Theatre 2006

I suppose any survey of the year which is just coming to a close would not be complete without some general notes on the state of play - in this case on the state of the arts in South Australia.

Bluntly put, it could be better. It could be a lot better. Without delving too deeply into politics, the simple truth is that in SA there is still no loud nor strident advocacy for the arts. In a political climate of conservatism, it simply means there is unlikely to be any great change, nor policy swing, for the foreseeable future. Fair enough, there may be more important things to spend the majority of our money on - it's hard to argue against a sizeable health budget, for example, and the environment (and lack of water) must remain a priority. Yet it's a dimwit indeed who leaves out the need for arts and entertainment in the equation, which is vital to an engaged and thoughtful society.

To bring me to my point, then, is the vexed question of Festivals. The Fringe Festival is to go annual, meaning that 2006 is the last of the biannual - or the first annual such event. WOMAD is already a yearly event, as is the Adelaide Film Festival, and we now know that Adelaide has the population and the level of interest to sustain such endeavours. It's about time, and it is the right way to go forward, yet there are problems.

An obsession with festivals and events - and there's ample evidence that this is how our government views their support of the arts industry as being useful - raises issues of frequency and timing. As I've noted before, arts practitioners need to be honing their crafts each and every week of the year, not simply for the two or three week duration of a proclaimed festival season.

They need to make a living - or move away to other job opportunities - leading to a creative 'brain drain' which is easily identified but scarcely remedied. A colleague noted just last week that this 'drain' was evident in music, particularly in the field of jazz, noting that even though we had a high class academic institution (the Elder School of Music), its graduates were amongst the first to hop on a plane to Sydney or Melbourne as their degrees were conferred. There is little or nothing to keep them here - save as occasional visitors during the occasional concert tour or festival.

In theatre terms the situation is hardly better. At least ArtsSA has spent the year conducting a review of its funding model and policy, though whether any real lessons have been learned is a moot point. A number of companies lost their funding (Doppio Teatro aka Parrallello and Bakehouse Theatre) and the government sent out letters asking other theatre groups and individuals if they were interested in applying for triennial (fixed 3 year term) funding.

The funding of public arts is a difficult question; I firmly believe performers and artists should not be so totally reliant upon our taxes as many of them appear to be, but to be too critical in such an unsupportive environment perhaps sounds a little churlish.

It's easier to be understanding. My colleague David Grybowski took Brink Productions to task over their lack of public performances in 2006, noting that the year was one for the company to develop new works. It is also a year when the company needed to plan for their future survival and attempt to secure funding to that end, so insecure is the current funding environment. Their return to substantial live performance in 2007 will be welcome.

In other areas, the Australian Dance Theatre spent the majority of 2006 touring a varied programme around the world (Europe, the US, Japan), and performed a bare minimum in this country, save what seemed a hasty country tour. To their credit, they presented an entirely new work in the staggeringly well-received 'Devolution', a Festival premiere. So that's okay then.

A bright note to end on. My favourite theatre performances of 2006 were two shows which were head and shoulders above the rest. Vitalstatistix presented 'Cake', directed by Ingrid Voorendt during the Fringe Festival and it was a fabulously small and well produced affair, featuring the live music of cellist Zoe Barry and the sassy Astrid Pill.

Secondly, Sean Riley's sensational independently produced 'Beautiful Words' was a stunning exploration of humanity, spanning three generations and set in a detention centre town such as Port Hedland. Monstrous, and moving.

My best wishes to all of dB Magazine's readers for the holiday period, see you all in 2007.

Alex Wheaton

Pic: Beautiful Words