The text itself is a distillation of Henrik Ibsen’s script, encapsulating the essence, albeit catapulting it into the present day, replete with teen-speak and references to the mod cons and ‘cankles’. Characters are eliminated which reduces it down to 90 minutes. Bertha Sorby (Werle’s fiancée), Dr Relling and Molvik didn’t make the final cut.

Taking place over the course of a week, the story centres on the lives of two families whose histories are inextricably intertwined. Gregers (Toby Schmitz) returns to his father, Werle (John Gaden), to attend the latter’s upcoming nuptials and to take over the family business after a long absence. While in town he catches up with an old friend (Hjalmar – Ewen Leslie) and his father, Ekdal (Anthony Phelan), who still works for Werle.

Through snatches of conversations harbouring revelations in short, unfinished scenes, secrets find their way to the surface and lives unravel.

Written by Chris Ryan and Simon Stone (also the director) and based on Ibsen’s play from 1884, this version of The Wild Duck started its life at Belvoir St Theatre. Whereas the original focussed ostensibly on idealist Gregers Werle and his imperative that the truth be told, this character is less forceful a presence, while remaining the catalyst in this production.

The drawback of this abbreviated script is the characterisation is simply sketched. We don’t get the fullness of the players in this tragedy. But it still manages to pack a punch.

It takes a while to recognise Ewen Leslie under all that facial hair. This role, a departure from the Shakespeare he’s been starring in lately, allows him to show a playful side. While there’s a sense in this incarnation of the play that no one character is the centrepiece, Leslie’s Hjalmar in particular rides a wave of emotions – and the audience along with him. One significant scene elicited a collective sniffle on the night I attended.

Anita Hegh gives an impassioned yet deftly handled performance as Gina, wife of Hjalmar, while Eloise Mignon as daughter Hedvig seems to have become typecast. She has racked up several roles now (Return to Earth, The Grenade, In a Dark, Dark House) playing an out and out child or the ingénue. In this one it’s the former. But she does have this down pat.

And yes, there is a live duck on stage – initially the justification I gave for the use of the glass enclosure. But the alternative, and highly probable, scenario bears a construct almost too clichéd to countenance: the glass case signifies entrapment and that once the deep, dark secret is out in the open, so too are the protagonists, freed from their invisible cage.

The Wild Duck is on at the Malthouse Theatre until 17 March.

Mary-Lou Ciampa is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at La Trobe University, and upstart’s co-editor. You can follow her on Twitter: @zialulu.

It’s a dramatic time in Australian politics, and it’s easy to get lost in the midst of the hype and endless coverage of the crisis.

Here’s a breakdown of the events which have led to the calling of a leadership ballot, and a look ahead at what’s in store next.

What will happen on Monday?

The 103-member Labor caucus, which consists of all Labor members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, will meet at 10am on Monday, before parliament resumes.

A ballot will be held, where Julia Gillard will declare the leadership ‘open’ to contenders.  She will re-nominate for the leadership.  A deputy leader will also need to be elected.  The ballot will be secret in nature, where caucus members need not reveal who they’re voting for.

Kevin Rudd has not explicitly stated that he will challenge for the leadership.  In his Washington press conference yesterday as well as his subsequent one this morning, he said that he would make a full statement on his future when he returns to Australia.

But from Mr Rudd’s second press conference it can easily be inferred that he will challenge. It was at this conference that he outlined a series of policies that he would like to see restored, and explicitly stated that he does not believe Prime Minister Gillard can lead Labor to success in the next election.

If Rudd challenges Gillard, will he be elected as leader?

It’s hard to know.

Mr Rudd will need 52 caucus votes to be elected as leader.  Various newspaper reports have suggested that Rudd has 40-odd votes, but that a third of the caucus is undecided – that is, they are undecided as to whether to vote for either of Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd.

Many cabinet members in the government, such as Wayne Swan, Greg Combet and Bill Shorten, have declared their support for Julia Gillard.

Will there be a third candidate contesting the leadership?

