Contemporary Indigenous Plays

Bitin' Back; Black Medea; King Hit; Rainbow's End; Windmill Baby

Vivienne Cleven, Wesley Enoch, David Milroy, Geoffrey Narkle, Jane Harrison

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781921428579
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Five plays from around the country that illustrate the rich tradition of Indigenous storytelling as it flourishes in contemporary theatre. 'Each play is a durable, resilient stone that both builds upon Indigenous traditions but also lays the foundation for the generations that will follow.' - Professor Larissa Behrendt, from her introduction.Bitin' Back by Vivienne Cleven is adapted from her award-winning novel of the same name. 'This is a zany and uproarious black farce' - National Indigenous TimesBlack Medea by Wesley Enoch is a richly poetic adaptation of Euripides' Medea that blends the cultures of Ancient Greek and indigenous storytelling to weave a bold and breathtaking commentary on contemporary experience.King Hit by David Milroy and Geoffrey Narkle strikes at the very heart of the Stolen Generations, exploring the impact on an individual and a culture when relationships are brutally broken.Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison is set in the 1950s on the fringe of a country town. This is a thought-provoking and emotionally powerful snapshot of a Koori family that dramatises the struggle for decent housing, meaningful education, jobs and community acceptance.Windmill Baby by David Milroy: Set on an abandoned cattle station in the Kimberley landscape, this one-woman play combines the poetry of a campfire story with the comedy of a great yarn.

ACT ONE

PROLOGUE: AFTERMATH

The song ‘Que sera, sera’ is heard:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

The future’s not ours to see

Que sera, sera.

It’s late spring, late afternoon and gloomy outside. Inside their humpy NAN DEAR and GLADYS are rebuilding after a food has devastated their home. everything below three feet is sodden and mud-splattered. GLADYS mops, wrings out and removes things that are destroyed. NAN finishes hanging a piece of hessian to replace a ruined piece that lined the interior walls. Now she covers the hessian with pages from a magazine.

NAN DEAR: [pointing to some magazines] Pass those.

GLADYS: They’re Dolly’s.

NAN DEAR: They’re dry.

GLADYS hands them over. NAN rips the pages, slowly and deliberately, pastes them with homemade glue and sticks them, upside down, onto the hessian.

After a time DOLLY arrives home from school and surveys the scene critically. she toes the old, ruined lino. she sighs, resigned. until she spots her magazines. she goes to protest but sighs again, resigned. GLADYS fakes cheerfulness.

GLADYS: It’ll be all right.

DOLLY: You always say that.

NAN and GLADYS take a quick look at each other. NAN gestures for DOLLY to come over. She does and NAN gives her granddaughter a hug.

The lights go down.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

SCENE ONE (A): THE QUEEN’S VISIT

Humpy interior. morning. GLADYS is getting dressed up and humming to herself. DOLLY has her head down over her schoolbooks.

GLADYS listens in rapt silence to the voice of Queen elizabeth II on the radio.

RADIO: [voice-over] …standing at last on Australian soil, on this spot, which is the birthplace of the nation, I want to tell you all, how happy I am to be amongst you, and how much I look forward to my journey amongst Australia…

The radio fades out as NAN enters.

GLADYS: That valve… Where’s my white gloves?

NAN DEAR: Gloves? Don’t need white gloves to pick beans.

GLADYS doesn’t react.

You’re going into town then, for all that hullabaloo. Think of inviting me?

GLADYS: You? I know how you feel about royalty. Even if she is the ‘first reigning monarch to visit our shores’.

DOLLY: Nan, I need your help with this.

She is doing homework.

NAN DEAR: One loyal subject in the family is enough. And someone’s got to pick.

DOLLY: I’m doing our family tree. NAN DEAR: Tree?

GLADYS: Don’t know about loyal. Just going for a squiz.

NAN DEAR: Don’t know where you get these ideas from sometimes.

GLADYS: I’m not hurting anyone, am I? It’s a moment I’ll remember… to see our pretty young monarch and...

Table of contents

• CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS PLAYS
• INTRODUCTION
• BITIN’ BACK
• FIRST PERFORMANCE
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• CHARACTERS
• ACT ONE
• ACT TWO
• GLOSSARY
• BLACK MEDEA
• FIRST PERFORMANCE
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• CHARACTERS
• KING HIT
• FIRST PERFORMANCE
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• CHARACTERS
• GLOSSARY
• RAINBOW’S END
• FIRST PERFORMANCE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• CHARACTERS
• ACT ONE
• ACT TWO
• GLOSSARY
• WINDMILL BABY
• FIRST PERFORMANCE
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• CHARACTERS
• GLOSSARY
• COPYRIGHT DETAILS