Moonlite
2019 (88:00)
Music by Wally Gunn
Libretto by Maria Zajkowski
6 voices, 4 percussion, viola
Written for Variant 6 and Mobius Percussion

Moonlite is a 90 minute oratorio, based on the true crime queer love story of the 19th-century Australian bushranger Andrew George Scott, known as ‘Captain Moonlite.’

Video: SCENE 02 The future by the past, SCENE 07 Walked I think twelve miles, and SCENE 15 Temple of justice from Moonlite by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski, performed by Variant 6, Mobius Percussion, and Veronica Jurkiewicz. A Four/Ten Media film.

Andrew George Scott, ‘Captain Moonlite’

In Australia, in the late 19th-century, an educated Irishman by the name of Andrew George Scott, rose to infamy. Once a part-time engineer, soldier, gentleman, and orator, Scott was labelled a bushranger by the press and public, but was arguably never such in intention. He was accused of crimes still considered inconclusively proven today.

In 1869, while employed by the Anglican Church, Scott allegedly robbed a bank in rural Victoria, leaving a note at the scene signed ‘Captain Moonlite.’ He lived in opulence for a brief time in Sydney before serving a short sentence for fraud, and was eventually convicted for the robbery and imprisoned in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne. There he met James Nesbitt.

Upon release, Scott and Nesbitt were plagued by hardship and tragedy. Forced to flee police and public harassment in Melbourne, they set out with a small gang in search of work and a better life. With a biased reputation preceding them and in desperate hunger, their honest efforts were thwarted. Instead they held up a homestead in Wantabadgery, Victoria, gathering dozens of hostages from the local area in a ridiculous and doomed exercise. A gunfight with police ensued, where James Nesbitt was shot and died in Scott’s arms. Scott surrendered and was arrested for the fatal wounding of a police officer at the scene. He protested his innocence but would not give up the name of the guilty party to save himself. He was taken to Sydney where he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. Scott went to the gallows in 1880 wearing a ring made of Nesbitt’s hair.

The events of Scott’s life are documented in his own words in ‘The Death Cell Letters of Andrew George Scott.’ His writings reveal that his desire for justice was only surpassed by his love for James Nesbitt. Scott’s letters were never sent as he’d requested, but kept in a government records facility until unearthed in the 1990s. Following an exhumation of Scott’s body, he and Nesbitt were finally buried together in 1995.

Scholars debate the nature of their relationship, given social norms of the time. The letters are interpreted in one of two ways: simply, that they were the dearest of friends, or that they were in fact lovers.

– Maria Zajkowski, April 2019

Synopsis

ACT 1

Not long after sunrise on a clear midsummer morning in the Mallee (the vast arid scrubland edging the desert center of the Australian continent), a mob of black and white butcherbirds sings together. As if summoned by them, a new butcherbird arrives, joining their number. This stranger is familiar to one of the other birds; he is a long-lost friend, finally returned home.

Andrew George Scott, alias ‘Moonlite,’ is a condemned man. He sits in his cell and writes a long letter to his father, trying to explain the series of disastrous events that led to his downfall, beginning with the occasion of meeting James Nesbitt in prison and finding himself at the mercy of powerful feelings for the handsome young man. Then how, upon their release, Scott and Nesbitt are disadvantaged by their criminal past. They are unable to secure gainful employment or adequate accommodation, and are hounded by police in a city hostile to their predispositions. As if hearing their plight, the Mallee beckons to them, offering sanctuary. Scott and Nesbitt leave Melbourne on foot and set off on a gruelling trek to try their luck on the land or, failing that, make a living as hands on a sheep station. The pair are ill-prepared, lack sufficient provisions, and in a short time are exhausted and starving. Yet the depth of their passion sustains them. One night as they take shelter, the pair suddenly find themselves in a torrential rain storm. With their meagre possessions battered, drenched, and ruined, this new hardship is more than they can bear.

ACT 2

The following morning, in desperation, Scott and Nesbitt take nearby Wantabadgery Station by force, holding the landowners and workers hostage at gunpoint. They seek only to replenish their supplies before going on their way. But as news spreads, the police arrive. In the ensuing confusion of gunfire, an officer is killed as Scott and Nesbitt attempt a hasty retreat. They are halted an instant later, when Nesbitt is shot. Distraught, Scott does all he can to comfort Nesbitt in his last living moments, but, too soon, Nesbitt takes his final breath. Scott surrenders to police, and an eerie silence settles at Wantabadgery Station. As he is arrested, Scott hears the haunting song of the butcherbirds. The birdsong seems to have a palpable affect on Nesbitt’s dead body, and an extraordinary change begins to take place. Nesbitt transforms into a butcherbird before Scott’s eyes, and flies away toward the distant Mallee. Scott is taken away to be tried for the murder of the policeman at Wantabadgery, and is convicted. It appears to him that the trial is distorted by prejudice, and that many of the witnesses are guilty of perjury. Scott is sentenced to death by hanging. In his cell, he concludes the long letter to his father. While maintaining that he himself shed no blood, he accepts moral responsibility for the deaths at Wantabadgery. He signs his farewell and walks to the gallows.

In the distance, the now familiar birdsong can be heard, and a strange event is set in motion. Scott’s limp body stirs, slowly at first, then convulsing in a violent fury as if in agony; he transforms into a butcherbird and flies away toward the distant Mallee to join his mate. There, a mob of butcherbirds joins in chorus, singing a cycle of life, love, and fate.

Moonlite . Catalogue 138 . Copyright © Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski . April 2019