In the realm of Perth theatre if there’s one company that consistently delivers groundbreaking and acclaimed performances, it’s the WA Youth Theatre Company.
For their next production the company is presenting The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia, a bold exploration of the missing person crisis written by Grace Chow.
Each year 55,000 people go missing in Australia and this figure is growing. Most of those who are reported missing are found within a short period of time, but thousands are not. Mysteries swell and closure never comes. Why do so many Australians go missing? Do they want to be found? And why do young people make up a disproportionate number of those missing?
For her new play Chow has found a creative way to explore the stories of the many missing people in Australia.
The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia centres on Em Wells, a young radio host living with the spectre of a missing loved one and coping in the only way she knows how. Em has befriended Tassie, a personified Tasmanian Tiger. An animal that is of course extinct yet regularly sighted, a species that is gone but still evades the psyche of Australia.
Tassie and Em are playing a dangerous game–will Tassie convince Em to go missing too? Against this struggle, surreal scenes and verbatim reports weave together the stories of long-term missing Australians, from Aaron Clear to Zoran Kostantinnovic.
OUTinPerth chatted to Grace Chow about the creation of the new work, and she agreed that missing people is a issue that is often quickly forgotten by most Australians.
“When we do engage with this issue, in the pop culture realm, its usually addressed as True Crime, and treated as entertainment.” Chow observes.
While missing person cases with a link to crime and mystery get the headlines, the majority of cases of people who missing have links to mental health challenges.
Chow’s new work began life at Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company where a group of writers and performers began workshopping ideas after the case of Western Australian toddler Cleo Smith made international headlines.
“There were some artists across from New Zealand visiting Australia who wanted to respond to the way that the public responded to this particular case. And my particular response it was to straight away, delve into the research on missing persons.
“I found the Australian Federal Police database of missing persons cases, and my contribution as a writer was to start cataloging all 800 missing persons cases in that database, and we found that it actually became really rich material for conversation about why people go missing, how they go missing, what was the true nature of the Australian missing persons crisis?” Chow explained.
As Chow continued researching the topic she began to speak to people involved in different parts of process of investigating a missing persons case from mental health workers to the people who coordinate searches. One of the most valuable relationships she developed was with former Australian of the Year nominee Loren O’Keeffe, who runs a support network for those affected by a loved one going missing.
The Western Australian Youth Theatre Company (WAYTCO) seemed to be a great match for the work Chow was developing, because such a large percentage of the people who go missing are youth. After hearing about Chow’s work in development they commissioned the play.
Chow herself has spent time at the company in her youth and she knew they embrace provocative and experimental new works.
Chow discusses the challenge faced by the families of those gone missing to keep their stories in the public consciousness.
“It’s really interesting how as a culture we decide to prioritize some cases over others. What factors lead you to being relevant in the zeitgeist?
“I think what this this work is really trying to do is to humanise every single case. On the Australian Federal Police Database to get people out there, you have to put out a description of people, and that can be really reductive. It’s necessary in some ways, but it’s also reductive. That’s where we’re starting from as a as a theatre piece.”
It’s also obvious that some cases get more media attention that others purely based on who the missing person is.
“It is true that if you are young, if you are beautiful, if you are white, these are all privileges…if the facts around your missing persons case are treated as suspicious. These add to the sensationalism of the case, and the more you are those factors, the more likely you’ll probably get a podcast made about you.” Chow notes.
For families left what happened to a missing loved on, the anguish goes on for years, and never really disappears. Grace Chow notes that sometimes just very practical things can’t be dealt with, such as dealing with a missing person’s bank accounts may require a judgement from the coroner’s court.
“They have a term for it, it’s called ambiguous loss, and it’s something we’ve really tried to capture and share in the work.”
While the play tackles a serious topic, Chow stresses it’s not a dark play.
“You hear the pitch of this work and think, Wow, it’s going to be really serious and dark night.’ But there’s so much heart to this play. It’s a youth ensemble, so they have so much energy. There’s a Tasmanian Tiger. There are these weird, fun, spelling bee scenes. The Tasmanian Tigers also becomes a lounge singer at one point.
“You’ll engage with an issue that we don’t actually talk about enough. In the way that we’re talking about it hopefully you’ll actually get a little bit of like entertainment and feel good out of it as well.”
The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia is playing at the Liberty Theatre in the city from 19th November to 30th November. Tickets are on sale now.
