Beach parties: they're all fun and games until someone gets raped and murdered.
It's the sad reality of a youth culture obsessed with alcohol, sex, drugs and violence. This is the story of ‘Blackrock’, a hard-hitting modern Australian classic being staged in a collaboration by La Boite Theatre and QUT Bachelor Of Fine Arts Final Year Acting students.
“It completely resonates today and in a way it is actually quite shocking,” Movement & Fight Director Nigel Poulton says of Nick Enright’s iconic work. “As you start to unpack the script, you start to realise that, yes, the story is harrowing and tragic but what’s also equally harrowing and tragic is that a lot of the attitudes that are represented in this play are still prevalent today.
“This whole idea of victim-blaming still exists, the way that society deals with victims of these crimes – there is still plenty of evidence that we’re looking at it in a really retrograde way, so you question how far we’ve moved forward. It’s very poignant.”
The morning following a beach party in the coastal town of Blackrock, a young woman is discovered on the shore beaten, raped and murdered. The story explores the interlocking themes of sexual violence, social disparity and the ethical complexities of mateship in the face of a shocking crime.
“It’s certainly inspired by an actual event on the coast of New South Wales [the 1989 murder of Leigh Leigh] and that murder is absolutely harrowing. Also the sense of justice and punishment and accountability, or lack thereof, certainly that’s something that’s really resonating with me at the moment,” Nigel says.
Nigel brings a vast and impressive wealth of knowledge and experience to the role of Movement & Fight Director as an award-winning fight coordinator, weapons specialist and movement professional for film, TV and theatre. With a background in security that had him deal with very real violence on a regular basis, Nigel is uniquely positioned to comment on the prevalence of violence which sees young men become both perpetrator and victim.
“For me, violence happens when words fail us,” Nigel says.
“When people can’t communicate with one another anymore the next step is usually violence and in this case when you’re looking at these teenage boys and their inability to express themselves properly, their inability to cope with grief and crisis – there’s no communication pathways open to them and it’s never been developed. They’re living in a perpetual state of reaction, and in that state of reaction is where violence lives.”
Adapted from a 1992 play by Enright called ‘A Property Of The Clan’ and first performed in 1995, ‘Blackrock’ retains its significant impact as a social commentary despite its 20-plus year vintage.
“There are obviously things that we're doing to make it a little more contemporary,” Nigel explains, “but just in terms of pure storytelling, what the inherent values are in the story and the characterisations, it holds up. It’s a beautiful piece of writing and it moves so quick, it’s so fast-paced – you're in the belly of the monster before you know it and then you’re trying to find your way out.”
