Posted on August 12, 2010 - by sophia

Alice Springs News – August 2010

NAMATJIRA: UNEXPECTED COMEDY

by Kieran Finnane, Alice Springs News

Trevor Jamieson has a rival and what a pair the two make.
Jamieson’s mature brilliance, moving from sombre, poignant notes to moments of satire, farce and vaudeville, was matched by the bubbling charm, the joyful high camp comedy and the beautiful singing voice of Derek Lynch when they took all the roles in Big hART’s presentation of scenes from the play Namatjira, written by Scott Rankin.
At the weekend’s celebrations of the Namatjira legacy the scenes were blended with other acknowledgments on stage of the Namatjira legacy – a performance by the Ntaria Ladies Choir, a presentation by the Hermannsburg Potters, short films made with the Namatjira family in the course of developing the project.
Archie Roach, who performed three moving songs, also spoke of the way Namatjira had touched him while he was still at school in faraway Victoria: “He was a hero to the Aboriginal people when Aboriginal people needed heroes.”
But the scenes from the play were a runaway highlight, guaranteeing audiences for a full production expected to return to Alice next year after premiering at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre in September and going on national tour.
The production is billed as asking the question, “How did Australia’s most iconic Indigenous watercolour artist end up dying a broken man?”. The seriousness which that question promises is certainly there, and especially in the final scene when Jamieson as Namatjira – torn between two worlds – asks himself, “Maybe I have no story?”
Along the way though Jamieson and Lynch take us for a rollicking ride, with jokes, satiric jibes and hilarious scenes, whether set on the Hermannsburg mission or on Namatjira’s interstate excursions, where the artist was feted, fawned over and patronised.
It’s a story about white Australia’s response to an Aboriginal man as much as it is about the man himself.
“What were we yearning for?” asks the play of its assumed white audience.
“A black man we can be proud of?”
Whatever else they achieve, something Big hART can certainly be proud of is bringing to the fore two great Aboriginal talents of the stage, Jamieson and Lynch.

Alice Springs News, August 12, 2010

http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/1728.html