How Theatre Like Belvoir's 'The Events' Aims to Break Down Gun-Related Violence

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When you read a news story explaining a tragic, violent event, often you're getting just a fraction of the story. Filled with cold facts and figures, absorbing news coverage of unspeakable crimes like mass shootings and gun-related violence can be a pretty sobering experience. Too often, it's easier to bury your head in the sand.

If you're an arts practitioner, tackling a topic like gun-related violence is far from an easy task. But with mass shootings and armed attacks rising on a global scale, more and more artists are taking it upon themselves to grab our collective attention and try to understand what the hell went wrong.

For playwright David Greig, Norwegian Anders Breivik's shooting of 69 young people at a summer camp in 2011 stuck a chord too deep to ignore. Translating emotions into art certainly isn't a new notion, but his socially aware play The Events has really got us thinking about the aftermath of these tragic experiences.

So we caught up with actress Catherine McClements, the lead in Belvoir's current production of The Events, to unpack the power of theatre for social commentary, what it takes to adopt a character so poignant and personal, and the role of the arts in helping us grapple with these challenging topics and find a way forward.

Belvoir/Lisa Tomasetti.

HERE'S HOW THINGS STAND

372. That's the number of mass shootings that took place across the United States in 2015 alone, according to the BBC. The Gun Violence Archive reveals that, on average, 36 Americans were killed by guns PER DAY (amounting to a staggering 12,942 by December 23) last year. Not surprisingly, America ranks among the developed nations with the highest rate of gun ownership, according to ABC.

But this isn't just happening in the US. Both the UK and Australia have been the sites for numerous horrific mass shooting events in recent decades. From cases such as Martin Bryant (responsible for ending 35 lives during the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, and which led to private gun ownership laws being restricted in Australia) to the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege in Martin Place, the threat posed by such lethal weapons continues to rear its head in the wake of such devastating incidents.

Belvoir/Luke Cowling.

SO, WHAT THE HECK CAN ART DO?

While gun-related violence is a huge global issue affecting countless lives, individual people turn to art to help them understand such heinous acts on a personal level. When it comes to The Events, we're focused on one woman and her story. Written with reference to the Anders Breivik case of 2011, the play won over crowds at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival for its delicate contemplation of community and compassion in the face of gun-related violence.

Closer to home, director Clare Watson brings The Events to life for Australian audiences. Showing at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre from May 12 to June 12, this powerful play explores theatre as a medium for social commentary and a means to personalise the events we see splashed across the headlines.

Belvoir/Luke Cowling.

BREAKING DOWN 'THE EVENTS'

Set in the halls of a fictional community centre, Catherine takes to the stage as Claire, a church minister responsible for leading the local community choir. After a young gunman tears the fabric of this group apart, Claire is forced to rebuild herself and her band of singers.

"Her journey is to really contemplate the boy who committed the crime," Catherine explains. "The boy" is played by Johnny Carr, who additionally takes on the role of numerous characters in the play, from the boy's father to Claire's psychologist. This deft casting decision reinforces Claire's obsession with this young man; everyone is filtered through the lens of her attacker as she struggles to come to terms with the event.

"The play is trying to deal with what is our response to something like that, not during the event when we can't control it but afterwards when we can contemplate it."

What sets this production apart is its use of real-life choir members as performers on stage. Each night, a different choir comes on stage, to perform songs for the play and from their own repertoire. "For the audience … it's like seeing themselves up there, because the choir sits behind the action," says Catherine. "We try and do it so the choir have not seen the play, and so they don't really know what's going to unfold at all." And this is what makes The Events such a unique portrayal of gun-violence: its emphasis on the aftermath, on people and emotions rather than the hot-headed brutality of the crime itself.

"There is not one answer to why most of these young men commit these crimes," says Catherine. "I think the play just deals with all of the elements of it... the disenfranchisement, the music, the sense of hopelessness. It ultimately comes up with the question of... how we deal with it, what we do in response."

Belvoir/Luke Cowling.

BUT 'THE EVENTS' IS NOT ALONE

Despite its strengths in shining a light on the psychology behind gun-related crimes, The Events is, of course, not the first artistic work to explore mass shootings. For example, Gus Van Sant's film Elephant (2003) won critical acclaim for its unnerving depiction of a fictionalised high school shooting using non-professional actors (drawing clear parallels to the events of the 1999 Columbine high school massacre).

What The Events and other works highlight is the creative potential and evocative possibilities that performance offers. They may not be perfect in their delivery, but their value lies in presenting a discourse of the humanity of offenders, families and their victims. As Catherine explains, "It's a contemplation through art, rather than through politics."

The Events is now showing at Belvoir until June 12. Top image: Brett Boardman.