By Jackie Smith
Arts Project Australia Gallery,
Collingwood Yards
10-13 March
‘I stood on an empty street in the middle of lockdown. No cars, no people, just a few masks in the gutter, and I wondered, is this a day in the life of the Bitch Goddess of Chaos? Is this the day of the Destroyer? As the planet burns, the ocean warms, the skies become clear, wildlife wander city streets and loved ones die alone…is this that day? Is everything gone? Can we come back better?
Three women: mythos, medieval, and mother-smothered, face the day of destruction head on; what will be re-built? How? Should anything be kept? Should we just get a puppy?
The Destroyer explores rage, otherness, grief, isolation, extinction, the end of times, hope and optimism that humans can still hold in the face of disaster.
Writer: Jackie Smith
Director: Moira Finucane
Cast: Maude Davey, Jazida, Caroline Lee, Piera Dennerstein, Raina Peterson
Composer: Rachel Lewindon
“You know Melbourne is back in business when Finucane and Smith bring their craft, talent, and ensemble back to the live stage. On 10 March 2022 Melbourne was back and we know that because The Destroyer hit the ‘stage’ at Arts Project Australia Gallery…Finucane and Smith know that angels play with demons and God and Lucifer are the two sides of the one coin. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot have the saint without the sinner. You cannot have beauty without ugly. You cannot have polite without profane. This is the great truth of humanity. We are all, we are everything, we are everyone…Lee radiates as Martha and the gin soaked evening ended with an orgiastic eruption of dance from cast and audience alike – as it always does with Finucane and Smith.”
whatdidshethink.com
“Caroline Lee enraptures the audience in “Good Daughter Martha” with her nuanced performance, expressing strength and vulnerability and rage and fear with every word she utters.”
mymelbournearts