Again, this is hard to tell.  Many political commentators believe it will be limited to a Rudd vs Gillard showdown.

There have been other names floating around during previous leadership speculations, such as Stephen Smith or Greg Combet, but that now seems an unlikely outcome.

Is there a chance Rudd won’t challenge?

It seems unlikely, but yes.  If he doesn’t run, it will mean that Mr Rudd has accepted the leadership of Ms Gillard (for the time being), and will go to the backbench.

Some commentators have raised the prospect of Rudd resigning from parliament all together, which would trigger a by-election in his seat of Griffith.  If this happens, there is a chance the government could lose that seat.

With the independents’ support, the numbers in the House of Representatives were 76-73, after Harry Jenkins resigned as speaker and Peter Slipper took the job.  If Labor loses Griffith, and the Coalition wins that seat, the numbers would go to 75-74, which could spark a re-negotiation process with the independents.

And so, in the current political climate, Mr Rudd’s resignation could prove fatal for the government.  It seems unlikely that Mr Rudd would risk this, even if he doesn’t contest for the leadership on Monday.

If Rudd is elected as leader, who would be his deputy?

Not Wayne Swan, that’s for sure.  In a statement released last night, Mr Swan attacked Mr Rudd, stating that: ‘The Party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision-making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people including our caucus colleagues … The Labor Party is not about a person, it’s about a purpose.  That’s something Prime Minister Gillard has always known in her heart but something Kevin Rudd has never understood.’

This is a scathing and unprecedented attack on Kevin Rudd, so it’s hard to see how the two could possibly work together either in the leadership team or even on the frontbench.

What would happen to Gillard if Rudd becomes leader?

It’s almost impossible now to see any situation where Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd could sit on the frontbench together.  This also applies to many other senior members of the government, such as Simon Crean and Stephen Conroy, who have publicly launched stinging attacks on Mr Rudd.

Ms Gillard has indicated that if she loses the ballot, she will go to the backbench and renounce any further ambitions for the leadership.  In her press conference this morning, she said that she expected the same undertaking to be taken by Mr Rudd.

Would there be an election if Rudd becomes the prime minister?

He’s not obliged to call a general election until the end of the 2013, but he’ll no doubt come under attack by the opposition to call one.  But given the fact that he’d lead a minority government, there is a chance he may not have the support of the independents to form government.

The independent MP from New South Wales, Tony Windsor, for example, said that it was ‘more than likely’ that an election would be a likely outcome if Mr Rudd is returned to the prime ministership.

And if Rudd isn’t elected…?

He would go to the backbench (assuming he won’t resign from parliament altogether, which seems unlikely).

There is a chance that he would sit on the backbench for some time, while continuing to build support for a possible re-challenge later on.

What can be drawn from Rudd’s press conferences in Washington?

Quite a lot.  They were an extraordinary attack on the ‘faceless men’ within the Labor Party.

That’s the headline that has been dominating US sports media outlets over the last two weeks. It’s the story of Jeremy Lin, who has gone from no-name bench warmer to star quicker than you can type ‘#Linsanity’ into Twitter and see the millions of results.

Lin is a Taiwanese-American - the first American of Chinese/Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. Californian born, he graduated from Harvard and left college undrafted. He was cut by two NBA teams before signing with the New York Knicks in December 2011.

Jeremy Lin’s real journey to stardom began on 4 February (U.S. time) against New Jersey.

Lin had been signed by the Knicks as cover for the injured Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis, and had played in only nine games for the Knicks before the game against the Nets at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Lin came off the bench to play at 36 minutes. He scored 25 points and recorded seven assists, five rebounds and two steals while leading the Knicks to a win.

It seemed, at the time, like a flash in the pan. A one off performance against the worst statistically ranked defense of the last 20 years.

How wrong that assumption was.

Two nights later against Utah, again at the Knicks’ home court, Lin earned his first career NBA start off the back of his performance against the Nets. He scored 28 points and recording eight assists while playing 45 of a possible 48 minutes.

