by Ben Ellis
featuring:
Andrew Duvall, Brendan Maclean, Oleg Pupovac, Katrina Rautenberg, Pearl Tan, Deborah Thomson, Helen Tonkin
Directed by James Beach
Lighting Design:
Spiros Hristos
Lighting Operator:
Elizabeth Lowe
Sound Operator:
Michael Bridges
Production Manager:
Paul Appleby
Produced by New Theatre, 22-25 July, 2009 as part of New Directions
The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity to show not just the US government, but the heart of the American people, and I think it has paid great dividends for us.
~ Condoleezza Rice, Jan 2005, during the US Senate hearing confirming her as Secretary of State to George W. Bush
In one of the most desolate inland camps on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, I met a young mother named Renuka, arrestingly beautiful even in rags [...] Her youngest child, a girl, was six months old, born two days after the tsunami. Renuka had summoned superhuman strength to grab both of her boys and run, nine months pregnant and in water up to her neck, away from the wave. Yet after this extraordinary feat of survival, she and her family were now quietly going hungry on a parched piece of land in the middle of nowhere. A couple of canoes, donated by a well-meaning NGO, made a pitiful sight: three kilometers from the water, and with not even a bicycle for transportation, they were little more than a cruel reminder of a former life. She asked us to carry a message to everyone who was trying to help the tsunami survivors. "If you have something for me," she said, "put it in my hand."
~ Naomi Klein, from Blanking the Beach: "The Second Tsunami", The Shock Doctrine, 2007.
We understood the power of a tsunami, and now Australia has its own capacity to detect these tsunami events and so the country is much better prepared in the event that we do have another tsunami.
~ Peter Garret, Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts on opening a Tsunami Detection Centre in Melbourne, October 31, 2008 (n.b. Australia shares part of its network established to monitor tsunami activity with Indonesia)
Why has Kevin Rudd gone to Indonesia? Is it to order more asylum seekers?
~ Susie Colvin, Bilgola Plateau, July 8, 2009, Letters, The Daily Telegraph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUZuv6_bushttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g15sZ_d2WUY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6P3fCDQVMI
Directed by James Beach
Cliff Notes and Wikipedia won’t tell you the secrets of Elsinore. Only Horatio’s behind-the-scenes account of the most epic tragedy ever reveals who loved who and what really went on as he tries to make sense of his own role in events. There’s at least two sides to every story.
