“Hello  darkness, my old friend/I’ve come to talk with you again/Because a vision softly creeping/Left its seeds while I was sleeping/and the vision that was planted in my brain/still remains/within the sounds of silence’  Paul Simon ‘The Sound of Silence. 

One of the highlights, for me, of the year 2021, was when Grace Tame received the award of Australian Of The Year Award from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Just before ending her acceptance speech, Tame, with statuette in her hand and shaking her fists, said the telling words, ‘Make some noise Australia’.

During her year of tenure Tame led the way, making a lot of noise, and  putting a lot of noses out of joint.

Tame’s story is well known however it is worth repeating here in the context of this play. Tame was for a long period sexually abused by one of her school teachers. She told of how whilst the abuse was happening he would often play Simon and Garfunkel songs. One surely can’t get more bitterly  ironical than this!

One day Tame just had enough, a gutful, and found the enormous courage to shatter the cloak of silence and tell the authorities. The teacher was charged, he went through the courts, and was banished to prison.

There was a law in Tasmania whereby a victim of sexual abuse, once their court case had been finalised, was gagged from speaking. Together with journalist Nine Funnell they went to work with the #Let Her Speak campaign to have the legislation repealed. After a long battle, In April 2020,, the law was changed to allow Tasmanian survivors to speak out.

Linda Nicholls-Gidley play takes a broader view and is about how the voices of women, as a gender, have been oppressed and silenced.  It is only very recently, in terms of human history, that women, with steely determination, have demanded that their voices be heard. As per Tame’s call to action, women, in general, have been making a lot of noise. Just ask our Prime Minister…

Linda Nicholls-Gidley’s script, well staged by director Carly Fisher who has been an impressive player on the Sydney theatre scene for some years now and has her own theatre company, Theatre Travels, compellingly combines verbatim stories with  scripted text. The scenes are set around the home garden. The performances of the seven women are exemplary and full of passion.

Recommended, Linda Nicholls-Gidley’s SILENCED, in a production directed by Carly Fisher,  is playing the Flightpath Theatre, 142 Addison Road Marrickville until the 14th May 2022.

The cast : Nola Bartalo, Chanka Desilva, Mariana Whitton, Deborah Fauelee, Linda Nicholls-Gidley, Linda Nicholls- Gidley, Sonya Kerr,

The creative team : Carly Fisher – Director, Capri Harris – Lighting Designer, Charlotte Leamon – Sound designer/Composer,

https://www.flightpaththeatre.org/whats-on/silenced

Production. photography by Natalie Low. Natalie was also the show’s Stage Manager.