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Talks, people, playlists, topics, and events about "identity" on TED.com

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Man Up - Series 1 Ep 1 : Gus Worland embarks on a rollicking journey into the world of masculinity - from man hugs to cattle mustering to modelling the latest fashion trends. But he discovers the pressure to toughen up may be making Aussie men crack.

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The Australian identity is often talked about, but rarely defined.

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Diane- "But last Monday, the night you got back Jared never came home till way after midnight, falls through the front door and spends half the night throwing up. Misses school next day, misses work. I don't like seeing that."

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Identity & Culture, Multiculturalism & Mateship - Aussie Educator

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Australian identity & culture. Multiculturalism, mateship, humour, sport, stereotypes, media representation.

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- Relationships between parents and children
- Gender Roles and stereotypes
- Drinking culture
- Socio-economic differences
- Normalising violence against women
- sexism
- Rites of Passage
- Mateship
- Overt masculinity
- objectifying of bodies
- littering on beach
- child neglected
- group dynamics of teenagers
- rights because you are male?/female?
- victim is too blame because of behaviour: dressed inappropriately, asking for it etc.

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Based on true story.
Focus on the family dynamics.
vulnerability
way girl interacts with guys
guys taking advantage

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THE foster family at the centre of allegations into the death of Tiahleigh Palmer buried the Brisbane schoolgirl in a heartfelt ceremony attended by more than 600 people last November.

Back then, Rick Thorburn, 56, Tia's foster father and accused killer, appeared to hold back tears as he solemnly carried her child-sized coffin, acting as a pallbearer.

He blended in to the crowd of purple, Tia's favourite colour, which mourners had chosen to wear to pay tribute to the young girl. The colour also became a symbol of commitment to the desperate search for answers over what had happened to her.

His shirt read "in love memory of Tiahleigh R.I.P." At the service, he comforted her grieving mother.

The truck driver turned food van proprietor and his wife had taken in Tia as a foster child while her biological mother, Cyndi Palmer, worked to get her life on track after struggling as a teen mum and spending time in the prison system.

She lived with the couple and their two adult sons in their Chambers Flat home where Thorburn's wife Julene, 54, also ran a home daycare service.

The eldest of the two boys, Josh, 20, was qualified to work as an assistant in the home business and had been unemployed in recent years while recovering from injury.

The younger son, Trent, 19, described himself as a dancer, metal fabrication apprentice, and classic car builder.

Police believe the teenager sexually abused Tiahleigh. He was denied bail on charges for incest, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice in court this afternoon.

In court, the prosecutor argued he "took advantage of (Tiahleigh) as her big brother and as a result her young life has been taken".

The foster brother was concerned he had impregnated the child, the court heard. Police are expected to allege the boy's father killed Tia to cover for his son.

A Crime Stoppers tip led police to swoop on the family on Tuesday, arresting Rick, Julene, Josh, and Trent at various addresses in the Logan area.

Following police interviews Rick was yesterday formally charged with Tia's murder. Trent, the youngest of Tia's foster brothers, has been charged with incest.

Julene and Josh have been charged with one count each of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

All four family members are awaiting court, Trent's today and Julene's and Josh's next month, though father Rick's has now been delayed. The murder-accused was expected to face a bedside hearing at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, but is in an induced coma following a suspected self-harm attempt while in custody.

When his case returns to court, now scheduled for December, police are expected to allege the foster father murdered the girl in his car to protect his teenage son according to the Courier-Mail. Police will allege Trent sexually abused Tia.

Tia's foster father and relatives have long been persons of interest throughout the 11-month investigation of the schoolgirl's disappearance and murder, senior police sources told the Brisbane paper.

Less than a month after Tia's death, the foster father published a post on Facebook saying the family had accommodation for one or two people in their "happy home environment on acreage".

He described the residence as a clean and safe home.

The case has prompted the Queensland government to review the approval process for foster carers and working with children checks.

Acting Premier Curtis Pitt says both will be examined by extending a review already under way, with a report expected back early next year. "We will be very, very careful to ensure that the young people who are in our foster system as well as, of course, the broader child protection system are given all the protections," he said.

Announcing details of the review, Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman confirmed the foster parents continued to run a child care business from their home after Tia's death.

