Something’s
rotten in the state of Iowa. Terrible things are happening to children.
Hysterical residents demand that something be done. A new law is
hurriedly passed which states that sex offenders can’t live within
2,000 feet (600 metres) of schools. Yet it’s not enough and it’s
quickly expanded to include: day care centres, parks, shopping malls,
swimming pools, even bus stops and libraries. This law is not fiction,
it was passed in 2005. For Australian Playwright Anthony Weigh, it
sparked a number of questions that needed exploring - the resulting
work is 2000 Feet Away.
It’s
a surprisingly upbeat play (considering the subject matter) full of
lively characters that have a kind of hyper-real technicoloured
nostalgia. We could be watching an old trashy American road movie or
reading a comic book - the animated illustrations (Brett Boardman) give
it that feel. There’s pop culture galore, hamburgers and pickles and
the ubiquitous flicker of the TV, but this stereotyping is deliberate
and serves a greater purpose, it allows us to disassociate with reality
just long enough to let our guard down. Then into minds creep doubts:
“Are all sex crimes of the same magnitude? Should we feel sympathy for
the offenders? Can they perhaps be reformed?”
It’s
a great cast featuring strong and engaging performances by Nicholas
Hope, Belinda McClory, Darren Weller and Colin Moody - fresh from his
dramatic S.T.C
exit. Moody is likeable here as the quintessential doughnut loving
Deputy Hallsy Moss. It’s his job to juggle the competing priorities of
a community turned upside down by the logistics of the new law. There’s
a kind of red tape lunacy to his activities as we follow him on his
rounds evicting sex offenders from their homes in one scene, then
struggling to help them find new lodgings in the next. With the 2,000
feet law making most places in the town off limits, offenders like
piano teacher AG(Darren Weller) are forced to live marginalized lives
in seedy highway motels with other seemingly much worse perpetrators,
like the deliciously creepy Nicholas Papademetriou.
Weller’sAG is soft, sweet, sympathetic and uncomfortably nice. He’s the
pedophile we want to be, if we had to be one! That’s the confronting
nature of this play. We not only sympathize, we empathize too. Weigh
walks us down a narrow path and onto a precipice and basically says
“don’t look down, stay with me” and we do, but it’s morally rough
terrain.
America loves a witch hunt and there are shades of The Crucible
here. People point fingers, “I saw him driving slow past the school
looking at the girl’s doing calisthenics” says ‘Woman’(Tanya Goldberg)
to Deputy Hallsy.
That kind of crazy lock-up-your-daughter’s paranoia that is so Mid-West
American pervades this play. But “if we must have safety at any cost,
what then is the price?” questions Weigh.
Even
more confronting, the town’s children have a sinister power of their
own - if Natascha Flower’s‘Girl,’ a loquacious Lolita-esque nymphet is
anything to go by. It’s this examination of the uncomfortable nature of
emerging sexuality that makes the play riveting to watch and it’s well
handled by director Lee Lewis. The use of lighting (Verity Hampson) is
interesting too, allowing the characters to look through us and out
into a larger world.
Towards
the end I’m disturbed by how much I want to take to the streets and
fight for sex offenders’ rights, although then I’m pulled up short -
there’s a very young child who makes an appearance. It is only then
that we are reminded of the hideous and disturbing nature of these
crimes and the vulnerability of those on whom they are perpetrated.
It’s gripping stuff and will definitely give you something to talk about after the show.
Frogbattleship in association with B Sharp presents 2,000 FEET AWAY by Anthony Weigh
Venue: Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre | 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills Dates: Friday November 2 – Sunday November 25 Plays: Tues 7pm, Wed-Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.15pm Tickets: $29/$23 (Preview $20, Cheap Tues Pay-what-you-can min $10) Bookings: 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au
Something’s
rotten in the state of Iowa. Terrible things are happening to children.
Hysterical residents demand that something be done. A new law is
hurriedly passed which states that sex offenders can’t live within
2,000 feet (600 metres) of schools. Yet it’s not enough and it’s
quickly expanded to include: day care centres, parks, shopping malls,
swimming pools, even bus stops and libraries. This law is not fiction,
it was passed in 2005. For Australian Playwright Anthony Weigh, it
sparked a number of questions that needed exploring - the resulting
work is 2000 Feet Away. 
