Juanita Nielsen: The Final Days
Writer: Liviu Monstead
Director: Liviu Monstead
St James Crypt
September 28 – October 14, 2023
Deadhouse Productions, purveyors of tales from the Sydney Morgue, once again both thrill and haunt their audience with their very successful immersive presentation of Juanita Nielsen: The Final Days. A cleverly scripted and succinct exploration of the complex story of the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen in 1975, the production gives Nielsen her true place as a significant representative of a turbulent decade.
In a bold move on a busy street, the audience first meet Nielson on an external staircase of St James Church. From the first moment, Wendi Lanham in striped top, black satin pants and sporting the famous hairdo, gives a remarkably convincing portrayal of a woman not only assured of her social position via the Foy wealth but also flexing her power as a liberated female. As she poses confidently for the camera, wielded by an intrigued David Farrell (Barnet Griffin), she seems poised on the edge of a new world that will be hers for the taking. However, on the pavement below a scene is played out evoking the underworld that will bring an end to a Nielsen’s passionate struggle to save Victoria Street from development and expose corruption.
Conducting the assembled audience into the crypt, guide Kyla Ward quickly establishes an intimate connection with her listeners. Sometimes jokey, sometimes menacing, she delivers her chorus like commentary of societal background and character analysis, at the same time skilfully shepherding her flock into the available space. Ward’s costume is history in itself, combining the Vietnam peace sign, hippy peasant dress and head scarf, evoking a time of protest, and as her intent almost accusatory gaze seems to say, of lost hope. Ward’s role as guide enables the many strands of this complex narrative told in focal episodes each situated in different section of the atmospheric crypt to work as whole.
Narrative complexity requires the small cast to play several roles. Steve Maresca, for instance, plays Jack Mundey, whom developer Frank Theeman (Leof Kingsford-Smith) attempts to bribe in an introductory scene, John Glebe, leader of the Water board Union and Nielsen’s boyfriend, whom she persuades to block the development after Mundey’s Green Ban was broken and finally the notorious Abe Saffron, in whose Club Carousel, Nielson was last seen. Surprisingly, given the short hour length performance, Maresca, and others, notably Steve Donelan (Fred Krahe, Jim Anderson and Detective Arkins), carry each role with certainty ensuring narrative clarity.
Script writer Monstead has chosen to accept a version of Nielson’s final moments that allows a greater depth to the narrative. Usually, emphasis has been placed upon the “mysterious” disappearance of Nielsen, which has drawn attention more to the element of mystery than her remarkable achievement as activist and publisher of “Now”, an alternative newspaper. Her death may not be a mystery after all but have a logical and sad explanation.
While the spirit of the times legitimised Nielsen’s freedom to challenge corrupt and essentially male power structures, those structures offered protection to others who also felt themselves liberated from old mores at a price. It may be that Loretta Crawford movingly portrayed by Skye Paez provides the key.
A highlight of The Final Days was the rousing performance of “Big Spender” by John Fabry in the lip-sync Les Girls style, and praise should go to Bella Crowe for excellent costuming throughout.
