Kinetic Energy Theatre Company

“A work of art is like a window providing vistas both to inward and outward worlds. It is created in response to the observations and experiences of the maker, and it interacts with and comments on the psychological, social, political and aesthetic landscapes of the time.

After many productive years as live-theatre makers, we now feel the need to shape our body-of-work into some documented form. It enables us to reflect and let go, as well as preserve and pass on.”

Jepke Goudsmit, co-director

While readying the archive for its housing in the Australian National Library in Canberra, we were struck by the historical and cultural value of our work, and how important it is to share this treasure trove of experience with next generations. We considered the possibility of publishing our work in book form, especially the plays we created in the period from 1985-2017 (works from before that time are mostly dance based). This is when we embarked on our new project: Kinetic Energy Press. The first book will contain the major plays from our Edge Theatre era (1985-2002). Our work then was a synthesis of dance, drama, song/sound and visuals. We tackled many pressing issues that were bubbling, brooding and spilling over in that time. Some subjects remained taboo until the end of the last millennium, such as mental health disorders, or death and dying. Others were topical then, and remain so now, such as power struggles and the gender divide.

The anthology is called: THEATRE ON THE EDGE, six plays by Graham Jones & Jepke Goudmit. The plays we have selected are:

ECCENTRICS

Set in the ‘80s, and inspired by the surreal life of the marginalised in multicultural Sydney, and the music of jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk.

WHO DIES ?

An adaptation of Plato’s "Myth of the Cave" set in a contemporary Sydney hospice, exploring the process of dying as a path towards liberation.

WHO LIVES?!

A dramatisation of the ancient Egyptian papyrus script “Dialogue between a world-weary Man and his Soul”, delving deep into mental health issues plaguing our modern day society.

UNDISCOVERED LAND - VOYAGE 1 & 2

Two journeys through time, using regression techniques to untangle the power webs of religion, race and gender. 

GO! WALK!

A dance poem inspired by Creating, Birthing, Tao, Theatre making and Chinese Calligraphy.

Transposing the time-space experience of the performance to a word-page immersion on paper is quite an interesting challenge. We have come up with poetic and imaginative ways to describe the non-verbal streams and dynamics. And each play is introduced by an extensive preface, looking at its subject, themes, research, artistic treatment and raison d’être.

Many splendid pictures taken by a wide range of photographers and associated artists over the years enrich the publication: Corrie Ancone, Anthea Boesenberg, Denise Davis, Régis Lansac and Jos Schrijer-Zouff. We are also including images of original posters (notably by graphic designers Josef Stejskal and John Windus), as well as reviews and press articles.

Major plays from our Post Edge Theatre Era (2002-2017) will be bundled into a second book, namely HOME, REFUGE, THE FREEDOM RIDE and EMPIRE, and the plays of our Shakespeare project possibly in a third, namely SHAKE-SPEARE PART 1 & 2, and our adaptation of Hamlet.

“What a time to be delving into this rich body of work. I feel like a poetic archeologist wading through layers of physical and metaphysical reality. The plays' characters, themes, imagery and spirit have truly come alive again and I feel their messages are still of such value in our current times. It's been a real collaboration, fine tuning the material to bring some of the true essence of the plays to the readers. A hard task to do with ephemeral live theatre, but also a fantastic opportunity to really honour the plays as texts in their own right and share the beautiful photographic documentation of them throughout the decades. I look forward to the coming together of all those who know and love Kinetic Energy to launch these books.”

Jola Jones, co-editor

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The play celebrates the life of the lost, those who have sown the seeds of a life gone and a life dreamed of, to grow a unique world for their groping existence. It explores Australia’s diversity and its cultural homelessness, with the attached predicaments of psychological confusion, emotional disorientation and physical gaucherie.

When distilled into the play’s main characters, Wheelchair Ruby & Parachute Frankie, their lives are generously suffused with an indelible spirit and will to survive, however alien their environment or difficult their circumstances.

The play premiered in 1987.