Tia went missing at the end of October last year. Her foster father was reportedly the last person to see her alive, dropping her off near Marsden State High school just after 8am on October 20.

Despite calls for action from her biological family, Tia wasn't reported missing for six days. The delay was explained away at the time as taking care with concerns around identifying a child in care.

The same morning an alert was distributed by police appealing for help finding the girl, a trio of fishermen discovered her semi-naked decaying body on the banks of the Gold Coast's Pimpama River.

The water and dirt had washed away any signs of what had happened to Tia, and police had few clues to work with while going about investigating how she had died.

Investigators were worried they may never solve the case.

Tia's biological mother and grandmother were outspoken in appealing for witnesses and calls to Crime Stoppers from members of the public who may have seen or heard anything that could assist with finding out what happened to their little girl.

But her foster family was silent.

Again speaking out, Tia's grandmother Sue Palmer last night revealed her shock and anguish over the Thorburn family's charges.

She said the news had "knocked the wind right out of my sails".

"When it happens to your own it just is like a twisted knife in your heart," she told A Current Affair on Tuesday.

"I'm just absolutely addled with thoughts of how she died, and that's something that I really want to know."

Ms Palmer criticised the Thorburn family's behaviour following Tia's death, which was made all the more alarming following yesterday's allegations.

"They took pride of place at the funeral which I didn't think they deserved and people treated them as though they were parents of long standing which they weren't," she said.

"It's really really scary. It's awful trying to raise little girls and boys nowadays. You can't fix kids once you've wrecked them. You can't fix Tiahleigh."

Ms Palmer said she gained no relief from the arrests and charges, bringing her and the rest of Tia's family closer to finding answers.

"To be really truthful it's not a relief at all, it's not even closure, it's pain on pain," she said.

Rick Thorburn remains in an induced coma and is due to face court on charges of murder and interfering with a corpse in December. His son Trent will face Beenleigh Magistrate's Court on Wednesday charged with incest, perjury and perverting the course of justice. He is expected to apply for bail.

Thorburn's wife Julene and other son Josh have both been charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, and have been bailed to return to court on October 10.

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THE foster family at the centre of allegations into the death of Tiahleigh Palmer buried the Brisbane schoolgirl in a heartfelt ceremony attended by more than 600 people last November. Back then, Rick Thorburn, 56, Tia's foster father and accused killer, appeared to hold back tears as he solemnly carried her child-sized coffin, acting as a pallbearer.

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Base it on the story of a foster girl who was murdered.
Her biological mother was hooked on drugs (ice).
Biological father not in the picture.
They are split.
Her foster family is stuffed up.
Domestic violence, sexualise of girl by her brother,
Dies after having sex with brother, brother thought she was pregnant.
Look into the surroundings of her school friends etc.
Mateship- father covers for son by killing girl.

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MURDERED Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer tried to run away from her foster home 10 times in the 10 months before she died, a former carer claims.

Speaking with Nine News, Julie Pemberton, who cared for the 12-year-old for two years before she moved in with the Thorburn family said Tiahleigh "hated" the home of the man charged with her murder and the rest of his family who also face charges over the case.

Tiahleigh relocated to the Thorburn's at the beginning of last year, and would spend less than a year there until her life came to a brutal end.

Rick Thorburn, her foster father, is now charged with her murder and his son Trent has been accused of incest.

Ms Pemberton, who described Tia as a "gorgeous, gorgeous little girl", said she had tried to keep in touch with the schoolgirl and knew she was unhappy.

The Logan woman said she possesses emails notifying Tiahleigh's case workers she "hates it there" and warning she "has and will continue to run away", sent in February last year.

Ms Pemberton said Tiahleigh had run away more than 10 times in the last 10 months of her life. She expressed regret at not intervening.

"I would have had her back in the following week, but I couldn't get her back," she said.

"Too late now. You've just got to stop it happening again."

The claim that Tiahleigh hated the house is at odds with comments from her grandmother, Sue Palmer, who told the Courier-Mail the 12-year-old had to option to leave the Thorburns but wanted to stay.

According to Seven News, Tiahleigh sought refuge with a school friend's relative, saying she was scared to go home.

