In an interview, debut author Kristina Ross said the motivation behind her Vogel award-winning novel was to give young aspiring actors a glimpse of the life she lived as the youngest student ever accepted into Melbourne’s Victoria College of the Arts Drama School.

The story is told through the fictional lens of Maeve, a seventeen-year-old Queenslander who moves to Melbourne to begin her studies, as did Ross. Her portrayal, however, of what goes on at a prestigious drama school would be more likely to discourage those set on an acting career than the reverse. Described in the Prologue as ‘cult-like’, the school is a hotbed of ruthless competition where, in addition to gossip fuelled conflicts between the students, the staff employ various degrees of intimidation, harassment and abuse to mould the students into their version of theatrical expertise.

Maeve is painfully naïve about culture in any guise, and her over-eagerness to fit into the sophisticated world of the drama school and the larger city of Melbourne itself sees her being swallowed up in a fast-paced lifestyle of sex, drinking and drugs she’s unable to either understand or safely negotiate.

For anyone who’s curious about how actors are trained, the book offers much insight. Students are confronted with an exhaustive curriculum comprising long hours of gruelling practice sessions in areas as diverse as breathing, voice, imagination, yoga and movement. Interesting as this is, however, I didn’t find it worked well as fiction. Maeve’s baptism by fire is painful to observe but isn’t enough to make the story of universal interest. The other characters are constantly embroiled in their own self-important and often pretentious exploits, to the extent that unless the reader can identify with them in some way, it’s difficult to care much about their fates.

Reviewed by Anne Green

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristina Ross is a writer and producer for the stage and screen. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and a recipient of the Queensland Theatre’s Young Playwrights Award, she has had the pleasure of working as an actor for the Melbourne Theatre Company, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, the Artisan Collective and the ABC. Kristina currently lives on the Gold Coast with her husband and two children.

Follow Kristina Ross on Instagram