New Yorkers were completely enamored with their new star, who spent the nights sleeping on his brother’s couch because he couldn’t afford to pay rent.

He continued the hot streak against the Washington Wizards, recording his first double-double of 23 points and ten assists, leading the Knickerbockers to their third win in a row.

The biggest test in Lin’s fledging career was still to come when, on 10 February, 14-time NBA All Star and 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player, Kobe Bryant, would spearhead the Los Angeles Lakers’ attack at Madison Square Garden.

Having won their past nine encounters and New York missing stars A’mare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers were almost guaranteed a win by most pundits.

Enter, Jeremy Lin.

Lin recorded a career-high 38 points and added seven assists on top of that, along with a highlight reel lay-up to give the Knicks their fourth consecutive win.

After the game, Kobe Bryant had some endearing words for Lin.

‘Players don’t usually come out of nowhere, if you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. But no one ever noticed.’

Bryant isn’t the only one with high praise for the 23 year old. Knicks’ centre Tyson Chandler said Lin is the real deal.

‘He’s not a fluke. You can tell when a guy isn’t really that skilled but is just having a good stretch. This guy is skilled. He’s fast. He gives the defense a problem, and he’s really crafty at the rim.’

By this stage the concept of ‘Linsanity’ had spread all over America’s biggest city, the league’s entire franchise and the whole world – and sports fans everywhere were sent into a basketball-induced spin.

Lin’s biggest moment to date came in a game on 14 February against the lowly Toronto Raptors, which is hard to believe considering the events that came before it.

The game was tied at 87 apiece with Lin in possession of the ball for what would be the last shot of the game. Lin, not a noted jump shooter, was expected to drive into the lane or pass to an open man.

Unexpectedly, he advanced the ball from half court with just six seconds on the clock before he isolated himself against Raptors’ point guard Jose Calderon and pulled up to drain the game winning three-pointer with 0.5 of a second remaining.

That 27-point performance saw him break the record for the most points scored by a player in their first five starts since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, ahead of Hall Of Fame players like Dominique Wilkins, Dan Issel and Shaquille O’Neal.

The Knicks’ first loss after their miraculous seven-game streak came on Saturday (our time), as they fell to the lowly New Orleans Hornets. Lin struggled with eight first half turnovers, but recorded numbers of 26 points and five assists to keep the doubters at bay for at least one more game.

That next game came on Sunday night this week (Monday morning Australian time), and Lin was back to his best. Twenty-eight points, a career high fourteen assists, and five steals in a win over defending champion Dallas Mavericks, the best team New York have faced during their stretch with Lin in the line-up.

In the game’s biggest market, a little known Ivy League graduate has become a star. Whether Lin continues to perform this way or not, it is truly a story for the ages, a classic underdog battle and a testament to hard work and perseverance paying off.

His performances may not always be ‘Linsane’, he may not lead his team to ‘Lins’ every night, and the novelty of the puns will wear off (most likely after this sentence), but Lin looks to have a bright future in the NBA, if not a ‘Lincredible’ one.

Joel Peterson is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism (Sport) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter: @joelbpeterson. This is his first piece for upstart.

Videos filmed will be part of a creative comments project about inspiring social change. Students must bring own camera and equipment, but assistance is provided in production and editing.

As a creative commons project, students can show their work as part of any assessment, and distribute it as they wish.

For more information contact David Hollis at 9to9media@gmail.com.

He has won two Walkley awards for feature articles, and served as speech writer for former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

He is now a communications manager of the Grattan Institute.

This podcast is the seventh episode of Life After Journalism, a series of interviews with former journalists.

Matt Smith is a Master of Global Communications student at La Trobe University, and is upstart’s co-editor. You can follow him on Twitter: @nightlightguy.

The course will give a full knowledge on the theory of Pitman 2000 shorthand, and an introduction to speed-writing techniques. It is suitable for all journalists.

Classes will be held at the Melbourne Campus of Swinburne University of Technology.

