By Adam Rafferty
The fall of the West Gate bridge during its construction in 1970 is something that should be an essential part of the education of all Victorians. But as time passes, increasingly it doesn’t feel like common knowledge, even amongst Melbournians. Whether it’s easier not to think about a bridge collapse when you know you have to cross the rebuilt span regularly, or even to forget that it happened simply because those responsible did their best to ensure we moved on from the disaster – regardless of the human cost – it’s of great cultural importance that this story is told and retold for the generations less familiar.
Playwright Dennis McIntosh has a unique relationship to this piece of history, having been at Sacred Heart Primary in Newport on the day of the collapse, which was provided a view of the tragedy from the school netball courts. But even further, his father shared the initials and surname of the construction’s resident engineer, resulting in misdirected mail landing on his family’s doorstep revealing that there was concern something was wrong with the bridge design well before the event.
So it’s no surprise to learn that McIntosh was driven to write this play and as he says “let the men who died – who had no justice – tell their story.” In a fictionalised format, West Gate certainly does that beautifully, focused through the lens of a just a handful of workers to represent the experiences of all who worked the bridge and the 35 who lost their lives that day.
The script captures beautifully the language and attitudes of blue-collar workers in that era – rough, ready and racist, but bonded by mateship. McIntosh has delved deeply into the history and paints a sentimental picture of the burgeoning understanding and connection between union leaders, Foster’s drinking ‘Aussies’ and the salami snacking immigrants who worked beside them.
Director Iain Sinclair has done a superb job of creating the sense of many workers, with only a few represented on stage, through cunning use of the audience as the assembled ‘workers’ and via Kelly Ryall’s incredibly effective sound design that surrounds the auditorium with workers’ voices. We the audience feel a part of the action from the start and when the bridge eventually falls, Ryall’s eerie sound design of the screeching, groaning and thumping of the collapse puts us right at the frightening heart of the disaster.
Christina Smith’s set design is likewise stunning, yet simple with the stage mostly bare prior to the collapse, bar an enormous concrete pier and scaffolding elements from which angle grinding sparks shoot and worker’s dust emanate creating a realistic worksite effect. Post-collapse the representation of warped steel and broken concrete wrapped around the kitchen of a worker’s home leaves a shocking and lasting impression. Lighting design by Niklas Pajanti beautifully directs the eye and frames the space.
This is an ensemble piece with all eight actors clearly understanding the importance and weight of responsibility in telling this story by delivering passionate and sensitive performances. Sinclair’s direction and dramaturgy have focused the core of the story on Young Scrapper (Darcy Kent), a Ten Pound Pom who is over-selling his experience when he’s paired up with Vittorio/Victor (Steve Bastoni) an ironworker with superior welding skills. Over time the pair develop a close working relationship and they’re together when the bridge ultimately collapses. From there, Scrapper develops a relationship of responsibility to his co-worker’s wife, Francesca/Frankie (Daniela Farinacci) and the pair support each other through the difficult times that follow. Scrapper’s journey from cocky know-it-all to sensitive survivor is given a simply beautiful portrayal by Kent that becomes the bedrock of this story. Bastoni is a complete charmer as the Italian immigrant and Farinacci shows huge sensitivity, giving a gut-wrenching performance as one of the many widows provided nothing but a week’s wages for the loss of their husbands.
Rohan Nicol as worksite leader Pat, and Simon Maiden as injured worker Vinny paint a picture of the devastation left upon the men who survived the event, powerfully showing the strength it took for them to be first responders on the day, only to find themselves sacked with dozens of funerals to attend the following week.
Representing the engineers and managers from Freeman Fox & Partners, designers of the bridge, McAlister (Peter Houghton), Cooper (Ben Walter) and Stevenson (Paul English), demonstrate the chain of mistakes, ignorance and backside covering that resulted in the collapse, despite numerous warnings. While these characters aren’t the heroes of the story, their performances give dignity to event and the lives lost. Exposition does require these characters to deliver some of the dryer components of the story which makes it sag a little in those moments, but it’s no less important to tell this part of the tale.
While it’s tempting to applaud a certain element of this production for its sheer spectacle, I’d implore audiences to save their applause for the end of the play, after the names of those who died are given respect. Because it is the loss of those lives that made this play necessary and why this play is one not to be missed. Every Melbournian should know and remember those men and thank the survivors for ensuring safer workplace standards followed, so that the East and West of Melbourne have been connected at the lower Yarra for over 55 years and more importantly, so that nothing like that should hopefully ever happen again.
Image: Pia Johnson
