The Walk Across America For Mother Earth

This was a stunning piece presented at La MaMa which reminded me (tt) so much of my experiences at the Pram Factory with the Australian Performing Group in 1979. Even the space itself, taller and wider, was very much like my old long demolished stamping ground. But the similarity continues in that the piece was presented very much in our  performance style...broad,colourful and very often irreverent.  And  the show delved deeply into the same sorts of issues we were passionate about then.....who is the enemy in the obstruction of our basic rights to happiness. And why is every altruistic cause eventually besmirched by human frailty.

The set design is by Anna Kiraly.

And the craziest most glittering costumes this side of PRISCILLA are the work of Machine Dazzle.

Playwright, actor, singer-songwriter Taylor Mac's play is based on his experiences at age 18 when he joined a ragtag group of political activists on a nine-month protest walk across America from New York to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site in 1992. He plays Kelly, a young gay man unsure of his direction in life, coerced into joining the walk by his lesbian friend Angie, a lovely performance by Daphne Gaines. They are accompanied by hippies, dogs, con men, mad men, muscle men, Belgians and a guitarist ,all of whom gradually fall by the wayside as a result of infidelities, illness, madness and a suspected rape, and all portrayed with enormous energy, commitment and hilarity in a commedia del arte style. Indeed, some of the staging is so frantic (a tornado scene is particularly riotous) that one performer, choreographer Nikki Zialcita, is now playing her role in a wheelchair after sustaining a knee injury on opening night. Taylor Mac's script is full of lovely exchanges ("Where does an outsider go", wails one character, "when outside doesn't want her?") and his performance in particular is a delight and ultimately very touching when he realises that the closer he is to his goal the less he cares about the cause.

There was musical entertainment in the foyer during the interval but we missed it.

We were startled to see that the President of La Mama's board of directors is named Anthony Sheldon. Is this a sign? Should we stage a bloodless coup and claim the space so that tt may write and produce plays here for years to come? Look for our names amongst these plaques some fine day....