Friday, February 22, 2008

Theater Review: Daisy in the Dreamtime

By Mark-Brian Sonna of MBS Productions

Echo Theatre specializes in theatre from a female perspective. What makes Echo Theatre work as a theatre company is that most of their choices transcend the female point of view and are able to express important universal truths. Their current show does that quite effectively.

This theatre group was 100% right in casting Mary-Margaret Pyeatt in Daisy in the Dreamtime. There aren’t many female actors in this area that can nail accents as effectively as Ms. Pyeatt or be able to deliver such lengthy pieces of expository dialogue without boring the audiences to tears. Ms. Pyeatt plays Daisy Bates who narrates her life in the outback of Australia. As the play progresses we learn about the Aborigine people, their folklore and their plight.

Daisy’s nemesis is a Christian missionary named Annie Lock, played by Brandi Andrade, hell bent on converting the natives to Christianity while in the process of destroying their cultural heritage. Both women trade pleasantries and barbs with their opposing views on what salvation really means. We also follow the changes in one of the native people, King Billy, expertly portrayed by Joshua Bridgewater.

All of this is the making of great drama, operatic in scale. While the play is well done and its message makes it worth seeing, it doesn’t quite transcend to its potential greatness. Personally speaking, this will not go down as one my favorite shows I’ve seen, but the fault lies in my bias that I will get to shortly. I want to first point out three good reasons you should go see this play:

• If you are unfamiliar with the plight of the native peoples of Australia and want to learn more, this show expertly informs.
• This play illuminates the negative effect of the imposition of western culture on foreign peoples.
• This smart production is solidly constructed with some very strong performers; there isn’t a single weak actor on the stage.

My quibble is not with Echo Theatre’s production or with the material, it is with the playwright Lynne Kaufman. She has her main character describe what is happening constantly. It would have been more effective to have seen it play out.

Since I’m leveling this critique against the script I must confess the reasoning for my bias: I was an Anthropology major back in college and I was familiar with this story. There wasn’t anything new for me in the play, which is why I found myself slightly impatient with the structure of the play, it was more like a fascinating lecture than a piece of drama. It’s more of a well realized documentary instead of theatre.

This said, those that are not familiar with this story will hold their breath in anticipation of what happens next, which is what the audience was doing while I watched the show. I wanted the show to have a bit more soul. I understood Daisy Bates, but I also wanted to feel more for her and for King Billy. What happens to him, and by default his culture is devastatingly tragic, yet because of the structure of the play I never fully connected.

The set design was nicely realized and the sound design by David H.M. Lambert is fabulous. The use of a live Didgeridoo played by Mike Kenny enhanced the show tremendously.

Besides being a well done production it is extremely timely. The Australian Prime Minister last week apologized to the Aborigine people of Australia for the systematic destruction of their culture.

An interesting trivia bit: Daisy Bates was also the name of an American civil rights activist that was involved in the integration of Little Rock High School back in the 1950’s.

Besides this coincidental fact, you may wonder why this play might be relevant to the United States. To me it’s obvious, we are continuing the decimation of foreign cultures by our presence and the superimposition of our belief systems, so even though the play's events are from Australia of the 1920’s, their relevance echo’s today, which is the name of this aptly named theatre company.

The show runs until March 8 and Thursday performances are pay-what-you-can. Dinner catered by Café Lago will be featured at the Sunday, March 2 special 5 p.m. matinee called Sunset at the Lago for $30. For reservations, call 214-904-0500 or purchase online.

Pegasus News content partner - MBS Productions

See more stories in:

• Arts > Fine Arts > Theater > Plays