Act Safe-Physical Theatre and its Risks, April 10, 1994

THEATRE FEATURE

Feature Article: Act Safe- Physical Theatre and its Risks

Writer: Kate Herbert on April 10, 1994

This article was published in The Melbourne Times after April 10, 1994

 

The last few years have borne witness to some gruesome accidents in the theatre.

 

Anni Davey fell head-first breaking her neck during a Circus Oz performance in Perth. Heather Tetu dropped nine metres from a trapeze in her show at Jupiter's Casino in Surfers' Paradise in '92 smashing both ankles and putting her in a wheelchair until recently. She spends 16 hours a day in therapy.

 

An actor in All of Me, the Legs on the Wall show, fell and smashed her jaw during the Adelaide Fringe. Camilla Sobb miraculously survived two shipping containers falling on her during rehearsal for STC's The Visit at the Opera House recently.

 

The Actors' Equity branch of the Media and Entertainment Alliance is at present consolidating a new Health and Safety policy for artists in live performance. Which, says Merryn Canning, Melbourne Equity organiser, has been in the pipeline for at least five years.

 

Insurance covers injuries generally but Canning says that companies seem loth to insure performers. "They think they're wild beasties. I think they have this image of everybody tearing along motorways at four in the morning, coked out of their heads drinking champagne out of bottles. Instead of everybody being tucked up in bed with their milo learning their lines, which is closer to reality cos we're also very poor."

 

 The draft policy, formulated by Sean Marshall, Equity Organiser in Sydney is doing the rounds to offices all over the country. Marshall says that it is geared to mainstream theatre employer-employee relationships.

 

Employer groups are legally bound to take responsibility for safety issues. The problem is that, in the entertainment industry, many artists are self-employed or are engaged in collective work developed outside of the normal worker-employer framework. Individual artists are not always as careful of their own welfare says Canning and they are out of her jurisdiction.

 

Sean Marshall draws comparisons between stunt actors and physical theatre workers. Stunties have very rigorous codes of safety and they are never live. They work on television and film sets where there is a great capacity to cheat the eye and provide safety factors which are unseen by the audience.

 

Osteopath, Stephen Sexton, treats many of the bodies broken and damaged in live performance. He believes that the fatigue of physical performance is a major factor in injury. Extra work is involved in touring, setting up a tent, rigging seating and equipment, doing late shows, multiple performances, working difficult and unfamiliar venues to limited time frames. All this adds to the normally high stress of performance and can reduce concentration and cause accidents.

 

Sexton believes the ego often prevents artists seeing the danger to which they are subjecting themselves when fatigued. Artists will try tricks not suited to their stature or beyond their skill level. 

 

 Obviously it is not just performers who cause accidents. Directors may demand more of their company than is safe or possible through ignorance or exuberance. I have seen unskilled actors hanging by their, running barefoot on unsafe surfaces, bruised or damaged from rehearsals or workshops.

 

Although Sexton suggests that 80-90% of the injuries he treats are the result of performer error, fatigue or over-doing it. Equipment failure, says Sexton, causes much grosser injuries. A trapeze platform fell from under Nikki Ashton recently and, two years ago, a broken foot loop caused Anni Davey's fall from a trapeze.

 

Anni Davey recommends that artists take responsibility for their equipment and therefore their lives, by always checking if not rigging, their own equipment. In some cases the artists are not allowed to rig because of union job demarcations. Artists put their trust in their support staff. Technicians and stagehands are responsible for rigging and safety checks. Davey suggests that technicians, particularly Stage Managers and Production Managers, should be specifically trained in rigging for circus.

 

Davey says many producers crop "bump-in" (set-up) time to cut costs.  Circus Oz tours internationally and is often employed by festival management and festivals like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Edinburgh have a very tight turn-around time on shows. At least a two-day bump-in is essential for Circus but some producers demand one day which is inadequate.

 

Guy Hooper who has worked for Death Defying Theatre, Circus Oz, MRPG and Back to Back, has the dubious honour of being the only person ever to injure himself falling onto an air-bag crash mat.  Having come from a theatre background, Hooper wanted to increase his skills and test his nerve by sitting on a trapeze bar, but he had omitted to learn how to fall properly. He was covered by WorkCare and the Circus looked after him, but Hooper believes it was his responsibility to educate himself.

 

Rigorous and extreme physical theatre training such has Butoh has come into vogue recently bringing physical problems for actors, even though they "are reasonably fit and very committed", Hooper suggests a slow build up to this training is necessary to avoid injury.

 

Hooper was impressed by the attitude of a speaker at the Contemporary Performance Workshops in Sydney in October 1993. This physiotherapist advised artists to avert injury by learning how to maintain their bodies' fitness, flexibility, balance and strength. To emphasise one only can be dangerous. Flexibility without strength can leave joints without muscles to support them.

 

We are yet to see the long-term effects of physical theatre, says Hooper. We have seen dancers with hip replacements and shot knees and are starting to see acrobats with chronic tendonitis from repetitive stressful actions.

 

Physical Theatre now characterises Australian performance. So how we do we change this damaging scenario and preserve the well-being of our artists? Anni Davey fears that being "prescriptive" about safety issues could lead to being "restrictive". Guy Hooper believes more could be done in companies to ensure members have seen demonstrations and understand application of techniques in practice. Stephen Sexton recommends some kind of monitoring of fatigue levels and safety codes.

 

It would seem that it is an issue of education. Artists, directors, trainers, technicians and producers need to be informed of dangers, controls, guidelines and policies and should be encouraged to take responsibility for themselves.

 

One thing is certain. We cannot stop artists performing or taking risks.  Says Sexton, "That's part of being a performer. If you take that away from them, they're not going to be any good, are they?" The physical buzz must be stronger than the survival instinct or Anni Davey would not be hanging off that ol' trapeze again.

 

By Kate Herbert