TEACHER NOTES Compiled by Robyn Brookes – Education Manager © 2010 1 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Length of Performance 3 Cast 3 Playwright 4 Writer’s Comments 6 Director’s Comments 8 Actor’s Profile 11 Plot 13 Forms and Conventions 14 Themes 17 Set Design 21 Interesting Reading 23 Essay Questions 34 Past exam questions 37 Immediate Reactions 38 References 40 2 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 LENGTH OF PERFORMANCE Approx 1 hour Followed by a 20 – 30 min Q & A session CAST Woman Lisa Flanagan Director Rosalba Clemente Assistant Director Nazaree Dickerson Designer Morag Cook Lighting Designer David Gadsden Composer Stuart Day Stage Manager Adam Hornhardt Crew Damon Jones State Theatre Company of South Australia would like to take this opportunity to warn members of the audience that this production contains names and visual representations of people recently dead, which may be distressing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. All care has been taken to acquire the appropriate permission and show all proper respect. 3 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 PLAYWRIGHT WESLEY ENOCH (Born 1969) Wesley is a Murri playwright and artistic director. He was born in Stradbroke Island and grew up in Brisbane. (Murri are the indigenous Australians of Queensland) Wesley’s writing credits include; The Sunshine Club , The Seven Stages of Grieving (co-written with Deborah Mailman) and Black Medea, all of which he also directed; and The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table which won the 2005 Patrick White Playwrights' Award. He has been Artistic Director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts and Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-Operative and worked with the Queensland Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company and Company B. He has also directed the premiere production of Stolen and a revival of The Cherry Pickers , both of which toured internationally. His other directing credits include, Capricornia, The Dreamers, Conversations with the Dead , Romeo and Juliet , Fountains Beyond , Black-ed Up , The Sapphires , Rainbow’s End, Eora Crossing, Bitin’ Back and RiverlanD. Wesley was also the director of the Indigenous section of the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and he directed the opening ceremony of the 2002 Adelaide Festival. Plays Black Medea The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table The Sunshine Club Life of Grace and Piety The 7 Stages of Grieving, (co-written with Deborah Mailman ) Awards 1997 Young Australian of The Year (Queensland Arts Section). 1998 Queens Trust Award 2000 Matilda Award ( The Sunshine Club ) 2000 Variety Club of Australia (Theatre Heart Award) 2002 Cite Internationale des Artes residency in Paris 2004 Helpmann Award for Best Children’s Work (Riverland) 2005 Patrick White Playwright’s Award (The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table ) 2005 Helpmann Awards for Best Production and Best New Australian Work ( The Sapphires) 4 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 DEBORAH MAILMAN Deborah was born in 1972 in Mount Isa, Queensland. She is the youngest of five children and has both Indigenous Australian and Māori heritage. She graduated from Queensland University of Technology's Academy of the Arts in 1992. Deborah’s first major production was the Queensland Theatre Company's One Woman's Song . Since then, she has worked extensively in Australian theatre and overseas, taking her one-woman show, The 7 Stages of Grieving , to the London International Festival of Theatre and Zurich Arts Festival. Her other theatre credits include The Small Poppies, As You Like It, Capricornia, Murri Love, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Summer of the Aliens, The Cherry Pickers, The Taming of the Shrew, The Sapphires and Gigi . Deborah was the first Aboriginal actor to win an AFI award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for playing the character "Nona" in the Australian independent film Radiance (1998). She become well-known for her role on The Secret Life Of Us for which she won two Logies for Most Outstanding Actress In A Drama Series (2002 and 2004). In 2003 Deborah was named NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Person of the Year. And in 2007 she received both The Deadly Award for Female Actor of the Year and Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Role ( The Lost Echo, Sydney Theatre Company ). Deborah has worked in television on productions such as Inside Out, A Village Called Chardonnay, Coloured Inn, Bondi Banquet and Playschool . She also took part in a four-part television documentary series, Going Bush and featured in the Leah Purcell documentary Black Chicks Talking (2001). She appeared in the films Rabbit-Proof Fence and Bran Nue Dae and was part of The Actors Company for the Sydney Theatre Company (2006-2007). Her first directing debut the movie Ralph won her an Inside Film Award Filmography. • Radiance (1998) The Third Note (2000) • The Monkey's Mask (2000) The Secret Life of Us (2001–2006) • Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) The Book of Revelation (2006) • Bran Nue Dae (2009) 5 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 WRITER’S COMMENTS Notes from an interview with Deborah Mailman by Michael Anderson and Lee Gough (2001) Deborah has performed The 7 Stages of Grieving for audiences in Australia and internationally. How did The 7 Stages of Grieving develop? It started back in 1993 when Wesley's grandmother passed away. The whole sense of grief, the family, the gathering of community and the passing on of an elder was the starting point for the story. Wesley came to me and said, “I'm interested in creating a performance that looks at the grieving process in Aboriginal communities”. We wanted to create theatre that explored different forms, that had something to say, was important to us and that created an opportunity for us to showcase our craft. We started off by presenting a twenty minute performance piece. Then we applied and were given funding for a full-time rehearsal process, where we developed it into a one hour show and eventually into a published script. Why did you use the seven stages metaphor in the play? Basically this was used as the spine of the piece and a starting reference. We didn't want to make it a conscious journey, so it was basically something to build from, exploring the idea of grief and what happens when a person dies. How did the form of the play develop? We set up a rehearsal process where we just brainstormed. We then 'physicalised' and improvised the ideas before we went away and wrote. It was very much a stab in the dark at ideas and trying to form some kind of coherent story. Eventually we got a dramaturg, Hillary Beaton, in for the next stage of the rehearsal process, which was developing it into a one-hour show. She helped us to clarify the story, but it evolved naturally through the rehearsal process. How did London audiences respond to the play? Fantastic! It was really interesting to take it to a place like London, because at the time ‘One Nation’ was very much finding its strength as a political party, so people over there were very knowledgeable about all that and how it was creating a lot of anger and frustration here. So they were really interested in a different story that was coming from Australia. 6 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 Is this a very personal story? One of the stories called The March was taken directly from an experience Wesley had in Brisbane at the time we were writing it. A young man by the name of Daniel Yock died, and the community just came out with so much anger, frustration and grief about this young artist who had never done anything wrong with the law, who had direction, who had dreams and was an artist. He was well respected in the community and he died in police custody. That's a very grey area and so this march happened, a silent march with thousands and thousands of people in the streets of Brisbane and it's described in the scene, The MarchMarch. It was silent and the only sound was the sound of feet pounding on the pavement and above there were helicopters. There was a sense from the wider community of wanting to make this into something that was violent and blacks protesting again, but it was very much a silent march about respecting the passing on of a young artist and so that story was written from a very, very personal account. How are stories told in Aboriginal culture? In Aboriginal culture, Murri culture, painting, dance, song and language are an integration of all these forms. It is what explains the world, it is how the younger people learn about the world from the elders and that's how stories are passed on and so it's commonplace to be told through dance and painting and language all at the same time. Are we close to being a reconciled nation? There is so much healing that needs to happen in the community, and that takes time. Like we say in The 7 Stages of Grieving , everything has a time and everything has a place and reconciliation, whatever that means, the true sense of it, is a very long, long process and we have to develop a two-way conversation and an acceptance which is very hard for a lot of people to do. 7 Teacher notes – “ The 7 Stages of Grieving ” by Robyn Brookes © 2010 DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS ROSALBA CLEMENTE The play The 7 Stages of Grieving has the courage to be pure and simple and unadorned.