"She did tell me that if she did go home she was going to get in big trouble and that's why she didn't want to go home," the unidentified witness told Seven.

The woman claimed she notified the Child Safety Department, but said a case worker dismissed the child's concerns as "stories".

The woman also claimed Tiahleigh's foster mother Julene, who has been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder investigation, came to pick Tia up after finding out she was with the woman.

"Her response was she lies all the time and kids tend to tell stories," she told Seven News.

The same woman said she received a text message from Julene six days later saying Tia has "run from school again first thing this morning".

The text was reportedly sent the day after police allege Rick Thorburn murdered the troubled 12-year-old.

Thorburn had originally claimed he had dropped Tiahleigh off near her school the morning of Friday, October 30, telling investigators he was the last person to report seeing her alive.

Police are now expected to allege he murdered her the night before he claimed to have dropped her off, but still made the drive to the girl's school on the Friday morning without her.

Since being arrested on Tuesday of this week, the 56-year-old has been in police custody spending days in a Brisbane hospital after reportedly trying to overdose on pills.

He was placed in an induced come, but police confirmed he was conscious on Thursday afternoon and had been moved from intensive care to the hospital's secure wing.

Once medical staff are satisfied he is able to be discharged, he is expected to be taken to the Brisbane Correctional Centre at Wacol.

Thorburn's wife Julene, 54, and one of his son's Josh, 20, were granted bail at their court appearances after being charged with perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

His other son Trent, 19, was refused bail on the same charges and an additional charge of incest.

The court heard Trent admitted having sex with Tiahleigh in a Facebook Messenger conversation with a cousin before her death and was worried she might have been pregnant.

Julene and Josh Thorburn will face court again on October 10. Trent Thorburn will remain in custody until his next court date on November 9. Rick Thorburn's matter will next be mentioned on December 21.

As the family await their court dates, investigators have begun digging up the yard of the family home in an "intensive forensic search".

An excavator arrived at the Chambers Flat property on Friday morning.

Police remain tight-lipped about exactly what they are looking for, but according to the Courier-Mail, it is believed to include Tia's missing school uniform and backpack.

"We will be looking for any evidence relating to Tia's murder and any of the other crimes with which the Thorburns have been charged," regional crime co-ordinator Detective Superintendent Kerry Johnson said.

"That will include any items, documents or DNA evidence. We will be looking for anything and everything.''

The search comes as Tia's biological mother Cindy Palmer steels herself to front a media conference at Logan police station today.

She is expected to thank police and the community for their efforts in bringing her daughter's alleged killer to justice.
- With AAP

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MURDERED Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer tried to run away from her foster home 10 times in the 10 months before she died, a former carer claims. Speaking with Nine News, Julie Pemberton, who cared for the 12-year-old for two years before she moved in with the Thorburn family said Tiahleigh "hated" the home of the man charged with her murder and the rest of his family who also face charges over the case.

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Ricko- "She's hot, mate. They all are. Go for it. Go, son..."

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Glenys- "Every kid in Blackrock is heading for that party."

Cherie- "I'll be ok. I won't drink. Or get into drugs. Or muck around with boys."

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Marian- "I'm on my final paragraph. Can't this wait?"

Marian- "Well, if you don't mind us not being there..."

Marian- "Toby's eighteen, Rachel, that's a big difference..."
Rachel- "Toby's got a dick. That's the difference.

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Jared- "He's just been my mate since forever. The week my Dad split."

Rachel- " You're my toy-boy. And I only want you for your body."

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In the second presidential debate, Donald Trump attributed the remarks about groping and gawking at women in his infamous hot mic recording from "Access Hollywood" to "locker-room talk." But new research suggests that the type of " humor " represented in this type of banter is more than just humor. Perhaps without realizing it, men who express themes of domination, objectification, and superiority over women in their humor have stepped onto sexist territory.

Loyola University psychologist Robyn Mallett and colleagues (2016) found that jokes about women that represent "playful, demeaning, group-based comments cloaked in humor...are among the most common ways that women experience sexism in the workplace and other settings" (p. 272). Sexist humor, they go on to note, is "humor that denigrates, demeans, stereotypes, oppresses, or objectifies women" (p. 272). It is a form of subtle, "modern" sexism that masks a demeaning view of women in what may be socially acceptable terms.

