Veronica’s Score: 4.5 Stars
The Visitors is a stunning achievement. I can’t believe it took six years to get from a rehearsed reading at the Melbourne Theatre Company to the stage, but perhaps it has arrived at the right time; the tide is turning and more of the populace are now willing to consider “changing the date.”
Performed by an all-male ensemble of Aboriginal actors, the play is a reimagining of an evening in January 1788, before first contact with the “visitors” and before both futures became inextricably entwined. The seven men, all elders – except for one uninitiated man sent to represent his clan – have come together to deliberate what action needs to be taken regarding the “nowee” entering and dropping anchor in the harbour. They are required to reach a unanimous decision, and they realise that decision will have consequences for the clan groups they speak for.
Muruwari descendant Harrison said she borrowed the arc for her play from Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men, the 1950’s drama set in a jury room during one sweltering New York summer. It is also a bit of a stinker on this night in what we now call Sydney Cove. While the men are all dressed in tailored suits – as shorthand to signify their status – they are very different personalities with their own insights, and most have stories about encounters with the same intruders 18 years ago.
The strength of The Visitors, apart from Harrison’s superb dialogue, lies in its deftly drawn characters and how, with the play’s arguments and counter-arguments and the even its wit, it returns power to our First Peoples. This is a story of Aboriginal heroes – too often excluded from this country’s foundation narratives or cast as the defeated.
Directed by Frederick Copperwaite, the production never misses a beat, and the performances by John Blair, Damion Hunter, Colin Kinchela, Nathan Leslie, Leroy Parsons, Glenn Shea, Kerri Simpson are all excellent.
Lisa Mimmocchi has created an evocative set of tall trees, and Chloe Ogilive has lit it beautifully. Phil Downing also contributes a wonderfully atmospheric sound design.
The Visitors will undoubtedly become an Australian classic. This current Sydney season is sold out. No doubt it will return. Look out for it.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
