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Outrage at Beaconsfield mine tragedy musical

Posted October 7, 2008 08:03:00
Updated October 7, 2008 10:28:00

Actors rehearse a scene from Beaconsfield: A Musical In A-Flat Minor. (Supplied)

• Map: Beaconsfield 7270

A musical satirising the Beaconsfield mine disaster has been slammed as insensitive by a Tasmanian mayor.

Beaconsfield: A Musical In A-Flat Minor is supposed to be a humorous take on events surrounding the 2006 Anzac Day rockfall.

Actor Dan Ilic created the show for the Melbourne and Adelaide fringe festivals.

But West Tamar's Acting Mayor Peter Kearney says the musical is particularly inappropriate given that the inquest into miner Larry Knight's death is not finished.

"Everyone was very aware Jacquie Knight had lost her husband, and the family had lost a father, and that Brant and Todd and the other miners at the mine had lost a workmate. If you haven't experienced mining town culture, I don't think you really understand how tight-knit mining towns are," he said.

"I'm extremely, extremely uneasy and not very happy about this at all," he added.

Shane Knight says there is nothing funny about his brother's death, and he cannot believe someone would write a musical-comedy about the tragedy.

Paul Howes from the Australian Workers Union agrees, saying the death of a worker should never be fodder for comedy.

"Beaconsfield is not a good story. Beaconsfield is a disgrace," he said.

But creator Ilic says he did not intend to treat Knight's death with disrespect.

Instead, he wanted to highlight the way the media behaved during the event.

"I, like many Australians, thought that the media reaction to the Beaconsfield mine disaster was absolutely incredible. In fact, that almost became the story when things got a little bit dull down at Beaconsfield," he said.

"I was so amazed by this circus that ensued during that time that all I could think of to do was to, I guess, write a musical."

Meanwhile, Ilic says he hoped the "offensive" title would gain media attention.

"That title is purely there just to gain media interest in our musical," he said. "So congratulations, you've done your job."

Survivor Todd Russell says it's disgusting.

"When they're calling it A-Flat Minor, it's appalling I think," he told ABC Radio's AM. "It's just a lack of respect for the Knight family."

Tags: comedy, carnivals-and-festivals, opera-and-musical-theatre, workplace-accidents, sa, adelaide-5000, tas, beaconsfield-7270, melbourne-3000

Comments (38)

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• Ben:

  07 Oct 2008 9:06:45am

  "Survivor Todd Russell says the show's title is disgusting."
  
  So I take it Todd hasn't cashed in on this misfortune then?

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  • Crash:

    07 Oct 2008 9:16:52am

    Oh c'mon Ben, you're being harsh now. If it offends Todd, it probably offends all of us

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    • Brad:

      07 Oct 2008 10:20:55am

      It doesn't offend me. I have a sense of humour.

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      • stephen:

        07 Oct 2008 1:20:43pm

        But no sense of propriety.

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  • PShaw:

    07 Oct 2008 9:39:31am

    Quite so, it shouldn't have been a musical, but a flying circus.

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  • Tim:

    07 Oct 2008 9:54:07am

    I am sorry, but once you have sold your story to the tabloids, you also sell your right to be outraged. The media has already made a mockery of the people involved, and those people were compensated for it, quite handsomely.
    
    We put major events in world history into media that brings it to the people - Does "Miss Saigon" sensationalise the massive loss of life of the Vietnam War? "South Pacific" doesnt lessen anything about the Second World War. "Les Miserables" - both the classical piece of literature and the more recent musical remind us of the loss of life, and the struggles of a group to bring about social change.
    
    Turandot and Madame Butterfly are more classical versions of the same thing - war and peace, and love and humanity.
    
    Evidence of society putting major events into relevant media, so to bring the event to people who it may not yet have touched, and to express their loss and joy (at getting through these things together) in pop-media, in this case, stage and song.
    
    Why should this peice of pop-art media have any less opportunity to bring loss, love and humanity to those that may have otherwise chosen to "not get involved".
    
    I am sure someone is going to be compensated for this one also...

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    • JC:

      07 Oct 2008 10:36:01am

      Perhaps because the Coroners Inquest is still ongoing. The family should at least have the right and ability to have all matters attended to before any satire takes precedent regardless and irrespective of any stories "sold." I believe it has been the "survivors" that have "cashed in" (as you put it) and not the deceased family. Irrespective, given the events are still pretty raw in the memory, sensitivity should still be utmost before "art."
      
      

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  • Ourcognitivesurplus:

    07 Oct 2008 10:17:24am

    Some people are just boring. That title is comedy gold. People just love nothing more than being outraged. If being outraged is your bag, fine - but leave everyone else alone! Let the people who are into laughs and a good time have their laughs and good times.

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• Evad:

  07 Oct 2008 9:14:33am

  Hmmmm maybe a little too early... especially while the inquest is still on..
  
  .. and yes Ben, maybe if Todd got a cut of the takings his 'tune' would be different.

