Seagulls… flying through the times of plague

‘It’s not where you’re born that matters, it’s where you choose to die – that is your country.’  Such is the motto of this compilation show, made up of migration stories, in prose and verse (told directly to camera), original music, resonant images of sea and shoreline, wheeling seagulls, and original artwork.  The speakers – storytellers and poets – are all international students from the most diverse range of countries – Lebanon, Rabat, South Africa, Italy, Romania and more.  Helena Valeria Manoussios was born in Australia, but Cyprus is in her blood and she tells movingly of her journey (that feels like a return) there with her mother.  There is the very articulate, well-spoken Armaghaan Alimodi from Iran.  Emmanuelle Bettari, from Italy, dances on a beach.  Monica Broos is an intriguing cosmopolitan – Iasi, Paris, Moscow, London, Padua and Berlin – and she expresses her rather abstract thoughts like an accomplished actress .  Adiba Mamadolimova, from Tashkent, now in Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur, speaks in rhyming couplets.  For a touch of Irish, there’s professional actor Jim Daly, telling of his ancestors coming to Australia and growing wheat, enduring the 1880 drought and killing the natives.  And so on…

What links the stories and poems is the wrench of leaving, the hole left in the heart, the journey from homeland into the unknown and wondering if it can ever be home.  COVID-19, in stopping and locking down the world, exacerbates the feelings of alienation, of not belonging – as did no doubt the complete lack of government support for international students.

The show overall is broken into four acts, which the program notes say mirrors the four acts of Chekhov’s The Seagull.  The connection, or the mirroring, escapes me.  As if to avoid such criticisms, quotations appear on screen at the start of the acts.  One is, ‘international theatre changes the parameters of what acting is or ought to be.’  Yes, true, but not here because here we have telling, not acting .  I have seen other shows like this – migrant experiences in songs, poems, stories, dance and acted drama – shows such as those directed by the multi-talented Irine Vela, who transforms such material into theatre – and connects with audience emotions. 

Here is a show with impeccable intentions and important content – but unfortunately marred by its realisation and its too obvious amateurism.  The speakers are clearly genuine and have moving experiences and reflections to share, but most are sadly ill-equipped to do so – not helped by some being wildly out of sync.  The more poetic contributions become impenetrable.  Surely, responsibility for this must be shared by the directors and the ‘Storyteller Advisor’ Jesse Chrisan, who appear to have mistaken sincerity and lived experience per se for successful communication of the material, presented as a show for an audience. 

Michael Brindley

(I apologise for any misspelling of names here, but the font chosen for the graphics is ill-advised and difficult to read.)