No Surrender

No Surrender
By Mic Smith. La Mama Theatre, Carlton, Vic. February 7 - 18, 2018

No Surrender is a new play about a triple poaching in South Africa.  It tells the story of an anthropomorphic Rhinoceros named Roger (Kevin Summers).  Roger has had his horn hacked off during a full moon. A  “poachers moon”, when rhinos are hunted down by the shadows they cast in the moonlight. Roger is bloody, bruised and confused when he discovers his brother Ralph and daughter Rhonda are lying dead beside him.

Summers has delivered a tragic yet comical performance of a grief stricken, trauma victim. The head Ranger (Liam Gillespie) offers to help Ralph, but the sad truth is you cannot give back what is already lost. Ralph recounts to the audience that he copped the bloody trifecta, with a blow to the head, immobility and a thousand flies clinging to his gaping facial wound. Times have changed he claims, fearing the worst when his best times are storms and black nights.

Mic Smith has written a moving and jarring piece of poetical theatre. As a conservation journalist he feels passionate about the metaphorical connection of rhino poaching and the intervention into the lives of the elderly. It is a curious metaphor yet a valid response for Smith to draw honest and moving comparisons with work and his own family life.

An edgy rock soundscape along with a dimly lit moon silhouette and blood-red lighting enhance the grisly details.

It is a disturbing tale that needed to be told.

I recommend everyone to experience the experience.

Flora Georgiou

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