Start date: Tuesday 13th March, 2012
Time: 5:30 – 8:30pm
Duration: 16 weeks
Fee: $395

Further information on the website.

None more notable than the story of Nim.

Project Nim, a documentary from BBC Films, looks at the life of a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky (a thinly veiled jest at Noam Chomsky, who theorised that language was inherent only in humans). Nim was raised by a research team led by Herb Terrace of Columbia University, with the aim of the experiment to see if he would acquire language by being part of a functioning human family unit.

Initially raised within the family of graduate student Stephanie Lafarge, Nim was treated like any other human baby – strangely enough, she even breastfed him. He was treated as one of the children, and after time became unmonitored and unstudied. He was given alcohol and drugs, and let run wild.

Once he became too powerful for the family he was taken away, and put in a more formal study environment. Here he excelled at learning signs, but eventually became too aggressive – biting and attacking the researchers who regarded him as family.

As you would expect with a wild animal, Nim’s instincts escalated with bites and attacks to the point where he attacked one of the researchers and bit her face open. Surprisingly, the project continued for a while after this.

Challenging the concept of nature versus nurture had been unsuccessful, and the experiment was shut down. Nim was finally sent to a chimpanzee sanctuary, and later a pharmaceutical animal testing laboratory. He finally ended his days in some semblance of peace on a horse refuge in Texas. He got a happy ending of sorts, but it took him a while to get there.

Project Nim is a bit of a tragic tale, but like all good documentaries it doesn’t need to embellish the truth – there’s enough drama in the events that happened. While Nim is portrayed as a confused, conflicted animal battling between his instincts and how he’s being raised, he’s still considered an animal. He grows attached to his human researchers and friends, but ultimately is just treated as a piece of property.

It’s particularly jarring to see how little regard researcher Herbert Terrace has for Nim – to him the chimpanzee just represents an asset, and a failed experiment.

The strength in Project Nim is the amount of material it has at its disposal. While it makes some tacky use of unnecessary recreation, there’s a large amount of archive footage and still photos available. The entire narrative is carried by an extensive amount of interviews – fortunately, all the important players participated – so the documentary is sold on the story alone.

And what a story it is. You really feel for Nim, and even though he turned aggressive at times, it’s easy to see why he was pushed in that direction. He was a wild animal taken out of his natural context, poked, prodded, abused and abandoned. It’s hard to watch the movie and not wonder who has more humanity.

Matt Smith is a Master of Global Communications student at La Trobe University, and is upstart’s co-editor. You can follow him on Twitter: @nightlightguy.

‘I absolutely loved my undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. I loved the pharmacology, and continually learning and making discoveries’ he says.

‘If I had taken a more academic career path, perhaps I may not have ended up at this point. But other things may have put me off academia.’

He kicked off his science career doing a PhD in drug design and, resulting from that work, he helped to start up a small bio-tech firm.

‘I worked for this start-up company for about one year until funding ran out – we got negative results on the compound: it worked well in test tubes but when put into animals, we didn’t see the desired effects,’ says O’Leary.

In his next job, in a larger Victorian bio-tech company, he started as senior researcher and ended up director of internal research, working on three main drug candidates, from obesity through to chronic pain.

During that time he became dissatisfied with the work and was convinced there had to be something better for him. Several aspects of his chosen field bothered him and prompted the desire to make the move into new territory. The animal testing, the fact that these creatures would ultimately be killed as part of the process, was a key sticking point.

‘It never sat well with me,’ he explains. ’It was something I could tolerate as a younger scientist, as part of the job. It’s challenging. But I could only do it for so long.’

Secondly, he didn’t like the mix of science and enterprise. ‘I found that decisions being made within the company were mainly business decisions and ignored what you’d call sound scientific practice. I found we had to compromise scientific morals for the sake of business – all under the guise of improving patients’ quality of life. It just wasn’t the case.’

He cites the example of Vioxx and ‘the showdown between the FDA in America and the drug company . . . where the drug company did not act on worrying data showing the drug to have toxic side-effects,’ as another turning point, cementing in his mind the need to make a change.

