by H Lawrence Sumner
seen at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House on 15 August 2018
Neil Armfield of the Sydney Theatre Company directs Wayne Blair as Jeremiah Tucker, Shakira Clanton as his daughter Simone, Ningali Lawford-Wolf as his sister Lizzie, Melissa Jaffer as Gladys Dawson and Justin Smith as Pastor Henry Gilles in a story embracing both the personal pain of family loss and the charged political and social questions arising out of the clash of indigenous and European values and practices in a small community.
The play opens with Simone's return to her cantankerous father's house after an absence of which he apparently does not approve. The tension is obvious; the details of her journey and his reservations about it slowly emerge; she has discovered the remains of her great-grandfather, who should have been a tribal leader, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and has arranged for their repatriation. She wants her father, as the closest surviving male relative, to welcome King Tulla home, but Jeremiah, steeped in misery over more recent traumas and scornful of the likely media circus surrounding such events, is unwilling to cooperate.
