Review: The Bush at Fringe Hub
Review by Greg Gorton
Over the last five years I’ve seen a massive increase in dramatic works about Australian women who haven’t had enough attention by the history books. This latest, Alice Mary Cooper’s The Bush, has by far been the best examination of a time, the women in it, and the power they found to enact meaningful change.
In the nineteen-seventies a small group of housewives and friends made an attempt to save a small portion of bushland that remained on the outskirts of their suburb. While it took them over a decade to do so, they eventually succeeded - only after their small efforts influenced conservation movements around the globe. Cooper tells this story on stage alone, a storyteller who sometimes takes on characters, and sometimes just mucks around.
Cooper is an extremely adept storyteller, and must be incredibly fun to go out for drinks with. With a sunny tonne, a decidedly Australian sense of humour, and an almost-unnoticed strict control of movement, her persona revels in archetypes and stereotypes, subversions of expectations, and reminders of cultural expectations.The little theatre brain that can’t turn off even when I’m enjoying a piece whispered in my ear “yeah, she’d make any script work”.
But that’s the second incredible thing: the script might even be better than the performance.
Telling a story about historical heroes means deciding how honest you want to be. Certain large companies prefer their heroines to be untouchable, while smaller shows like “Garage Girls” will brush against concerns as they rush through a long story in a short period of time. The Bush stands out for being a tale about heroes who are real people - flawed, irrational, not always successful. It points out that the women at the centre of the story were all well off, and that the bush being saved was after their own large plots of land had been cleared. While it (as expected) explores misogyny and derision of conservation efforts, it also takes moments during the short run time to also explore upper class views of unions, notions of land and spiritualism, national politics, the struggle of playing phone tag, and the dangers of letting pavlovas sit too long.
Honestly, it is the last one that really gets me. The show starts with a pavlova, taken to a party of a neighbour, and in the five minutes that follow Cooper has created a world, in a time, and the characters within it. At all times the prose is clear, light but serious, and full of what I can only describe as deep empathy to everyone.
There are many other little pleasures in this show that I’d be remiss if not mentioning. At the Fringe Hub, with very tight turnarounds and nowhere to store anything, it is rare to see much of a set. Somehow, no one told The Bush, because their set includes a large banner, a dinner cart with assorted paraphernalia, a side table with working lamp, a telephone, and more. All would look perfectly at home in a seventies period piece.
Emily Goodwin’s costume design is spot on.
The sound design by Niroshini Thambar and Nik Paget Tomlinson is also far more than you would expect from a fringe show. Soundscapes of the Australian bush, yes, but also of raucous parties and town hall meetings. It’s difficult to not enjoy the music.
Really, the only criticism you could make of The Bush is that this Fringe show isn’t “fringe”. It’s so polished, so ready for more attention, that you can only hope it lands on a school text list, and is shown again at the Arts Centre, where it belongs.
