WikiLeaks drama unfurls on the stage
WHEN Julian Assange opened the WikiLeaks floodgates at the end of last year, exposing the secrecy of governments around the world, it gave playwright Ron Elisha an idea for a new stage production.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of interest in the topic and that other people were also writing about it, but I was determined to be the first one out with it,” says the Melbourne-based writer and doctor whose works have been staged in Australia for almost three decades.
“I got the idea when all hell broke loose about the release of the cables and the sex scandal last December, and finished writing the play in February.”
The result is a Wikiplay titled Stainless Steel Rat which premiered last week at the York Theatre in Sydney’s Seymour Centre.
Directed by Wayne Harrison, the cast includes Valerie Bader, Caroline Craig, Glenn Hazeldine, David Downer and Peter Phelps.
However, despite the newsworthy theme, it has not been easy to stage the play – Dr Elisha sent his script to all the mainstream theatre companies in Australia without success.
“I pitched it to all the usual suspects but nobody in Australia among the flagship theatre companies reads manuscripts anymore,” he says. “Nothing happened and I got no response.”
Dr Elisha says he met Harrison at a play reading for another writer and he showed interest in staging the work as an independent production.
“Wayne agreed that it needed to be staged quickly, so it has only been a few months to get it to the stage. He has an enormous amount of courage and is taking a big risk.”
Stainless Steel Rat is presented as if the audience is watching a film being made about the story.
“The stage is a film set and we see the director and producer arguing about the facts, leaving it for the audience to decide.
“In some ways it was just as Assange did in releasing all the raw data and letting people make up their mind about it. Its not the usual take on WikiLeaks.
“When I started researching the play I thought that I would get all my information from the internet; at that stage there was nothing in print yet.”
Dr Elisha says the moral issues and dilemmas are the most important aspects of Stainless Steel Rat.
“The moral perspective is what interests me on any issue. Assange is a believer in going out to change the world and he is prepared to follow the line that the end justifies the means and sacrifice the individuals in the group.
“My problem is that if you are behaving in the same way as the people that you are criticizing, you are not going to create a better world. All of that comes into the play along with sexual politics.”
The play includes plenty of humour, especially at the expense of politicians.
“The greatest butt of the jokes are politicians such as Julia Gillard and Barack Obama; they come in for a real caning. A lot of it is in the form of heightened satire.”
Dr Elisha is already looking ahead to September when a new play of his about Voltaire will be staged in Sydney.
“It has a Jewish connection because what made me decide to write the play was to try and discover how someone as clever as Voltaire could be such a rabid anti-Semite,” he says.
“It is done in a highly stylised way. I have taken iconic fringe songs and created a new language for them, similar to what was done in A Clockwork Orange which gives it a punkish quality.”
Stainless Steel Rat is at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney, until July 17. Bookings: www.seymourcentre.com.au.
REPORT: Danny Gocs
PHOTO: Director Wayne Harrison (left) and actor Glenn Hazeldine during rehearsal for Stainless Steel Rat.