THEATRE
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, until 2 December 2021Reviewer: Kate Herbert
After repeated
cancellations and postponements during Lockdowns, Archimedes War by Melissa
Reeves is finally on stage. Phew! I have not seen this production yet but here are some images and info for you. KH
Harry Musgrove with Richie Hallal, pic by Pia Johnson
Written by Melissa Reeves
Directed by Susie Dee
Performed by Daniela Farinacci, Jim Russell, Richie Hallal, Harry Musgrove, Jordan Fraser Trumble and Eva Seymour
Set
and Video design: Romanie Harper
Set and Costume Bethany J Fellows
Lighting design: Lisa Mibus
Sound: Ian Moorhead
From Media Release:
Fifteen-year-old Arki can’t shake the dead
bodies of the players he’s killed in his online combat games on his PS4. His
mother takes him to a psychiatrist who thinks he has PTSD. In her quest to help
her son, she turns to those involved in real world war afflictions including a
Major from the Australian Army and refugees from Afghanistan.
“Archimedes War was inspired by reading about the devastating effects of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on combatants and civilians. It explores the terrible mental cost of fighting or living with a war from the perspective of what happens back here at home. There is a cultural centrality to films and games about war that sits oddly with the fact that even as we were deeply involved, fighting a war in Afghanistan, back here in Australia, we were curiously unaware, even uninterested in what was going on,” said writer Melissa Reeves.
