It feels like Australia is in the midst of a reckoning right now. Who has power? How do they use and abuse it? How can we hold them to account?
These burning questions are at the heart of a truly global show that knows no borders, but one that has a specific Sydney slant. Having played at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta earlier this year, Truth to Power Café now comes to the Blacktown Arts Centre with two hour-long digital shows on September 23-24. Showcasing around 16 creatives from the local neighbourhood, they can draw on memoir, film, poetry, music and more, with each participant asked to respond to the show’s central question in their own unique way: “Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?”
The line-up includes rapper Abaker Athum, First Nations artist and activist Venessa Possum, and athlete, sports activist and queer adventurer Kate Rowe, one of the legendary 78ers who was arrested during the first Mardi Gras protest. Part-theatrical performance, part-memoir, part-impassioned activism, it was created by Jeremy Goldstein, who grew up in Sydney. His late dad Mick was a member of the London-based ‘Hackney Gang’. That powerhouse force included playwright Harold Pinter and sole surviving member, actor and director Henry Woolf. Speaking truth to power was at the heart of everything they did, and they were fierce supporters of independent media doing exactly that.
It’s directed by Jen Heyes and introduced by Goldstein, who opens the event in person by sharing his own story. He worked directly with the local contingent of this touring show to help them tell their truth to power. You can register for your free ticket here.
“Truth to Power Café is conceived as a love letter to the memory of my father Mick Goldstein and his friends of sixty years Henry Woolf and Harold Pinter,” Goldstein says. “It’s a call to self-expression, and an opportunity to name what might be unconscious or tough to acknowledge, whilst challenging ideas of who can take to the stage and have a voice in the process.”