DRAMA STUDY NOTES

PARRAMATTA GIRLS

CONTEXT: THE AUTHOR

Parramatta Girls is a play written by Australian playwright Alana Valentine. It
is a dramatized account of the collected testimonies of former inmates of the
Parramatta Girls Home, staged as a reunion forty years after the institution
closed.
Valentine began writing the play after watching an Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) television programme in 2003 which documented the
experiences of three Indigenous women - Marjorie, Coral, and Marlene - who
had been incarcerated at the Girls Home. She immediately sought to) interview
these women. In the weeks following, Stateline broadcast more episodes on
non-Indigenous women's experiences in the Home, which prompted Valentine
to construct the script.
"I thought that this was a story that needed to be understood in more detail than
15 minutes on a current affairs programme would allow. [...] It immediately
struck me as the voices of people who had not been heard on the Australian
mainstage. It immediately struck me that surviving such an institution must
involve an incredible story of triumph and courage. These were women with
guts, attitude and humour and they were crying out to have their story heard." -
Alana Valentine (2007)
Key features of verbatim
theatre:
Purpose or intention of verbatim theatre pieces
o Empowering marginalized groups and communities by staging their stories, enabling
them to make their experiences visible / performative
o Political purposes –unveiling the non‐publicised story, the alternative story to a well-
known event or issue so that audiences can rethink their own politics or views.
o Excavating the story of a localised event or issue so others can understand,
communicating the extraordinary in ordinary stories and worlds
o Exploring histories and ‘her’stories that do not normally get aired or shared
o Reporting on how communities respond to and make sense of disasters or difficult
o Events

Approach to dialogue and action

Actors treat the characters in a Brechtian sense, they are presented as witnesses to the street
scene.
Dialogue is selected for its potency and relevance to furthering the play’s narrative. It is
layered rather than chronological in its treatment.
There is little collaborative stage action. Often actors sit on stage or speak directly to the
audience, but they may react to each other and work together to create motifs in the space.

Approach to dramatic structure

Uses interviews, transcripts and material is distilled and selected, then layered or woven
across broader themes or motifs or steps in the event being represented. The process of
structuring the drama is often a collaborative process with the subjects giving feedback at
critical phases in the development of the work. Brechtian elements are used to weave the
piece together, such as narration, imagery, song, addressing the audience, re‐enactment.

Notion of the subject and personal testimony

Uses the drama form to capture events through the stories of those who experienced them or
who were affected by them. Verbatim Theatre uses theatre to capture multiple realities,
multiple voices in a dynamic, complex relation.
Verbatim theatre works on the basis of trust and responsibility as writers and theatre workers
record and interview real people about their lived experiences. What does it mean to excavate
and perform other people’s stories. What protocols need to be in place? How do we listen and
record? What are the obligations and responsibilities of theatre workers in verbatim theatre?
Direct language and testimony is used as dialogue, however what is said and when it occurs
structurally to create particular meanings; all this is crafted and structured by the playwright.
Some verbatim plays are more truthful than others to the original materials other verbatim
plays have to be considerably ‘massaged’ (Valentine) because of their sensitive content or the
need to collapse and condense a series of narratives.

Relationship with audience

Positioning the audience as witnesses, watchers and listeners, privy to confidential personal
reactions and stories.
Audience gains understanding by seeing all the contradictions and complexities as stories are
juxtaposed and arranged for them to compare.

