A wonderfully written though chilling piece of verbatim theatre, Dead Man Brake marks ten years since the appalling Waterfall train crash. Playwright Alana Valentine (Run Rabbit Run, Parramatta Girls) has used the words of survivors and victims’ families, as well as emergency services workers and the inquiry transcript itself, to explore what actually happened and why.
At 6:24 am on Friday31 January 2003, a State Rail train left Sydney on its southern journey to Wollongong but never reached its destination. Just past Waterfall station the train left the tracks. The incident claimed seven lives and injured dozens more in what is now known as the Waterfall Train Disaster.
Valentine’s play about the event and its aftermath includes some poetry and extraordinary singing and music, leading to some very stirring performances. Particularly after the extended opening song, overlapping speech rhythms are used, and the script seems akin to a church service in parts, an acknowledgment of the formalised rituals of grief, though at times one is unsure whether this is a musical or a play.
Dark humour is employed to lighten the mood; Katrina Retallick as ABC journalist Nonee Walsh brings vibrancy and colour as she relates how technology conspired to make her miss a major news scoop.
All the cast play multiple roles, character differences indicated by a slight change of costume (hat, head scarf, apron, another shirt, etc). From the verbatim reports we get a graphic idea of the train speeding and how the first carriage ‘flew’ off the tracks. Vivid quotes from survivors and rescuers tell us into what happened next.
The small ensemble all give excellent performances. Sabryna Te’o in a glamorous long blue dress opens the show with an extended vocal solo; her character’s presence seems akin to a concerned spirit of the land watching over all.
We have monologues from priests, paramedics and police who rescued survivors, and from survivors themselves, with graphic descriptions of their injuries. The powerful grief of family members of those who did not survive resonates strongly. We also learn how survivors and SES rescuers coped after the event – or not – with post traumatic stress. Philip Hinton as Lieutenant Colonel Don Woodland, chaplain and trauma officer, has a long, powerful monologue about the power of prayer and the search for answers which concludes the show.
The very plain set features a few folding chairs, a tilted and broken powerline, and a grey concrete curve: the train track or the curve of an amphitheatre. By the end of the play it has been graffitied. Daryl Wallis, the composer/sound designer, is situated stage right and is visible throughout.
Perhaps significantly, the show’s running time is roughly equal to the length of the journey to Wollongong from the Sydney CBD by train.
With Dead Man Brake, Valentine has fashioned a respectful yet shattering and harrowing play that is gripping and compelling, wonderfully performed.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Merrigong Theatre Company present
Dead Man Brake
By Alana Valentine
Director Anne-Louise Rentell
Lighting Designer Toby Knyvett
Set Designer Anne-Louise Rentell
Costume Designer Imogen Ross
Sound Designer Daryl Wallis
Cast Alicia Battestini, Nicholas Brown, Gerard Carroll, Phillip Hinton, Drayton Morley, Katrina Retallick and Sabryna Te’o
Running time: 100 mins (approx) no interval
Gordon Theatre, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
28 August – 7 September
(Pictured: Photo: Heidrun Lohr)
