Theatre
The Dreamers
Jack Davis · 1982
Synopsis
Six months in the daily life of the Wallitch family, a Noongar family in a small town. Dolly keeps house with her husband Roy; their children are Peter, eighteen, Meena, fourteen, and Shane, twelve; we also meet their cousin Eli and Darren, a white boy. Dolly's old uncle, Worru, who lives under their roof, turns away in his last days from the despair of the town to return to the life and language of his people. According to the AusStage database, Worru and Dolly remain attached to their beliefs and language, in the face of police harassment, poverty and prison.
Context
The play was first staged on 2 February 1982 at the Dolphin Theatre in Perth by the Swan River Stage Company; an earlier version had been performed in Bunbury in 1972, according to the obituary from the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Its author has the Noongar language heard in it, which he introduced into his plays. The Belvoir theatre in Sydney revived it in 2002 in a production directed by Wesley Enoch, and Currency Press, its publisher, reissued it in 2014.
Who it is for
A play in English in which the Noongar language appears; no French translation has been found in the BnF catalogue.
Prizes and reception
According to the academic Adam Shoemaker, its author is among the most influential Aboriginal writers in Australia.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.