Reviewed by Frank McKone
Opening Night May 13
Creatives:
Director/Understudy: Ursula Yovich; Assistant Director: Erin Taylor
Visual Art & Cultural Consultant: Alison Williams
Set & Costume Designer: Hugh O’Connor
Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee; Composer & Sound Designer: Brendon Boney
Video Designer: Morgan Moroney
Stage Manager: Lauren Tulloh; Assistant Stage Manager: Bronte Schuftan
Costume Supervisor: Sara Kolijn; Workshop Dramaturg: Miranda Middleton
Technical Creative Intern: Aroha Pehi; Movement Consultant: Scott Witt
Cast:
Miimi - Lisa Maza
Darlene/Nurse - Paula Nazarski
Linda/Receptionist - Nazaree Dickerson
Renee - Brittanie Shipway
Nick/Doctor/Photographer - Joel Granger
Understudy - Toby Blome
*In respect of Gumbaynggirr culture, characters are listed in order of Elder status.
Photos by Prudence Upton
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| The four women in the opening fire and smoking ceremony |
A Letter for Molly
is a heart-warming celebration of more than survival over four
generations of Gumbayngirr women. It is a truth-telling record of their
lives as ordinary people since the 1960s – when Miimi forcefully tells
her daughter Darlene never to say she is ‘Aboriginal’ but just
‘Australian’ – to modern times when Renee is determined to become a
successful Indigenous artist.
Humour is central to their
culture: their strength in difficult times, and the core strength of the
theatre-work they have created. If you want to find Gumbayngirr
country, near Nambucca on the New South Wales north coast, just look for
the Big Banana!
Each woman gives birth to a daughter – the
source of love, loyalty, and struggle to survive as a single mother.
Despite a kind of recognition in the 1967 Referendum which gave the
Federal Government constitutional power for the benefit of Aboriginal
people; despite the Mabo decision which established land rights in the
1990s; and despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 national apology for
the taking away of Aboriginal children by Federal and State Governments
over the previous 100 years – the three events are made to form a
background time-line in the audio soundtrack – the truth is that by
Renee’s time the Gumbayngirr language is fading, even while traditions
of spiritual connections remain.
Conventions and ways of living
have changed, too. In the play, time shifts back and forth and perhaps
the funniest scene is when Renee, who shares a house with a gay man,
Nick, in a genuine friendship without sex, takes a pregnancy test, the
result of a brief fling elsewhere.
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| Brittanie Shipway and Joel Granger as Renee and Nick in A Letter for Molly |
Renee
succeeds as an artist after making a different decision about her
personal life than her predecessors. Her story of artistic creation, in
an odd and unusual way, parallels the creation of this work of theatre
art in which she appears.
There is much to learn while you
thoroughly enjoy the twists and turns of life with the Gumbayngirr
people, received with great enthusiasm by the opening night audience
with typical Ensemble warmth of feeling. Not to be missed.
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| The family photo taken by Nick: Miimi, seated (Lisa Maza) L-R behind: Linda (Nazaree Dickerson); Darlene (Paula Nazarski); Renee (Brittanie Shipway) in A Letter for Molly |
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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