Man With The Iron Neck

For most of us, suicides are inexplicable, that utter hopelessness incomprehensible. This moving part physical theatre work from Legs on the Wall and writer/performer Ursula Yovich begins by first listing half a dozen recent teenage Aboriginal suicides.  

Then we meet Mum Rosa (Yovich) living with her boisterous twins, and their best mate Ash, in a country town, but haunted by a Dad who hung himself from the tall gum still there onstage.  

Yovich captures that easy humour, banter and affection which is trademark naturalistic  Aboriginal theatre.  Ash has a lively crush on Evelyn (Caleene Sansbury) and a bromance with her brother, footballer Bear (Kyle Shilling).   All kids have options in the world beyond, even if Evelyn’s are still vague – running away to live in a yurt in Mongolia. 

But Bear’s demons, with his nightmare abstracted powerfully in video backdrops (Sam James), catches up, and ends with his own suicide, hanging from the same tree. 

Backed with a stirring score by Iain Grandage and Steve Francis, and swinging aerial expertise, this is just one of several riveting moments in this production from co-directors Josh Bond and Gavin Robins.  In Yovich’s literal (sometimes under-projected) storytelling, sadly there aren’t more opportunities for abstraction, and more of that signature physicality of Legs on the Wall. 

As it is, Bear’s suicide remains heart-rendering but largely unexplored.  The Man with the Iron Neck features four fine, true performances; and ends with Ash breaking away from the ghost of Bear’s memory.  It’s a salutary end to a tragedy of cross-generational suicide and trauma.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Brett Boardman