Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice At their best, contemporary Australian plays explore and reveal important social, political and personal issues. This is done using an extensive variety of innovative, unique and brave theatrical techniques to evoke emotion and to engage an audience. Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman’s “The Seven Stages of Grieving” and “Ruby Moon” by Matt Cameron are two popular Australian plays where this is very apparent. Through our studies in class, it became clear “The Seven Stages of Grieving” is a modern day play which reflects the history of Australia’s Indigenous community and the suffering of the Aboriginal people. An important, noteworthy point is that the play is ever evolving.
Australian Film Critique For many generations, Australian film makers have pushed the social, cultural and economic boundaries of film production. Through the use of mateship, class and anti-authoritarian, many of these films depict our culture and contribute to our national identity. Three movies where these representations are displayed are in Gregor Jordan’s 2003 film Ned Kelly, David Michod’s 2010 film Animal Kingdom and Gettin’ Square a 2003 film directed by Johnathan Teplitzky. The ideology of mateship has been a dominant voice in Australian culture which is reiterated in Australian film. Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship.
The Decade of the 1960s was a period full of many significant changes, which both the British and American Culture influenced. The two major countries, which had a strong influence on the Australian culture, were America and Britain. They impacted our culture through Fashion and Music. These features are both evident and shown through a variety of sources. One of the features that Australia was heavily influenced by was, the fashion from both the British and American cultures.
'The Story of Tom Brennan' follows the lives of the Brennan family after the events of a fatal car accident, which shows how Tom the protagonist struggles to cope with his past. Similarly the song 'Father and Son' is a representation of an escape, as a man seeking to flee a life he finds suffocating, and the film 'Dead Poets Society' also explores two protagonists faced by challenges of moving into the world and dealing with issues of fear, growing up and following their dreams. All these texts reflect the experiences, ideas, knowledge and beliefs that are evident in society,and reflected throughout these texts. J.C Burke emphases many themes through out 'The Story of Tom Brennan' such as fear, relationships and growing up. These thematic concerns are echoed in the related texts therefore linking the texts and reflecting how texts may represent society.
As you can tell by reading this, there were many reasons how and why Australia became a Federation. There are also mentioned reasons that held back the ‘go ahead’ of the Federation movement. A lot of interesting information was gathered and use for this ‘discussion’ and a lot was learned from
This shows that they all care for Olive. We see them on a numerous occasions pushing the kombi. During the film the kombi is slowly falling apart, we see the horn brake and constantly go off. This shows just how determined they are to go on. As the film goes on by we see the family in different situations, one, where the whole family are in the kombi driving.
Through the use of fractured fairytale, a story is told about the process two grieving parents go through to highlight the lengths that a parent of a missing child will go through. This allows Australians to see a personal side, rather then a media based view of losing a child. In the Prologue it is made very aware through the use of dramatic tension, that there is something wrong with Ray and Sylvie. Cameron has made their conversation very disjointed and out of order, leading you to find out Ruby has gone. This allows Australian audiences to get a close personal view into the lives of an average suburban family who is dealing with a lost child.
ROSE PICKLES Australians what is their true identity? Is it wearing thongs casually on the beach? Being a larrikin? Or is it battler and survivor? Tim Winton offers yet another portrayal of battlers who fight and struggle in order to overcome the conflict in their life through the character of Rose Pickles Rose Pickles emerged from a poor dysfunctional family and grew up to hate her mother, as it was her mother who had deprived her, “you stole from me .my childhood, my innocence, and my trust” (P.G 352) Rose struggles throughout her life; she battles the poverty that had always been with them caused by Sam her gambler father, who goes to the track every Saturday and spends all their money gambling.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck “Okies” During the 1930s, the Dust Bowl hit and triggered a time of great hardships that struck several farmers and their families. This troubling era became known as the Great Depression. Countless families began to make their way down to California in a quest for work. Most Migrant workers traveled to California from Oklahoma, thus the nickname “Okies”. John Steinbeck grew up in California in the early 1900s and witnessed the troubles of migrant workers.
Each text depicts a variety of forms of change which are, emotional, psychological, mental, social, spiritual and environmental. Away uses dramatic techniques including repetition, literary allusion and stage directions whereas the poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses a variety of poetic language techniques to demonstrate the changes that have occurred in the lives of indigenous people.