“Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” Jeremy Goldstein asks the Casey community during Truth to Power Café, an online hybrid of theatre and activism presented by Bunjil Place and London Arts Projects.
Truth to Power Café celebrates the life experiences of participants whose contribution to the social fabric of the community has shaped the world as we know it.
Each performance mirrors the passions, interests and concerns of local communities as participants are invited to step into their own power and speak passionately from their lived experience about something important to them that they believe should be important to all of us.
Their stories are particularly poignant as Victorians surpass over 200 days in lockdown, facing both social and physical isolation from their communities, their peers and their families.
For this cathartic experience of truth-telling, nine members of the local Casey community were invited to share their responses to the questions for a profound theatrical reflection on loss, hope and resistance.
Their stories were filmed and compiled into a collection of personal memoirs to create a space for conversation and the search for finding voice.
Mr Goldstein said telling true and untold stories about our lives was becoming more important than ever, as Victoria emerges from lockdown.
“Through the telling of these stories, we can capture progressive energy and use it as a catalyst for change and renewal in the connected space of theatre,” he explained.
“This is a chance to claim agency over ourselves and our community, and to do this, in the eyes of family, friends and allies, is what makes the show so empowering.
“At a time when there can be no return to normal, we demand that you listen.”
Casey participant Sountharam Chidambaram said she was motivated to share her story of power as part of the project.
“Power is positive for me; that’s the driving force in me,” she explained.
“Being a migrant here…I’ve got to look at power in a very positive way and think, how do I take advantage of that.
“If you allow yourself to become powerless then you’ve got no power. You need to develop that power. That’s your responsibility to become powerful.”
She said she draws strength from her mother, who passed away two years ago.
“She was supportive of everything and was there with my failures and successes,” Sountharam said.
“She is my source of power. If I’m really down or depressed I just need to think of my mum, visualise her, think of what she told me and that’s my strategy to bounce back.
“My message to her is: mum, I think you’ve brought out the best in me.”
Finding voice is of particular importance to Mr Goldstein, whose personal experience commences the performance.
His struggle with the power of his father, HIV and drug use is his own answer, sharing memoir, poetry, image music and performance to tell the story of his complicated past and the resolve in the years following his father’s death.
His passion in the belief that people need a space to speak their own truths to those who have power over them inspired him to not only create Truth to Power Café but a whole new genre of theatre.
Mr Goldstein was also inspired by the political and philosophical beliefs of Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter and his Hackney Gang, which included Goldstein’s late father Mick and poet Henry Woolf who, at 92, is the sole remaining member of the gang.
For sixty years the gang maintained their belief in speaking truth to power and remained firmly on the side of the occupied, the disenfranchised and their allies.
Speaking truth to power is a non-violent means of conflict resolution that has historically used the stage to speak to those in authority, no matter who that may be.
Mr Goldstein believes that speaking out has heightened value in our era of post-truth, alternative facts and fake news.
Speaking truth to power is widely accepted to mean saying something to those in a position who don’t want to hear it.
The event has travelled the world from London and beyond and now comes to Bunjil Place as a part of The City of Casey’s Ageing Positively Festival.
As it has travelled around the world, members of local communities have played their part in shaping the narrative of the performance, speaking passionately about what matters most to them.
Truth to Power Café will run from Saturday 2 to Sunday 31 October via on-demand digital theatre streaming by Bunjil Place.
Tickets are free but registrations essential are essential, via https://www.bunjilplace.com.au/bunjil-place-presents-truth-to-power-café
