The Ghosts Trilogy

Too Young for Ghosts; No Going Back; My Father's Father

Janis Balodis

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781921429729
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Written over a period of ten years from 1985, The Ghosts Trilogy follows the lives of a group of young Latvians who emigrate to North Queensland in 1948. The chronicle of their struggles over 45 years is paralleled by the narrative detailing the unsuccessful journeys made by German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt in Queensland in the years 1845-46. The plays in this trilogy are: Too Young For Ghosts, No Going Back and My Father's Father.

FIRST PRODUCTION

My Father’s Father was first performed by the Melbourne Theatre Company at The Fairfax, Victorian Arts Centre, on 1 March 1996, with the following cast:

KARL Peter Adams
ILSE Monica Maughan
ARMAND / GUNNARS Paul English
EDVARDS / LEICHHARDT John Dicks
MCQUAIDE / ALFRED / PORTER Tom Considine
RUTH / ANITA Genevieve Picot
LEONIDS / GILBERT / PETER Mark Pegler
BROWN Warren Owens
MARTA Deidre Rubenstein
OLGA Helen Tripp

Directed by Roger Hodgman
Designed by Dale Ferguson
Lighting Design by Jamieson Lewis

CHARACTERS

In Australia:

KARL
ILSE
ARMAND, their son
EDVARDS
DR MCQUAIDE
RUTH, Edvards’ dead wife
LEONIDS, Ruth’s dead lover

The explorers:

LUDWIG LEICHHARDT (same actor as Edvards)
JOHN GILBERT (same actor as Leonids)
BROWN

In Latvia:

MARTA, Karl’s twin sister
PETER, her son (same actor as Leonids / Gilbert)
ANITA, Karls’ cousin (same actor as Ruth)
OLGA, Ilse’s sister
ALFRED, Ilse’s brother (same actor as McQuaide)
PORTER (same actor as McQuaide / Alfred)
GUNNARS (same actor as Armand)
KARL’S PARENTS (same actors as Ilse and Armand)

The doubling of characters is intentional and integral to the structure and meaning of the play.

SETTING

The action of the play takes place in North Queensland locations in November 1992; in Latvian locations in May 1993; and in Australia in 1846.

PRODUCTION NOTE

There are fairly rapid changes in time and location and it is important that the design should facilitate this movement and not hamper the flow of action from scene to scene with unnecessary blackouts or set devices.

The Latvian story, that is the scenes set in Latvia and North Queensland, should be presented as part of a seamless whole. The Leichhardt story requires a different style of production to create the sense that it cuts across the Latvian story as if it were beamed in from Mars.

The play can be presented without the Leichhardt story. This involves two other minor adjustments. Cutting Brown from Scene Eighteen and replacing Scene Twenty-Five with an alternate scene which has been included as an Appendix.

The style of speech is also important. When the Latvians talk amongst themselves they speak fluently and without accent. When they try to speak English their speech is accented. The reverse is true for Armand. When he tries to speak Latvian his speech is accented. In some scenes Armand is speaking in English and his parents reply in fluent (unaccented) Latvian.

PROLOGUE

Out in the darkness we hear the slow, insistent tread of many feet accompanied by the rhythmic tinkling of tiny bells and a chorus-like chant of ‘Latvija’.

A tablecloth flutters into the light and settles. Once again it is thrown up and as it starts to fall, from behind it come ghostly figures. Each wears or carries some national artefact.

The sound of their steps, the bells, the chant.

Into their midst a man comes sprawling. It is ARMAND, Karl’s father. The group disperses. The man starts to get up, slowly, warily. The bells ring insistently in the darkness. A shot. The man falls. Again the cloth flutters out and falls to cover the body.

KARL: [from the dark] Father!

The chant continues: ‘Latvija’.

The group again crosses by the body. As they gather up the cloth, the body disappears.

PART ONE

SCENE ONE

Latvia. Riga Airport. May 1993. 3.00 pm.

Coming through the dispersing group are ARMAND, ILSE and KARL with their luggage on a decrepit trolley. Throughout this scene and for the rest of the play, ARMAND takes photographs.

KARL: Riga. End of the road. Only took forty-nine years to get back home.

ILSE: Looks worse than the war. Like the last sulphur bomb dropped only yesterday.

KARL: Don’t think I’ll kiss the ground. Might catch some disease.

ILSE: You can see the Russians have been here.

KARL: Sssh. There’s plenty of them still around.

ILSE: I’m not going to kiss any backsides. I’m Australian.

ARMAND: Dad, see anyone you know?

ILSE: He probably wouldn’t recognise them.

KARL: What are you talking about? Not recognise my own sister? My twin?

ILSE: If she looked like you I’d recognise her. You said she didn’t.

KARL: I’ll know her. But she won’t be here yet. How was she going to know you’d get it into your head to take an earlier connection?

ILSE: Forty years you’ve been crying in your beer to get back to Latvia. Well, you’re here.

KARL: Two hours early.

ILSE: Does it make much difference which airport you sit in?

KARL: This has got to be one of the worst.

ILSE: Your first tr...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright Page
• Playwright’s Biography
• Too Young for Ghosts
• No Going Back
• My Father’s Father
• Appendix