Farming is Forever bridges sketch comedy and persuasive oration to deliver an impactful message about the environmental catastrophe wrought by the agricultural industrialisation in which we are all complicit, from Gina Rinehart’s billions to your weekly shopping list.

A tactile one-woman performance in two parts, creator Brooke Arblaster begins in the roles of both father and son as a family farm in outback Queensland is passed between the generations. Though comedically rendered, there is a tragedy brewing in the son’s comment that “Dad didn’t tell me it would be like this” as the agricultural dream slips into a nightmare of debt and hopelessness under Gina’s capitalist stranglehold. Arblaster forecloses the rapid environmental decline that she later explicates in the instantaneous on-stage transition from father to son–from an expectant father who hopes for a son to pass on his expertise and livelihood, to a son who has inherited valueless land and few other options. The hyper-masculine discourses and demeanours of her characters are adopted to amusing ends by Arblaster, who nonetheless portrays the plight of the farmer with great empathy, victims of corporate and individual greed. 

The second part of Farming is Forever takes the form of an educational lecture on the destruction of farming land since the Green Revolution of the 60s. The audience is eased through this change with soothing videos of tractors charging across agricultural plains that stretch to and no doubt beyond the horizon. The slate-ish landscape on-screen is transposed onto the empty stage. Arblaster dons a chemical hazard suit (hood down) and stands centrally before a lectern. The performer’s oration synthesises expertise, passion and humility as she confronts the daily naivety of urban food consumption, conveying the multifarious costs of its production from desalination to carcinogenic chemicals. The effect of activism as performance, or perhaps performance as activism, revitalises the immediate relation between on-stage action and off-stage decisions, as the audience is engaged via complicity beyond the duration Farming is Forever.

With a background in both horticulture and performance, Farming is Forever is an earthy, living composite that absorbs and enriches both the imaginative and the factual faculties of its viewers. Arblaster sensitively presents the historical and contemporary ramifications of modern farming practices, down the slippery slope from humanitarian champion to disaster.

You can see Farming is Forever at the Butterfly Club until October 22. Book through the venue website.

Created & performed by Brooke Arblaster

Directed by Harry McGee

Outside Eye: Cheryn Frost