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Hitting The Road for Embers
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by playwright Campion Decent.
Nearly three years ago I went on a road trip to source the stories of many local and district people caught up in the overwhelming bushfire events that hit the North East of Victoria in January 2003.
The idea, in a nutshell, was to gather the stories and somehow turn them into a play.
I was accompanied by Les Hume, a rural recovery support worker with Upper Hume Community Health Service; and together – in two separate trips – we visited 26 townships. Les and I conducted 75 interviews over this time and travelled nearly 3,000 kilometres criss-crossing the state to talk with people about their experience of the fires.
It took the next couple of years to transcribe the interviews; edit and piece them together into a coherent whole; hear a draft of the play performed in a reading; rewrite; hear a second draft; and rewrite some more. Somewhere in here HotHouse Theatre secured a co-producer (Sydney Theatre Company) and a creative team was assembled.
We’re currently in rehearsal to present the play in Albury Wodonga, Sydney and then – perhaps most significantly – take it back on the road to many of the towns in the North East affected by fire.
Last month, in preparation for rehearsals, I tagged along on a familiarisation trip with the cast of Embers: Annie Byron, Tracy Mann, Mark Pegler, Tim Richards, Amber Todd, John Walker and Matt Zeremes. We were joined by our director Maeliosa Stafford, lighting designer Martin Kinnane, composer Steven Francis and tour guide Les Hume. And Charlie from HotHouse was at the wheel of the bus!
Initially, the thought did cross my mind, ‘13 on a bus . . . not good numbers.’ But all went well. Young Matt had never seen snow, so there was much excitement as we climbed over Mt Hotham on day one to be greeted by an early – and generous – fall. Cries of ‘stop the bus’ were heeded (thanks Charlie) and extensive digital documentation and fondling of snow ensued.
First night we stopped at the famed Blue Duck Hotel at Angler’s Rest – its story is very much a part of the play – and the cast talked long into the night with locals from surrounding valleys. The next morning we cooked breakfast on the barbie – good practice because the cast will be cooking up a barbie nightly on stage – and then headed to Dartmouth via Eskdale and Mitta Mitta before returning to Albury on the third day.
For the cast it was a great opportunity to see some of the townships named in the play, meet the locals (some of whom they’re actually playing) and generally tap into a wealth of local information offered variously by Les, John and Charlie. The question most asked by locals we met was, ‘Who’s playing me?’
For me it was a chance to reacquaint myself with some of the people I had met three years earlier. People have certainly moved on, although there are still visible scars (on both landscape and lives). Suffice to say, going back with my new extended Embers family in tow was a memorable experience.
It struck me on the way back into Albury Wodonga that the stories handed to me in trust three years ago have now been handed onto the whole Embers team in trust. And shortly this team will hand them back in performance to the locals from whence they came.
It is an entirely appropriate journey for Embers because this is what we do – both in theatre and life – we tell stories to hand them on.
We’re about to go full circle.
Campion Decent
06 July 2006
STOP PRESS! Tour dates released. Watch this space for details of venues, starting times and where to buy tickets coming soon.
Sept
TUE 5 Horsham
WED 6 Pomonal
THU 7 Tallarook
FRI 8 Mansfield
SAT 9 Kergunyah
TUE 12 Sale
WED 13 Omeo
THU 14 Tallangatta Valley
FRI 15 Yackandandah
SAT 16 Bright
TUE 19 Corryong
WED 20 Beechworth
THU 21 Mt Beauty
FRI 22 Eskdale
SAT 23 Ruffy
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