Blackrock (play)
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''Blackrock'' is a play by Australian playwright
Nick Enright Nicholas Paul Enright AM (22 December 1950 – 30 March 2003) was an Australian dramatist, playwright and theatre director. Early life Enright was born on 22 December 1950 to a prosperous professional Catholic family in East Maitland, New So ...
that was first performed in 1995. It was adapted from a 1992 play by Enright, ''A Property of the Clan'', which was inspired by the
murder of Leigh Leigh The murder of Leigh Leigh, born Leigh Rennea Mears, occurred on 3 November 1989 while she was attending a 16-year-old boy's birthday party at Stockton Beach, New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia. The 14-year-old girl from Fern Bay ...
in Stockton, Australia in 1989. The plays were both well received critically but attracted criticism from both Leigh's family and the media because of the fictionalisation of an actual murder. Despite repeated statements from Enright that the plays were a work of fiction, they have both often been considered by viewers to be a factual account. ''A Property of the Clan'' was
shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...
for a
New South Wales Premier's Literary Award The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...
in 1993, and ''Blackrock'' won the
AWGIE Award The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previou ...
for Best Play in 1996. ''Blackrock'' was developed into a feature film of the same name in 1997.


Plot

Blackrock is an Australian beachside working-class suburb where surfing is popular among youths like Jared. He has his first serious girlfriend, Rachel, who comes from a much wealthier part of the city. One day Ricko, the local surfing legend, returns from an eleven-month trip. Rachel's brother Toby holds his 18th birthday party at the local beach club a few days later, and Jared decides to merge a 'welcome home' party for Ricko with the event. The party is unsupervised, with alcohol freely available. The following morning, it is revealed that 15-year-old Tracy Warner was killed at the party. Three youths from the party, Davo, Scott, and Toby, tell Ricko that they raped Tracy but left her alive. The three boys are later arrested for the sexual assault. Ricko confesses to Jared that he killed Tracy. He says he was attempting to have sex with her when she bit him and kicked him, so in a moment of rage he grabbed a rock and hit her with it. He has already told police that he was with Jared all night and asks Jared to confirm his alibi in the name of
mateship Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship. Russel Ward, in ''The Australian Legend'' (1958), once saw the concept as central to the Australian people. ''Mateship'' derives from '' mate'', meaning ...
. Jared is torn between telling the truth and protecting his friend. After witnessing Ricko's abusive behaviour towards their friend Tiffany, Jared decides to tell the truth. Ricko is detained by police and hangs himself in his cell. Jared's silence leads to the breakdown of his relationships with both Rachel and his mother, Diane. In the play's last scene Jared confesses to Diane that he witnessed the three youths raping Tracy, but he did not intervene. He is unsure why he did nothing but he believes it was out of loyalty to the boys who were his mates. Ricko left Jared a
suicide note A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who dies or intends to die by suicide. A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depen ...
giving him his van, but Jared asks his cousin Cherie to dump the keys to the van in the ocean when she goes out surfing.


Development


Origins as ''A Property of the Clan''

The play originated as Enright's ''A Property of the Clan'', a theatre-in-education piece written for Freewheels Theatre in Education in Newcastle which premiered in 1992. Enright was approached by the director of Freewheels, Brian Joyce, who suggested the
murder of Leigh Leigh The murder of Leigh Leigh, born Leigh Rennea Mears, occurred on 3 November 1989 while she was attending a 16-year-old boy's birthday party at Stockton Beach, New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia. The 14-year-old girl from Fern Bay ...
as a subject for a play. Enright initially refused, but Joyce argued that the actual subject of the play would be the victim's peer-groups. Enright agreed, after being convinced a play could be made out of the conflicting responses to the crime. The title was taken from a quote in the psychological report that was made on Mathew Webster, the man who murdered Leigh, in preparation for his trial. The first decision regarding the play was to omit the criminal acts and the actual murder from it, instead focusing on the drama, its participants and the aftermath of the murder.


Reception of ''A Property of the Clan''

Leigh's family, who had found out about the play, attended a private screening of it; some of them had not seen each other for two years. Leigh's mother Robyn objected to the fictionalisation of her daughter's murder, stating she would have preferred a documentary account. The rape and murder victim in ''A Property of the Clan'' was named Tracy, which Leigh's family also objected to, as 'Tracey' was the name of Leigh's cousin and best friend. One of Leigh's aunts asked Brian Joyce to change the character's name out of respect for the family, however, the name remain unchanged, even after the play was rewritten and retitled ''Blackrock.'' The local media reported on the family objections to the play, and the day after the play opened, ''Freewheels'' faced "mounting disapproval", and attempted to distance themselves from Leigh's murder. Both Enright and Freewheels chairperson Sharon McMillan respond to the growing controversy. McMillan wrote in ''
The Newcastle Herald The ''Newcastle Herald'' (formerly branded as ''The Herald'') is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and ...
'', stating that media coverage of the play was "unfortunately" focusing on Leigh's murder instead of the play's message, also stating that some people reporting on it in this manner had not even watched the play. Enright stated that while the comparison to Leigh's murder was of interest to the media, the play was actually about how any group of boys abuse any girl, and how they came to do it. Nevertheless, many viewers considered the play to be a factual account of the murder. Even though the rape and murder were not shown in the play, the audience were said to be able to fill in their blanks from their knowledge of Leigh's killing. Despite the controversy, the play was shown at various high-schools in the Newcastle area, and following its positive critical reception, was shown nationally at high schools across the country over a period of eighteen months. However Newcastle High School, where both Leigh and Webster had been students, declined to book the play. The play was also shown at the
National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, many of Australia's leading actors and directors trained at NIDA, including Cat ...
in 1993, and was
shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...
for a
New South Wales Premier's Literary Award The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...
that year.


