Homesong Diary 9: the show really is heading to Sydney (where things began, in 1968)

One minute, so it seems, I’m a moody youth meeting friends on the steps of the Sydney Town Hall before heading to various record shops to buy new albums from The Cure, The Clash, and The Smiths. The next (i.e. 35 years later), THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT, the song cycle I’ve written with James Humberstone, is about to be performed at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

YIKES.

Sydney is the place of my birth, childhood, and teenage years. I left at the age of 18 to have independent adventures, first in Canberra and then Perth; there was some time spent travelling overseas, and then another stint in Canberra; before, in 2010, I headed into the wilds of regional New South Wales. It’s all been wonderful (well, it’s all been an experience!), and throughout has been reading, writing, and music.

There have been two other constants, if I’m entirely honest: a quest for love; and a never-ending questioning of what it means to be a man.

Now I think about it, there’s been something else: an ongoing concern about Australia, this apparently happy, lucky country, this country with a conflicted, complicated soul, this country which has done terrible things both at home and abroad to achieve its aims, and continues to do terrible things.

THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT brings all these themes together. No wonder composer James Humberstone, when he first read the libretto, said, ‘Woah, this is intense.’

And he’s right.

Though there’s no point making art about big issues such as love and war if there isn’t a sense of hope, if we can’t heal from this. There’s definitely hope in THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT. Beauty even.

But best I don’t go on. All I really wanted to say is that if you’re in Sydney on Friday 27 July, it’d be terrific to see you at one of the two performances. Baritone Michael Lampard is extraordinary as The Soldier, and accompanist Alan Hicks is an orchestra with ten fingers.

Tickets ($25/$15) are available here. A brief, teaser video can be found here.

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THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT was commissioned by the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium and developed by The Street Theatre in Canberra.

WE GO ON

My dears,

we never really know if

the light on the hill

 

is a brand new world –

 

what might that be exactly:

a sign of alien life,

some kind of angel from

the other side,

miraculous politics?

 

or just a carload of youths about to yell, ‘Fuckin’ faggot!’ –

 

as they drive past

their words do indeed come,

like a casually flung beer bottle,

before the smile and wave

and drive-off

 

But, my dears,

we go on, don’t we

we go on