Tracend

One fine day I had the idea that a rock opera in the lines of “Tommy” would be perfect to promote the Australian music scene – this is an outline of the screenplay:

Based on true experiences and actual facts from the last 40 years, we follow the story of Olivia, from birth to maturity. Her parents where Polish and migrated to Australia in the early 70′s, while her mother was pregnant with her. They settled at Newcastle and the first years where hard for the family, as gathering even the bare necessities was challenging. The pressure drove her father to drinking which only made things worse. Fights with her mother soon followed and Olivia was trapped living in a very unhealthy environment. The father would womanize, come drunk home and intimidate the two women. After years of abuse her mother decided that she would be better off on her own and took Olivia to live in a derelict small apartment downtown.

The year is 1980. Olivia has just started going to school but her emotional baggage doesn’t let her socialize with the other children. She spends most of the day alone, wondering in the school-yard or on the streets, while her mother works double shifts in minimum wage jobs just so that they could live by the day. No one of the two was happy and the mother realized that. She accepted the proposal to go and work in an isolated farm in Adelaide in the hopes that the country would be a good change for the girl. The farmer and the mother where romantically involved and ended up getting married. Olivia got used to the outback – the beautiful scenery and sounds had finally calmed her soul.

As a teen Olivia became a tomboy, she would drive a motorcycle to the nearest town where she had friends, her closest of which was an aboriginal girl. There was discrimination for not being “pure Aussie” but that was just a chance for her to make fun of people for being narrow minded. Her mother’s psyche on the other hand was declining gradually but steadily. As she was having her mid-life crisis (realizing that she probably didn’t have much more to expect from her life), she fell into depression and naturally that had a negative impact on Olivia. Psychological help from outside was non-existent, people just preferred not to admit anything in public. The final hit was when doctors diagnosed her mother with cancer and not much time to live. Olivia was in pain but everyone around her were too numb to care or do anything about it.

She lived close to her mother the last months before she died. Then she realized that nothing was keeping her in that place. She had almost finished school, she was already annoyed by her low-expectation surroundings and she was eager to discover what else this country had to offer. It was the 90′s and Olivia felt that the time had finally come for her to shine. She decided to use her energy in a positive way – she loaded a backpack and traveled up north on a self-exploration quest, visiting famous and infamous exotic places. She met fine people along her way, some more obscure than others.

On one of her trips she came across a rock band, that had setup a small hippie settlement in the middle of the desert. She got intimate with one of the band members and agreed to travel with them as they where touring across the country. What appeared to be a temporary cruise became a full-time job, with her helping out the band in their live performances and making money out of it. She even picked up how to play the guitar from her boyfriend.

One of their frequent stops was Melbourne, with many clubs to play and have fun. The drug culture was predominant and Olivia would do drugs occasionally at first, then more frequently. Disturbing thoughts of her lost parents where still haunting her and the fear of having the same dead-end in her life, like her mother did, made her suffer constantly. And drugs where there to help… Everyone had their own reasons for doing drugs but everyone was doing them. Olivia’s life had come to a new downturn, this time her surroundings made out of junkies, dirty badly lit apartments and hallucinating drugs. The band tried to help her but instead she drove her boyfriend(/band member) more into the addiction with her, ultimately causing his death from overdose. The band blamed Olivia for this loss and abandoned her in Melbourne.

Olivia was at a crossroad. She would either detoxicate herself or she would have to face the same fate sooner or later. Not wanting to return back to Adelaide to seek help she chose the hard way, cleaning her body from drugs all alone. While at home, she read books to let her mind travel and she worked at coffee shops to support herself. She discovered the other side of Melbourne, the more cultural and artistic. After a long time she had a steady life again and she felt blessed.

Partying nights out with friends was a habit. The dance scene was getting bigger in the late 90′s and the fun was simply exploding. She would flirt with guys but nothing serious would happen until she met “the one”. Cheesy as it may sound Olivia felt the connection from the start and knew that a hook up would be ideal. The night went dreamy and they ended up dancing, drinking and kissing until the next morning. Their lives continued together from there on and for some years Olivia was so happy she had actually forgot her troubling past. Her partner was a doctor, doing volunteer work at the Red Cross. Through him Olivia learned that she might have a greater appreciation for her life by giving and having an impact in the life of others. When she could, she would help out by picking up her guitar and entertaining the sick.

In the first years of the new millennium the new war in Iraq started and Australians fought as a coalition force with the US. Unfortunately Olivia’s partner was asked to go to a humanitarian mission alongside the military forces, and he accepted. The departure was not pleasant. Olivia, all alone again, would read the newspapers and watch the broadcasts on TV to learn as much as she could about the circumstances her loved one had to face. She was furious and disturbed that ghosts had to fill her head for one more time.

To steam out some of her anger she joined an Anti-war group that publicly protested against the war in Iraq. They would go out on the streets and she quickly became a loyal member, carrying banners, distributing fryers and organizing signature campaigns. Sometimes they had a stage and anyone that knew how to play a song went on for a few minutes. Struggling with her sorrow she found playing the electric guitar on stage as a good way to express her bottled emotions. She quickly became one of the highlights in these protests and by popular demand a frequent act that supported musically the movement.

And suddenly the bad news stroke. Under unknown circumstances her partner seemed to have gone missing – presumably dead. Olivia couldn’t bear another loss in her life and struggled not to throw herself in self-abuse behaviors. While in despair, and not knowing how to continue her life, she got a call from a famous musician that confused her even more. Apparently he had seen her playing the guitar on stage and wanted to include her on his show. Olivia felt it was totally inappropriate for her to forget and try to live on so she escaped to the desert for one more time. There she found the spirits of all her lost ones, which gave her inner peace and in a way the permission to pursue a career through her talent in music.

Olivia went off to play in many rock concerts worldwide and she supported the biggest artists in the world with her guitar. After many years of a successful career and humanitarian work she retired back in Australia, with significant wealth, fame and a legacy that will live for years to come.

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