Almanac Reviews: ‘This is Going to be Big’ – documentary review/personal story

 

The time has come for my monologue. I step forward, my hands are in the air, and my feet are apart. I am literally playing a door. A moment later at the top of my voice, I launch into a tirade of how unfair it is that certain inanimate objects get more attention from people than doors do. The entire audience erupts into hysterics, like a wave sweeping over me, my voice is overwhelmed and drowned out.  The monologue is part of an ensemble piece as part of Year 12 Drama. There’s one semester to go, and if all goes well, I’ll be graduating at the end of the year. In my teenage years, I’d always been interested in performing. This was routed in watching my older sister in her school productions, such as Romeo and Juliet, or the 1980s musical Fame. Fast-forward to 2024, when I saw ABC’s, This is Going to be Big, I thought I’d give it a watch.

 

This is Going to be Big takes place at Sunbury-Macedon Ranges Special School in Bullengarook.  The documentary is about the making of a school musical. It is about three time-travelling students, that meet John Farnham in different decades of his career. This is significant because, as according to their drama teacher Lori, the school caters to a range of intellectual disabilities, and so everything these kids do, is harder for them, then it is for most other kids. There are four students that the documentary focuses on, who have different motivations, some have experienced bullying, while others just want to try something new.

 

First up is Chelsea, who has an Acquired Brain injury, she got from being hit by a car at the age of 5. Josh, who is autistic and dreams of becoming a fighter pilot.  Halle, who is also autistic. And Lastly Elyse, who has an intellectual disability, as well as anxiety. Personally, I can identify with a lot of what these students experienced. As, like Chelsea, I too have an Acquired Brain Injury, when aged four I was in a car accident.

 

I saw performance, as a way of building my confidence and going out of my comfort zone.   In my last years at a special school, I’d been doing a bit of performing. It was nothing really that serious, just 5–7-minute skits I’d written with my friends. We did it before assemblies. The skits were usually over small things, like neighbourhood disputes over rubbish being left on the lawn. I put on voices, while doing it, reading directly off a script. The school was small, no more than 90 students. Performing there, in front of people I knew, with my friends was one thing. Moving to a mainstream high school, where I knew no-one, of over 1000 students, was quite another.

 

I’m standing opposite my friend, he’s in a dress and playing a female. My body is stiff, and I’m concentrating, just trying not to forget my lines. While other students and the teacher watch on. We’re performing some scenes from the 1955 play Summer of the 17^th Doll, as part of a year 10 Drama assessment. It was after that year, that I felt a lot more confident with my studies in general. In year 11, there was a production of the Blues Brothers. In which I had a couple of small roles.

 

So, when I hear these kids from Bullengarook, talk about lacking confidence, or of the troubles they’ve had; it is something I can really relate to. And to see them in this documentary, overcome those fears with performing, resonates with me.

 

 

 

More stories from Raging Bull (Callum Quirk) Here

 

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