After the failure of the drug candidates in clinical trial, his company shut down its laboratory and made the scientists redundant. So he took some time out to reassess his direction in life.

‘I always had an interest in environmental issues and aquatic systems. I thought it might be a good idea to get into toxicology and look at fresh water issues,’ he says.

He started networking, and contacted the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

‘They said, given my background, it could be relevant. It would be better, however, to have some further education in the field’.

He hesitated, however, in the post-GFC climate, thinking things were ‘looking shaky in the economy. Now’s not the time to make a move.’ He admits he faltered slightly due to ‘the magnitude of it all.’

Instead, he applied to a job with one of the biggest bio-tech companies in Australia, got to the last stage of the interview process and ‘pulled the pin’. ‘It’s not for me,’ he says.

‘This confirmed for me that I could always get another job in the industry.’

But as time went on, and he wasn’t making real headway in his new field, ‘I really panicked and got a job with a pharmaceutical company located in a university,’ he says.

Over the next 18 months he began to progress up the ranks again, eventually heading up a small laboratory group. But then it hit him. ‘I can’t keep on doing this, I need to summon up my strength, put fears aside and take a risk,’ O’Leary says.

So he resigned from the role, but continued to work occasionally for the company, and enrolled in a graduate diploma in environment and sustainability, with a view to converting it to a Masters. What he likes about the course is the wide variety of subjects, including areas of law, policy, management, as well as the technical aspect of pollution and sustainability. Ill health has meant that he has had to put off the studies for a while, but he is preparing to take up the books again this semester.

Now in his late thirties, he admits to some feelings of guilt about the desire to make the switch.

‘I’m kind of being selfish – I’m doing this for myself, my own happiness and sense of worth in my career. But I guess I’ll end up being a better father and fiancé’.

What has enabled him to take the steps to venture into a new career has been a small degree of financial security from some savings he has accrued. It has given him the peace of mind of knowing he can still support his partner and child.

‘Where I’d like to end up is working at a place like the EPA. I could see myself using my knowledge of pharmaceuticals and toxic compounds, using these skills in a new role. I also see myself moving up into senior roles, in policy and management.’

However, in the meantime, he concedes, ‘I may need to start off at the bench.’

O’Leary brings up a point that many prospective career changers must consider, the very real possibility of having to relinquish your status and seniority and return to the bottom of the ladder.

‘As time goes on, you get more senior and are better paid.’ He would be giving that up for the moment, at what are traditionally the peak earning years in a worker’s life, to pursue a new career.

He admits it is daunting, moving away from what he’d worked for, over 12 years or so, citing also the ‘penalty of not being employed full time in a high-up job’.

‘There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of uncertainty.’

‘I don’t know how hard it is going to be to find a job in this new field. Are they going to recognise my other experience? How competitive is it going to be?’

‘I want to give it a shot. I do have contingencies if I fail at that.’

Such as?

‘Secondary school teaching,’ he says, adding, ‘I need a job, I have a young family now.’

For more information on this ‘Career Changers’ series, click here.

Mary-Lou Ciampa is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at La Trobe University, and upstart’s co-editor. You can follow her on Twitter: @zialulu.

Loyalty Media is offering a number of internship opportunities for students of journalism, communications and media.

The positions are based in the North Sydney office and involve carrying out phone interviews and writing pieces for Dynamic Business and Giftrap magazines.

These positions are unpaid internships, offering some flexibility with hours and days.

For more details, please email jen.bishop@loyaltymedia.com.au.

The Walkley Foundation is holding a free event for final-year journalism and communications students in most capital cities.

The Media Pass Industry Day offers attendees the opportunity to hear from a range of industry professionals such as employers, freelancers and recent cadets.

Dates include:

Melbourne - 30 March 2012

Sydney - 9 May 2012

Brisbane - 7 August 2012

Perth - 15 August 2012

Adelaide - TBA

For more information, click here.

To register, email your name and university to students@walkleys.com.