Notebooks and Scripts
Seldom did a Splinters production begin with a complete script. For the most part shows were devised collaboratively, often with artists bringing finished work to be inserted into a greater whole, which was bound together by an overarching “journey” narrative. In the earliest days, Splinters toured extensively as a small collective with anarchistic intent, to Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Shows were written and rewritten on the road in this hothouse environment and were very deliberately intended to provoke: one reviewer describing 1988’s Gumboot Full of Blood as “Too shocking… too extreme, too violent.”
Within this maelstrom, however, was much sublime and beautiful. The core early members of Splinters knew well the power they were playing with and created a profound collective aesthetic. These notebooks from the early days (1986-92) contain drawings and writings that are works of art in their own right as well as documents of that remarkable era. The pages are being digitised and will in time be made available online, where they can receive their due as some of the most important manuscripts in the arc of Australian experimental theatre.