“…a bit like Samuel Beckett meets Thelonious Monk, and it is a happy encounter. Behind the ‘eccentric’ behaviour of Beckett’s characters is a motivating logic that is pursued as obsessively as any chartered accountant’s. Likewise the cryptic allusions and quantum leaps of Monk’s music are based on a formal system that is positively Newtonian in its logic. Some brilliant conjunctions result. One that stays in the mind is a jive duet between Ruby (Jepke Goudsmit) and Frankie (Graham Jones) on his twinkling feet, to a quartet recording of Monk’s jumping Hackensack.”  (Gail Brennan, Sydney Morning Herald, 30-10-1989)

Link to THE JITTERBUG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDNbxYbt9g

Major platforms for the play:

- The stories of people whose dying process we were privileged to witness when we worked as volunteers at the Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst, and our personal responses to these intimate experiences.

- The groundbreaking work of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who revolutionised bereavement and palliative care.

- The in-depth studies of Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz into the area of Dreams & Death.

Through the synthesis of dramatic, choreographic, musical and design elements, we created a flow of transforming images, a fusion of worlds: the hospice reality, the realm of dreams, the dimensions of the psyche, and the known and unknown regions of the mind.

The play premiered in 1990.

“A hospital trolley becomes the centerpiece for an enchanting dance, and wheeled screens cleverly shift time, place, space and character. Death, when it comes, is strangely real yet beautiful and liberating…”  (John Shand, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17-3-2000)

Link to THE WALTZ: https://youtu.be/cNXbL3vgnzo

The text, dating from 2200 BC, describes how a man, disillusioned with life, is confronted by his soul when he is about to commit suicide. Their collision causes a profound change in how the man perceives life.

The text was written in a time of extreme social, political and spiritual upheaval. It parallels our present time of unrest, war, inveterate corruption, high incidence of suicide, alienation and growing uncertainty, and pre-echoes our current search for change and transformation out of an increasingly dystopian world.

In adapting the Egyptian text to a contemporary setting, we explored the themes of mental illness and suicide. In contemporising the concept of the Ba, we looked into a modern understanding of the non-physical side of our being. In this, we were influenced by Helmuth Jacobsohn’s Jungian interpretation of the papyrus text, and the research of Dr Raymond Moody into the Near-Death-Experience.  

The play premiered in 1992.

“One of the most haunting theatrical experiences for quite a while - theatre for those who can bear a little more reality than most; for those who enjoy a brush with the timeless moment, a glimpse of eternity and a sense of the stillpoint of the turning world.” (Brian Hoad, The Bulletin, 22-6-1993)

Link to THE TROLLEY FIGHT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuMeJKaUiyE

Two dysfunctional humans caught in the power webs of religion, race and gender, go in search for self-knowledge and healing. Both Voyages start in Sydney at the approach of the millennium change, 2000, but each traces a very different itinerary through a specific lens: Voyage 1 from a man’s point of view, Voyage 2 from a woman’s perspective.

Each journey is a time warp that takes us into an elastic time/space environment, where actors, space and objects are continually transforming. A labyrinthine world whose inhabitants absorb the styles of behaviour and expression indicative of the time period visited. The mode of traveling is analogous to computer technology and film: scan, enlarge, cut & paste, re-take, superimpose, zip forwards or backwards at various speeds, zoom in and out, dissolve, freeze, and so on.

The inspiration for traveling in this way came from our fascination with regression therapy, a technique which uses hypnosis to recover memories from the past that could be interfering with a person’s present mental, physical and emotional wellness.

In Undiscovered Land - VOYAGE 1 (premiered in 1996) we follow Richard, whose outwardly successful life is internally falling apart. He goes into therapy to confront his demons. He witnesses himself as oppressor and as victim, while matters of dominance and helplessness become painfully real.

The performer in the part of the Therapist acts out key persons in the realities visited by the time-traveling protagonist. Not until Richard realises that the people closest to him in his present life have been important figures in his past lives, is he able to find healing and redemption.

Relationships explored by Richard and his Therapist:

- Sydney 1996: Richard & his wife. - Sydney 1970’s: Richard (teenager) & his father. - Westphalia 1183: Young nobleman Hildebrandt & his lover Rachael; Hildebrandt & his mother; Hildebrandt & his father. - Westphalia 1189: Hildebrandt becoming a Knight. - Acre, Palestine 1191: Hildebrandt & a Saracen. - Kentucky, USA early 1900's: Julia & her father (a Baptist Minister).

