Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 41 No. 1. February 27 1978
Pure Shit
Pure Shit
A new and entertaining Australian film which provides a rare insight into the sickening realities of the drug scene.
It was written and acted by a group of people all of whom were or are heroin addicts. The film owes its genuineness to the fact that all that takes place on screen is based on actual experiences of those involved in making it.
The subject alone is enough to make it a controversial film but Bert Deling the director goes further. One of the main tasks of the film is an indictment of the Government's drug rehabilitation programme involving the methadone treatment. Deling argues the treatment, designed to cure addicts, is actually a fate worse than death. His sympathetic treatment of druggies in the film annoys many people. While most people might treat the drug problem as an insidious evil in society that must be stamped out at all costs. Deling believes that drug taking and dependency must be recognised as a way of life like any other minority group activity in Western Society He believes that druggies are amongst the most enlightened and revolutionary people in society and only through listening to their criticisms can society in general make a healthy progress.
The acting is superb considering the people had not acted before. The lead actor is so good that he has gone on to become Australia's version of Malcolm McDowell.
A black comedy worth seeing.
A mask is a cover over the face, any covering at all. A pair of sunglasses is a mask. So too is a paper bag, or a down's nose. Children, when they cover their eyes, believe they are totally hidden. Behind a mask you are hidden. So you can create a mask in any shape you like. That mask then takes on the form of a fantasy image which is unchanging. Then that image can be explored.
Helen has done a lot of work in this field through her experience with children's theatre, the QE II Drama School. Red Mole Enterprises and over the last year with Chameleon and in "Phenomenon of Short Duration". She is Wellington's first down licensed to busk in the street.
John Bailey is going to attempt to initiate all those interested into the secrets of actual performance. He has a workshop in mime on . Thursday 2nd., 9:30 a.m. — 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and in mask work on Friday at the same times.
Mime is a fascinating field. All you have to work with is your own silent body. But you can use it in such a way that you can create in the minds of your audience whole worlds. You are tapping directly into their imaginations, and that is where the demons, saints, clowns, fools, buffoons, kings, and prime ministers exist. These phantoms can be given reality and then played with.
With a mask you can actually cover your face with the image of one of these phantoms. You are limited to the one image but you can have a lot of fun with it. It can be thoroughly explored, especially since the fact of actually covering your face gives you a certain distance from from the image. Then your body gives the phantom life.
John has been exploring these areas since 1973, when he was part of a clown/mime troupe in Dunedin called Cerberus. Since then he has extended this work into improvisational music/ theatre, children's theatre, children's television, workshops with Theatre Action and the Canadian Mime Theatre, and done solo shows in various places throughout N.Z. Last year he came up to Wellington to take part in "Phenomenon of Short Duration" and since then has worked with Larf street theatre group.
If you feel like taking part in one or more of these workshops enrol today at the Students Association Office.