Beaconsfield: The musical

[jim_doki]

In what has been described as "Offensive" and "sick", a musical has been written, and is set to open tomorrow night, based on the Beaconsfield Mine Collapse in 2006. The Musical, titled "Beaconsfield, a Musical In Ab Minor" details the ordeal of three Australian minors who were trapped during the cave in in Tasmania.

Understandably there are a few people upset about this. The family of the one man who died have said: "He's a sick bastard whoever has done this," to which the playwrite responded: "The only death we haven't treated respectfully is Richard Carleton's,"

This show was produced as part of the Fringe festival, so it's going ahead no matter what people think, but then, I'm curious. Is it too soon to be making jokes about this? Is this the sort of thing like, say, 9/11 that should never be laughed at or made fun of?

I personally think this is awesome. A disaster (sort of) in my time finally commited to artwork. If it's done well, we'll feel sympathy for them and empathise with their plight.

News story:
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24458642-7484,00.html

 

[wewontdie11]

I hate it when people take things such as this too seriously. I always use humour to cope with tragedies and difficult situations as its much better than dwelling on the negative. Plus I'm sure some of it will be handled sensitively and surely it's good to get the miners stories out there for people to hear.

 

[jim_doki]

To be fair, I don't know if the minors have actually been spoken to about this, meaning the story will probably be based on the media reports. and it was handled very badly in the press.

Apparently the show is more about the media circus surrounding the tragedy. there are rumours that the Foo Fighters are going to feature, and 60 minutes and today/tonight are going to come under heavy fire, rather than making light of the tragedy

 

[Brett Alex]

Finally! Why has it taken so long?
And why is there no tele-movie yet?

My only problem with this is that it should have been called Shaft of Hope: An Aussie Tragedy

On the serious side, it does look interesting, and I remember at the time there were at least a few comedians and comedy shows making fun of the whole media circus, so I doubt it will be very different to that. Honestly, if it is done respectfully, and I can't know that yet, to the miner who died and the others involved in actual danger, then I don't see too much of a problem.


Sidenote: All of this is invalid if they bag out Dave Grohl and the playwrights are obviously murderers and baby killers. Obviously.