The fourth wild thing stomps onto the stage. His face is seared from coming a little too close to life and the people who, as he tells us, say he drinks too much and laughs too loud. He abandons the microphone, shouting out into the darkness. He’s had periods of howling into the night in Tasmania, he admits, letting new neighbours know he is there. He’s in love, he tells us, with a Tasmanian bush woman. And for some time he can’t seem to get past that point. We sense that love is something new, for him, and he has to let the world know. We are likely to say ‘I understand’, but he would say ‘how could you?’ We lean back, though our eyelids are peeled. Will he go over time? Be dragged off the stage? Keep swearing? Is this his ‘act’? Is this why they invited him? Due to the likeliness of this happening? Is he, then, like the televised prophet in the film Network? Is it OK to be both wary and thrilled? Especially when he takes to the Virgin Blue Voyeur magazine and its article on jails that are now luxury hotels. That red of his face deepens; he grows and spits and literally tears the magazine. Can you believe this? he is asking us. Places of utter fucking misery turned to novelty and comfort? His rage is genuine. He is a site of misery. Under the bright lights and getting paid.
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LiteraryMinded 
Certainly was a shocking performance. I expected Bruce Pascoe to be more reserved.
Oh Oslo, you do make me LOL.
yeah – an accurate description of Bruce’s performance. Especially the spitting…
*clarification for the casual reader* Sarcasm here. Bruce was lovely. See the post tags for whose performance this is really about.
I wasn’t there Angela, but your post is so evocative, I can feel the discomfort in the room.
Well….there was also lots of laughter. Loud raucous belly laughter….and there was plenty of discomfort in the room during the other performances as the audience was having so much trouble hearing anything. The sound system was terrible. Much of the night was lost because of it.
My feelings were mixed, but there was some twisted admiration among them. Julianne, I agree re the sound system. I don’t remember it ever being that bad in there before. Terrible.
I only caught intriguing broken phrases from Josephine Rowe unfortunately. And heard NOTHING of what Michael Williams said. Zilch. And yes. Bruce was gentle and lovely. Anthony’s shouting off mic was refreshing to the ears. And his outrageous disregard for convention was refreshing too. I like your line “wary and thrilled”. Yes. It is okay to be wary and thrilled.
Sounds wild. Which is meeting the brief exactly, no?!
Is it truly wild when still so contained?
My instincts about this event were right. Sounds ghastly…
I hope The Wheeler Centre hasn’t lost the plot!