Bayou Bart

Two homeless children, Henrietta or, as she prefers, ‘Henri’ (Pippa Asome) and Tristan (Rowan O’Keeffe) long for a home.  They scratch a living catching fish in the longest bayou in the world, in the southern United States.  A dense mist separates the two.  A Siren (Tash Atkins) lures Henri deeper into the swamp where she will meet a variety of creatures – animals who talk, have their own city, and some downriver humans bent on exploitation and destruction...

The animals (Daniel Hillman, Lucy Payne, Lucy Knight, Bailey Griffiths and Mikaela Innes) are represented via a variety of fine masks and not so fine costumes.  The atmosphere of the swamp is cleverly created by Vanessa Gregorion’s lighting and Jamie Carolan’s sound design - plus music by Carolan and Tash Atkins who, by the way, sings beautifully as the Siren.

Bayou Bart is a kind of fairy tale, inspired, so we’re told, when playwright Kalina Lauer designed and made a green and white striped 18^th century costume (for another show) and then, in a curious knight’s move jump, wondered how it would look on a crocodile.  Or an alligator, an inhabitant of the Louisiana bayou.  Such was the genesis of this thirty-minute fable.  It pits Henri’s need to find Tristan – and a home – against the interests and survival of the animals.  Henri, a human, could reveal the animals’ location to the humans – and just at a time when a new generation is about to be born. 

The concatenation of ideas and inspirations that led Lauer to create Bayou Bart is unfortunately reflected in the rather hotch-potch nature of the storytelling here.  Why is the story set in the 1800s, and in the Louisiana Bayou?  I only discovered the 1800s setting by reading the program - and it feels quite arbitrary.  You would not know from the dialogue or the costumes.  But why not Australia and now? 

Why is an ‘enigmatic’ Alligator, named Charles, in an 18^th century costume (the only character dressed as per the 1800s) the leader of the animals’ city?  The clearly under-resourced production means a puzzling mix of costumes overall.  The lost child is a familiar fairy tale trope and useful to take our heroine into another world where she can discover strange creatures.  But why does the Siren want to lure Henri there in the first place – a place where she quickly becomes a threat?  The ecological theme – the human threat to new and old life - is clear enough – but it feels a little tacked on, as if to add a ‘relevant’ touch, and rather hastily resolved. 

Things are not helped by the young cast’s inexperience, despite their evident enthusiasm.  Pippa Asome speaks clearly but most of the cast have generally poor diction - and in a show very reliant on dialogue.  There is no doubting the sincerity and the invention of the playwright and her team, but Bayou Bart needs more work, and maybe more resources to give it coherence and the power it could have.

Michael Brindley