25TH APRIL: A True Fiction
21/04/2020 - 31/05/2020
COVID-19 Lockdown Festival 2020
Production Details
What was? What could have been? The past is the past, but the 25th of April might have been remembered each year for very different reasons, if only…
A ‘mockumentary’ piece making use of commentary, reportage, re-enactment and poetry. The central character is Rufus Dewar, a young New Zealander who is sent to Gallipoli, is wounded, deserts the army, returns to New Zealand and becomes, for a brief period, a figurehead and rallying point for the growing protest movement advocating New Zealand’s withdrawal from WWI.
Dewar is something of a war poet and the piece features some of this poetry. The fiction is made more believable by the inclusion of CK Stead, Marilyn Duckworth, Kim Hill and David Grant in the cast. Each of these notable New Zealanders plays himself or herself and comments on the political climate and events of the time as well as on the life, death, poetry and legacy of the fabled Rufus Dewar.
25th April: a true fiction by Dean Parker
Broadcast 25 Apr 2007
Listen duration53′ :33″
Dean Parker is a successful New Zealand screenwriter and playwright. He has worked as a writer for much of his life and been prominent in his union, the New Zealand Writer’s Guild.
Cast:
Commentators: CK Stead, Kim Hill, Marilyn Duckworth, David Grant
Rufus Dewar: Nathan Meister
Cissy: Nikki McDonnell
with: Tim Spite, Nick Dunbar, Tanea Heke, Duncan Smith, Adam Macaulay.
Theatre Marae , Audio (podcast) , Theatre ,
54 mins
A great shaggy dog of a literary leg pull
Review by Steve Thomas 24th Apr 2020
Well I was fooled, sucked right in to the ‘true fiction’ that was the radio play 25th April re-broadcast on RNZ the Drama Hour, Sunday 19 April 2020 – and available online here.
A wonderful ‘mockumentary’ (revealed in the online introduction) that is so convincing, my belief in the character, who I now understand to be the fictional poet Rufus Dewar, engenders a blush of foolishness – which I like to think will bring a warm chuckle to the resting place of recently deceased playwright Dean Parker.
The ‘poet’ is wounded at Gallipoli, hospitalised to Alexandria, where a love story ensues. Returning to Auckland and having been witness to the bloodbath that was the Great War 1914-1918, he inspires an anti-war movement. He is hunted through the country by police as unpatriotic and a traitor, while evading the long arm of the law, and after some unlikely liaisons, is batoned to death in front of a sea of supporters. This scene mirrors the actual unlawful killing of Kiwi teacher Blair Peach by police baton, at the anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, in 1979 – a cause the playwright was close to, as is this writer.
There is a hint within the poetry that if this was written in 1915 how is it so modern and of such quality yet I have never heard of Rufus Dewar? My suspicions however are not sufficiently aroused. Consequently I am taken hook, line and sinker.
The authoritative narrative voice of Kim Hill, recorded apparently at Gallipoli, and CK Stead and Marilyn Duckworth lending their literary reputations to the joke, also make me a true believer. Completing the beautifully rendered conceit, Nathan Meister plays Rufus Dewar and Nikki McDonnell his nurse, Cissy Kerris, while Tim Spite, Nick Dunbar, Tanea Heke, Duncan Smith and Adam Macaulay reconstruct key dramatic events.
I can only suggest you suspend disbelief and follow the story as it imparts values and perspectives that can only be described as laudable and emotionally engaging.
25TH APRIL: A True Fiction is a great shaggy dog of a literary leg pull. Well done Dean Parker. Your work lives on.
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