David Holman's trilogy of 1980s plays for Adelaide's Magpie company has profound effect on youth theatre
The play No Worries came from David Holman’s research into remote South Australian farming areas and the effect of debilitating drought. It became a classic of Australian children’s theatre.
Image by Fairfax Media
David Holman had a profound impact on South Australian youth theatre in the 1980s.
Holman in the late 1960s had joined England's Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, the birthplace of the international theatre-in-education movement. His first plays were written for British schools but began to be produced in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Japan.
In 1983, Holman was commissioned by Adelaide’s Magpie Theatre, the youth theatre wing of South Australia’s state theatre company, at that time called the Lighthouse ensemble, directed by Neil Armstrong with composer Alan John part of its team. Geoffrey Rush, in 1984, was appointed artistic director of Magpie, the first youth wing of an Australian state theatre company.
Moving to South Australia, Holman worked with Magpie Theatre on an exchange programme with the United Kingdom’s Theatre Centre. He produced a trilogy of plays and a youth opera in Adelaide: No Worries at the l984 Adelaide Festival; The Small Poppies for the 1986 Adelaide Festival; Beauty and the Beast for the Bicentennial Adelaide Festival in l988, and youth opera Frankie for the 1988 Come Out Festival.
No Worries came from Holman’s research into remote South Australian farming areas and the debilitating drought. It became a classic of Australian children’s theatre. It was told through the eyes of Matilda, 10, as her parents’ farm life fell apart, causing them to relocate from an idyllic rural setting to an alienating city environment. Chris Johnson’s lively production at the Adelaide Festival in 1984, inspired a feature film in 1994 directed by David Elfick − winning the best picture, jury prize and most popular film awards in South America, Europe and Australia including the triumphant crystal bear for best children’s film at the Berlin Film Festival.
For the 1986 Adelaide Festival, Holam wrote the epic The Small Poppies, where half a dozen actors played 20 roles: three central five-year-olds at turning points in their lives. They also played schoolyard bullies, jokers, best friends, as well as parents and teachers – dramatic, funny and appealing to ages five to 85.
Beauty and the Beast, a colonial Australian take on the classic folk tale, under the umbrella of the 1988 Adelaide Festival, completed Holman’s popular Magpie trilogy of plays.
These Adelaide connections also pushed Holman into a new medium. Armed with a fleeting knowledge of Puccini, Holam presented Alan John with a challenging libretto for a youth opera − Frankie – a tragic account of the painful remorse experienced by an 11-year-old white boy pressured by a gang to spit on a young black woman. It was directed by Neil Armfield for the 1988 Come Out youth arts festival in Adelaide, mounted simultaneously with the ninth world conference of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People. With a 60-strong cast ranging in age from six to 21, Holman said this inspired his major work for Opera Australia, The Eighth Wonder.
After leaving Adelaide, Holman’s works were staged in Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne before he returned to the United Kingdom.
