Updated August 18, 2018 11:19:05

Members of the Indigenous community in the New South Wales and Victoria border towns of Albury and Wodonga have condemned a local theatre company’s plans to stage a play by satirist Jonathan Biggins, best known for The Wharf Revue by the Sydney Theatre Company.

The play, titled Australia Day, would be the debut show for Revolution Theatre Productions and is scheduled to be performed on Australia Day in 2019.

The play was boycotted in Griffith in May and the announcement of a version in Albury/Wodonga has sparked concern from some residents, including Wiradjuri man and Indigenous advocate Mitch Hibbens.

“The relevance of the content, considering the conversation around January 26th, has shifted considerably since the play was originally written,” Mr Hibbens said.

“Some of the perspectives offered on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are out-of-date and out-of-line with the current line in relation to January 26th.”

Australia Day, the play

Australia Day follows the pursuits of a committee organising the Australia Day celebrations at a fictional regional NSW town.

Biggins said he wrote it in 2012 based on his own experiences on a similar committee.

“It’s to do with internal politics,” Biggins said.

“The way a day of reflection, a day of questioning who we are and who we want to be, and where we want to go — and whether we want to have Australia Day or not — gets highjacked by people and used as a vehicle for their own egos and their own personal agendas.”

Biggins said he consulted people of diverse cultural backgrounds while writing the play, which has since been amended to acknowledge a movement from some Victorian local councils to reconsider the date of Australia Day events.

“To deny these people and those attitudes still exist does everybody a disservice, and I don’t see the harm in pointing it out,” he said.

There are no Indigenous characters in the play, which features five older Anglo-Saxon characters and an Australian-Vietnamese character called Chester.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture are represented through the often-crass discussions had by the characters.

External Link: Australia Day trailer

‘A step backwards in acceptance’

Australia Day was staged by the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland theatre companies and there have been more than 30 amateur productions around the nation.

May is a Wiradjuri woman from Griffith who campaigned against the production slated for her hometown in May this year.

She said the show was unacceptable given recent discussions about the event and its historical significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“I’m not going to put up with things like this happening — even if it’s a satire,” May said.

“You just get a gutful, and you’re sick of seeing it all the time because you think people should know better than put it in your face.”

May said auditions had also been organised for National Sorry Day.

In a message to May, the Griffith and Regional Association of Performing Arts asked her to provide cultural consultation as it said it was “well-aware that the satirical nature of the script will require some level of adaptation and adjustment to ensure its suitability for local performance”.

However the company later announced that the production had been cancelled entirely.

“[The play] doesn’t have a place in today’s society when we have the Change The Date movement and a lot of councils are not celebrating Australia Day on the 26th anymore,” she said.

“It’s outdated and needs to be shelved.

“There’s no way for it to be amended and for it not to cause offence. It’s a step backwards in acceptance and empathy for our people.”

‘Racism exists’

Biggins said conversations about Indigenous issues only occurred within the minds of those concerned, and Australia Day served as a vehicle to discuss the issue.

He said pressure to cancel the production could be viewed as a form of censorship.

“I think we have the role of the court jester; we say things that are uncomfortable and unpleasant and we say them by using humour,” Biggins said.

“Racism exists. It’s not a pleasant thing to admit, it’s not a pleasant thing to acknowledge, but I think pretending it doesn’t happen is more dangerous. It’s how you deal with it that’s more important.”

Indigenous theatre maker Davy Thompson is from Central West Queensland and said it was important that theatre companies made an effort to consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, even if they are not explicitly represented in a play.

“That’s the first thing to do, full stop. It’s smart to talk to the community and get their input, and represent as many viewpoints as possible,” he said.

“Theatre is where you come to have a conversation, but it’s not a conversation if it excludes our voice.”

Mr Hibbens said Revolution Theatre Productions had not consulted with the local Indigenous community.

“The thing we’re most keen to point out is the censoring of the voice of Indigenous Australians around an event that has so much complex feelings, trauma and ongoing issues in our communities,” he said.

Residents might protest play

Revolution Theatre Productions told the ABC it would not comment on the issue before a company meeting, which would be held in the coming weeks.

Posts by local residents on social media indicated the possibility of a public protest if the theatre show went ahead.

One user wrote: “I will personally pay for a massive Mob to be in the audience and ‘cheer’ extremely loud #DrownThemOut.”

But, Mr Hibbens said there were no formal plans to take action.

“There’s been some talk around potentially boycotting the production but these things are not necessarily things we’re organising because we’re hopeful of a good outcome for everyone involved,” he said.

“Our hope is that we can have some robust dialogue around this play.

“It’s not about censorship, it’s not about shutting it down. It’s about what’s relevant and what’s current and how can we reflect the values of all people in our community.”

Topics: theatre, arts-and-entertainment, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, aboriginal, community-organisations, indigenous-culture, race-relations, australia-day, albury-2640, wodonga-3690, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000, griffith-2680

First posted August 18, 2018 11:14:07