| Summary: | Hanging Betsy, stereo audio piece by Roger Dean and Hazel Smith (austraLSYSIS), 2007. (A component from their 27 minute sound technodrama The Afterlives of Betsy Scott, with text by Hazel Smith, sound by Roger Dean. This was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and realised in June 2007 in their studios in Sydney). The Afterlives of Betsy Scott interweaves spoken text, sound and technological manipulation of voice and sound. The work focuses on events leading up to the hanging in 1863 of Elizabeth Scott, who was the first woman to be executed in the state of Victoria, Australia. Elizabeth was accused, together with her alleged coconspirators David Gedge and Julian Cross, of murdering her husband. But there was no direct evidence to convict her, and there were mitigating circumstances. The piece explores the ambiguities around the case and Elizabeth’s character, and mixes historical documentation with fiction. Combining drama, narrative and poetry, it moves in and out of time and between real and unreal environments. Hanging Betsy is a freestanding version of three segments of the radio piece, in which several transformed versions of a small number of phrases written and performed by Hazel Smith are mixed together with the performed original.
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