Brilliant Traces

Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:00 PM 23:00
Friday, July 8, 2022 12:00 AM 00:00

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Brilliant Traces

By Cindy Lou Johnson
Directed by Fiona Kennedy
Production Consultant - Leonard Meenach
16 June - 8 July, 2022

Directors Notes

I wanted to direct this play because the action involves two people trying to recover, trying to become whole again and to accept the risk of forming a relationship after profound hurt and loss. They experience an extreme form of "cabin fever", surrounded by an Alaskan blizzard outside and living through the "black hole" of personal crisis inside themselves.

The playwright, Cindy Lou Johnson includes a poem in the published version of the play called "Individuation" and I am drawn to the verses:

Let me dance with devils on dead stars

Let my scars leave brilliant traces.

Throughout the play, she uses images of space and stars like "flying up to heaven" and "hurtling into space" to describe the emotions that Henry Harry and Rosannah are experiencing while questioning their very desire to exist.

Brilliant Traces gives us hope that life can be lived even when the intensity of existence is almost unbearable.

I think Ad Astra is leaving brilliant traces: all the ephemeral work we do, the productions that seem to disappear when we take the final bows and bump out the set, are leaving traces. I like the fact that the benches outside our home, at 57 Misterton Street, were part of an award-winning set. I think the traces of our passion for theatre and the stories we tell, are staying with our audiences and are hidden in plain sight like the benches. Audiences sound excited after the shows and creative people are coming back to work with us again.

About Brilliant Traces

The place is a remote cabin in the wilds of Alaska. As a blizzard rages outside, a lonely figure, Henry Harry, lies sleeping under a heap of blankets.

Suddenly, he is awakened by the insistent knocking of an unexpected visitor—who turns out to be Rosannah DeLuce, a distraught young woman who has fled all the way from Arizona to escape her impending marriage, and who bursts into the cabin dressed in full bridal regalia. Exhausted, she throws herself on Henry’s mercy, but after sleeping for two days straight, her vigour—and combativeness—return. Both characters, it develops, have been wounded and embittered by life, and both are refugees from so-called civilization. Thrown together in the confines of the snowbound cabin, they alternately repel and attract each other as, in theatrically vivid exchanges, they explore the pain of the past and, in time, consider the possibilities of the present.

In the end their very isolation proves to be the catalyst that allows them to break through the web of old griefs and bitter feelings that beset them both and to reach out for the solace and sanctuary that only hard-won understanding, self-awareness and compassion for the plight of others can bestow.

Crew and other Creatives

Director - Fiona Kennedy

Production Consultant - Leonard Meenach

Assistant Director - Caitlin Hill

Stage Manager - Petria Leong

Lighting and Sound Operators - Grace Jacobson & Emma Richards

Lighting Design - B’Elanna Hill

Sound Design - Theo Bourgoin

Set Design Consultant - Bill Haycock

Set Design and Build - Dan & Fiona Kennedy (and team)

Actors

Kyle McCallion - Henry Harry

Vanessa Moltzen - Rosannah Deluce

Show Poster

Poster photography by : @csharmanphotography

REVIEWS

Brilliant Traces is a complex and layered work, full of imagery in its multifaceted examination of the role and result of isolation in life’s journeys, and conclusions about the humanity at the core of compassion.

Meredith Walker - Blue Curtains Read full review

Ad Astra’s Brilliant Traces is an intense and moving two-person drama, brilliantly performed, and balanced with surprising moments of tenderness and humour.

BackStreet Brisbane - Read full review

Cindy Lou Johnson’s Brilliant Traces is a poetic piece about two lost characters – and it will stay with you long after the one-act play has ended. That is mainly due, in this production, to Brisbane’s indie Ad Astra and two well-crafted performances by Vanessa Moltzen (as Rosannah) and Kyle McCallion (as Henry).

Beth Keehn - Stage Whispers Read full review