck which happens in the critical culture which
mediates these things - a big and complex problem, and as difficult to
deal with as anything else which is endemic and, mostly, unseen, because
undiscussed: there is staggeringly little outside "received opinion" (I
mean, in the mass media: we have to think outside our small part of it).
It's particularly clear in theatre because of its temporal nature, but
might apply as well to poetry.
Thanks Jill for that mention of Herkt - I saw years ago a wonderful
series by him on Rimbaud, which I liked very much - I haven't seen any of
his recent work.
Forgive the rather random and muddled nature of these thoughts: I'm
supposed to be doing something else.
Best
Alison
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