One woman show exposes life’s beginners

BY PEACH EMMETT ‘WOW, I really must be a Beginner at Life if I need to spend all of this time and money learning how to eat which is as primal as it gets: Even starfish and sponges know how to take in nutrients and expel waste.’

Alana Ruben Free says her one-woman show addresses the battles of sexuality, anorexia, and mental health in both an honest and confronting way.
In a time when mental health and women’s body image are emerging into the public dialogue, The Tap Gallery in Sydney will host the Sydney premier of Free’s play, Beginner at Life.
Premiering at the close of National Mental Health Week, the first in a trilogy, Beginner at Life will take a personal look at all the socially constructed ordeals that are associated with being a woman. ‘Beginner at Life is very much about my process of rejecting most of what I had been taught about how a woman should look, eat and be, and begin to trust my body’s wisdom, rhythms of desire, and hunger signals,’ Free says of the play.

The show delves into what femininity reveals about humanity. She is quick to note that her view is not aggressively anti-male, and in fact claims that men have often related wonderfully with her story. ‘This play is not at all about bashing or blaming men, but about helping women find their own strength separate from men so that we can all come into healthier and more balanced relationships,’ she says.

For the first time, Free has relinquished the chains of ownership of her deeply biographical piece. Directed by Bryan Cutts and starring Donna Brooks, Free has, after four years of performing the show herself, stepped away for the first time.

Donna Brooks says she is honoured to take on such an important project, and having not even met Free, admires the openness of her story. ‘I want to know that I am doing that justice and it’s quite a privilege to be able to represent her,’ Brooks says.
Researching different areas of mental health and eating disorders, Brooks has been focused on gaining an understanding of Free’s struggle.

Free says half the battle of mental health is the lack of dialogue surrounding it. Having suffered anorexia for some time, she was unable to deal with her illness openly. ‘I was terribly ashamed of having the condition, yet I also knew I was battling a potentially fatal illness,’ Free says.

Having never been to Australia before, this one-woman show is fascinated to experience how the feminine identity is negotiated in Sydney, and looks forward to sharing her story and experience.

Throughout the two-week run, Free will host workshops on what it means to address one’s own inner self. ‘Each of us is being called to take spiritual responsibility for ourselves and this requires taking time to go to workshops, (write in a) journal, pray, and or meditate in one’s daily life.”

Beginner at Life will show at the Tap Gallery from 15 October to 1 November, Wed to Sat at 8pm. Tickets are $20, $15 concession.