HUMPHREY BOWER AND DAVID MALOUF

11 September 2026

I have to confess that I’ve never read any of David Malouf’s work but when I saw that local actor Humphrey Bower was performing a version of one of his novels, I decided to give it a go. There were just a couple of performances as part of the City of Melville Storylines Festival and it was a complete bargain at $12 for Seniors which included a glass of sparkling rose!!



I knew nothing about the story of An Imaginary Life which turns out to be of Ovid, the Roman poet’s, exile to a small village on the Black Sea. His exile is particularly painful because he doesn’t speak the language and the culture is completely different to cosmopolitan Rome. I won’t tell you the story in case you want to read the book but in many ways it feels like a metaphor for Australian colonists and indigenous communities. In one, the language reflects the need to analyse and explain whereas in the other, it’s a matter of observing and being in the landscape.

Humphrey worked with Pavan Kumar Hari, a musician using a variety of instruments including a hang drum, and the result was a completely engrossing piece of storytelling. Humphrey’s use of body and voice was effective – growling and howling, wailing and crying, and telling the story with a powerful sense of its poetry. And all in a local gym with high concrete walls creating a dark space for shadows and movement. An unexpectedly impressive night in the “theatre”.



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