Conventions used in verbatim theatre (drawn from Brechtian theatre):

 Text is delivered in the past tense interspersed with occasional present tense / ‘now’
 moments to recall the action
 Actors visible and onstage throughout the whole performance, participating in and also
 observing the action
 Actors speaking in direct address to the audience, making direct eye contact with
audience
 Titles of scenes visible in terms of signs or projected titles at the back of the stage.
 Sometimes actors would announce the title of the scene.
 Actor approaches the character in terms of lightly sketching or ‘showing’ them in
action
 ‘rather than going for a full‐on characterization.
 Text needs to drive the action and speak for itself
 Use of narration to introduce characters or action
 There’s an immediate responsibility to the owners of the stories. Actors act as
‘temporary
 custodians of the person’s story. There should be processes and ways of member
checking as the piece takes shape.
Scene Analysis and
breakdown
Act 1, Scene 7
Act 1, Scene 7 of Parramatta Girls is an incredibly significant scene, as It holds one of the
strongest reflections of childhood innocence through the character of Maree. The scene opens
with Maree singing the Irish folk tune ‘My singing bird’:
“I have seen the lark soar high at morn
Heard his song up in the blue
I have heard the blackbird pipe his note
The thrush and the linnet too
But there's none of them can sing so sweet
My singing bird as you.
If I could lure my singing bird
From his own cozy nest
If I could catch my singing bird
I would warm him on my breast
For there's none of them can sing so sweet
My singing bird as you.”

The song possesses significant symbolism, with themes of hope, freedom, love and comfort;
all things that the Parramatta Girls’ lack, and things that the soft toy that takes part in the
scene represents. The slow melody of the music is a stark contrast to the tension formed in
the prior scene (scene 6), the juxtaposition allowing the audience to differentiate the two
scenes and the music heightening their emotions and response. When the scene commences
with Gayle and Kerry’s entrance, the audience, whose mood had been subdued to one of
sombre empathy, is made to quickly reassess the situation of the scene. The symbol of the
soft toy that Gayle carries onto stage is an instant reminder to the audience of the age of the
characters, shocking them and making them feel as though they should interfere in the scene
once Gayle’s taunting begins. Maree’s childish physicality of trying to snatch her toy from
Gayle is a stark contrast to her language, proving the symbol effective when the audience
become surprised at the profanities coming from the young girls’ mouths. When Gayle forces
Maree to rip off the arm of her toy, we see how her childhood innocence is being destroyed,
leaving her tattered and hurt. Valentines continuation of the scene provides a further insight
to the character, allowing us to see her at her weakest, reassuring her toy that “You’ll be
alright, I promise… Shhhh Mummy’s here now…”.
This allows the audience to build a closer connection to the young girl, making her death later
on in Act 2, Scene 8 more impactful.
What does it show about the characters?

 We see Maree’s innocence and childhood that she was never able to fully experience,
thus forcing us to deeply sympathise with her character.
 We see Gayle as “the bully”, higher up on the hierarchy of Parramatta Girls. This
reinforces her position and her power, making her the most suitable girl to play the
role of “Doctor Fingers” and other people in position of power.
 We see Kerry as the “bystander” or “sidekick”, quiet and standoffish.

Is it effective? Why?

 The scene evokes an emotional response from the audience and forces them to create
an emotional attachment to Maree, making her eventual death sadder with the
knowledge that it could have been prevented.
 The scene reminds the audience of exactly how young the girls of the home were,
making the following events and discussions even more shocking and horrifying.

What elements does it use?

 Contrast between the physicality and characterisation of Maree and her language and
profanities.
 Tension created in the pauses, particularly when Gayle says, “Prove it”.
 Climax begins when Gayle taunts Maree and says for her to “Rip its arm off.”
 Mood is prominent throughout the scene, becoming a key element of expression and
audience response.
 Sound used through the quiet song that Maree sings, as well as the sounds of her soft
toy ripping.
 Symbol conveyed both through the input of the song and Maree’s soft toy, both of
which can symbolise comfort, hope, freedom, love, childhood, innocence and youth.

What conventions of Verbatim Theatre does it use?

 The scene is a flashback

 Minimal movement and a functional stage design are present in the scene
 Song and musical/sound effects are used in the scene
 Re-staging is present while the scene commences.
 Fragmentation and repetition are used with the song, repeated later at the end of the
play by Lynette and Maree.