The play’s story centres around Australia’s biggest hydro electric dam being opened in Kangaroo Valley but when Frank Smith is introduced to the townsfolk as the project’s engineer, rumours of sabotage begin. Frank has a past and it’s not been forgotten. The opening event is threatened by violence. Along with the reactions of the locals, the weather also menaces the proceedings with the forecast of a cyclone.
What was it about Cradle to Cradle, a book exhorting manufacturing and industrial practices to go further than recycling to save the environment, that captured Mac’s imagination? “I needed someone with these ideals,” Mac responds. “The protagonist Frank is an engineer, a reformed environmentalist, someone who passionately, obsessively believes that was he’s doing is right, but who fails epically, not because he’s not trying hard enough but because he doesn’t have the community on his side. I know what that’s like. The protagonist is a believer, he practices Cradle to Cradle principles but being an idealist isn’t good enough. It’s important that his green thumb comes with a business point of view, he still hasn’t quite recognised that he needs people: his family, the community at large, he needs to work on their level. I had to show someone having ideals but not being able to achieve those. He fails to recognise the need for community. I needed someone with high hopes who fails and tries again.”
The play’s point of view is mostly that of the protagonist, Frank. The productions lighter moments are provided by the character of Podgy. “He’s a really funny goofy character,” says Mac. “He was born out of fun. The character of ‘introverted genius’ Janice was born out of the necessity for the story to have some dramatic impact, for the story to have tension. She has a biological and psychological response to the environment; she suffers from a medical condition called poliviaphobia which is a fear of being rained on. It comes from a past traumatic experience, of a flood or a cyclone or tsunami. Her father left the family when she was very young and we are led to believe this happened at the same time as a storm, that the two are associated. She’s confronted physically and emotionally. It’s also about how we see the environment as a character, at its most extreme.”
Not only did Mac who has worked as a freelance videographer since 2009 write the play but he’s directing it himself for Fringe and is even performing in the role of Sarge. Does the performance include video? “I did consider video. It can be pulled off but it’s another form, it can change things, it can take you from 3D to 2D.” The play also features a number of talented Aussie actors including Andrew Proy as Frank Smith, Amber Harris as Margaret Providence, Jeni Bezuidenhout as Janice Providence, Amberlee Jayde as Gini Purcell and Karl Richmond as Podgy Providence.
Mac is quick to point out that serious themes don’t prevent the play from having broad appeal. “It’s a bit serious but you can have a laugh. It’s fun for the whole family, a bit of fun, and it’s got a bit of nudity.” Really something for everyone then. Will he be writing more for the stage? “oh, yes.” Mac can see himself creating a longer version of this play, for a start. “It’s short, only 50 minutes. I could turn it into a full-length play of one and a half hours. There’s more to say, more I’d like to tell.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
