By Cameron Woodhead
THEATRE
In the Groove: Victorian Seniors Festival Reimagined 2020 ★★★★
Online at www.seniorsonline.vic.gov.au
Activist, actor and author Uncle Jack Charles enjoys “being dusted off and put in front of a microphone”.
The digital migration of Australian performing arts has been haphazard, so it is inspiring to see one highlight – the reimagined Victorian Seniors Festival – spearheaded by those who have most to fear from coronavirus.
Artists and audiences seeking a morale boost need look no further than In the Groove, a project that has ventured, for nine weeks so far, into the homes of elders from across the arts. The result is a beautifully produced living documentary with embedded, intimate performances.
You’d better have a tissue handy when Kutcha Edwards sings his song Friends unaccompanied.
Some of the most moving contributions come from Indigenous elders.
There is the gentleness, the generosity of Kutcha Edwards inviting the camera into his house to explain the meaning of Welcome to Country; and you’d better have a tissue handy when he sings his song Friends unaccompanied.
Another member of the Stolen Generations, actor Uncle Jack Charles, enjoys “being dusted off and put in front of a microphone”, regaling us with his experience of life in prison and onstage.
And soprano Deborah Cheetham, a staunch advocate for Indigenous opera, sings Vissi d’arte (“I lived for art”) from Puccini’s Tosca – a sublime aria of despair that will resonate with many artists who feel abandoned in their hour of need.
Deborah Cheetham, a staunch advocate for Indigenous opera, sings Vissi d’arte (“I lived for art”) from Puccini’s Tosca.Credit: Kristina Kingston
Eclectic performances – music, theatre, cabaret, puppetry, opera and comedy – offer something for everyone, though golden oldies predominate. Cabaret veterans Mark Jones and Melissa Langton bust out a Neil Sedaka number; Mark Trevorrow, creator of polyester prince Bob Downe, sings Rainbow Connection; Jane Clifton and Paul Williamson amp up the nostalgia with a cover of Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
There’s prog rock and jazz, Polynesian laments and gypsy czardas, and the antique stylings of Katrina Gaskell & Enio Pozzebon’s charming puppet show, The Hopefuls.
Memorable as the performances are, perhaps the rarer thing is personal storytelling and reflection, often spliced with rare archival photography and footage, which distils with authority and immediacy a trove of experience, cultural knowledge, and the dauntless passion for art our elders wish to share.
The indefatigable Liz Jones, who helped to establish La Mama with Betty Burstall in the 1960s, hits the target precisely when she invokes a 1973 speech from Gough Whitlam, which stresses breadth of engagement as more important than any simple notion of excellence to a healthy artistic climate.
The indefatigable Liz Jones, who helped to establish La Mama with Betty Burstall in the 1960s, hits the target precisely when she invokes a 1973 speech from Gough Whitlam,
And it is that inclusive sense of community, ferocious and unbroken in this online festival, that will galvanise and offer solace to all who have been suddenly distanced from the art that they love.