Review: Modern Media Is Put Under The Spotlight In TALK

Friday 7th April 2017, 8pm, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Jonathan Biggins (writer and director) looks at the apparent state of Australian media and news reporting in his new play TALK. Presenting a somewhat bleak view of the media and their engagement in presenting real news, TALK explores three facets of the media as a story unfolds live on air.

The premise of the work is that popular shock jock on fictional commercial radio station 2MD, John Behan (John Waters), has caused a criminal trial to be aborted when he released information of the alleged sex offender's criminal record on air the previous day. As police arrive at the station to arrest him, Behan opts to lock himself into his studio and proceed to broadcast his situation live on air and his producer Belinda (Valerie Bader) is helpless to intervene. The new acting editor of the Daily Telegraphy, Julie (Hannah Waterman) picks up the story, wanting to present a story with good imagery that she can fill tomorrow's paper with. At the same time, career journalist Taffy Campbell (Peter Kowitz) is packing boxes on his last day at the National Broadcaster, the ABC, whilst his new replacement, recent graduate Danielle Rowesthorne (Paige Gardiner) is tracking the story on social media and wanting to provide online media coverage for the story. Between the three formats leads are followed up live on air without prior verification, updates are re-tweeted in 140 characters without fact checking and images are staged for maximum visual impact to sell papers.

Designer Mark Thompson used the Drama Theatre's broad stage to develop a multilevel stage to allow the story to transition between the radio sound studio and producers desk to the Daily Telegraph's modern executive office and the cluttered ABC newsroom filled with a cluster of desks, bookshelves and various trinkets and news clippings that the reporters have gathered over the yearS. Thompson has a fabulous attention to detail for each of the spaces, conveying the difference in reporting style and budgets available to each team. Trent Suidgeest's lighting allows the work to transition quickly between Thompson's spaces.

Walters gives Behan the gravitas and cocky confidence that is easily recognised, drawing on the plethora of examples available in Australia's commercial radio. Waterman presents Scott with a degree of apprehension at the reason she's attained the position, believing she's the caretaker before the department folds as she believes print media's days are numbered. Kowitz's Taffy is given the weight of responsibility to highlight the apparent demise of researched and verified news and presents it with an earnestness and fatigue of someone realising that he's talking to a brick wall and that the profession he joined is dying. Gardiner captures the stereotypical 20 something, obsessed with i-devices and dismissive of the older generation well, playing to STC's core demographic of more mature subscribers. The remainder of the roles are fairly two dimensional caricatures that are more for plot development than presenting anything new to the story.

Biggins, as writer and director, operating without a dramaturg, has however allowed the work to drag more than necessary for the 1 hour 40 minute performance and retained scenes that don't do much for the overall story. As mentioned, the work does seem to cater to STC's core subscriber base which generally have a set view on the younger generation that often includes the belief that they take shortcuts and are permantently attached their i-devices. Biggins also draws on the general belief that companies are following profits and in this case, the media, is swayed by sales and ratings, altering their coverage to ensure continued access and avoid aggravating political powers and other people that may be influential. Regardless of whether this is viewed as the current situation in media or a potential, this work is more depressing than humours and serves as a warning in the same way that Aaron Sorkin's THE NEWSROOM did in urging media and consumers to demand that they be provided with researched and verified news that matters, not just what makes ratings or is sensationalised. The exposure of the reasons why Taffy's lead cannot be followed up by the ABC or the Daily Telegraph is also disturbing and it appears more a current occurrence rather than Biggins' prophesising, which is depressing and alarming.

Whilst the work needs finessing to turn TALK into a tight work, it does hold a warning against trial by media, interrogating the sources of where people find their news and questioning the integrity of the media.

TALK

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

3 April - 20 May 2017

https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2017/talk

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