April’s Fool

This is one of the finest pieces of educational theatre I have seen.

We become engrossed and finally shattered by the ending, despite its inevitability. Credit must go to the inspired casting and direction of David Burton’s script by Lewis Jones.

After Toowoomba teenager, Kristjan Terauds’drug-related death in 2009,

Burton hit on the idea of creating a docudrama that might illuminate the event without sensationalising it. He approached Kris’s family, doctors and nurses, and Kris’s friends and drug buddies. Most agreed to chat while Burton recorded; some requested name changes.

Without intentionally portraying a message, Burton cobbled together an inspiring theatre piece that introduces us to Kris’s return from a Gold Coast music festival. Unexpected events upset a daily routine until Kris’s Dad can’t wake him next morning. He tries CPR with a surprise outcome, the ambulance declares Kris dead, he is revived in hospital but hangs in the balance for nine days.

Gradually the pieces fall together. We get to form our own conclusions. This dialogue is real – confusions, non-sequiturs, unfinished implications, pregnant pauses, anger … 

Barbara Lowing (mother, Helena) and Allen Laverty (father, David) engage us while Sam Clark (Kris’s brother Ari) and Jessica Harm (sister, Danika) portray love and confusion. All four plus Belinda Raisin play multiple roles to create a whole community.

Heart-breakingly beautiful theatre.

Jay McKee

Image: L-R Allen Laverty, Jessica Harm, Barbara Lowing and Sam Clark. Photo: Focalpoint Photography, Hardy Althaus.