Like other forms of humor that target a particular type of person, the effect of such humor on listeners depends its conformity to a set of stereotypes. Also like any form of denigrating humor, its effect on the listeners it targets is to inflict shame and feelings of inferiority. The targets become placed in an uncertain position because it is difficult to retaliate to this humor without sounding like a bad sport.

Mallett and her team conducted two experiments to investigate whether humor would, as they predicted, mitigate the effect of sexist language. Using reactions to a message delivered via text, the researchers asked women to rate the sexism of a joke compared to their reactions to a serious, equally sexist, statement.

In the humorous condition, a man and woman were said to be stranded in an elevator from which there would be no escape. The woman asks the man to "make me feel like a woman before I die." He takes off his clothes, and then says to her "Fold them." In the serious condition, the man simply states that he thinks it is a woman's role to do household chores, like laundry, for a man. The women in the study responded to the message and then rated the speaker's level of sexism. These text responses themselves were analyzed for the degree to which they represented confrontation.

As predicted, women in the joke condition rated their male partners as less sexist than did women in the serious condition. In the humorous condition, the women were also less likely to confront the man for expressing a sexist attitude. Most women took the humorous comment as reflecting no ill intent in comparison to serious statements of sexism, to which the women were more likely to respond with sarcasm or the expression of opposing beliefs.

In the second study, the researchers decided to throw the woman's own sexist attitudes into the equation. In addition to the text messaging paradigm, the researchers evaluated tolerance of sexism as well as tolerance of sexual harassment. Participants responded to one of two scenarios-in the first, a humorous situation was used to communicate the message that a woman's role is to do chores, and in the second, men and women together played a prank on a friend. Participants rated the extent to which the behavior in the two scenarios was offensive, and the difference provided a measure of tolerance of sexism. Tapping into their attitudes, the participants also rated their own tolerance of sexual harassment, such as whether a woman's "no" means "yes" in a sexual situation.

As it turned out, sexist women were more accepting of sexist humor.

Together, the two studies provided support for the effect of sexist humor on female listeners: Women who hear a man tell a sexist joke are left to wonder whether it's sexism or a failed attempt at humor. Perhaps as a result of this ambiguity, women become less likely to confront a man who is "joking" than one who simply blurts out a sexist comment. Surprisingly, women who hear a man make a sexist joke don't seem turned off by him, and are willing to continue a conversation with him. For women who themselves adopt sexist attitudes, there is even greater likelihood that they will develop a "blind spot" (p. 281) toward a sexist male, whether joking or serious.

We can now see why "locker-room humor" involving sexist attitudes toward women is so pernicious: Not only do these jokes perpetuate sexist stereotypes, but when women are privy to such jokes, they're not really sure what to do. Confront the man, and seem like someone from the "P.C. Police," or just go along with it? By letting it go, their silence conveys approval, allowing the sexist humor to continue unchecked. Women who themselves hold sexist attitudes are even less likely to confront sexism, even when portrayed in a serious light.

It would have been interesting to see how men would respond to expressions of sexist humor by other men: Would they perceive such jokes as sexist and, more to the point, would they confront the men who make them? Imagine a scenario in which Billy Bush, in the videotape, had disagrees with Trump instead of going along with him. What if he didn't laugh, didn't encourage him, and ended the conversation in disgust?

When we let sexist-or other "ist" jokes-go by, we become complicit in the attitudes that spawn and perpetuate them. For women, it's a no-win situation: You may not feel that you can challenge or confront the man who tells jokes in which your gender is the target. However, recognizing that a sexist joke is still sexist is at least a way that you gain control over your own response.
Reference
Mallett, R. K., Ford, T. E., & Woodzicka, J. A. (2016). What did he mean by that? Humor decreases attributions of sexism and confrontation of sexist jokes. Sex Roles, 75(5-6), 272-284. doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0605-2
Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne 2016

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Does Calling It a Joke Make Sexism More Acceptable?

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In the second presidential debate, Donald Trump attributed the remarks about groping and gawking at women in his infamous hot mic recording from "Access Hollywood" to "locker-room talk." But new research suggests that the type of " humor " represented in this type of banter is more than just humor.

