WA Youth Theatre Company (WAYTCo) take audiences to the abandoned Liberty Theatre for their final offering of 2024, The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia (henceforth shortened to A-Z). Under the direction of WAYTCo’s artistic director Amelia Burke and written by Grace Chow, A-Z tackles a complex and difficult social issue from a youthful point of view using an amalgam of site-responsive, verbatim, and physical theatre.
The Liberty Theatre has played host to various performances in the last couple of years; in many ways it’s ideal for cutting-edge live performance. It feels raw, unrefined, and vast, but it also has a raised stage that’s practically begging for stories and a spotlight. A-Z‘s designer Fiona Bruce makes use of the shallow, tall proscenium by draping sheer cloth across the arch, hanging translucent plastic sheeting for ‘wings’, and stringing used clothing on a line across the back. Additionally, AV projections by Roly Skender and skillfully crafted lighting by Matthew Erren all come together to create a striking space. To deepen the stage and additional levels, platforms and a tall ladder extend the apron, while an alcove inset into the back wall provides a central portrait where we’re introduced to the show’s main character and story arc.
Em Wells (Alana Dooley), a radio host whose friend Zee (Zoe Garcicano) has gone missing, has befriended Tassie, an anthropomorphised Tasmanian Tiger (Cianna Gallen). Through the course of the play, we learn more about the circumstances around Zee’s disappearance through dramatic monologues and duologues interspersed with verbatim reports and lightly comic vignettes. Burke gives the ensemble (Rachel Abelha, Sharni Andersson, Caleb Macauley, Jaimee Whirledge, Ben Ginbey, Clea Purkis, and Rali Maynard) plenty to do throughout and everyone is given a moment in the spotlight.
A-Z is full of visual impact with solid performances from every single cast member, but the text feels rudderless; I found it difficult to find an emotional anchor to keep the material from drifting away. Chow may have been too ‘comprehensive’ in her effort to get across the vastness of the subject matter, but also, I get the sense that she felt compelled to tread too carefully and too lightly around the inherent emotional and psychological complexities involved in telling these stories. And in the end, with such a huge, intriguing space to fit out through design and a relatively generously-sized cast to accommodate, form overtook content.
For the final set piece, the cast joins in a procession through the middle of the house with clothes hoisted on a line as a banner. This was an inspired choice, and one that expressed a great deal without using any words at all. Closing the show in this way helped to summarise and settle the tone of the production, creating a literal and much-needed through-line.
Though it left me wanting more depth, A-Z delivered breadth, and the big energy and big ideas behind all aspects of the production shone through.
CICELY BINFORD
The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia was presented by WAYTCo at Liberty Theatre from 19 – 30 Nov 2024.
