Dark Aspects Of Australia’s Past In Drama Children Of The Black Skirt, Written By Angela Betzien

Australian Gothic is a vehicle for social change and explores the spectre of our history. Children of the Black Skirt, written by Angela Betzien and directed by Leticia Caceres is a compelling story, exploring incredibly dark aspects of Australia’s past. Betzien’s aim in using Gothic techniques is, by stimulating a need for comprehension. Real TV Theatre Company create a unique and meaningful performance, that features the conventions of Australian Gothic to portray the contemporary story of Children of the Black Skirt. The conventions assist the audience in deepening their understanding of the meaning of the play, which is supported through the acting style, dramatic conventions and directorial choices of the play.

Betzien’s Children of the Black Skirt provokes the audience to confront historic societal issues in Australia. Dramatists utilize the form as a way of opening up communication about historical veracities and about our current connection to the land we supposedly share. Multiple roles is a convention of Australian Gothic that is effectively beneficial in creating and portraying the clear dramatic meaning of the play. Children of the Black Skirt incorporates drama elements including themes of gothic drama, human context along with tension through gothic conventions; the entrapment of children in the orphanage, light vs dark, the wicked one, the unborn/undead and spirits. For example, Rosie traditionally sings an Aboriginal lullaby to relieve the restless spirits, whilst she hangs out the washing and the three children lower the blanket to release the spirits. Children of the Black Skirt is brought alive to educate its audiences on Australia’s brutal past and the Stolen Generation. Conveying conventions of Australian Gothic, Betzien has brought Children of the Black Skirt to life on another level.

The manipulated conventions and elements give a certain dramatic meaning to the audience that perfectly align with the gothic conventions. Children of the Black Skirt, as performed by Real TV Theatre Company is a story regarding three misplaced children stumbling across an abandoned in the orphanage. They become ensnared in an eternal world, haunted by spirits from the past. They are tortured by the Black Skirt, a morally upright governess who in this scene glides up and down the orphanage passageways waving prodigious scissors that replaces images of the crucifix, racial harmony and self-identity. The sound of a crying baby is frequently heard when the Black Skirt is present; symbolic of her deceased baby and all missing children in Australia’s past. An example where we see the relationship between the Black Skirt and her baby is when she holds it behind the cloth window.

The conventions assist the audience in deepening their understanding of the meaning of the play. Language was kept to a modicum and the Black Skirt would communicate with the children through a sequence of claps and signals as it was realized her authoritative potential was communicated much more effectively through uncommunicative signals. The narrative structure of the play was non-linear as it shifts in time, effectively creating cliffhangers at the end of every episode so the audience do not become emotionally attached to the tragedies of colonial past. With the substantial narrative spanning numerous locations and time frames, narration is prominent in the play. By gesturing to the audience that they can delight in chuckling at the grotesque Harold Horrocks acquisitive ignorance, the audience shares unanimity with the orphans. Horrocks is symptomatic of the venal and uninformed government – comedic yet worrying. Children of the Black Skirt exhibits a gothic style, for the purpose of creating a more engaging ambience for the general topic of the play. It resembles a gothic style as it is utterly dark and contrasts everything else to inspire more worry into the orphans. The approach to the narration by the characters is counterproductive, as it does not separate the emotional intensity, hence being integrated ineffectively in Children of the Black Skirt.

Overall, the dramatic conventions deconstruct the societal issues of child abuse and the Stolen Generation which are patently established in Caceres’ choices of production elements. Multiple roles maintain the production of Children of the Black Skirt. Three actresses play the roles of the missing children and, through the portal of costumery which they find in the abandoned building, they are moved into the eternal orphanage world, which is laden with past woes.

As the stories of the lost children are revealed – from pick pocketing events in the eighteenth century to the tragedies of the Stolen Generation in the twentieth century – their spirits are discharged gradually. The director of the Real TV Theatre Company production, Caceres, is successful in drawing the audience into the play and encouraging them to think in a whole new way about theatre. Betzien, to create dramatic meaning to the audience, used the dramatic elements as an effective tool.

The directorial choices and production elements of Children of the Black Skirt are used in the dramatic action to create meaning. The features of this structure of play provides a strong message to the audience, without them becoming attached. The structure of the play is episodic, creating a play and script that is often not articulate or linear. The tenses between episodes are ever-changing, showcasing the change of time in the play. Furthermore, the narrative structure continually shocks the audience who must consider what is happening, as they are not allowed to watch the play develop in a linear manner. The play utilises an episodic and broken storyline, where the events of an episode are not automatically a result of the preceding episode. Betzien confronts the historic societal issues in Australia through the episodic structure which rather than condense the action like a regular play, expands the action broadly. The juxtaposition of episodes produces a montage effect by means of multiple locations and time frames. Therefore, the acting style aids the audience with deepening their understanding of the meaning of the play, consequently informing the audience of what happens throughout Children of the Black Skirt.

Caceres is competent in effectively portraying the underclass by means of her directorial choices. Caceres contributes to the believability of the overall play, exemplifying symbolic staging, tension, role and costume. The staging is minimalist, although this suits the style of Australian Gothic well. The stage is manufactured well; every inch of space is used to produce the figure of a distinct place, or a different occasion, while the inclusion of a big cloth window permits the stage design to add a spooky element to the play.

The actresses make light work of the writing and the requirement for multiple roles; it was something of a visual feast to watch the diverse physical contortions they used in an attempt to reproduce an extremely fat lady, an orphanage inspector and multiple youthful people. An example where we see the complexity of multiple roles is the scene where the children become New One, Old One and the Black Skirt. The actresses expose the child-like nature of the characters by laughing excitedly as they place their costumes on. However, once the child wearing the dress fastens it to her, the movement changes as all the actresses roll their bodies in an upward motion and the lighting darkens to represent a change of roles. The actresses alter their physicality, voice and costumes to represent certain roles throughout the play, so the audience will not become attached to a particular character. The purpose of the actresses altering certain aspects is to produce an alienating and dramatic effect for the tyrant.

The director enhances the main message of Children of the Black Skirt through the production element of tension. The atmosphere of the exaggerated movement helps build the misfortune and tension of specific characters. Role is the imaginative identity taken on by actors. The roles observed throughout Children of the Black Skirt are New One (Indigenous girl, taken from an island off the coast of Tasmania in the 1800’s), Old One (endured the Great Depression in Sydney), the Black Skirt and Horrocks. As a result, the audience are able to concentrate on the actors and episodes, allowing them to follow the storyline. Costume is not individually identifiable in Children of the Black Skirt as it is fragmentary; regularly denoting the character’s role and class. Thus, the directorial choices manifestly utilise certain production elements to deepen the audience’s understanding of the society they are living in.

In summary, Caceres successfully employs Gothic conventions to convey the real stories of forgotten children in the Real TV Theatre Company’s production of Children of the Black Skirt. It has been evaluated that the episodic play applies conventions and dramatic elements of Australian Gothic to effectively impact the clarity of the dramatic meaning. Therefore, the dramatic conventions contribute to Children of the Black Skirt, as it encourages the audience to think in a whole new way about society.