Saturday 12 February 2000

The Torch, Feb 12 2000


by The Torch Company
at North Melbourne Town Hall until February 20, 2000
Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The last fifteen minutes of The Torch are filled with potent images and powerful, passionate social commentary. Even after the curtain call, the poignancy continues with Uncle Emanuel Cooper, elder of the Yorta Yorta tribe, singing "In the Sweet By and By".

The Torch is community theatre at its most engaging and effective. It combines professional artists with members of the community, most of whom are non-Anglo Australians, either Kooris or immigrants from all continents. The result is a vibrant, colourful and heartfelt production.

The issues arising are those inherent in our multicultural country. We confront racism, poverty, abuse, conservatism, homelessness and despair. But we also see a growing sense of community and acceptance, some steps toward reconciliation and a pride in our past, wherever it was.

Director, Stefo Nantsou has a deft hand. He devised a clever and socially challenging script with input from the company of actors. He cultivates a fine level of performance in a group of largely non-professional actors.

There are several threads to the story. In Tidy Town in country Australia, the community prepares for the Olympic Torch to be carried through the town. Local resident, Rose (Andrea James) attends her mother's funeral with her father, Bill. (Steve Payne)

Her journey through grief takes her to the city where she confronts hostels, housing commission flats and the ethnic diversity that was absent from her rural life.

The most significant meeting is with an old Koori, Uncle Shady, (Tony Briggs) who knows more about Rose and her past than Rose herself. Rose must reassess who she is, here she fits in and how to live her life.

Nadja Kostich is luminous as the persecuted Serbian immigrant and Sally Mwangola has great dignity as the wife of a Kenyan doctor. Jim Daly is versatile in several roles.

Nantsou creates some truly magical and painful images amongst a stage set of grey boxes. Cultural icons, such as the Unknown Soldier, collide with aboriginal ghosts. A settlement of Kooris are violently moved from their land. Tidy Town residents mass to watch the Torch run .

The international Olympic coverage cameras capture Rose's exceptionally creative no-violent protest action in Tidy Town. It makes a gloriously poetic and admirable ending to this delightful and emotional play.


by Kate Herbert

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