You might assume being appointed Australia’s first playwright-in-residence (1944), coupled with a prodigious output across many decades, might mean you weren’t a footnote in national literary lore. However, the 1955’s Playwright’s Advisory Board’s co-winner for her play ‘The Torrents’ (beside the nationally revered writer of ‘ Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’, Ray Lawler) is absent from theatrical history. His play was produced but not hers, with its themes of independent women and environmentalism. What we learn is of the successful woman writer, lovingly researched by Merrilee Moss, and presented by Ghost Ensemble, in ‘Oriel’, at the La Mama Courthouse.
Oriel Gray jumps off the page awaiting a warm reception in an age which loves nostalgia. Just as with popular blockbuster film ‘The Dressmaker’, we love all things vintage, and delight in reminiscing and dress up. But this story also packs a punch. It holds a hidden gem of a feminist who just did not stop and whose output demands attention. The writer of this play asks us to consider why we know so little of Oriel Gray. Her material is just waiting to be revived.
We venture back into the life story of Oriel Bennett of Lismore, NSW, born 1920. Moss, a 21st Century female playwright, engages with ‘Oriel’ through time, also interrogating history. From a politically active family, she was wife, mother, lover, Communist Party member, and a thinker who championed the cause of the indigenous people. Her biography has all the ingredients for a greatness: passion, politics, modernism, activism, hard work, great output, and the cruelty of the conservatism.
The actors are word perfect in their vernacular, energetic and colourful, across an evocative and rustic set that speaks ‘mid-century Australia’. The corrugated iron city tenement skyline of inner Sydney’s The Rocks, the hatstand with beautiful 1940s and ‘50s hats, elegant jackets, and 1950s hair styles, transport us back into the days of Menzies post-war White Australia. The mis en scene evokes that likely used at Sydney’s avant garde New Theatre, where Oriel wrote and acted (1937-’49). The delightful doubling of dual era writer’s desks, covered over in pages of rewrites and edits, sit opposite each other across the stage, Oriel with her Remington, Moss with her Apple Mac. Sarah Hamilton is a stand out bringing this strong character to life.
Gray’s output was ceaseless, despite marriage break ups, betrayals, affairs, and children. She wrote 15 plays, from the 1940s into the 1980s, before passing away in 2003. In the 1970s she commenced writing for television, including the series ‘Bellbird’. She published one novel, as well as her memoirs. If you love writing, Australian history, and theatre history, you cannot miss this. Take a night off into the theatre to discover that truth is better than fiction! Like Oriel’s work, this one can’t be long from national stages and tours.
– Sarah
Sarah W is a dance-trained theatre lover with a flair for the bold, and non-traditional performance platforms. On-the-street or in the box seat, she is always looking for quality works that push the envelope!
The Season runs at La Mama Courthouse, Carlton,7- 18 September, 6:30 pm Wednesday, 7:30 pm Thus- Sat. 4pm Sunday. Book Here.This venue is accessible.
