A summer night. Friends in t-shirts and hoodies roam the empty streets of Bermagui – drinking, climbing things – cars, fences, railings, garden beds. Loud music. A car with a dirty windscreen. The windows down. Hot chips. A bonfire at the beach. Rugged bushland surrounds the beach. A campsite. A girl you might kiss. A friend you might owe money to, you might fight with…

Nikola (Max Rapley) and Chris (Charles Purcell) are long time friends, who haven’t seen each other in a while. After school they head down the coast for a party on the beach – there’s beer, a bonfire and a babe called Sophia (Sheena Reyes). Nikola is Sophia’s boyfriend and he loves her – possessively so, and Chris is hoping to maybe find a girl at the party, but really might be more concerned about his car getting broken into. Nikola is full of bravado and adventure and confidence – Chris on the other hand is not so sure and Sophia is a little bit stuck on how to untangle herself from where she is, and get to where she needs to go.

This is the first play I have seen by Sime Knezevic – but not the first time i have encountered his writing. teh bonfire was developed through Knezevic’s residency at Shopfront last year – and although i was on the panel that selected him, and gave him feedback on his first presentation of the piece, I missed out on seeing his final showcase in November – something which I have always regretted. So to properly declare my hand, Sime worked on Stories from the 428 Week 1 last year, and i had read Gameboy (previously submitted for Brand Spanking New 2008 and produced as a part of The ColourBlind short Play festival 2010). So I know his writing a little. It seems to me that Knezevic’s work deals primarilly with the struggle for power and status – with characters who wrestle and flip their intentions on the spin of a dime – it’s shakey ground. No sooner does the characters feel steady, and an erratic or unfair or oblivious comment sends them reeling – they lose their footing they are rendered mute or frustrated or enraged… It’s a marvellous tension which builds. I think Knezevic is onto something.

Grimley’s production is a gritty (pardon the pun) punchy (and again) multi-media exploration of the dynamic of impulsive teenage decisions. The film work is suitably home-made, the sound track is adrenilin raising and she has clearly tapped into the youth culture aspect of the script – and it rings true. It looks great – a sand-covered floor, a scaf trolley and large projections complimenting the lighting design (Victor Areces).

However, there are some limitations to the production – the clarity of the vocal work from all actors meant that some intent was overly neutralized – the drive – the force of the language was not quite put to the fore. Dramaturgicaly there is work to do – Sophia is surprisingly underwritten then overwritten – and lacks any true depth to indicate why a longtime friendship between Chris and Nikola would be jeopardized by her, and why Chris wouldn’t just stand up and walk away when she rejects him. Similarly Nikola is largely unlikeable – realistic yes – but unlikeable – which renders his character as one dimensional. And Chris is our mumbling protagonist – who has a speech which from my perspective is really is the whole point of the play – a portrait of a young man stuck and trying to work out the power of action and inaction and in search of clarity and certainty. In the end the problem within the play is not answered by Chris – and I am not sure if he is left any different at the end of the play as he is in the beginning – nor do I think there is a transformative journey for any of the characters, and therefore we, as audience are left without a transformative experience as such the story stops a little short of it’s full potential. this is a portrait – a beautiful portrait, and I would love to see the next draft. (I think I heard that this is Draft 3 – and there is a Draft 4 floating about ). There is no doubt Knezevic can write – and has a real and authentic knack fro dialogue – and a quirky sense of humour and is very capable of asking questions – but I think he’s got more in him.

Spatially, there are some difficulties with the staging – where is Nikola when he is off stage? Where are Chris and Sophia in relation to the bonfire party? Who can see them – can they see them? Grimley is already an accomplished rising independent theatre-making star, and has an incredible work ethic, eye for visual detail and responds very viscerally and personally to story. As good directors should. It is interesting that her collaborative and warm approach to making and devising and developing work is very noble and admirable, but in some aspects a firmer hand with dramaturgy and with vocal work may have been needed. However, I remain a firm and avid supporter of her – she’s unstoppable.

We have a strong tradition of coming of age stories in Australian literature, film and in playwriting – it is the side effect of a new country feeling the pain an alienation of contributing to an artistic or cultural tradition which has been invented elsewhere and refined over hundreds of centuries. Nationally, we are the teenager feeling frustrated and confused – whoa re we, what should we do, why can’t we do what everyone else is doing? And perhaps for the writer/director/actor perhaps there is a feeling of coming of age as an artist – when will I stop emerging, when will I know I’ve made it? When will I have arrived?

For all of us though, our teenage years are remembered as the years we had the luxury of thinking about/worrying about silly stuff, the wrong stuff, the boring stuff – all that energy and potential thwarted by an intense feeling of paralysis – from peers? From parents? From society at large? And we remember the transition from school to the rest of our lives – those summer months – as a time of personal purgatory in which we treaded water until a decision put us into our future.

The Bonfire is a passionately presented piece of work which certainly reminds us how universal introspection is and just how far we’ve come.

Theatre- an artform inheritantly voyeuristic – relying on witnesses in order to exist- is a perfect place in which ideas about surveillance, presence and what it means to be watched can be pulled apart, examined and reconnstructed.

Since the rise of paranoia from governements across the world- and the heightening of security (or perhaps the need of “a sense of”) in streets, on buses, in lifts- the Orwellian Big Brother emerges. What appeared to be a futuristic fantasy is now not only present- but a vehicle for the rise of the “reality TV” celebrity. We are a generation who is constantly under watch- we encourage others to watch us through our facebook status- there is a flattery about being on screens – watching us walk through train gates… we are a curious animal- curious about ourselves in the wider context of the world and perhaps now more than ever as camera surveliance multiplies, and implies the danger which is other people.

The DeConverters lead by fearless Jane Grimley, is a group of performers including Grant Moxom, Amy Wanless, Jaya Sound, Sam Duncan and Sacha Harrison and media artists- Daniel Brown, Sacha Cohen and Ben Storey who have spent months collaborating, workshoping and devising The Witness in The Wall.
This is the first prouction by the DeConverters who have chosen to launch their tour of this piece at Newtown Theatre. For those who remember Newtown Theatre as “The Edge”- home of Kinetic Energy Theatre company for some time- this style of work is not an unusual fit for this space- but for those more familiar with Newtown Theatre as the home of Short and Sweet it may be a surprise for you to attend this style of performance in this venue.

Weaving audio visual materials, live sound (a very evocative harmonica), text (spoken and projected) , Witness in the Wall is a series of vignettes which seek to explore what it means to be watched. This is not the type of performance in which there is a linear narrative- but a collage of ideas and sentiments and moments wherein te performers move through a sequence of mundane and then extraordinary moments- performance as a living gallery of ideas and actions. Playing with the connection between audience and performer- a small segment of direct address is largely terrifying for audiences who enjoy being in the sweetness of the darkness of the audience seating.

Though I must declare that I appreciated many moments of The Witness in The Wall, especially the opening video projection which felt largely like star gazing, the major ideas that came across to me, was not necessarilly the effect of surveillance- but the disconnect people feel in a society where in we are busy watching each other. Through watching we can feel lonely, disconnected, removed from each other… through watching we are alone.

This is a really unique and interesting piece of performance- and depending on where you are in your own headspace- it will reach you in someway, somewhere about what it means to be present and particpating in a world where we are constantly looking out in order to understand what is within.

More Info:
http://www.thedeconverters.com/witness/company.html
Contact :thewitnessinthewall@gmail.com
$10-$20 Rock on up Tuesday-Saturday until September 26th
Book Here http://newtowntheatre.com.au/