The denizens of Artsville, Orstraya, are intensely, relentlessly and simplistically obsessed with race. Like the sad and bitter ol' commies who see everything in terms of class, these poor little poppets are pretty much incapable of seeing people as individuals before they are members of a racial group. This tends to make them blowhards and bores -- particular in packs, which they feel most comfortable in. And it often greatly reduces the complexity and power of their work.
This is depressing, particularly in the case of drama. Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that this form worked best when ambivalently exploring power struggles between complex and contradictory individuals.
But now, it seems you've just gotta have a black versus white theme with a clearly PC angle and not only will you get your play financed far more easily but the critics will be much more positively disposed towards it too.
Take the The White Divers of Broome, which is playing as part of The Perth International Arts Festival.
I haven't seen this play, nor will I. So I am coming from prejudice here. But much as I'd like to say otherwise, my prejudice against the Aussie theatre scene is always confirmed.
That's why I reckon it's a lay down misere that this production will have an overtly preachy and didactic tone and cardboard characters including eeevil racist imperialists and feisty, salt of the Earth lefties and non-white activists.
Critics will dutifully respond by saying how searingly insightful it is, and still relevant today -- what with the Abbott-incited race riot on Australia Day, etc, etc, blah blah blah, ad bloody nauseam.
But hey, if anyone has other ideas, please feel free to add them in comments below.
"I was embarrassed to not know about this WA story and the shameful latent racism that existed at the time," (Stuart) Halusz said.
ReplyDeleteThere it is right there, Matt. Anyone who ponies up for a ticket can expect comprehensive white-folks-are-such-EVIL-bastards! sermonising.
Wake me up when someone writes a play about the Fiji coup of 1987. The indigenous Fijians versus the Fijian Indians - one group of coloured folk getting heavy on another group of coloured folk.
Japan's behaviour in Manchuria in the 1930s also springs to mind.
Seems you may well be in need of a wake-up call. Not least of all because in your somnambulist haze you've missed the fact that this is Australia... not Fiji or Japan.
DeleteWhile I'm not denigrating the history of either of those countries, surely our own needs to be explored. How can we make any claim to understand others when we're completely ignorant of ourselves?
Besides, what makes you think that a play about Japan's behaviour in Manchuria would be any less slanted or biased toward one group at the expense of another?
Every work of fiction brings a certain agenda to the table based on the views of the author. Ummm... that's why it's called FICTION. Right?
Never mind. Return to your slumber. The Land of Nod seems well suited to you. Cheers... and sweet dreams.
"...it seems you've just gotta have a black versus white theme with a clearly PC angle and not only will you get your play financed far more easily but the critics will be much more positively disposed towards it too. " Im wondering if you are new to the anti-White atmoshpere of our times? Did you think this has come about naturally? You do know its by design right?
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