|
Bit 1
|
David Brown's play Keep Everything You Love, which was recently
performed at the Cremorne theatre, is an intelligent and thought-provoking
piece of youth theatre which focusses on the process of bereavement in the
aftermath of youth suicide. Brown (director, writer and producer), in
collaboration with counsellors, youth workers and suicide support groups,
has created a drama about surviving suicide which incorporates video,
music and live performance.
|
|---|
|
Bit 2
|
Keep Everything You Love is the story of Brett (Jason Gann) and Emma
(Sarah Kennedy), year twelve students, whose mutual friend Jack kills
himself. These two, who have little in common except their friendship with
Jack, must work through their disbelief, anger and guilt in order to come
to terms with their friend's death. Brett, a self-admitted "super-jock", is
emotionally inarticulate and his grief and anger over Jack's suicide
threatens to spill over into violence. Emma on the other hand is a
self-motivated and focussed student intent on going to university, but she
too has problems expressing what she feels in the wake of Jack's death.
Independently and in tandem, Brett and Emma explore their grief and search
for answers. Why did Jack kill himself? Did he ask them for help? Could
they have helped him? Brett and Emma do not find all the answers in the
course of the play, they are left with questions and uncertainty, but with
the help of family, friends and counsellors they learn to articulate their
grief, come to term with events and to hold onto the memory of Jack.
|
|---|
|
Bit 3
|
Jason Gann and Sarah Kennedy are impressive in their portrayal of the
adolescents Emma and Brett. Gann portrays the style-obsessed Brett
convincingly and brings some welcome light-heartedness to the play.
Kennedy, whose role is less clownish, plays Emma with gusto. These are
demanding roles, they are not only physically taxing (the use of only two
actors demands their onstage presence throughout) but require a huge
emotional expenditure of the pair. Gann and Kennedy both rise to the
challenge.
|
|---|
|
Bit 4
|
The use of only two actors in a 75-minute play threatens to be monotonous,
but Keep Everything You Love avoids this hazard by the clever
manipulation of video images provided by Damien Ledwich of Toadshow. Jack,
for example, whom the audience never meets, is represented by a collection
of his art and wordgames, projected onto a screen above the stage. These
images act not only as flashbacks, but as indicators of Jack's personality
and talents, and clues as to his state of mind. A prostrate stick figure
emblazoned in red is a particularly poignant image as is a drawing in
which Jack equates himself with the family dog. The use of flashing
patterns between scenes was less effective because it appeared unrelated
to the drama, but did not detract from the overall effect. The music, which
was suitably angsty (Regurgitator, Superjesus, Fur, Silverchair, Jebediah,
Something for Kate, Drop City, Nine Inch Nails and Tool), also added to the
atmosphere.
|
|---|
|
Bit 5
|
It is entitely to Brown's credit that he has managed to take a theme such
as youth suicide, which threatens to be emotionally exhausting, and
produce a play with a sophisticated message, a message that could so
easily have been another crude admonition against suicide. The lesson
implicit in Keep Everything You Love is simple, but important; it is
"communicate", or as the play's programme announces "keep talking, keep
listening, keep it together". A question session after the performance,
which allowed the audience to discuss the play with the actors, the
director and a representative of a support group, Survivors of Suicide,
put this message into action, letting people express their own confusion
and concerns about youth suicide. This question session in my opinion was
an important and interesting appendix to the play.
|
|---|
|
Bit 6
|
Keep Everything You Love ends its tour in early October, but it deserves
to receive further funding for performances in schools as young adults
appear to be its intended audience. It is adolescents who will relate most
strongly with the ambitions, concerns, and fears of Emma and Brett, and who
will enjoy their sense of humour and trials. This is not to discourage the
performance of Keep Everything You Love for older audiences; on the
contrary, its message is of benefit to everyone.
|
|---|
| |
Bit 7
|
Details
Keep Everything You Love.
Writer/director/producer: David Brown.
Cast: Jason Gann and Sarah Kennedy.
Lighting: Jason Organ.
|
|---|
| |
Bit 8
|
Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Heather Wolffram. "Of Benefit to Everyone: 'Keep Everything You Love'" M/C Reviews 6 Oct. 1999.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/keep.html>.
Chicago style:
Heather Wolffram, "Of Benefit to Everyone: 'Keep Everything You Love'," M/C Reviews 6 Oct. 1999,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/keep.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Heather Wolffram. (1999) Of benefit to everyone: 'Keep everything you love'. M/C Reviews 6 Oct. 1999.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/keep.html> ([your date of access]).
|
|---|
|
|
![[image]](http://www.toadshow.com.au/everything/images/keep_sm_logo.gif){kind=logo}