Kate O'Keeffe is a performance artist. She is also someone who, the past eight months, has endured terrible anguish.
On July 15th 2011, after an ordinary conversation with his father in the morning, Kate's 24-year-old brother Daniel O'Keeffe disappeared from his family home in Highton, Victoria, taking nothing with him. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Since that time Kate and her family have been living in a kind of purgatory, spurred on by reports of unconfirmed sightings across Australia, in places as far-reaching as Colac, Melbourne, Ballarat, and most recently Brisbane, where CCTV footage was captured of a man believed to be Daniel walking into a medical centre and asking for a glass of water. The footage gave the O'Keeffe family tremendous hope and they flew to Queensland, continuing their search in a different state.
Daniel is still missing.
Theories about what might have happened to Daniel are interminable, and none of them make much sense. There's no question Dan was beloved, admired and deeply connected to the people in his life. It's true that he had recently been diagnosed with depression and was taking medication for it. He had expressed an interest to friends about the homeless and their way of life. Did he run away to escape some insurmountable feeling of discontentment? Possibly. Did he find a way to kill himself without his body surfacing? Highly unlikely. Was he murdered? It isn't impossible, but why has no trace of him been recovered? Why have there been no witnesses? Daniel was last seen at 9:40 a.m. on the morning of the 15th - an unlikely time to run into foul play.
I went to see Kate O'Keeffe's one-woman show with serious reservations. I worried that perhaps I would be confronted with an opportunist, exploiting her brother's disappearance for four or five nights in the spotlight. After all, theatre is all artifice; it's about creating an illusion and suspending the audience's disbelief. How does someone devastated by such a life-altering occurrence as this 'perform' her grief and personal horror on a stage? I braced myself for a terribly uncomfortable and disheartening hour. Surely this would be further proof that people will use any excuse, no matter how macabre, to draw attention to themselves.
Kate emerged on the stage, began speaking, and almost at once the cynic in me was silenced. This was not a show about Kate. This was a show about Dan. There was nothing about it that was self-indulgent. What I saw was a very lucid, very intelligent woman speaking (and intermittently singing) candidly about loss. She tells her story with graciousness, honesty and confidence. She shares personal photographs that run throughout. She shows us snippets of news reports which aired at the time to convey the particulars of Dan's disappearance in an engaging, economic way. At one point she mentions her mother and glances left, where I notice her mother (Lori) is sitting, dabbing under her eyes with a handkerchief.
The last ten minutes of the show are the hardest. Kate shares some footage taken of her family at a restaurant (it appears to be fairly recent). It's a large family, gathered together around a table. Everybody is talking at once, laughing. Dan is there, smiling.
I come from a close family and I know what a close family looks like. It dawned on me that this family looked like mine. I know if I disappeared tomorrow the search would never end. I have a sister, mother and father, and between us there exists a profound, unsaid, and exclusive understanding that, sink or swim, we're in this together. If everything else should crumble around us, we'll be standing side by side amongst the debris, finding in each other enough reason to start over. So what does a family do when they wake up one morning and find themselves one member short? How do they cope with the questions, the conjecture, their own sense of guilt, of remorse, whether it's warranted or irrational? Where do they start looking, who do they talk to, how much support can they depend upon?
As I emerged from the small theatre room after the show had ended, I intercepted Lori, Dan's mother, who was still sobbing. Perhaps it was wrong, but I told her that her daughter had done a wonderful job, then I hugged her and said, choking back tears, that I hoped she finds him. My friends and I ended up talking to Mr. and Mrs. O'Keeffe for twenty minutes. It was a cheerful discussion. Lori told us about Dan. She said that when he was a little boy, Dan would put his hand on her back and lead her across the street rather than the other way around. She told us that only a few weeks before he disappeared, Dan threw her a birthday dinner, cooking for her and fourteen of her friends. I hope Mrs. O'Keeffe will forgive me for sharing the details of our conversation, but our discussion afterwards was as moving to me as the show itself.
It has been hours since I saw the show and I should be sleeping, but I can't. I keep thinking about Daniel. Is he in some shelter in Brisbane, passing the night in a bunker? Is he in seclusion somewhere, and if so why? Is he alive or dead? Does he know how many people are looking for him, how much heartbreak he has caused? Will he find his way back home?
If you are in Adelaide and you happen to be reading this now, check the date. If it is not yet 8:00 p.m. and if it is not yet the 18th, book tickets and make time to see this show. It is an exceptional experience, deeply moving, deftly scripted, full of hope and disappointment, assured yet unresolved, and all of it centred around a bewildering mystery.
In the spirit of the show itself, I'd like to conclude this commentary with the following information:
Daniel O'Keeffe is 24 years old, 180 cm tall, with dark hair and hazel eyes. Before he disappeared, Dan was a friendly and talkative individual. It's possible he may give his name as James (his middle name) if asked - and if you think you see him - ask! He is well-travelled and was heavily involved in Mixed Martial Arts, competing in tournaments. Dan is very interested in spirituality and has read 'The Art Of Happiness' several times. His family have a website www.dancomehome.com which includes pictures and updated information on the continuing search. There is also a Facebook page, 'Missing Person - Daniel James O'Keeffe', which is worth visiting.
Apologies to Kate and her family if any of the information given here is incorrect.
