Temporal setting: 1966
Location notes:
The play takes place across multiple abstract places and times, from the protagonist's childhood to the "present" in the 1990s. The school Roland attends in childhood is identified only as being in Como, but "present-day" Roland references the school burning down during the 1994 bushfires that swept Como, indicating that the fictional school is Como West Public School, which was rebuilt on its original site after the fires.
Though Mrs Walkham references bushfires that have only occurred in recent history, owing to the ambiguous temporality of the play, a later scene identifies Roland's childhood memories/scenes as occurring in 1966.
Como West Public School is located on Wolger Street, Como.
Quotes
Mrs Walkham: Now 5A, eyes to the front, quiet as mice. We're going to hear about the place where we live. Como. Our suburb is situated twenty miles south of the Sydney General Post Office in the Sutherland Shire. The Shire itself covers one hundred and forty-three square miles. It stretches from Botany Bay and the Georges River in the north to the Port Hacking River and the Royal National Park in the south.
[...]
Everyone will know what I'm talking about when I say Red Tuesday or Black Sunday, Black Friday, Ash Wednesday; terrible names for terrible days. Terrible because of bushfire. And we've had terrible fires in our own shire, nearly every year. Homes are lost, sometimes lives. Terrible days. But let's not forget, that after fire, the bush does grow back. People rebuild.
(p. 14; 15)
Nina: Okay, the fires.
Roland: bushfires.
Nina: Yes. Everywhere. Terrible weekend. The air filled with ash, burnt leaves.
Roland: The fires. Anywhere in particular?
Nina: Como
[...]
Nina: Your old school.
Roland: My old school.
Nina: Yes.
Roland: I spent my whole life explaining to people where I grew up and now they know because it went up in smoke. Saturday, I turned on the television, there it was. Como. In flames. I rang my parents, they were already watching it. They don't live there anymore. But in a way they've never really left it. Our street, on fire. I went down to the beach, there was yes, ash falling out of the sky. Crowds of people watching this great column of smoke to the south. i stood there too, watching it, knowing what it was, the place, that place, a real place and a landscape in my mind, burning. And I felt nothing. That's when I thought, that's when I realised: time to let go. I'm not here to get it back, the writing, the whatever. I'm here to... closure, that's a word you like.
(p. 33-4)
Temporal setting: 1966; 1994
Location notes:
All of Toy Symphony takes place in abstract urban landscapes of Sydney, including a school in Como and other unidentifiable locations notably a therapist's office and a hospital.
Coordinates are given for Sydney.
