Sydney Reviews

Photo – Kurt Petersen

Eureka Hall, part of If These Halls Could Talk: A region wide season of contemporary arts events being held in seven community halls across the Northern Rivers.

Tuesday night at the Eureka Hall. I’m watching the storm pass us by (again) and hoping it will swing back around and bring us some rain. But not tonight. For now, it is wondrous just sitting on the bench seat, inside the grounds of the Eureka Hall. I am a ‘bucaholic’ (addicted to the countryside, ha ha) and Eureka Hall, for me, personally, has many memories.

Absorbing the ebb and flow of people wandering around (purchasing a wine, ordering their food and waiting for the show, Dreamland, to begin) I wonder how many times have I witnessed ‘goings on’ at this hall? Over twenty years, that is for sure. Tonight is different – this is the Eureka Hall’s testament to life, with so many moments, lifestyles, incantations and imaginings that that entails. What goes on in a country hall is vast and all-embracing as schools, various organisations and groups, events and peoples’ life-journeys are not only accommodated, but created.

Sitting outside, eavesdropping conversations around me, I hear NORPA being lauded by this anticipatory crowd, telling each other how, “...this show is supposed to be equal, if not better, than Railway Wonderland, set at the railway station in Lismore, and no way was I going to miss this one...” 

Part of If These Halls Could Talk, Dreamland was “created in collaboration with the Eureka Hall committee and community” and what a profile NORPA has created through their brilliant (yes, brilliant, not being gushy here, this show IS BRILLIANT) production, with a stellar cast and crew taking us locals (and ex locals alike) for a walk down memory lane.

The mixed crowd of locals and ex-locals, NORPA followers and theatre-lovers filed through the back entrance and found their seating. The show has not even begun and everyone breathes in the atmosphere. Musicians up on stage, playing us into their open arms and setting the scene for the show to come: they are an integral part and never let the cast, or us, down for one second! So many musical genres are employed and whimsy, oh my, the audience laughed, gasped and cried at all the right junctures – such is the power of rhythm!

The ‘Guardians of the Hall’ spoke history through stories of the axe, the cow, the clearing of the Big Scrub, whilst these musicians strummed and sung the audience through the ensuing emotional journey. Stories close to our hearts, weaving their way through the hall, touching every single audience member in a different way, conjuring up memories and events, people and types, situations and ceremonies that have at one time or other affected us all. NORPA Generator nails it again, this time to the very timber that the hall was hewn from...

“Dancing is like telling a story...who will lead and who will follow...” with choreography you can laugh out loud to, or be totally impressed with this physical theatre. Fit, the actors are fit, what can I say?? The audience so close; I love the way the stage is set, with the story unfolding around us, through us and including us; many of the audience members are embraced, dancing on the central stage to the haunting melody, ‘At Last’, skillfully rendered by these fabulous musicians.

“Eureka Hall, this is your life... years of cricket, community dances, CWA, Red Cross...” with farmer meeting hippy; woofer finding herself in Byron (this is screechingly funny); dreams ending and dreams beginning. A tantric timeline, right up to the current age with people trying “to make a quid out of anything” with “illegal wedding parties, Air BnB etc etc” and whole-of-audience-laughter that shook the old walls of the Eureka Hall! 

“The more things change, the more things stay the same” with the ‘tree changer’s’ commentary, “Plenty of blokes my age are here, even older!”, I realised that this could have been taken from my own life’s journal, upon my arrival here, many many years ago! The audience embraced the same as their lives flashed before them, you could see it and feel it! So many stories, so relevant, so funny, so ‘bang-on-the-money’. The story, the actors, the musicians, the musical choices, the choreography, the physical theatre and surprises peppered throughout the entire show – well, if ‘These Halls Could Talk’, Eureka Hall would choose NORPA Generator crew to tell the story: seamless and complete! My life turned full circle... thanks ‘ewe lot’.


A NORPA Generator Production
Dreamland
Writer/Devisor Janis Balodis

Director/Devisor Julian Louis

Performer/Devisors Phil Blackman, Darcy Grant, Katia Molino, Kirk Page, Toni Scanlan & Kirk Page

Venue: Eureka Hall, Eureka NSW
Dates: 23 Nov – 10 Dec 2016
Tickets: $22 – $37
Bookings: norpa.org.au/productions/dreamland/