By Jennifer Munday
Friday night, August 9th, was the opening night of Jennie, a theatre piece written by Bruce Shearer about a woman who could easily have been forgotten in the history of Melbourne in the early decades of the twentieth century. The performance was at an intimate theatre at Gasworks, in Albert Park.
The play takes a segment of time in the life of Jennie Baines, an English activist who escaped to Australia with her staunch trade-unionist husband, George, and her family. Jennie’s children were adults by the time they moved to Australia so Shearer hasn’t included them, instead writing multiple small roles for people Jennie would have encountered when she moved to Port Melbourne. This was a time when she re-ignited her activism to fight for the rights of women and children when the country was experiencing food shortages, union strikes, and numbers of children becoming homeless.
As Jennie moves through Shearer’s play, we learn that she has been fighting for women’s rights, for women to hold roles that have only been available to men: she feels strongly for the plight of destitute families, and she understands the behaviour of children desperate for food and shelter. A sub-theme seemed to be the perennial issue of the generation gap – children not understanding adults, and adults not hearing children, just blaming them. Jennie forgives the children even when they have stolen from her, and she shows she always wants the best for them. She continually gives and advocates for children by taking an unpaid role that finally led to her being appointed special magistrate to the South Melbourne children’s court.
We are reminded that a life of activism can have detrimental effects on health and relationships through the portrayed lives of the two main protagonists. The character of Jennie is on stage virtually the entire play and we get glimpses of the ravaging nature repeated hunger strikes might have on a body. However, she doesn’t stop, even when she meets resistance from friends and family. George her husband is presented as a continual support and loving partner. George is mostly concerned with being the breadwinner and keeping his shoe making and repair business afloat.
Marli van der Bijl, although a bit young for Jennie at this stage of her life, carries her determined character staunchly through the events of the play, and Amir Rahimzadeh who plays George, supports Marli very well, as the character as well as a fellow actor. They dominate the action and carry the play through from beginning to end.
The production elements of the play were well considered. The sound included effects of demonstrating crowds and songs from the period. It would have been good to have some of that music from the start, as the audience enters, to get them into the mood of the time period. On Friday the entering music was loud rock music, which might have been to interest the predominantly young audience.
The lighting also was well used with warm and cool colour choices for both bright or dimly lit spaces to designate different locations or moods.
The set was adaptable to various locations and spaces. Made of wood it provoked memories of childhood when wooden fences separated houses and yards from each other, and neighbours would talk or gossip with each other and keep an eye on what was happening in the neighbourhood. Costumes too were very evocative of the time period – especially beautiful were the shoes that George was “fixing”.
Elements that will probably improve as the season progresses will be the speed with which the actors move items on the stage as they transfer from one scene to another – faster pace will help the audience sense the urgency of the actions and what is at stake for each of the characters. Also, there were several places where there were possible climaxes in the action, where there was an opportunity to take the audience’s breath away in anticipation – these were missing, possibly as the actors ease into the characters they are portraying these will add dynamics to the play.
Shearer has written about a woman who needs to be remembered – his script includes some fine witticisms, very much appreciated by the audience, as we witnessed this slice of history.
Images: MWT
