Congratulations again to Brave New Word. They’re a company dedicated to new work. Our culture needs it.
Big Crow by Mark Langham is a provocative confection. Set in 1930’s rural New South Wales, it’s concocted from elements of sitcom, black humour and Australian Gothic. This is challenging for performers but fascinating for audience members.
Photo by David Hooley
The play’s concern is the oppressed: exploited workers, mistreated women and the dispossessed, original inhabitants of this land.
Like much Australian Gothic, there’s an overarching sense of dread, a sense that crimes committed are yet to be fully acknowledged. Something’s not right with the world.
Langham’s recurring motif is the crow. Ominous and evoking death, they perpetually scratch at the roof above us. They’ll have our eyes out, I fear, if we don’t learn to see our failings.
Paul Gilchrist
Big Crow by Mark Langham
til 4 March at The Actor’s Pulse, 103 Regents St, Redfern
Info and tix here
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