ZTC's EVENING EUCALYPTUS Begins Tonight

To many Americans, Australia is a land that conjures images that are romantic, exotic, and wild-the locale of Crocodile Dundee, The Man From Snowy River, and Baz Luhrmann's films; but for two years national award winning playwright Mahonri Stewart called it his home. As a result from his time there, Stewart took a strong interest in Australia's history, mythology, and heritage, from which he derived his newest play Evening Eucalyptus.

"I hope it's not a trope to say that Australia was a magical place for me," says Stewart. "It has a spirit there that is unique: both rugged and mysterious. Evening Eucalyptus is not directly based on my experiences there. I have set the play in the past, in the 1910's, and it is completely fictional, even to the point that the story verges on the genre of magical realism. It's easy to romanticize it, and I won't deny that I do some of that in the play, yet I did try to imbue the play with my very real appreciation for what I found there. It is my love letter to Australia, its people, its stories, its landscape."

The story of Evening Eucalyptus chiefly centers around five characters. The first is Arthur Stevenson, an Australian by birth, but a man who has chosen return to Australia after many years away in England. His traumatic experiences there have brought him back to his homeland to deal with his grief and trauma. The second character is Abigail Baker, Arthur's housekeeper, a strong, but gentle woman in whom Arthur places great trust, and, eventually, great love. The third is Pindari, an Aboriginal friend from Arthur's childhood who is trying to re-connect with his culture and heritage after being raised by a white family. Then finally, there are Jody and Zeek, two of Australia's famous "swagmen" (although one is a woman), itinerant workers who end up being hired to dig out eucalyptus stumps in Arthur's yard. These five characters weave together a story that stirs up deep emotion and explosive conflict.

David Lasseter is playing the lead character of Arthur and believes his character's journey has a lot of relevance to today's audiences, "Arthur Stevenson is a man from another time and place than ours, but he is confronting issues that seem all too contemporary. He left what he considered an inferior, backward culture of magic and myth for a superior one of economy and exchange, free from superstition. He now returns to that supposedly "inferior" culture, a broken man, with many lessons to learn."

One of those ghosts from his past is his friend Pindari, who confronts Arthur about the value of a spiritual world. Since Australian Aboriginal actors are hard to come by, Pindari is played local, black actor Robert Burch, who sees many similarities in Australian Aboriginal history and culture and his own African roots, "I have found that the string of duplicity runs through every culture of African peoples that have found themselves forced to relate to European cultures. My character, Pindari, struggles with making the honest effort to transition to European expectations while at the same maintaining his Aboriginal roots. We find this same internal struggle in the people of African descent in North America, South America (particularly Brazil), Parts of Europe, and in the many countries of Africa, with few exceptions. I hope that in the end, we find, as Pindari, that it is not our complexion or culture, but our humanity that matters."

Men are not the only figures to dominate the play's landscape, despite Australia's reputation for masculinity. Local actress Anna Hargadon portrays one of the play's female characters, and enjoys how the play creates a mixture of strength and compassion in the character of Abigail. Hargadon relates to how Abigail relates the Divine Feminine in the play's more mystical moments: "I've loved learning about love, connection, and forgiveness through the eyes of Abigail and Australian folklore. The beauty and roughness of the Outback (and Abigail) and the mystical passion of Aboriginal Dreamtime explore these human experiences in unique and thoughtful ways."

Note: If Media Sources desire further information for additional articles, or other purposes, here is the contact information for a few of our participants:

WHEN: Tonight, November 7-15, 2014. Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, with 2 pm matinees on Saturdays.

WHERE: The Echo Theatre 15 N 100 E St, Provo, UT 84606

TICKETS: $14 for general public; $12 for students and seniors; and $9 for groups over 10 people. Tickets can be bought at www.ziontheatrecompany.com or at the door.

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