Jason Klarwein Charts The Path To Pathos In 'The 7 Stages Of Grieving'

It's a lucky director who gets the chance to recreate one of their all-time favourite plays, yet it takes much more than luck when it comes to doing justice to a script that carries as much reverence and weight as Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The 7 Stages of Grieving.

This wise, powerful and often devastatingly funny one-everywoman play about the grief of Aboriginal people and the hope of reconciliation remains as relevant today as when it was penned over two decades ago.

"I really do think it is one of the great masterworks of Australian theatre," says Jason Klarwein, director of the adaption by Queensland Theatre and Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe. "Any kind of audience can sit and watch this play - you don't have to be an Aboriginal person, you don't have to be a white Australian person, you can be anybody and watch this play because the story is the accumulative effect of the history of Australia. But it's also a really funny and deeply moving kind of telling about how we reconcile ourselves as Australian citizens."

Starring the talented Chenoa Deemal, Klarwein's 20th-anniversary adaption has more than met his initial aspirations, currently touring the east coast of Australia two years after its first performances, next heading to London (where the very first production debuted).

Deemal follows in the footsteps of powerful indigenous actors including Deborah Mailman, Lisa Flanagan and Ursula Yovich - each of whom brought their own unique cultural heritage to the role, and adapted the language accordingly. Her performance incorporates Guugu Yimithirr, the native language of her home in Far North Queensland.

"As a director, you have to take into account the person who the actor is and her cultural heritage, so that is something that we took really seriously. And the only way that Chenoa feels comfortable telling those stories is if she is sitting in her own culture," explained Klarwein.

Chenoa's roots also inform the visual language of the piece, with design elements taking a cue from the artistic styles of her cultural heritage.

"A really funny and deeply moving kind of telling about how we reconcile ourselves as Australian citizens."

The staging itself has been referred to as more of an art installation, beginning with little more than a pile of dirt and a box, going on to erupt with additional props, costume elements and startling projection art. An important element of this set was the ability to "pack it all into a suitcase", and as Klarwein explained that approach has certainly had its benefits:

"This tour is quite a luxury because the play is actually going to theatres. The play's been performed in school halls, on basketball courts, in a youth detention centre..."

Klarwein's initial aim was to take this production to schools in regional Queensland "because I grew up [there] and I know what that's like". 

"School kids love it because it challenges them, but also it's incredibly funny and incredibly moving and they learn so much on an incredibly deep and visceral level… Students in schools need to see something like this, not only a powerhouse performance from an Indigenous actor… But something that speaks to them about who they are and where they live."

It's not every production that arrives at an enduring mainstage run after debuting specifically to school audiences.

"The great thing about this work is it's not only speaking to the converted, but it's speaking to people broadly and they're having really strong reactions to it. It speaks to people really broadly and without talking down to them, without any kind of blame or guilt… A very open, refreshing kind of performance that's really inclusive and I think that's really important about the kind of discussion we have as a nation," said Klarwein.

The lasting relevance and impact of 7 Stages Of Grieving are both, on one hand, a testament to the skill in its writing, and on the other a stark realisation of how far Australian society has to come - "[it's] in some ways amazing and in other ways slightly disturbing. I want people to have a really visceral experience of the theatre. Theatre can give an audience something that film can't… You can't disengage from theatre when there's someone in front of you speaking to you in that way," said Klarwein, on what he hopes this tour will bring to audiences.

"It is just a person being very honest in front of a group of people and somehow there's something ultimately unifying in that… It's a real rollercoaster ride of a play. It's short, it's sharp, and you'll be thinking about it for days."

Queensland Theatre and Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe presents The 7 Stages Of Grieving, 8 — 10 June at Riverside Studios.