Windmill Baby - WAAPA (20 November 2017)

For a venue that is difficult to light, boy oh boy, when they get it right it is a sight to see in my favourite theatre in Perth, The Roundhouse on the ECU Mount Lawley campus. The abandoned cattle station of yore comes to life as memories, both joyful and tragic, are re-enacted in the harsh glare of the desert sun or softer hues of evening relief. At one point audience members on my right visibly jumped as the elements were brought vividly into existence with lighting and sound. Excellent work by lighting and sound designers Jackson McKay and Ella Portwine respectively.

The set itself, designed by Kara Rousseau, is glorious – all corrugated iron with the windmill looming over everything, a water tank, the back verandah to the homestead and an old-fashioned washing line. Curiously though, the featured structure of the title is more a silent observer, oft referred to but mostly ignored by the characters that are summoned by the storytelling gifts of Old May May (Abby Richards).

It is the verandah that is the more potent symbol as the boundary between the privileged station owners - Boss (Quaid Cooper) and his Missus (Nomi Haji-Ahmad) – and the indigenous station hands who do all the hard, manual labour. That one of those hands, the crippled Wunman (Jye Skinner) dares to cross into that space is the catalyst for most of the tragedy that follows.

But there is also, and predominantly, great warmth and humour in the storytelling driven by the wonderfully generous performance by Richards as the older woman who revisits the setting of her youth. It’s like sitting down to hear a great yarn full of diversions, episodic tales, reminiscences, and self-deprecating humour. There’s even some bawdy moments thrown in, mainly to do with Malvern (Lachlan Stokes), the once beau in May May’s life. Then there’s a charming strand about a half-dingo dog and a poodle that is thematically on point but also laugh out loud funny.

As Old May May’s memories take hold, Young May May, played with great expressiveness by Marlanie Haerewa, proves to be the ideal foil. The cutting between past and present is well crafted and enchanting to watch. Serena-May Brown as Sally, apart from being a dab hand on the ukulele, also brings a decency to her role as a rival for Malvern’s interest. She has a featured moment pulling an audience member up on stage to tell a story to that ends in a surprise gift.

Stokes is amusingly naïve when it comes to the female attention Malvern receives and I confess I missed his presence somewhat in the latter stages. Skinner gives Wunman a sly sense of humour as well as providing physical comedy by way of navigating his crippled limbs. His fate felt somewhat anti-climactic though given the fault-lines his relationship with Missus causes.

Cooper has perhaps the most onerous task playing the callous station owner who thinks little of his workers and perhaps even less of his wife. The retribution for crossing racial divides is harsh and unforgiving. Haji-Ahmad radiates a sense of propriety and goodness as the Missus in opposition to her husband’s cruelty.

Torika Forrester seems to act somewhat as a portent of doom as Aunty Darbella while Umima Shah-Munro rounds out the cast as Wunman’s Mum and in ensemble moments. Like with all great tales there’s some singing, a little dancing, and even a bit of puppetry. Director Eva Grace Mullaley uses the full extent of the thrust stage well letting the characters of the past swirl around her central storyteller.

At a smidge over an hour in length this was charming storytelling even in its moments of sorrow, anchored by Richards’ warm delivery and that fabulous set. A most pleasurable evening of theatre presented by the Aboriginal Performance students.

Rodeo Moon - WAAPA (16 November 2015)

The year is 1969. I know this because several characters seemed keen to tell me so. The other key year of note is 1967 when a Referendum question was overwhelmingly passed to remove references in the Australian Constitution that were discriminatory to Aboriginal people. Two years on though and change is slow to come to the outback. Racism is rife and there is a clearly established pecking order. You challenge it at your peril.

Things come to a head in the Pilbara where a combustible mix of forces converges – a rodeo swaggers into town full of machismo and sense of superiority; a ‘coloured’ girl (white father, aboriginal mother) who is a political student dares to stand up for the indigenous townsfolk who are understandably leery; three hippie activists escaping the Vietnam draft arrive; and, as improbable as it sounds, a certain pair of politicians about to fight a Federal Election rock up to check out conditions on the ground.

