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Kelly's reign 1878-1880
Performed by Fireweb Productions
at the Performance Space, Sydney
October 5-15
Previewed by Nick Soudikoff Hanged by the empire, Ned Kelly remains a part of Australian folklore. By the age of 25 he had robbed two banks, shot three policemen and had a reward of (pounds sign)8000 for his head. Kelly's reign 1878-1880 is a play about the rise and fall of Ned Kelly and his gang. The first experiences of the play are the live bush music and the smell of gum trees from the shredded wood on the floor. The story begins with the persecution of the Kelly family, the final straw being the gaoling of Ned's mum. Ned and his brother Dan were also pursued, which resulted in the battle at Stringybark Creek. A number of police were killed and so set forth the mobilisation of the colonial constabulary with its inevitable conclusion. However, that took eighteen months. In the meantime the Kelly gang's exploits included a bank robbery at Euroa, and holding the town of Jerilderee hostage while they robbed the bank there too. What comes through strongly in the first half of the play is a sense of what drove the Kelly gang. They were all sons of selectors and part of the Irish community, the majority of whom in north east Victoria were part of the rural underclass. Persecuted by the police and the squatters in the area, the Kelly gang were part of a violent response to violent treatment. The attitudes of the police couldn't be better summed up than by Superintendent Hare, constantly calling the Kelly gang "diseased stock". The last half of the play is about the demise of Ned and his gang. Joe Byrne shoots his childhood friend, Aaron Sherrit, in revenge for informing for the police. They form a plan to derail the train and kill the police reinforcements who were going to be on it at Glenrowan. The last stand is at Glenrowan Hotel. Ned Kelly was the only one to survive the siege of the hotel by the police who were forewarned of the ambush. The final scene in court at Ned's trial is one of the most powerful in the play, especially so because it is a direct transcription of the trial in 1880. Ned was resigned, yet still defiant. A real strength of the play is that it doesn't glamorise the Kelly gang, but puts them into the context of what was happening at the time. As Joe Byrne says, "circumstance made us what we are ... we were bad but not as bad as they said". They were motivated as much by revenge as a sense of injustice. Another strength of the play was the use of some innovative multimedia techniques, especially the interaction between actors on stage and the huge video screen behind them. The play was not only well crafted and innovative, it was also pointedly political. You walk away carrying some of Ned's fierce defiance with you. It's a defiance we still need today.