'This collaborative piece uses real time video, musical composition, and performance to tell the story of Flynn's homeland, travels, films, politics, lovers, nihilism and his misplaced desire to wrestle sharks and catch bullets.'
Source: Perth International Arts Festival 2003 promotional information. http://www.perthfestival.com.au/Festival/index.cfm/fuseaction/events.detail/pkEvent/100184/ Sighted 2003
World premiere produced at the Perth International Arts Festival from 6-15 February 2003.
Director: Scott Rankin.
Presented by Ten Days on the Island, in association with Perth International Arts Festival, Melbourne Festival, and Queensland Performing Arts Centre Trust, at Devonport Entertainment and Convention Centre, 2 - 6 April 2003.
Director: Scott Rankin.
Associate Director: Neil Simpson.
Composer: Robert Iolini.
Video Artist: Kirsten Bradley.
Designer: Gavin Barbey.
Producer: Marguerite Pepper.
Cast: Paula Arundell.
A new and significantly revised version of the play, this time entitled Beasty Girl, was performed as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, October 2003.
'This article argues that Scott Rankin’s play, Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn, uses the life story of Errol Flynn as a metaphor for colonialism in order to contest colonial legal descriptors, such as terra, aqua, and filius nullius. The play focuses on the fictitious “illegitimate” Jamaican daughter of Flynn who travels to Tasmania to follow in her father’s footsteps. The more Carly, Flynn’s daughter, discovers about her father’s life, the more she rejects his colonial values and, by extension, whiteness.' (Publication abstract)
'This article argues that Scott Rankin’s play, Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn, uses the life story of Errol Flynn as a metaphor for colonialism in order to contest colonial legal descriptors, such as terra, aqua, and filius nullius. The play focuses on the fictitious “illegitimate” Jamaican daughter of Flynn who travels to Tasmania to follow in her father’s footsteps. The more Carly, Flynn’s daughter, discovers about her father’s life, the more she rejects his colonial values and, by extension, whiteness.' (Publication abstract)