Beyond The Neck, by multi award-winning playwright Tom Holloway, is a compelling work based on real accounts from people affected by the horror of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23 during Australia’s deadliest mass shooting event which led to an extensive overhaul of gun regulations in the country.
Director Suzanne Chaundy days she loves to direct works with big universal themes about humanity, often working on big productions, directing operas about big things.
Chaundy is one of Australia’s leading directors, with a distinguished career spanning opera, theatre, special events, and large-scale outdoor spectacle.
“I wanted to direct Beyond the Neck because it deals with huge human emotions in a small, quiet, and intimate way, and really challenges my directorial story-telling skills. It is playwright Tom Holloway’s very personal creation about an incredibly important event in relatively recent Australian history which must not be forgotten, the Port Arthur massacre. The massacre happened thirty years ago and changed so much about Australia as a nation and how it could no longer pretend to be a safe place in a violent world, possibly nowhere more so than the island state of Tasmania where this shooting happened.”
Chaundy explains that it is not a play that deals directly with the terrible event but rather focuses the aftermath. “It is a chamber piece about how communities rebuild after tragedy, expressed in a delicately poetic and quintessentially Australian text that steers away from sensationalising the Port Arthur massacre and focuses on how loss and violence effects people.
It is written in a most generous manner, allowing incredible freedom to the director, designers, and cast, to allow them to find their own way through this sensitive and profound material.”
The gravity of the piece, its unwavering relevance and the fact that it tells a true tragic tale, Chaundy acknowledges that finding the right tone for the work is incredibly important so that the gravity of the material is handled with the light touch inherent in the writing.
“A truthful style is incredibly important – a kind of ‘non’ performative style suits this best, no pretense, no conceits. None of the characters are any specific people affected by the shooting, but more representative of people Tom met in the course of his research for the work.”
There are only four characters, two with a more direct link to the shooting and two more affected by visiting the place. “I have read about Port Arthur being described as a ‘trauma-scape’. It is important to remember that the shooting is one shocking event in a terrible history of events at this site, including the effects of the colonisation on the indigenous community and the creation of one of Australia’s most notorious convict settlements there.”
Beyond the Neck is a piece of theatre which is closer to a musical quartet than a traditional play. Rhythm and timbre play vital roles, perhaps equally as important as characterisation and narrative structure. The work sits somewhere between testimonial theatre, and poetic storytelling.
Chaundy explains that the play itself is written so that the vocal rhythms and dynamics lead the performers to listen and speak as a true ensemble, creating a musical whole – without singing!
“All of this is done with spoken words. This musical style allows for some characters to take a lead (Tom describes it as ‘holding the tune’) with others supporting this or contradicting it. It takes us into an abstract space which somehow is more truthful.”
Chaundy does acknowledge that because of its unusual style, it is quite a challenge to learn.
“Getting the words down and really working the rhythms is going to be the next big challenge. Finding the theatrical shape and movement in a piece which is very text based is always an interesting part of the process and deciding the delicate balance of what is too much, and too little movement.
I have a wonderful cast of brilliant actors and humans. Everyone has their eccentricities which are coming out! Francis Greenslade twinkling eyes often have everyone in stitches. At least his character allows for it!”
Chaundy says the audience should expect an incredibly intimate theatre experience.
“There is unexpected humour in the work, and it uses the actors in two ways. They play their characters, but they also step out of these characters to become a chorus which helps each character to tell their story by prompting, elaborating and even sometimes disagreeing amongst themselves about how this story should be told. This works seamlessly and builds a wonderful ensemble feel.
Chaundy and the design team have worked together to create a reflective and poetic space rather than any attempt at naturalism. “The play itself speaks directly to the audience in a human way but is not written in a naturalistic style.”
Chaundy is hopeful that the play engenders real conversations and a gentler understanding of how people can react to traumatic events. “This is so important now – there are so many terrible things happening every day, sensationalised in the 24-hour media cycle – that we can reflect on in a quieter way.”
Beyond The Neck is a profoundly moving portrait of a community learning to live beyond trauma. Humour flickers through the darkness. Kindness sits beside pain. Creating a space for stillness, breath and hope, and a reminder that healing is a shared act.
Says Chaundy, “This is a wonderful work about what it is to be human.
It is not filled with darkness and violence, despite the difficult subject matter and is expressed in an incredibly unexpected way.
You truly need to see it to understand it. Beyond the Neck will stay in the audience’s hearts and minds for a long time. It is very hard not to be affected by it.”
March 19 – April 4
