Whitefella Yella Tree theatre review: Love, shame and stolen futures
Dylan Van Den Berg’s quietly devastating drama reframes a Romeo And Juliet tale through First Nations history
Dylan Van Den Berg’s script wears its themes lightly in Whitefella Yella Tree. It’s one of those stories that can bob along quite happily in real time, yet three days later you’re loading laundry and a red-hot rage washes over you. It’s a story of first love, queer identity, and First Nations history, but it’s also a Romeo And Juliet update with the overriding message that shame can be as deadly as any dagger.
Ty of the River Mob and Neddy of the Mountain Mob meet monthly under a lemon tree to exchange information about the white fellas who are just beginning to infiltrate Country. Through this forced meeting, a friendship is sparked which blooms into love. But change is coming and how these two young men react to that change forms the emotional heartbeat of the story. Neddy is a rambunctious warrior who infiltrates the British, teaching him to feel shame about who and what he is along the way. Ty is the storyteller, waiter and watcher, condemned to watch disease rip through his Mob as he waits for Neddy to come return to him and to his senses.
The play spans years and both Joseph Althouse and Danny Howard do well as they age in front of our eyes and battle to find a way to be together. The passion of their early encounters feels a little sanitised, perhaps to meet age requirements for younger audiences, but other than this every detail of both performances is considered and compelling. The inevitability of an unhappy ending can sometimes wear heavily on an audience, but their energy creates more than enough ‘this time it could be different’ energy to sustain us. That’s important, because at its heart Whitefella Yella Tree is a positive reclamation of queer black culture, a reminder that heteronormativity was never the norm, and that love is love, whatever it looks like.
Whitefella Yella Tree concluded at Space Theatre on March 15; picture: Brett Boardman.