Off the top of my
head, this is the fifth retelling of the myth of Orestes (and/or Elektra; they were
siblings after all) that I have seen in the past couple of years. There is
nothing necessarily wrong with that, except that I am still confused as to the
finer points of what actually happens in the myth, traditionally-speaking. Some
of the retellings, like Kit Brookman’s Small
and Tired chose to set their action decades after the events, while
others, like Elektra/Orestes
earlier this year thrust us right into the thick of it.
Winner of the 2013
Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, Anna Barnes’ Minus
One Sister is based off of Sophocles’ version of the story, and unfolds
in a fractured whirlwind of naturalistic dialogue scenes and chorus scenes. The
story of a family – three sisters, their younger brother, and their parents – as
much as the unspeakable crimes the parents commit, and the siblings’ need for
retribution, Minus One Sister is a furious
and fast-paced play, but I wonder if its swirl of words actually detracts from
telling its stories.
First produced in
2011 by Merrigong Theatre Company, Mary Rachel Brown’s The Dapto Chaser is a wart-and-all
love-letter to greyhound racing, and sinks its teeth into the dog-racing
culture with gusto. Produced by Apocalypse Theatre Company
and Griffin Independent, The Dapto
Chaser is ninety minutes of acutely-observed writing and performances,
wrapped up in the story of a family stuck in the vicious cycle of gambling as everything
goes to, well, the dogs.
Many years ago, I
read Markus Zusak’s series
of
books
about two brothers who live near Central and spend a chunk of their time around
the Wentworth Park dog track. Like Brown’s family –
the Sinclair’s – the Wolfe brothers are fighting against their circumstances,
each other, and end up winning in a way that only they and people like them
can. The Dapto Chaser centres around
a dog called ‘Boy Named Sue’, his owner Cess, Cess’ brother Jimmy who works at
the Dapto race track, their father Errol, and the dog club manager Arnold
Denny, and the dog-eat-dog struggle they find themselves locked into seemingly
forever. Where The Dapto Chaser
succeeds with flying colours, is in its language, its depiction of this family
on the lower edge of society; in its evocation of the colourful and larger than
life characters you find trackside.