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Jared- "Girls can't do it. Wrong centre of gravity."

Cherie- "Tell that to Wendy Botha. She's a legend."
Jared- "Yeah, and built like a guy."

Cherie- "The whole world's got to move for RIcko."

Jared- "...I'm glad you're back, mate. I've missed you."
Ricko- "What are you, a queer dog?"

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very good, includes links to real events

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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing(attributed to Edmund Burke).

Blackrock has a special place in my memory. I directed the first production for Sydney Theatre Company in August 1995, and for almost eighteen months before that led a development process at the company involving four separate workshops and many drafts during which the story shifted its shape considerably. But, perhaps more than that, the real events that inspired the play hold a particular meaning for me. Like Nick Enright, I was born in Maitland, maybe a 25-minute drive from Newcastle and Stockton. I attended the University of Newcastle. When 14-year-old Leigh Leigh was raped by a group of boys and murdered at a 16th birthday party on Stockton Beach on 3 November 1989, I was at the university just across the harbour.

Many in the community knew of the impact of these events. In July 1991, Brian Joyce, the Artistic Director of Freewheels (Newcastle's professional theatre-in-education company), approached Nick to write a play for young audiences. He suggested dealing with this tragedy. Nick rejected the idea, perhaps sensing something too private, raw and 'sensational' in the worst sense, but Brian's focusing of the idea on the girl's peer group caught Nick's attention. Brian argued that there were many young people in the community whose grief, anger and shame had still not been adequately vented. After much research, a play for four actors was written and performed. A Property of the Clan shares much with Blackrock, including three principal characters - Jared, Diane and Ricko - as well as the idea that the murdered girl and the criminal acts should be kept off stage.

I'm not concerned here with the differences between these plays written for very different audiences and purposes. But the idea that the girl, her mother, and the rape and murder should be kept off stage is central to the conception of both. This choice was made for ethical as much as for dramatic purposes. The circumstances of Leigh Leigh's death continue to cause much anguish. Even now, 25 years after the events, there is speculation about what really happened that night. It did not seem right to Brian, Nick or (later) me to represent the young girl and her family onstage, even in this fictional form.

The exclusion provides unusual dramatic opportunities. While Blackrock is not centrally interested in what really happened, the audience still experiences emblematic versions of the rape and murder, and these provide key moments in the drama. There are a few moments worth mentioning.

In the scene in which Ricko confesses to Jared, Tiffany approaches and Ricko hurls doughnuts at her. She is covered in jam. The action is telling enough, but Tiffany leaves the scenes looking almost as if she is bloodied.

Then, in the climactic scene between Jared and Ricko, Tiffany is again the subject of an attack by Ricko. He demands that she have sex with both he and Jared, almost as a way to bond the two males. It heads towards rape. When Tiffany escapes thanks to Jared's invention, a prized surfing trophy is used by Ricko to (almost) smash Jared's head. In this moment, we see the moment when Ricko smashed Tracy's head with a rock. Within a few moments, we have seen images of rape and murder. They give us a glimpse of what happened, and fortify Jared some way towards a resolution of his dilemma. He realises that what happened to Tracy didn't 'just happen' but was part of Ricko's pathology.

A little later, Rachel offers Jared a coffee mug as a gift to match the saucer she had given him in one of their earliest meetings. As they argue the circumstance of Tracy's (and Ricko's) death, Jared smashes the mug in an uncontrolled rage. We know that it is possible that Jared will harm Rachel, perhaps sexually. This, too, is a version of the circumstances of Tracy's death. 'It was like it just happened', was Ricko's earlier justification to Jared. We see that it might 'just happen' here.

Another evocation of Tracy's rape and murder is contained within Diane's breast cancer. In story terms, her cancer and mastectomy serve to highlight the mutilation of a woman's body. When mother and son are in some way reconciled at the very end of the play - a crucial moment I'll return to - it is partly through Jared's acknowledgment of his mother's condition. She carefully guides his hand to both sides of her chest in an attempt to express and share a sense of loss - loss of a breast, loss of a son, loss of a young girl's life. It can be a highly affecting moment. I remember audiences to that first production witnessing Angela Punch McGregor as Diane take the hand of Simon Lyndon's Jared with a clarity and empathy that made many weep. For many, and not just mothers, to witness such an intimate form of reconciliation between mother and son is to witness something deep and ineffable, something that, in an individual way, works to heal the complex gulf between men and women.

