Written and directed by Geoffrey Sykes, this is the story of convict George Clarke.
There are three intriguing creative choices being made.
One is to include original musical numbers. The songs, written by Steve Wood, are engaging. Kate Stewart, Tisha Kelemen and Freya Moore give particularly pleasing vocal performances, but it’d be terrific to hear these songs performed with more texture than voice, guitar and found percussion allow.
The second intriguing creative choice is to have Clarke’s story told by an old fashioned travelling theatre troupe. We’re being told a historical story through another historical story. I’m not sure of the value of this. As the different characters in the troupe aren’t meaningfully distinguished, the effect is to slow down the story we’re actually being asked to care about. The choice also facilitates the use of direct narration, disappointing to an audience perhaps desirous of drama rather than documentary.
The third intriguing choice is perhaps not as intriguing as the others, simply because it reflects the zeitgeist. Clarke is obviously valued as a character because of the genuine links he made with indigenous people; he spent at least five years living with peoples beyond the colonial frontier and is said to have taken an indigenous wife. However, the production presents none of this experience; it’s recalled, briefly, in conversations between colonisers. I can’t blame Sykes for this reticence – it’d be a foolhardy artist who would now appropriate the stories of the marginalised – but it’s a choice that can’t help but weaken this particular story.
And that’s a pity, because the piece clearly brims with an open-hearted awareness of injustice, to both the original inhabitants of this land and to those who’ve sought a happier resolution to colonial contact than we’re yet to achieve.
Paul Gilchrist
Australia Felix by Geoffrey Sykes
at Richard Wherrett Studio, Roslyn Packer Theatre until April 6
Theatre Red 
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