Image: HART photograph by Gabi Briggs.
‘Is Australia the successful multicultural society we make it out to be?’ This is one of the confronting questions put to the audience of HART, a one man show created and performed by Noongar actor, Ian Michael.
Australia has a torrid history. For a period of over 60 years, stretching right into the 1970s, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of the ideology of assimilation, the ridiculous assumption of black inferiority, white superiority and the attempted elimination of an entire culture.
This heartbreaking process has left a legacy of trauma and loss that continues to affect communities, families and individuals to this day.
Names were changed, traditional languages were forbidden, and whether ‘adopted’ into families or placed in institutions children were taught to reject their heritage and forget their families. But of course, these are things which are not so easily taught, and are even harder to forget.
HART invites us to listen to ‘the silenced stories of this country’, piecing together fragments of multiple tales, using the words of actual survivors of the stolen generation. Michael is a beautifully affable performer, jumping between characters of old, and relating experiences from his own life with ease.
The stories are stunningly curated, but are cut too short. Just as you begin to resonate with one of the personalities – again, all of whom are portrayed so stunningly by Michael, you are ripped out of one community and taken 200 kilometres or more to the next stricken town and family. A dazzling array of towns and communities are mentioned and represented, each profile sadder than the next – but if any show was built to scratch more than the surface and if any performer could take an audience to the depths of feeling possible in translating such tales, this is it – and this is him.
The connections are slightly jarring and detract somewhat from the stark reality and intensity of each tale.
It is so important that these stories are told, and these audiences (at least) are willing to listen, but it is almost like we need to be horrified and faced with true details. One can almost see this as a feature film, where characters are introduced and developed to such a point that an audience cries for, cheers for and feels at one with the characters that we have journeyed with. HART may make you cry. But it should have made us cry harder.
The creative team have used subtlety to perfection, combining soft lighting, voiceovers, soundscapes, puffs of chalk and a remarkable array of images to convey impressive force.
Voiceovers highlight the uselessness of political figures and radio/TV personalities and their feeble rhetoric (of both the time and now) perfectly, even more so when paired with the images that can’t help but linger.
Hart puts necessary focus on the injustices of the past, highlighting the ignorance, prejudice and exclusion displayed by white Australia even today, and one hopes this opens the door even wider for new directions in the future, as the cycle of trauma has a strong and just hold and such harsh reality cannot be real for much longer.
Beautifully written and relayed, but there is room for even more HART.
Rating: 3.5 stars out 5.
HART
Performer & Co-writer: Ian Michael
Co-writer: Seanna van Helten
Director: Penny Harpham // Producer: Anna Kennedy
Lighting Designer: Katie Sfetkidis
Sound Designer: Raya Slavin
Set & Costume Designer: Chloe Greaves
AV Designer: Michael Carmody
Stage Manager: Tonie-Rayne Steele
The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge
24 May – 11 June 2016
WARNINGS: Recommended for ages 12+
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this production contains images or names of people who have since passed away.
This production also involves flour that contains gluten.​