Redevelopment as ''Blackrock''

In 1994 the Sydney Theatre Company commissioned Enright to develop the original 45-minute play into a full-length production. Blackrock retained the original four characters but also added nine others. It also extended the length of the play, and was considered to be a more fictionalised version of Leigh's murder, though many viewers still considered it to be a factual account of the crime. The narrative and emphasis were reshaped for an adult audience outside of a specifically educational environment, also shifting the plays focus. While ''A Property of the Clan'' focused on the possible motives for rape, ''Blackrock'' was said to focus on the boys involved in the crime, portraying them as victims of the society they live in. ''Blackrock'' was first performed at Wharf I, a theatre run by the ''Sydney Theatre Company'', on 30 August 1995. It also played at the Australian Theatre Festival in Canberra that same year. ''Blackrock'' continued to be performed at the Sydney Theatre Company throughout 1995, and performed a sold-out season at Wharf I in 1996. It has since had many productions throughout Australia, including being performed by a Newcastle-based theatre company, Tantrum Theatre, in 2010. The 2010 version contained a few minor updates, such as referring to surfer Layne Beachley instead of
Wendy Botha Wendy Botha (born 22 August 1965) is a four-time world surfing champion. She won her first title as a South African citizen in 1987, then she became an Australian citizen and won three more titles in 1989, 1991, and 1992. She also posed nude f ...
.


Reception of ''Blackrock''

John McCallum from ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' gave a favourable review of the play, also stating that the decision to transform the play from its original educational environment to a mainstream audience was a "bold move" that was "triumphantly successful." ''Blackrock'' won an
AWGIE Award The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previou ...
for Best Play in 1996. When the play was shown in Sydney, Joyce expressed disappointment at how it was misinterpreted as being about Leigh and "that community". When interviewed in 1996 while ''Blackrock'' was being adapted into a film, Joyce expressed regret that the media continually drawing connections between the play and Leigh's murder had caused additional suffering for Leigh's family, as he had initiated the play with the intention of aiding in the healing process of all the people affected by the murder. Reviewing a version of the play that was performed in 2010, Caroline Wake from '' RealTime Arts'' likened the actors performing in the play to several of the initiation ceremonies that occur in the play itself, stating that to perform in ''Blackrock'' is to be "initiated into Newcastle’s history, to learn that along with the mines and the beaches, the death of Leigh Leigh too is your ambivalent inheritance." The New South Wales Department of Education and Communities support website hosted curriculum material for high school classwork on both plays, prior to its decommission in 2016.


Premiere production

''Blackrock's'' premiere production was directed by
David Berthold David Berthold is one of Australia's most prominent theatre directors and cultural leaders. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as in London and Berlin, and has led several key arts organisations. He was Artis ...
, and featured the following cast: *Jared:
Simon Lyndon Simon Lyndon (born 18 February 1971 in London) is an English-born Australian actor and director who grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He is a WAAPA graduate. Career Film roles Lyndon played Jimmy Loughlin in '' Chopper'' with Eric Ba ...
*Cherie:
Rebecca Smart Rebecca Elizabeth Smart (born 30 January 1976) is an Australian actress, who began acting for television at the age of eight. Her first movie role was one year later in ''The Coca-Cola Kid''. She played the lead in the 1988 film '' Celia'' and ...
*Ricko: Paul Bishop *Davo:
Dan Wyllie Daniel Wyllie (born 1970) is an Australian stage, film and television actor. Wyllie began acting in theatre. Early life Wyllie grew up on Sydney's North Shore. He attended North Sydney Boys High School and the University of New South Wales, whe ...
*Scott: Teo Gebert *Toby:
Joel Edgerton Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his appearance in the ''Star Wars'' films ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) as a young Owen Lars, a role he reprised i ...
*Tiffany: Kristina Bidenko *Stewart/Len/Roy: John Walton *Marian/Glenys: Julie Godfrey *Rachel:
Kym Wilson Kym Wilson (born 1 April 1973) is an Australian actress and former television host. Career Wilson made her television debut playing a minor role in the 1985 mini-series ''Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin''. Her first major role was in the ...
*Diane:
Angela Punch McGregor Angela Punch McGregor (born 21 January 1953, in Sydney) is an Australian stage and film actress. Film credits Her film credits include: ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' (1978), ''Newsfront'' (1978), '' The Island'' (1980), '' The Survivor'' ...
All other roles were played by members of the company.


Film adaptation

While the revisions to the play ''Blackrock'' were still being finalised, Enright started working with first-time director Steven Vidler to produce a film version, which would also be titled ''Blackrock''. Blackrock was released in 1997.
Rebecca Smart Rebecca Elizabeth Smart (born 30 January 1976) is an Australian actress, who began acting for television at the age of eight. Her first movie role was one year later in ''The Coca-Cola Kid''. She played the lead in the 1988 film '' Celia'' and ...
reprised her role as Cherie in the film.
Simon Lyndon Simon Lyndon (born 18 February 1971 in London) is an English-born Australian actor and director who grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He is a WAAPA graduate. Career Film roles Lyndon played Jimmy Loughlin in '' Chopper'' with Eric Ba ...
who portrayed Jared in the play was cast as Ricko in the film.


Notes


References

Bibliography * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackrock (Play) 1996 plays Australian plays adapted into films Rape in fiction