2018: ANYMAN - A STORY OF ADDICTION
Introducing Anyman; a confrontational story of addiction by Shalom House, Australia's strictest rehabilitation centre, and local company Fenceline Theatre. Based on founder and chief executive officer Peter Lyndon-James’s book Tough Love, the play covers raw, real, and thought-provoking topics and tells the story of addiction from the perspective of men in rehabilitation.
Artwork courtesy of Evelyn Tan. Photography courtesy of Evelyn Tan & Jane Hille.
DIRECTORS NOTES
What Peter Lyndon James is doing at Shalom House is phenomenal. He changed is own life and, in the fortitude and grace it took him to do that, he has for many years now changed the lives of others. Restoring lives by showing people there is hope and bringing peace to wounded, troubled lives. He is an inspiration and his work is why I volunteered to do this project. He had a vision for a play, to get his message from his book ‘Tough Love’ out into the community in another way. He wanted people to understand the stages of addiction, where kids can make bad choices and help them to better understand their plight.
The challenge here was to write a contemporary script that dealt with a difficult subject matter and then, to create a performance piece that would be engaging for an audience and was doable for a cast. In Presentational Theatre, the actor on the stage deliberately connects to the audience, at times as a recipient of a didactic message, at others, as a witness and participant. I believe this was very important for this narrative. This piece is eclectic. It retells stories using direct textual quotes, factual research, personal testimonies, recounts and anecdotes, physical theatre, created scripted scenes, poetry, colour and music. Using a combination of these forms helped to shape a piece that, I hope, is authentic and confronting. In doing so, these men from Shalom House and their journey are honoured and the audience comes to understand addiction in a non-stereotypical way; that through their disclosure, we see there is hope for change. Their work on stage in this play is a celebration of that hope and a might achievement for them and the Shalom Community.
This has been a great journey of knowledge & humility for me. It has been a privilege to work with these men. They have stayed the course. They have shared their hearts. They have shown us all that we can be forgiven, that we can put the past behind us and that when we can do this for our ourselves and for each other, then restoration comes.
Jane Hille, Writer & Director, Anyman 2018
REVIEWS
“I personally would like to thank Swan Christian College, Jane Hille (Artistic Director), Fenceline Theatre Company, Evelyn Tan (Photography) and the cast and crew for all their efforts in bringing the ANYMAN play and the story of addiction to life. It is exciting to see the positive impact that this play has had and will have in the lives of so many people and I honor them for being a part of it, without them it would not have been possible. ”
“It was brilliantly created and performed Jane. You are extremely talented. x”
“Well can I say, you nailed it Jane. The audience was on the edge of their seat throughout the performance and the stories retold were moving, frightening, educational and inspirational. I agree it was not seen by enough people and if you and the cast could muster the energy, a re-run should be done. Such a worthy winner of last year’s Fringe, looking forward to this year’s works.”
“I have friends who missed this show because it had sold out! Excellent production!!”