The 7 Stages of Grieving

A large block of ice is suspended by seven strong ropes. It is melting, dripping onto a freshly turned grave of red earth. The performance area is covered in a thin layer of black powder, framed by a scrape of white. Within the space there are projection surfaces. Initially unseen to the audience, a suitcase containing photographs is inside the grave.

Words and images are projected onto the performance space which enables context and adds depth and meaning and helps the audience comprehend the play as it moves across time and place. A projection of ‘1788’, drawing on the historical and social context, takes us immediately to the arrival of the First Fleet, while projecting the letter ‘Z’ on the young girl is a clever, symbolic way to show the forceful imposition of English language on Indigenous culture. The projection of words throughout the play gives the audience an insight into the woman’s emotional state without explanation, showing not telling.

The play has few but effective props that are primarily symbolic. The ice, the suitcase and photographs, the wooden cross, red earth and the eucalyptus leaves are all laden with meaning and allegory but the meaning of these symbols alters throughout the performance. The melting ice is always there and at times resembles the tears of a people grieving for their land and culture or the melting of Indigenous people’s culture or the coldness of white Australia.

Family heritage and Indigenous culture is emblematised through the suitcase and photographs. A case of a people’s stories and grief is waiting for the time to express itself in a positive, caring environment, waiting for reconciliation. The wooden cross and earth work effectively to capture the loss and death as well as land ownership and Aboriginal land rights. The eucalyptus leaves are a connection to nature, earth and ritual.

The colours of the floor, reminiscent of tribal paint, black powder, red earth, and a scrape of white can be seen as a relentless infringement of the white settlers and white culture on the red land and black people who are original inhabitants of the land.

The Longest Memory

While it references a past generation, the main narrative of The Longest Memory takes place on a Virginian plantation in the period before the American Civil War, between 1790 and 1810. The Northern states of a young United States have industrialised early, the Southern states have relied heavily on agriculture. The area is seen as a great opportunity for individuals and companies to capitalise on new unexplored farmland. In an era of slavery, it is not long until the south calls upon slaves to be used for manual labour to ensure economic viability of the cotton, sugar cane and tobacco plantations.

Virginia’s first Africans arrived at Point Comfort, on the James River, late in August, 1619. There, ‘20 and odd Negroes’ from the English ship White Lion were sold in exchange for food. Certain laws regarding slavery of Africans had been passed in the seventeenth century and codified into Virginia’s first slave code in 1705, about 100 years before the main action of The Longest Memory. The General Assembly of Virginia had decided that any child born to an enslaved woman would also be a slave. As a result, slaves faced the possibility of life servitude. Alongside the slave trade in Virginia were approximately 4000 white indentured servants working to pay back loans for their passage money to Virginia.

During the time of the narrative, many in the United States are unhappy with the ideology of slave-holding. The abolitionist view is held by some individuals but is discouraged by society. It will not be until around ten years after the death of the novel’s protagonist that the abolitionist sentiment becomes increasingly popular, coalescing into the abolitionist movement. The movement will demand the immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States, culminating in the fight for their freedom and the end to all racial inequality.

Meanwhile, also gaining momentum is the Protestant movement known as the Second Great Awakening which renews the public’s interest in morality and sin. This strengthens the abolitionist movement’s claims that slavery is immoral, in contrast with those who believe that Christianity and slavery were not incompatible.

The deep economic and political tensions between the North and the South will lead, decades later, to the American Civil War (1861-1865). The abolition of slavery in Virginia will occur by 1865, with the end of the American Civil War and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.