Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve
The winner of The Australian/Vogel prize for young hitherto unpublished authors of fiction is eagerly awaited, for it has launched some of our finest writers, amongst them, Tim Winton.
First Year tells in convincing detail of the life of a very young drama student who has left her Gold Coast home to study the creative art of acting, at a prestigious Melbourne school.
Maeve is determined to succeed, but her young life has ill prepared her for Melbourne and the school. She is the youngest of the small group of first years; some have degrees and have had professional experience. Sylvie has had a role in a film of ‘The Seagull’. As with most girls of her age, she is not familiar with the classics and confessed she had never seen a Shakespeare play in performance.
Her days are long and demanding with instructions in the challenging skills that play an important part of becoming an actor. Talent is not enough. Voice, movement, imagination of character and role playing and mastering the art of breathing, all are essential to craft a fine actor.
This particularly I found fascinating. The instinctively natural performance of actors we appreciate in film or theatre is the result of long and arduous work which has been relentlessly criticised until the highest point of excellence is reached. Quinn, head of school, is the most extreme of the instructors in her expectation of the best interpretation of a scene; she is respected but intimidating.
After these gruelling days, for Maeve, it is the drinking and cocaine and late hours that present a new experience with the predictable effects. Saxon, another student who is older, becomes Maeve’s friend and lover but by the third term cracks appear in their relationship. Suspicions surface. Although she has matured and her self-knowledge increased, she realises that her tie to Saxon has come to its final phase.
Happily, at the conclusion of the novel she is more confident and in control of the very difficult roles like Strindberg’s ‘Miss Julie’. This ensures that she will be in the second year of the three year course.
First Year reads as a helpful manual for a girl, fresh from high school, who leaves the comfortable home environment and the parental gaze, to face life in a sophisticated city.
It is unflinching in describing how tough is the path to achieving acting technique. Therefore it presents a glimpse of the career ahead where competition and expectations are capable of destroying the most gifted actors’ dreams.
Kristina Ross’s first book is autobiographical which explains the freshly convincing nature of her writing. Lovers of theatre and drama will enjoy the saga of a young naive but promising actress. There are several well-drawn characters too, which make this a very lively and entertaining read. As this is her first novel, there may be further enjoyable ones to follow.
First Year
[2024]
by Kristina Ross
Allen and Unwin
ISBN 978 176147 065 3
$34.99; 342pp