Dolly Stainer of Kew Cottages script now available from Australian Plays.org

“Dolly Stainer of Kew Cottages",  originally published by Currency Press, is  now available from the Australian Plays website:

http://australianplays.org/script/ASC-1621

I've recently been receiving more interest in this 2006 script - so pleased that it's now been licensed with Australian Plays.org. 

This play, produced by Soul Theatre,  was directed by David Myles and presented by La Mama in August 2006 at Carlton Courthouse.  The script version at Australianplays.org is the later version that was developed during the rehearsal period and then performed.

Dolly Stainer was a remarkable woman and I wish we had met. Her anecdotes and memories were recorded in Kew Cottages: The World of Dolly Stainer by Cliff Judge and Fran van Brummelen (Spectrum, 2002 Melbourne) and they captivated me. I was generously permitted me to use the recounted experiences as inspiration for this play about Dolly’s life. 

Dolly, aged five, was admitted to Kew Idiot Asylum as a neglected child in 1915 and lived almost all of her life in the exceptionally challenging environment of an institution whose community consisted of the most disadvantaged and intellectually disabled people in society. It was a ridiculous idea that I could write a script about her, but that idea lingered and intensified and compelled me to pursue it.

It is pure folly to try to write the story of a person’s life as theatre, yet writers are drawn to such projects. There’s an impossible tension in trying to make the piece work as theatre, building conflict and flagging certain episodes as particularly meaningful so that the work develops and hangs together with a suitable dynamic, whilst remaining true to what is really known of the events, relationships and the spirit of that person’s life. I’ve been trying to pursue the question ‘How did Dolly develop and forge a strong identity in this exceptional environment?”    

It’s been a challenge to avoid the simplistic impression that Kew Cottages was, in Dolly’s time there from 1915 to 1990, either Dickensian or Utopian. That would be an outright misrepresentation. Like all institutions, Kew Cottages was inhabited by people, policy driven by people, and staffed by people. Of course the issues are enormously complex and in writing this script I have tried not to be didactic. Dolly encountered kindness and respect even when the physical surroundings at Kew Cottages were immensely deprived. She also came across cruelty, intractability and unreal expectations.  This is not a celebration of her life, but it is a sincere tribute or bearing witness to a woman who lived a difficult life with much dignity.

The idea of birds and cages became a useful metaphor for me in my writing. I wanted it to be ambiguous, unclear, to be most interesting. Spinning or whirling, too, is a symbol that has been useful imagery for the story as I decided to tell it  And dolls, of course. A little girl named Dolly who has none and as an old lady she has many. Whether as props or as multi-media, I’d very much like them included in any production of the play.

Institutionalisation is a theme that continues to interest me. Previously, I have written about sanatorium treatment for tuberculosis and have published other work on stigma and taboo.  These issues  continue to intrigue me.

In recent times there has been great interest in the way people with disabilities have been treated in Australia. In 2013 the National Disability Insurance Scheme was legislated to create equity for people with disabilities, their families and carers. I do wonder what Dolly would think about it all.

 Dolly Stainer, in the face of tremendous adversity,  lived an interesting and meaningful life. She loved life and loved others, and forged a powerful identity.