In Undiscovered Land - VOYAGE 2 (premiered in 1997) we follow Heather, who is beset with allergies and severe anxiety. In the process of unearthing suppressed traumas, she experiences a sequence of trances, intuitions and nightmares in which she becomes aware of what keeps her imprisoned: the shackles of patriarchal oppression.

A male actor performs the persons of authority that are haunting the time-traveling Heather across the ages. When Heather uncovers links and overlaps between the seemingly separate, she manages to overcome her pathological self-doubt and fear, and makes the shift into self-empowerment.

Relationships explored in Heather’s journey: - Sydney 1997: Heather (in her forties), alone. - Sydney 1967: Heather (teenager) with an abortionist; with a Crown Street Hospital doctor. - Sydney 1960: Heather (child) with her father. - Cordoba, Spain 1504: Serafina with her father; with a prisoner; with a villager; with Inquisitor Lucero; with a torturer; with an executioner. - Versailles, France 1663: Armande (a comedienne) with her writer/director/actor husband Jean- Baptiste.

“The pair’s intuitive sense of theatre as spectacle and theatre as magic comes to the fore with some unforgettable images. One is of Jones, amid a welter of demanding transitions, using nothing more than a long red ribbon to transform himself into Julia, lock, stock and pigtails. The other is the use of iridescent tennis balls in a complete blackout. The scene in which the balls are all in irrational and independent motion is electrifying, like so many lost souls in the ether. One wonders if there is anything Jones and Goudsmit cannot do. They sing superbly (augmenting Roger Dean’s moody score), dance, act, write and direct.” (John Shand reviewing VOYAGE 1, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 12, 2000)

“Jones and Goudsmit combine a depth of training and experience in movement and voice with eclectic research. Moliere, for example, or Judaic ritual. Thus they can jump from one scene to another, from one era to another, while maintaining a continuity and fluidity of thought and action. French, Spanish, Latin and Hebrew, spoken and sung, meld with courtly dance, canticle and staff twirling. What emerges is a commentary on the abuse and persecution of women.” (Colin Rose reviewing VOYAGE 2, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 21, 1997)

“Kinetic Energy Theatre Company show us all over again just what it means to explore. … The pieces mesh dance, music, song and acting, weaving the stories through a complex cut-and-paste process. It is demanding, but ultimately rewarding, thanks to the careful compositional structure that Kinetic Energy displays with all of their work. This is avant-garde theatre without the ‘smoke and mirrors’ techniques that render so many pieces incomprehensible to the uninitiated”. (Elizabeth Bentley reviewing VOYAGE 1 & 2, The Drum Media, 16 May, 2000)

Links to two collages:

Voyage 1: https://youtu.be/ZYExdqIuKRg Voyage 2: https://youtu.be/NzFwZM01C4E

A 1999 metamorphosis of our 1985 play DONG XI, which was inspired by Creating, Birthing, Tao, Theatre Making and Chinese Calligraphy. GO! WALK! tells the same story, ignited by the same themes, but in a new way, with the lightness and wit of relative dis­tance, and breathing afresh with additional layers of meaning and energy.

As the performers of our own story, we are character-less and mask-less, since we are our­selves, playing out events that happened to us in our life journey together, and translat­ing these experiences via the lens of the play’s creative impulses into the language of dance and poetry, sound and movement imagery.

“The whole work was suffused with a lightness of touch, a love that was clear in the radiance of both performers throughout … I was delighted to see a sophisticated, mature work, effortlessly performed by two experienced and gifted performers, who were now working with a shared and highly developed performance vocabulary.”   (Peter Snow in “How Performances Endure Over Time”, written for About Performance, 1999)

Link to THE STROLLER DANCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6fqHUkAwRw

Photographs in this section are by Anthea Boesenberg, Jos Schrijer-Zouff and Regis Lansac. The screenshot is from footage by Denise Davis.