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• captain swing:

  07 Oct 2008 9:14:52am

  Just another case of arty farties grossly misjudging sensibilities.

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  • Skewer:

    07 Oct 2008 1:20:24pm

    Actually it sounds like the musical is having a go at the media hysteria, not the miners.
    
    Fair comment I reckon - bring it on!

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• Captain Coconut:

  07 Oct 2008 9:31:13am

  I think if I had to define the 'noughties' I think it would have to be the era of 'outrage', censorship and prudishness.
  
  We are fast becoming a pathetic censor ridden society with absolutely no sense of humour and with an instant inclination to judge, censor and criticise others based purely on media speculation and beat-ups, with absolutely no knowledge of the facts.
  
  Here is example where a comedy routine is being judged - based purely on its title, with no idea as to its content.
  
  And yet we are apparently OUTRAGED.
  
  Where is our sense of humour and adventure going?
  
  I think we need to be vigilant and not allow the media to control how we judge things and to maintain that wonderful asset we have, called "Freedom of Speech" - you don't realise how valuable it is until it is gone.
  
  
  
  

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  • Ford:

    07 Oct 2008 9:46:34am

    Hmmm sense of humour indeed.
    Surely his wife can see the funny side of encouraging people to laugh at her husband being crushed to death, after all, the title makes quite a witty pun to that effect.
    Why people can't see the humour in the death of a father and husband is beyond me.
    I'm sure you see the irony in declaring that the play is humurous and adventurous without ever having seen it, in the same breath as you condemn others for declaring it offensive when they haven't seen it either.

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  • Raymond:

    07 Oct 2008 9:51:14am

    Normally I would agree with you Coconut...
    I am rather amazed at how many people want Family Guy banned!
    
    But having said that, Musical in A-Flat Minor (which is an obvious pun) I can understand why someone would be a little upset over it. Hell, if Larry Knight was my father/relative I'd be quite ropable.
    But as for your comment that we're the age of censorship!?? Take a trip to the fifties...
    

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  • NT boy:

    07 Oct 2008 10:11:14am

    Being a Tasmanian, and knowing miners from Beaconsfield (although not Mr Knight or the 2 survivors) I am disgusted at this.
    As a film writer / editor and member of the arts I am appalled.
    I wonder if the guy is sick enough to invite the wife of Larry Knight to the opening.
    I have slapped a personal black-ban on anything this guy does now and in the future and the actors that signed on to this should take a good hard look at what they are offering the public and how the widow who is going through the inquest would feel.
    

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  • Pete:

    07 Oct 2008 10:27:11am

    I tend to agree and I'll hold my judgfement until I see it. I should confess though that I'm a huge fan of satire and this is not eveyone's cup of tea. By way of example, I think Team America is one of the funniest movies I have seen but I know some people who hate it, so there you go.
    
    As for offending some people I suppose that's a reasonable assumption given that events are still a little fresh. But where do you draw the line here? It's seems OK for the Foo Fighters to write a short ballad, for TV stations and print media to jump all over the story and for the miners themselves to ride the gravy train from free VIP Melbourne Cup tickets to free game fishing trips.
    
    So some small theatre troupe want to do a musical? It's no big deal if you ask me.

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• dragon:

  07 Oct 2008 9:31:29am

  With all due respect to the victims and people concerned, but how boring would this be ?

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• DC:

  07 Oct 2008 10:09:59am

  While the titular pun may be a clever schoolyard invention, it is probably in poor taste.
  Jokes and satire about disasters (especially where human life has been lost) really should wait until public and personal emotion have markedly cooled.
  

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  • tom:

    07 Oct 2008 11:22:33am

    they never 'cool' because everyone is always 'red hot' for more money.
    
    Its like princess dianna's death.... how many years ago was it? how many inquests were done, and yet it still makes front page news because its a slow day at the megabux headquaters.

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• NWABP:

  07 Oct 2008 10:22:44am

  more self-righteous tripe from our arts community. Shane Warne the musical - groan. More (semi)naked little girls - groan. Disaster musicals - groan. And bedsides, it is aimed at a fringe festival which no one takes seriously anyway.
  
  But it's all in the timing perhaps. What about a musical about the Thredbo calamity? No doubt a good arty-lexicologist could come up with something about music on a sliding scale...in any case it was just as big a media circus and the inquest is now long gone.
  
  

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• Scott:

  07 Oct 2008 10:23:19am

  The loss of life in such circumstances is a tragedy. The way the media covered it was a joke and deserves to be treated as such.

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  • Ford:

    07 Oct 2008 10:45:19am

    Then perhaps a pun on the role of the media would've been more appropriate.
    The reality is this is nothing more than an obscure, talentless hack using the same media attitudes he purports to condemn to get a free bit of publicity.

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• Arthur:

  07 Oct 2008 10:46:53am

  If we refrained from doing comedy because it might offend someone, we would have very little comedy to speak of.
  