While the play is not interested in the murder itself, it is very interested in the underlying causes of the murder. It hones in on the social and cultural forces that can lead a group of boys to do such a horrific thing and in how the rape/murder affects those left behind. When Blackrock was in development, there was a great deal of interest in the media and academia about how boys were being left behind in the education system and how this was leading to a propensity towards violence and suicide. An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald spoke to this problem just two weeks before Blackrock opened. This focus on the boys, and on Jared in particular, seemed a potent position.

One of the forces the play highlights is that of gender division. Most of the males in the play have a barely concealed contempt for anything that smacks of the feminine. Clearly, Jared and his mates objectify the girls. Their language throughout is harsh and demeaning. Tiffany has a use-by date. To them, it is reasonable for a girl to become, as a psychiatrist described it in court testimony at the Leigh Leigh case, 'a property of the clan'. But for these boys and men, even expressing genuine feeling can be seen as corrupting the 'authentic' male. Ricko considers Jared a 'queer dog' for expressing that he missed Ricko. Ironically, gang rape can often be an expression of homosocial, or even homoerotic, bonding.

This contempt, or at the very least disregard, for women is not confined to the young men or boys, or to the 'working class' environment of the play. The narrative strand that exposes Stewart's work in advertising widens the frame. His wife and daughter dislike his latest ad campaign, 'Body Count - what counts most for a woman', which has been 'plastered over every bus shelter'. We are reminded that images of women are consistently used in advertising and the media in ways that are demeaning to the dignity of women.

Tellingly, the big scene in Blackrock that gives us glimpses of the beach party entwines a scene from Stewart's award night. His winning Body Count ad is about to play when the scene shifts to Shana at the beach running on in bra and bikini briefs. For a moment, an audience might think that we are watching a stage representation of the ad - Stewart, after all, says 'Christ, they're going to screen it. Here it is. Enjoy . . . ' just before Shana's entrance. An audience might think that the girl running on is the girl in the ad. Many watching the first production did. In this way, the play asks how media representations of women might impact on how men treat women in the wider world.

This big scene also takes us to another birthday event of that same night: Diane and Glenys cheering on a male stripper. In one moment, Glenys slips money into the stripper's g-string. When he approaches Diane, she runs out, feeling an instinctive reaction to her breast cancer. It's a phantom version of Tracy's fate: both women in distress at about the same time. If this complex scene is staged well, in a way that allows an uninterrupted flow of events much like in an Elizabethan play, then the three celebrations of that one night find a dramatic unity which serves to blur gender and class and so reveal a more universal inclination towards the objectification of the body.

The broad social context of the play is undoubtedly a rich one. But the play's primary dramatic interest sits somewhere else. The play is built on Jared's individual journey, on how this young man traverses the challenges before him.

When we meet Jared, he appears to be in a good place. He's doing well at school, is in the first phase of a relationship with Rachel, and even impresses his mother with a thoughtful birthday gift. When the play opens, he is even ready to break the gender divide and give Cherie a surfing lesson. Ricko's return shifts this trajectory.

Ricko is more than Jared's best mate. He is a father substitute. Nick's plays are full of absent fathers, and Blackrock is no exception. Here, we learn that Ricko has been Jared's mate since the very week that Jared's father walked out of the family. On that day, Ricko heroically saved Jared and invited him into the clan. Ricko has been unable to find a satisfying life away from his devotees, and his homecoming will impact on Jared's maturation in mostly adverse ways.

Jared, beginning to change and develop as a young man, is caught in a world that doesn't want change. Ricko wants things to be as they were. 'Blackrock for the Blackos', he proclaims when confronted with Toby from across the river. When Ricko demands that Tiffany 'do' both he and Jared, he tells her that 'you'll do what you always do, bitch. Cause that's what you are. What you'll always be'. In his final plea to Jared to lie to the police, he invokes the unswerving bonds of mateship: 'Your turn to look after me'. Jared refuses: 'That'd make me the same as you'. Ricko insists: 'You are, man, you fucken are!'. When Jared learns of Ricko's fate and attempts in a haze to partly blame Tracy for the rape, on hearing that Tracy was a virgin he asserts that in that case she should have acted like one, as if her apparent refusal to do so is the cause of her complicity. He demands that 'people should act the way they are'. Jared, along with others less equipped for the fight, battles with a world that refuses to remain fixed, that rejects the assigned roles.

