It was weird for me to go to a show at 93 Kel­burn Parade, hav­ing com­plet­ed my own hum­ble BA at Vic almost 20 years ago.  In fact, #93 was the site of at least one audi­tion and more than a few rehearsals for me.  It’s had a bit of a facelift, now being an actu­al lit­tle black­box the­atre rather than just a big room, but the smell was the same, as was the uncom­fort­able heat gen­er­at­ed by many bod­ies.  It was nos­tal­gic to be crammed togeth­er with a bunch of stu­dents, and to add insult to injury, we were all giv­en a read­ing on decoloni­sa­tion to do before the show, which was com­plete­ly impen­e­tra­ble (at least to me).

James Wen­ley, or should I say Dr Wen­ley, is a dra­maturge and lec­tur­er at Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty.  He was inspired to write a show of his own while on a research trip to the famed Edin­burgh Fringe.  The inspi­ra­tion became a com­pul­sion and the show was writ­ten at the same beau­ti­ful desk at which he com­plet­ed his PhD, the same beau­ti­ful desk that shares the stage with him.  The themes are, sort of, per­for­mance, mas­culin­i­ty, white­ness and priv­i­lege.  But the dri­ving theme that struck me was a rather sweet and awk­ward search for approval, in a world where being a tall white edu­cat­ed cis man gives you an auto­mat­ic advan­tage, and a plat­form.  He asked us and him­self, should he have made the show?    Is it right to use a plat­form oth­ers have to strug­gle to reach to dis­cuss the injus­tice of their strug­gle?

Wen­ley is clear­ly a bril­liant lec­tur­er.  He eas­i­ly engaged the audi­ence, owned the space, and spoke artic­u­late­ly and per­sua­sive­ly about per­for­mance, priv­i­lege, and his jour­ney.  He danced, he stripped, he used a pro­jec­tor, live video feed, and a mic to argue against his own com­men­tary.  It was all very pol­ished, and extreme­ly self-dep­re­cat­ing.  He knows all the devices and arti­fices per­for­mance uses to make a point, and he adept­ly used them all, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly explain­ing how those devices served to manip­u­late us.  Clever, and fun to watch.  And Respect — he worked his ass off.

Wen­ley told sto­ries about him­self, his fam­i­ly, his expe­ri­ences, all in the per­fect­ly enun­ci­at­ed and pro­ject­ed tones of a The­atre Per­son.  Don’t @ me; I do it too.  As the show pro­gressed, it evolved into some­thing dark­er; an inter­ro­ga­tion of his motives and his right to the stage.  Very valid ques­tions, and very com­plex, and Wen­ley artic­u­lat­ed them with grace and hon­esty.

There was still that awk­ward­ness, though…  I think because with all the ques­tions Wen­ley was ask­ing us, and ask­ing him­self, there are no answers you can real­ly unpack in an hour and a half.  Rather like a lec­ture, we left thought­ful, won­der­ing how to just­ly use the space we’ve been giv­en.  I left won­der­ing why all the review­ers I’ve met are white, most of them old­er, and most­ly dudes.  Are our opin­ions so impor­tant that we feel we should gen­er­ous­ly share them with every­one?  It’s a lit­tle sham­ing.

Every­one has a show in them.  And every­one has the right to pro­duce it.  And with this show, I think Wen­ley was absolute­ly using his pow­ers for good…  he made us think about what we’ve been giv­en that we did not earn.  We don’t have to abdi­cate our plat­form, but can we shuf­fle over a bit and share it with some­one in greater need of ampli­fi­ca­tion?

Dr Dra­ma Makes a Show was fre­net­ic, earnest, and very well-mean­ing.  It did not solve all the prob­lems in the world, but it start­ed a dia­logue.  I think Dr Wen­ley should be bloody proud of that.  And also pro­vide a read­ing list, please.

 

Dr Dra­ma Makes a Show

93 Kel­burn Pde

3–7 March, 5:30