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Anne Phelan as Mavis Taylor
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Before she'd even
arrived in WA people had already come to love Anne
Phelan's gregarious and infectious good
humour.
During her extended
solo trip across the Nullabor from Melbourne, with
her beloved dog Cally for company, Anne rang in
daily to talk on ABC Radio's afternoon program -- a
woman on a journey west to do a play about a woman
on a journey.
Deckchair Theatre's
new production, Mavis Goes to Timor, was Anne's
inspiration for her narrated trip across the desert
and, much like Mavis, Anne has a down-to-earth
sense of practicalities, a great sense of adventure
and a highly developed social
conscience.
She can get wound
up very quickly over politics, injustices and
inequities and just as quickly laugh uproariously
at herself.
She doesn't have a
credit card -- "I can't be trusted"-- and hates
mobile phones.
She is vocal about
politics and passionate about her chosen charities
-- she is the patron of Positive Women (Vic), a
support group run for and by women living with HIV,
a committee member of Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity
Fights AIDS and believes that East Timor should be
talked about continually.
Serendipity is how
she describes her good fortune in getting the role
of Mavis for Deckchair.
She had narrated a
documentary for SBS television's Grey Voyagers,
which included Mavis's story of how she went to
East Timor at the age of 86 to set up a women's
sewing cooperative. When Anne was offered the role
she agreed immediately without even seeing a
script.
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Writers
Angela Chaplin and Katherine Thomson
(centre) with Elwyn Taylor (second from
right) and the women from one of the
sewing co-operatives created by the Mavis
Taylor East Timor Project.
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Anne already knew
writer Katherine Thomson, who had written several
episodes of ABC-TV's Something in the Air,
including the one that won Anne an AFI award in her
popular role as Mon Tayler.
The story of Mavis
Taylor has been created by the same team who last
year produced the Deckchair show Luna -- composer
Kavisha Mazzella, video artist Nancy Jones,
director Angela Chaplin and Katherine Thomson have
collaborated on writing the play after meeting
Mavis and visiting East Timor.
It is a
heart-warming story of a country woman, a mother of
nine and a grandmother, who was determined to give
something back to a nation that had helped
Australian soldiers in World War II.
An estimated 60,000
East Timorese men died protecting Australian forces
in the war and Mavis never forgot a soldier saying
that if it hadn't been for them he would never have
got home to Australia.
In 1999, as we
watched the devastation on television, the
86-year-old haberdasher who had never left
Australia before, arrived in East Timor.
It was a shock. The
country was in ruins, its people dislocated and the
economy shattered.
Amid the
destruction, Mavis and her daughter Elwyn
(Kerry-Ella McAullay) tackled deprivation, red tape
and self-doubt to set up a sewing centre to help
the local women become self-sufficient.
Anne said: "Mavis
was not a 'career' charity person. This act was a
complete giving of herself because she understood
that women and children are always the victims of
political war games, but it is often the women who
are the strength behind the rebuilding."
Music plays a vital
role in the lives of East Timorese and the Mavis
Goes to Timor Choir is at the heart of the show.
The choir has been brought together by Jenny
Simpson, incorporating her two community choirs,
Camelot Chorale in Mosman Park and Gosnells Choir,
and some local Timorese singers. There are 65
singers in all.
"It is a huge
emotional involvement for us," Jenny said. "The
music is beautiful and frequently reduces us all to
tears."
Members of the
choir have become so passionate about the project
that they have all donated money to buy the airfare
that will bring the real Mavis Taylor over to Perth
from Yarrawonga in Victoria for the opening night
performance. It is then that Anne will meet Mavis
for the first time.
The play also
provides an opportunity to donate to the Mavis
Taylor Appeal.
Deckchair Theatre
is fundraising to buy a much-needed four wheel
drive vehicle for Mavis's string of sewing
cooperatives as well as other practical goods,
including sewing machines, fabric, cottons, toys,
tinned food, bikes and musical
instruments.
The set is composed
of 25 giant shipping containers. Thanks to the
Maritime Union of Australia and Norwest Shipping,
one of those containers will be used to transport
the donated goods to East Timor to be distributed
by Mavis's daughter, Elwyn.
Donations can be
dropped off at Victoria Hall between 9.30am and 5pm
or from 7 to 7.30pm, before the performance of
Mavis Goes to Timor at the Fremantle Arts
Centre.
"Mavis has done
nothing but good in her life," said Anne. "With so
much positive energy pouring into this production,
it's got to be a good night of theatre."
Mavis Goes to Timor
performs in the courtyard gardens at the Fremantle
Arts Centre from February 7 to March 2, Tuesday to
Saturday from 8pm.
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