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
