Beautiful One Day

The nine co-devisors of this heartfelt theatre documentary about Palm Island proudly tell us in a program note that “there has been no writer or director... the work has been led at different times by each member of the company”. It’s a fine social process, maybe, but rarely the begetter of focussed, passionate art. As challenging as it is, Beautiful One Day could have done with a good writer’s vision, a good director’s single-mindedness.

Three theatre companies collaborated over many months to examine the current feelings of Palm Islanders after the tragic events of 2004 when local man Cameron Doomadgee died a violent death in police custody. Backed by a four-screen video installation, six of the devisors appear on the simple setting. Of these, some are established actors (including Rachael Maza and Jane Phegan), some are Palm Islanders whose volume and articulation can be a problem beyond the first couple of rows.

There’s a lot of re-animated improvised chat covering the early history of the island, the embedded racism, the sanctioned white supremacy. The excellent Paul Dwyer recites — at top speed — a long list of absurd official 1930s punishments (including “Seven days jail for waving to your wife”).

Theatrical focus comes when poor Doomadgee gets his ribs broken and his liver ruptured. Verbatim reports from a variety of statements and trials are cleverly combined to expose the shifting police testimony, and there’s a brilliant recreation of the storming of the police station based on increasingly desperate radio conversations.

Too soon the devisors return our attention to Palm Island today and the dramatic grip dissolves. On stage and on the screens locals offer their hopes for a return to a simple, happy communal life. The evening drifts into platitudes.

Frank Hatherley

Images: (top) Rachael Maza & Erykah Kyle (screen) and (lower) Back-Harry Reuben, Magdalena Blackley, front seated-Rachael Maza, Kylie Doomadgee, foreground-Jane Phegan. Photographer: Heidrun Lohr