The Yellow Wave

Jane Miller

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781760620981
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Théâtre

Kenneth Mackay's 19th century classic Australian novel comes to vivid life on the stage, in an epic saga of love, heroism and sacrifice. The Yellow Wave is a prescient tale of war, passion and boat arrivals.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Soldier of fortune Philip Orloff and salt-of-the-earth Dick Hatten vie for the hand of stoic heroine Heather Cameron against a backdrop of invasion by a pair of Russian rail barons leading a Mongol force into the heart of Queensland.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Armed with sharp humour, this play explores immigration, gender, racial stereotyping, equality and notions of what is 'other' or 'alien'. The Yellow Wave is an invasion like no other.

NARRATOR: Sometimes a book is more than a book.

Sometimes it’s a window through which we can see an unexplored horizon.

The Yellow Wave is just such a book. Set in the nineteenth century and subtitled ‘A romance of the Asiatic invasion of Australia’, it is a story with everything. There is literally nothing it doesn’t have.

Featuring a cast of heroic characters, The Yellow Wave introduces us first to swarthy-cheeked, hot-tempered former soldier, Philip Orloff, and enigmatic, urbane Russian rail builder, Count Zenski. Later, we also meet salt-of-the-earth renaissance man of the land, Dick Hatten.

In the heart of this classic work of literature beats a love story bigger than the country in which it is set. The Yellow Wave recounts the passionate love of Philip Orloff and Dick Hatten for one extraordinary woman.

That woman is Heather Cameron. Heather Cameron, the kind of heroine found in the work of Austen and Brontë. Heather Cameron, a woman pale of both skin and personality.

Our story begins in 1885 aboard a magnificent cruise liner as it makes its way across the Arabian Sea, bound for Australia. On board, the ship’s passengers sail blissfully unaware that in the distance an alien force is planning the invasion of an innocent young continent at the bottom of the world.

Action sequence: Mongol force indicating they are making plans.

NARRATOR: It is on the deck of the ship, the SS Genoa, following an evening of wining, dining and dancing, that we first meet the suave, sophisticated Count Zenski.

ZENSKI: How dull these English are! So merciless to anyone or anything foreign, so partial to all things English. Peste, they are bourgeois at heart, every one, utterly ignorant of everything.

ORLOFF enters.

ORLOFF: Count Zenski.

ZENSKI: Philip Orloff.

ORLOFF: Do you believe in hypnotism, Count Zenski?

ZENSKI: Interesting question, mon ami.

ORLOFF: Do you remember the other night when that fellow Harden tested his willpower on some of the passengers?

ZENSKI: Harden? He has the receding chin and facial features of woman-like delicacy. No?

ORLOFF: That’s him.

ZENSKI: I seem to recall his greatest success was with one Miss Heather Cameron?

ORLOFF: Since then he has seemed to exert a strange fascination over her.

ZENSKI: Please explain.

ORLOFF: A few minutes ago, I asked Miss Cameron to dance … dance … dance … Miss Cameron, if I’m not mistaken, the next dance is ours.

HEATHER: Alright, Philip.

ORLOFF: I felt her delicate touch on my arm and then from nowhere that devil Harden appears.

HARDEN: Miss Cameron. I believe this is our dance. Am I not right? Miss Cameron. Come, dance with me.

HEATHER: I’m sorry, Philip. You have made a mistake.

ORLOFF: Nonsense, Miss Cameron! I assure you, I am quite right.

HARDEN: Miss Cameron? Dance with me.

HEATHER: Yes, Mr Harden. I’ll dance with you.

ORLOFF: Damn that devil!

HEATHER exits with HARDEN, ignoring ORLOFF.

Well, what do you say to that, Zenski?

ZENSKI: I say that if a woman wants to go to the devil, never interfere. If she prefers Harden, why not?

ORLOFF: A thousand reasons.

ZENSKI: Come now, Philip, turn your mind elsewhere.

Asia lies as a rich and boundless field for the servants of the Czar.

ORLOFF: Asia? What’s Asia got to do with anything?

ZENSKI: It has a lot to offer for a man of ambition.

If you take my meaning?

ORLOFF: What do you mean?

ZENSKI: You are young, strong, and a soldier.

I merely point out a direction in which you will find scope for your ambition. Understand me, mon ami?

ORLOFF: Do you mean I should go to Asia?

ZENSKI: I have friends. Do you picture the splendid portrait of the future I am painting?

ORLOFF: You want me to go to Asia with your friends? Are they Russian?

ZENSKI: No, listen … I am saying … I have friends with power. Friends with power. Now, do you see what I am suggesting?

NARRATOR: Just what Count Zenski is suggesting is no clearer the nex...