Safety Nets - Adelaide Fringe Review

Safety Nets - Adelaide Fringe Review

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Posted 2022-03-08 by Maria Vouisfollow

Mon 07 Mar 2022 - Sat 12 Mar 2022



Visibly homeless people sleeping rough, squatting in tents, make me 'completely uncomfortable' declared Gladys Berejiklian of the makeshift village of homeless people camping in Martin Place, Sydney. ( The Guardian Australia , 1.8.2017) She enlisted the then Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore to usher this untidy mob into neat, emergency, accommodation: thus rendering them invisible.

In Australia, homelessness is a carbuncle upon the skin of our democracy and the myth of a 'fair go'. Despite economic growth, homelessness has increased by 14% since 2011. In a relatively rich country, sleeping rough testifies to the growing gap between rich and poor.

Sarah Butler and Jillian O'Dowd explore this weeping sore unapologetically in an often cacophonic, non-narrative, in-your-face drama that leaves not one swag unturned.

Butler, who wrote the play speaks her story with true storyteller glamour, seducing the audience into a non-sequential narrative arc. We are never quite sure if she is telling the truth as poor mental health and dissociation are well-known outcomes of long-term homelessness.

The theme of losing identity when you lose the roof over your head is articulated clearly by Ruby Tuesday talking about all those 'little things' that make you who you are, gathered in one stable place: there is no place like home.



If there was a classic linking device throughout the dramatic narrative, it would be the music of the Rolling Stones, Ruby Tuesday, Angie which is heard intermittently alongside Butler's repetitive rumour about her adopted name, 'Ruby Tuesday', a fantasy that she may be Mick Jagger's love child, a claim to an identity, any identity other than that of a homeless, alcoholic woman. It gives a sense of time, place and the generation of women who find themselves on the streets.

Safety Nets' two female characters, appear costumed in flimsy, black petticoats, on a stage set which is bare except for a suitcase and the flotsam and jetsam that is often seen scattered around the storage challenged 'abode' of people who are homeless. These women expose the fact that in Australia, single women over 50-years-old are a growing cohort who are at risk of homelessness for many socio-economic reasons, including the reality of no superannuation scheme for housewives and childbearing.

Jillian O'Dowd physically shadows Butler, pouring sounds and songs over Butler's monologue. This device both enhances the 'plot' and creates a schism for the audience's attention. It is the auditory equivalent of a split-screen and produces a disturbing psychological tension, that like its theme, destitution, does not allow the audience to rest.

Being moved on, the instability of housing for this precariat of Australians, the sweet memories of home and the safety, security and identity a stable, physical space provides us, for all our personal stuff, is the rock upon which Safety Nets rotates.

The political Holy Grail of a safety net - a refuge - public housing – a basic human right is a repeated plea in song by the protagonist O'Dowd and Ruby Tuesday, who later reveals this is not her true name, but one she baptised herself with when her mum named her Brandy Brennan after the tipple her mother was wed to.

The play opens with a rich soundtrack of the traditional 'Welcome to Country', a reference to the first people who were 'de-homed' and sets the theme for articulation of other marginalised people who lose their shelter.

This work is brave, experimental and blisteringly involving. No social safety net for us to fall into: homelessness can happen to anyone, it is not a lack of character, is the unfailing message. The play's winding, enigmatic, non-chronological arc reflects the loss of self, the chaotic reality and the anxious, erratic existence of the unsheltered.



Robust acting from Butler, who breaks the social etiquette of safe distance with the audience from the start by talking directly at us, quality sound and vocals by O'Dowd, who sings some haunting, lullaby-like songs in a beautiful, bluesy, mezzo-soprano voice, underpinned by the challenging survival theme make this a play to put on your watch list.

Safety Nets, written by Sarah Butler with Original Soundscape and songs by Jillian O'Dowd, is playing at Studio at Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas St, Adelaide, SA, 5000 March 7 – 12th 2022.

Tickets can be booked through The Fringe: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/safety-nets-af2022

#adelaide_city
#festivals
#musicals
#performing_arts
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#theatre
#march
!date 07/03/2022 -- 12/03/2022
%wnadelaide
179983 - 2023-06-15 22:59:12

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