The 25th anniversary of the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire will be commemorated with a poignant performance project, featuring stories in concert produced by Bundaberg-based writer Rod Ainsworth.
Rod has worked in collaboration with Brisbane-based composer John Babbage from Topology, professional musicians and community members to create THE PALACE: A Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of The Palace Backpackers’ Fire in Childers.
Community interviews Rod conducted over the past year form the basis for the storytelling, which will be set to a musical score composed by John through collaborative workshops with local music students.
Rod said it was important for the project to be different from past memorial services and to honour the community response at the time of the tragedy.
“In my mind, probably the biggest story from that event is the community and how the community came out and supported people and just kind of unconditionally dropped everything and looked after those young backpackers [and] their families,” Rod said.
“The whole town seemed to stop to help these people, which was an extraordinary thing.
“People just did it because they knew that they had to, and they knew that they would want that for their kids, if it should happen to them somewhere else.”
Rod spent six months interviewing people with the view to using their actual words in the final performance, read by actors.
“I knew that it needed to start with actual stories from people who were involved,” he said.
“There was about 50,000 words and then I needed to edit those down into a kind of script to tell the story, because I knew it needed to be a performance based event.
“The whole idea of this verbatim theatre style, where you sort of interviewed people and use their actual words, is to try and keep people anonymous.
“There’s no names used, it’s just people’s words, and the words are kind of collapsed into four different characters.”
The responses Rod received from the community ranged from people who didn’t want to talk about the tragedy at all to those who felt they needed to talk.
“I think it’s obvious that a trauma like that kind of lives on, you don’t ever forget,” he said.
“The story of the crime and the impact of the crime, all of that sort of stuff, that’s been told.
“It’s the story of the community, people whose voices we haven’t heard, that was interesting to me.”
Auditions
The general chorus for the performance will be made up of voices from the Childers community.
“We will be auditioning in Childers at the end of the month for anybody who’s interested in being part of a choir,” he said.
“It’s an ensemble piece, so you know everyone’s in it together.”
Auditions for singers will take place in Childers and Bundaberg.
Childers auditions for general chorus and vocal leads will be on Monday 31 March from 6 pm at the Anglican Church Hall.
Bundaberg auditions for vocal leads only will be held on Monday 7 April from 6 pm at St Luke’s Anglican School.
Contact Rod Ainsworth at rod@rodainsworth.com.au for further information.
Fundraising
Rod said the project has been a labour of love for him and other creatives working on it.
“We’ve got a choral director, we’ve got an accompanist, we’ve got a stage manager, we’ve got people who are helping us with marketing and those sorts of things, all of the labour’s been given as a gift to the community.
“We’re still trying to raise around $20,000, which will help us with paying the professional musicians to come up and perform, as well as the recording of an album.
“It’s really important that we record it and that there’s something of a legacy that can go back to people and be part of the community, so that there’s some lasting memory.”
Anyone interested in supporting the project can make a tax-deductible donation through the Australian Cultural Fund project page.
THE PALACE: A Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of The Palace Backpackers’ Fire in Childers will be performed at Isis Cultural Centre on Saturday 21 June at 1 pm and 6 pm.
Information on how to book will be provided closer to the date.
This project has been partly funded by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a partnership between the Queensland Government and Bundaberg Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
