La Boite in collaboration with QUT Creative Industries presented 'Blackrock' by Nick Enright, a harrowing insight into the lives of a group of teenagers forever changed.
Based loosely on the tragic rape and murder of 14-year-old Leigh Leigh in 1989, the show addressed toxic masculinity and the dangerous grips of peer pressure at a young age.
'Blackrock' starred a group of final year acting students from QUT which made this their professional debut. It was great to witness the beginning of these actors' careers and in such a powerful show too.
Image © Dylan EvansThey were joined by Joss McWilliam, Amy Ingram and Christen O'Leary who gave the show an even more polished feel with their many years of experience in the industry. Fresh acting students combined with experts of their craft truly made for quite the captivating production.
The set consisted solely of a wooden two-story structure which was fixed to a revolve and rotated multiple times throughout. This created the illusion of time shifting and locations changing which was extremely effective and I'm not sure how they could have communicated these things without it.
While I walked into this show half expecting the focal point to be the rape itself, I wasn't shocked when it turned out to focus more on the culture and reactions surrounding it – in fact, I preferred this. It's important to communicate the brutality of rape but it's equally important to address why it happens. This show did that. We learned snippets about the kids and their behaviours before the incident and we learned what happened to each of them afterwards.
Image © Dylan Evans
One scene, where one of the kids Jared (Ryan Hodson) was talking through the night of the incident to his mum Diane (Christen O'Leary), was heartbreaking yet simple. That seemed to be the case for a lot of the scenes in 'Blackrock'. When addressing a tragedy such as this, all that's required is raw emotion and a few lines of script. Jared explained the incident in detail, holding back tears as his mother stood still watching him break down. I couldn't look away and for this I give these actors credit where it's well and truly due.
Practically my only criticism of the show is a result of a few of the cast members playing multiple characters. At more than one point I felt confused, because some of the secondary characters didn't look different enough from the characters that each actor played primarily.
Other than this, 'Blackrock' was truly a brilliant piece of theatre. It addressed the brutality of the act of rape itself, while investigating the minds of those who are involved at the same time. This meant there was more than just the retelling of a tragic event; there was an insight into why these things happen as well.
Image © Dylan Evans
Nick Enright has crafted a beautiful, tragic and sadly still relevant production and La Boite Theatre Company and QUT Creative Industries deserve a round of rapturous applause for the work they've done to bring it to life.
★★★★☆