There is no doubt playwright David Milroy has a specific viewpoint to expound. That he does so in a “Jack and Jillaroo musical” which is full of songs and comedy is an interesting and entertaining choice. This is both a feel good show with everything from a drag act to hilarious bush poetry; to a serious drama that explores the harshness of life in such a rigidly stratified society, the edicts of faraway politicians be damned. It straddles that divide reasonably well though the tonal shifts can be abrupt.

For me the play works best when it focusses on the personal cost of the choices its characters make within the context of what is set up. That larger framework felt forced in the early going with characters delivering awkward exposition to describe the political and social climate of the time. Notably, John Gorton (Ben Jeakings) provides a searing indictment of the ‘politics of denial’ while being played largely as a buffoon. His partner in this unlikely comedy duo is Gough Whitlam (George Carter Zillessen) who will lose the election but manufacture a 7.1% swing to Labor that sets up his ascension as Prime Minister three years hence.

Within this construct there are two simple but quintessentially human stories. Political student Molly (Simone Detourbet) wants to meet a mother Pansy (Shanice Tabua) she has never known; and local indigenous girl Tilly (Teresa Moore) is sweet on star rodeo performer Knuckles (Conor Mavromatis) and wants to dance with him at the ball.

The personal obstacles both face resonate far stronger than any political ‘debate’ on hand. Molly’s father Wetherill (Nelson Baker) resists his daughter’s desire to see Pansy, out of shame and under pressure from rodeo boss Buckley (Jack Sheppard) who has very clear ideas about the place of ‘blacks’ (and women). Tilly’s quest is fraught with danger as it’s a line that if crossed comes with great risk. Both storylines arrive at happy conclusions but not without dramas along the way.

To the performances and Moore is a standout as Tilly. She has the best singing voice and uses it expressively while providing the character with real resolve and dignity. Detourbet has a fine scene with Baker as father and daughter clash in a dramatic highpoint while bringing feistiness to her character throughout. The interaction between Molly and Tilly, initially strained before they bond as allies in their separate causes, is the heartbeat of the piece and well conveyed by both actresses.

Props to Sheppard who gives what could otherwise have been a thoroughly loathsome character enough flair and energy to make his carnival barker Buckley engaging. James Schultz plays Molly’s brother Billy with impressive intensity as he carries a major dramatic thread to do with their mother. On the other side of that coin, Shane Pickett, Mathaias Kepa and Dakota Morrison, bring the laughs with their hippie draft dodgers. Kepa has a strong stage presence and good voice while Pickett threatens to steal the show as the most unlikely of rodeo queen contestants. Mention also to Brian Anau whose bush poem had me squirming and laughing in equal measure.

Musical Director Wayne Freer was also the solo musician on keyboard and guitar and the songs were a likeable mix of ballads, sixties style pop, and indigenous numbers. The majority of the cast were not particularly good singers but the character of their performances carried the day. The stage was red dirt on wooden floorboards with a tree stump, wooden fence posts, and a raised platform at one end. The lighting design accentuated that dirt to give a real sense of place.

This was a funny and entertaining production with a serious undertone that, if nothing else, had me looking up both the Referendum results and the 1969 election. But it was the human cost that people faced during those turbulent times (and in many ways still do) that struck a nerve. 

Rodeo Moon is written by David Milroy and co-directed by Rick Brayford and Eva Grace Mullaley with Musical Direction by Wayne Freer, and stars the Aboriginal Theatre students Jack Sheppard, Nelson Baker, Conor Mavromatis, James Schultz, George Carter Zillessen, Ben Jeakings, Shane Pickett, Mathaias Kepa, Brian Anu, Simone Detourbet, Teresa Moore, Dakota Morrison, Shanice Tabua, Katrisha Jackonia, Stephanie Binder, Aiesha Blurton, Nicole Brockman, and Meiching Riley. There is one final show at the Enright Studio on Thursday 19 November.