Melbourne Festival: My Lovers’ Bones

My Lovers’ Bones is another premiere Australian work developed for and supported by the Melbourne Festival. Created by independent company Brown Cab Productions, it’s a fascinating story of a man running through city streets being chased by a malevolent force that’s not giving up.

This force could be his past, his self, a woman he once loved or a bunyip that’s lived in the city since the time before cities were imagined.

Directed by Margaret Harvey (founder of Brown Cab with her brother John Harvey), it explores how Indigenous myth and Dreaming are a part of the land we share and creep into our beliefs and lives even if we don’t understand how or why. And it reminds that ancient stories from indigenous people and elders all over the world come from a place of truth.

As the running man, Kirk Page’s performance is mesmerising. He captures a world where he wants to think the fear is in his head but knows in his soul that it’s real. His confusion and terror is made palpable by a stunning sound (Anna Leibzeit) and lighting (Lisa Mibus) design that creates a world that’s floating between the seen and unseen; between safety and horror.

At less than an hour, its concise telling doesn’t dwell on anything superfluous, but, while it’s beautiful to watch, some of the show’s heart is caught on the stage and hasn’t found its way out of the creators’s heads and into the audience’s hearts. As a story about a bunyip, it needs to be felt in the gut more than understood in the head.