Jack Manning
A sacked employee deliberately back-ends his boss's Mercedes, a dissatisfied employee is bitter about her new boss - but is it really that simple?
Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School invites people to enter the world of restorative justice in its graduation production Jack Manning. The show, written by Australia's most successful playwright, David Williamson, is on in the Te Whaea Theatre from 28 October - 5 November.
"We've put two of Williamson's short workplace mediation plays together to form an evening's entertainment that takes you from the back room to the boardroom - right to the coalface of contemporary conflict resolution," said KC Kelly, the director of Jack Manning.
KC Kelly is an ex-pat American who is living in Aotearoa precisely because it is possible to use the family group conferencing/restorative justice model in our society.
"You know a country's got the democratic process sorted when even Parliament has to talk through issues and fix relationships to do anything," said KC Kelly. "In these MMP days even Kiwi politicians have to understand mediation and other people's points of view. In addition, my wife is a social worker and deals with family group conferencing all the time - it's a confluence of all these things that makes it obvious to me that restorative justice is a hot topic right now."
Kelly has been working with Gabrielle Maxwell, a senior researcher in Criminology from Victoria University of Wellington to explain the idea of mediation conferences to the cast and crew. Maxwell was one of the original authors of the New Zealand Restorative Justice Protocol that inspired the work of Transformative Justice Australia (TJA) which forms the basis of the plot of Jack Manning.
"It's ironic really, here we are in NZ doing an Australian play about something invented by Kiwis," said Kelly. "Williamson was inspired by the work of TJA, which had its origin in the NZ system, and in Jack Manning he shows the extraordinarily powerful process that can take place when perpetrators and victims come face to face."
To ensure the graduating class understands the blue collar work KC Kelly has had some of them labouring for Capital Scaffolding in Wellington - the cast and crew will repay this favour by performing for the company in mid October. In addition, the actors in the piece about the community organisation will perform for UNICEF and other not for profits who work in PSA House.
"The other wonderful thing about Jack Manning is that it is so rich in humour and irony while being really true to life. Anyone who has ever worked for a charitable trust or in a blue collar job seems to find David Williamson's insight almost eerie," said Kelly.
The first half of Jack Manning is set in a scaffolding firm where the boss is overpaid, the foreman is a coward and the labourers are bullies. Lowest on the ladder is Glen, who is the only one in the whole place who loves his job. Unfortunately he's just ploughed into his boss' Mercedes and been fired. Can Glen get his job back? Will the boss' wife leave him? Should there be a new foreman?
The second half of Jack Manning takes place in a charitable trust where the atmosphere has turned poisonous. Two old hands feel victimised, the up and coming young professionals might not be quite professional enough, the new broom boss might be giving the organisation's new direction a new direction and the Chairman of the Board thinks he's in touch...
Watch as the mediator - the eponymous Jack Manning - gets to the bottom of these dramas...
Reviews of the Toi Whakaari production of Jack Manning can be found here.
You can see photos taken during Jack Manning will be available shortly.