  I for one think that making fun of tragedy can be a good coping mechanism.

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• NT boy:

  07 Oct 2008 11:02:30am

  It is not the idea that is appauling, it is the timing... Mrs Knight is going through the inquest at present - hearing first hand how her husband and father of her children was crushed to death and some idiot launches this play. I wonder if he will follow it up with "Port Arthur in B Sharp Shooter"

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• magoo:

  07 Oct 2008 11:07:46am

  Folks,
  
  One of the greatest pieces of music, the '1812 Overture', was written to commemorate the demise of the French Army near Moscow. Poems were writ to etch the event in history.
  
  Wars and disasters through history have been eulogised, it is the nature of humankind to recall events in verse, drama and music. Early european civilisations had no written record and used music and poetry to record their disasters and triumphs as well as to pass on their medicine and science.
  
  Art simply reflects the emotion of the time. The more horrendous the event the greater the art output.

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• Clownfish:

  07 Oct 2008 11:26:29am

  Without seeing the show, I can't comment on its content, but the title is in pretty poor taste.
  
  If it satirises the Naomi Robson/Richard Carlton media circus around the event, all well and good. However, it bodes ill for the quality of the production that they had to put a tasteless, and not particularly inventive, pun in the title.

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  • Australis:

    07 Oct 2008 11:38:05am

    Ther title is hurtful to the family and friends of the dead miner, period.
    
    If he wasnts to satirize the media, call it
    Beaconsfield, A Musical in 7/9 Time.
    
    Problem solved.

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    • Clownfish:

      07 Oct 2008 11:52:26am

      I think you've just shown yourself to be a far more able satirist.
      
      If one of us mere plebs could come up with something as apposite as you have, surely it's not too much to expect the bright young things at the Fringe Festival to stretch their grey matter a little more, too?

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• Norton:

  07 Oct 2008 11:35:11am

  So when will we see Gallipoli, The Opera?

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  • Pete:

    07 Oct 2008 12:21:46pm

    I don't know about the opera, but I saw the Movie and the TV Mini Series.

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  • thelonenut:

    07 Oct 2008 12:52:17pm

    No satire or movie or musical could be more obscene and tragic and insensitive than the actual Gallipoilli - a shameful episode in British Imperial History, where thousands upon thousands of young lives were needlessly and mercilessly squandered as a result of bloody-minded narcissism by the British officer class.....

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• thelonenut:

  07 Oct 2008 11:37:53am

  Honestly doesn't worry me, although the family may be sensitive -
  
  But I personally think ( nearly) everything is fair game - remember "Springtime For Hitler " - please note I am referring to the brilliant Mel Brooks movie version of "The Producers" and not the sissy gusset stage musical -
  
  Perhaps the folks behind this production also have a plan to make a killing when this musical flops ?

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• Robert2:

  07 Oct 2008 11:59:08am

  A satirical portrayal of an episode in Australias mining history, though possibly insensitive to some, I believe has as much right to be presented as any other artistic piece.
  
  Mines and death go as hand in hand as the military and death or stepping out of your front door daily and the prospect of death. From Eureka in 1854 to the tragedy in Tasmania, miners have died and will continue to die, it is an extremely dangerous occupation. To laugh in the face of death is utilised by some to manage the situation, the comedy musical"Paint your Wagon" is a great example, but I doubt if this little play will have such an affect on world wide audiences who enjoyed Eastwood and Marvin.

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  • Gweneth:

    07 Oct 2008 12:54:57pm

    Perhaps if some of the profits went to a fund for the families of miners killed at work to highlight the underlying tragedy? More good could come of this than just laughs.

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• Townjew:

  07 Oct 2008 12:47:39pm

  While I agree that this title could be considered to be in poor taste, I'm of the opinion that it is satirising the kinds of atrocious story titles oft produced by 7 and 9's "current affairs" programmes, and so fits with the general aim of the musical.

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• Steve:

  07 Oct 2008 12:59:34pm

  When I think of the Beaconsfield mine collapse, I can only remember the name of 1 person who died there: Richard Carleton.
  
  If this musical comedy has anything to say about how the media decide what is important, then more power to it.
  

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• Roberto:

  07 Oct 2008 1:14:39pm

  Art has always made fun of human tragedy and death.
  
  When I came to Australia, I was warned about 2 things:
  1) don't insult a police officer, you can get arrested for that here (which I find very funny by the way), and..
  2) never make jokes about Gallipoli - the Aussies take that history fragment very seriously.
  
  I find it odd there has never been a satire about Gallipoli. Theatre in Australia is not really that courageous after all, is it?
  
  I would like to see this play though - I would love to know how this theatre troup can satirize the press for using the mining disaster as a "show" when they are doing this too. Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black?
  

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• Polony:

  07 Oct 2008 1:15:07pm

  The media is a tool which can be manipulated to get free publicity.
  
  This makes the choice of name very sensible. Morality may be relevant, but is overtrumped by money.

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