Summer of the Aliens – Louis Nowra

I’d forgotten what an exciting play this was to read.  That said, it is hard to describe this play.  Although I have to say it really is a true blue Aussie classic.  My favourite element of Australian plays such as Summer of the Aliens and Away is the honestly.  There is an effortlessness to them that makes them so beautiful.  Through the play you get a very real sense of what it would’ve been like living in an Australian housing estate in the 1960’s.  The crass beauty of Lewis’ situation and the way he conducts himself around it is quite striking.  But first for those who do not know the story of Summer of the Aliens:  Set in a Melbourne housing estate during 1962 in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis*.  That the entirety of the play takes place during the crisis we are able to determine that the actions take place within a 2 week period.  What interests me most is the way that the crisis is both part of and ineffectual of the lives of those around the housing estate.  But anyway I’m getting off track. The play. Well… Lewis is a teenager “growing up in a Melbourne housing commission suburb.  He is preoccupied with flying saucers…” Summer of the Aliens is a vivid and amusing evocation of a family and a neighbourhood whose increasingly strange behaviour Lewis is forced to interpret in the only way he can – the aliens must be amongst us.”  That said it is just as much a coming of age story as Lewis is on the cusp of adulthood.  Summer of the Aliens also comments on the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual abuse- especially within a housing commission suburb.  I would actually really like to use this play as part of my season- I believe it is lost gem of Australian theatre.

*The Cuban Missile Crisis was a stand off between the Soviet Union (and Cuba) and the United States in October 1962 as part of The Cold War.  The Soviets and Cubans were building bases in Cuba for a number of nuclear weapons (to be used against the US).  The whole world feared the start of a new war, their fears were eased after 2 weeks of tension.

Alice x.