The play follows Jared's moral dilemma through three key relationships: with his best mate, his girlfriend, and his mother. We see, finally, that Jared's sense of right defeats his sense of mateship: he will not lie to the police to provide an alibi for Ricko, despite the powerful friendship. Ricko, ill-equipped to cope, suicides in his cell. Just as it was for Jason, another member of the clan, death is easier than living.

But what of Jared's relationship with his girlfriend? Rachel carries much of the play's moral weight, and we see this play out in many ways. She rejects her father's attitude to the demeaning use of women's bodies in advertising. As the person who discovered Tracy's mutilated body, she speaks at a school assembly, attempting to open up discussion and offering a suggestion to plant a tree. She encourages Jared, and his mates, to talk about what happened, and why, and to perhaps seek professional counselling in order to help them do so. She makes a courageous stand in her family when her brother is threatened with jail. She is one of several people Jared goes to in search of comfort and counsel. I'm sure Rachel influences Jared deeply, but finally the weight of their situation becomes too heavy for the relationship to bear.

And his mother? Blackrock gives powerful focus to Jared's relationship with Diane. At the beginning of the play, they live alone together and appear to be getting along well. But soon they are estranged. He cannot tell her anything of his dilemma, and she cannot tell him of her cancer. She worries what will happen to him should she not survive. Glenys comforts her: 'You've done a good job so far. The boy's nearly there.' Diane queries: 'Where?'. Then Glenys opens up the mystery of how boys turn into men: 'Wherever it is they go'. For me, it's one of the most telling moments of the play.

The final scene of the play centres on the mother-son relationship and finds a way to give the story back to the murdered girl. The scene begins with Jared alone on the rock, just as he was in the opening moments of the play. He is living in Ricko's van. His mother approaches on her way to clean Tracy's grave of what is probably the word 'slut' painted across the headstone. They stumble towards reconciliation. Finally, after that remarkable moment in which she shares the physical reality of her loss, Jared shares what he knows. It's a brilliant speech, which Simon Lyndon in the first production delivered with a rawness and honesty that held the audience completely spellbound. We were watching a young man trying heroically to breach the chasm that separated him from his greater and better self. Eventually, Jared lands on his essential problem: he did nothing. He says,

I let it all happen. [ Silence.] They headed back to the party. She went stumbling off down that way, towards the rock. And I turned and ran the other way. I could have gone down there. Any time. I could have taken her home. Only I wouldn't. I didn't. (Enright p. 68)

His mother interrogates him, asking why he did nothing, and makes a revealing comparison between Ricko's death and Tracy's. He had a choice; she did not. As Diane goes off to the grave, inviting Jared to join her, Cherie enters, just as she did in the first scene, and cheekily asks for the surfing lesson she almost got just before Ricko's return. Jared makes a deal: he will do so if she dumps Ricko's van keys into the ocean. Jared sheds the protective armour of his wet suit, tosses the keys to his young cousin, and goes off to be with his mother and to make some peace with Tracy. He did nothing then, but will do what he can now.

The play could end there, but it does not. We are left with Cherie, alone on stage. Throughout, this young girl has been Tracy's representative on stage. She is the youngest at the party, she alone visits Tracy's grave with love, and so she is fittingly given the final moment. On this New Year's Day, with whales offering good luck, she holds in her hand the last remnants of her best friend's murderer, and heads to the sea to dispose of them forever. It is an ending that offers hope, a glimpse of a world in which good boys turn into good men, and in which good people are unafraid to intervene when hatred appears.

© Copyright David Berthold 2013

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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing(attributed to Edmund Burke). Blackrock has a special place in my memory. I directed the first production for Sydney Theatre Company in August 1995, and for almost eighteen months before that led a development process at the company involving four separate workshops and many drafts during which the story shifted its shape considerably.