Speaker 1: I record this podcast on Gaetgol Country. I'd like to
Speaker 1: pay my respect to the traditional.
Speaker 2: Custodians and I'm recording a Rendre country part of the
Speaker 2: Cooler Nation.
Speaker 1: Let's go mus stomach be wrong. I just had four eggs, Like, chill.
Speaker 3: Out, bro, where are you getting these eggs from?
Speaker 4: I know eggs. There's a big strike on eggs family.
Speaker 4: All the chickens are going on strike not and you've got.
Speaker 5: Four Yes, I know, I know you're going to dig this.
Speaker 1: It's like I've been given like an extra sprinkle of something.
Speaker 4: You've got layers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got layers.
Speaker 2: I was just thinking, I'm like, we're just such beautiful storytellers.
Speaker 1: You make a lot of sense to that girl. No,
Speaker 1: I'm done.
Speaker 4: Let's be in too honest to go.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited because last week I got to go
Speaker 1: to the opening night of an incredible new Australian play
Speaker 1: called Big Girls Don't Cry, by the one and only
Speaker 1: Delara Williams. And she is here with us in studio
Speaker 1: here at Nova on Gadigul Country. Now, Delara, please tell
Speaker 1: our audience who you are, where you're from.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me. I am Dalara Williams.
Speaker 3: I am Rarodri and Gumbengird, but I was born and
Speaker 3: raised on Gadigl, especially my community Redfern.
Speaker 1: And that is exactly where this play is set about.
Speaker 2: The play't I haven't seen it. Fortunately, I'm Melbourne.
Speaker 3: I know, I know people go and can it come
Speaker 3: to Melbourne?
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's a rom com of three women that are
Speaker 3: living in Redford in the sixties and it's just a
Speaker 3: story about how they're navigating their life, whether it's through
Speaker 3: love and work and social and they're all leading up
Speaker 3: towards their big nights, which is the nineteen sixty six
Speaker 3: debutante ball.
Speaker 2: Oh ours was like the year ten River Cruise to translate, like.
Speaker 4: Everyone had their like debutante ball. But I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: Year ten River crews.
Speaker 1: Whoa can you tell us what a debutante ball is?
Speaker 1: Because some people might be thinking, well what is that?
Speaker 1: You know, I know what it brings to mind for
Speaker 1: me are the white dresses?
Speaker 3: Yes, so it is this sort of high white society.
Speaker 3: You see it in Bridgeton of these debuta Can you
Speaker 3: sort of announce yourself to society and you dress up
Speaker 3: and you do a type of partner dance, but it
Speaker 3: is just presenting yourself in these glorious gowns. A part
Speaker 3: of debutante ball is that the women have to ask
Speaker 3: the men to be their partner. I didn't know that, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: and so that's part of it. And yeah, I think
Speaker 3: Aboriginal people just wanted to be part of sort of
Speaker 3: a society that didn't want them, and they did their
Speaker 3: own spin of it. So debutantes still exists to this
Speaker 3: day in a lot of Aboriginal communities.
Speaker 1: There you go. So when you were doing a bit
Speaker 1: of research and having yarns with your aunt and your grandmothers,
Speaker 1: what was their link to the debutante ball? What were
Speaker 1: their memories like That came to mind was always positive, always.
Speaker 3: I think my grandmother's they're just always known to be
Speaker 3: the bell of the ball. They loved dressing up, they
Speaker 3: loved looking good, and this was just another example for
Speaker 3: them to dress up and dance. My auntie Esta, who
Speaker 3: was there to teach a lot of the people how
Speaker 3: to dance, and so she ran the dance classes and
Speaker 3: taught the women that came from country into the city
Speaker 3: about how the best to present yourself. So you don't
Speaker 3: really have trouble in the city and how to navigate
Speaker 3: that space. And she's only the real person that I
Speaker 3: mentioned in the play. Everyone else is sort of made up,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to keep her and what her role
Speaker 3: is towards the debutante.
Speaker 4: That's so beautiful. That's like such a nice tribute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm going to assume like the dancing was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: not like you're modern dancing now, but like it was
Speaker 2: that what.
Speaker 1: They called these days. So what's the progressive word for that?
Speaker 1: Because that doesn't sound like I should be used in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: I don't think so. My knee is a damage from
Speaker 3: those days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, what a lot.
Speaker 4: You split your pants in the crack?
Speaker 1: Yeah, many times.
Speaker 4: Something like that is a death drop on Vogue.
Speaker 1: That's a Vogue, Yes, slut drop. I think we should
Speaker 1: just call it a slag drop.
Speaker 4: Slag drop.
Speaker 3: That's so clear. You've got that community in Northern Territory
Speaker 3: they call it bam bam.
Speaker 1: Oh is this one.
Speaker 3: It's more about the speed of it, so they call
Speaker 3: it are you bam bam?
Speaker 4: Well and Nanas weren't doing that, that's.
Speaker 3: Left me, honest, But they were go go dances. With
Speaker 3: short skirts. Yeah, so then you had a move.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I'm a big fan of Bridgeton.
Speaker 2: Like I know, you know there's some colonial aspects to it,
Speaker 2: but I feel like I I love that kind of
Speaker 2: like princess sort of like error of dressing up and
Speaker 2: it's not fantasy, but it's kind of like impersonating.
Speaker 3: It's sort of like reimagining process. Yeah, because it is
Speaker 3: a reality. It happened. It wasn't that I made that
Speaker 3: up totally. No, you still Yeah, you had the sixty
Speaker 3: six one, which was only small I think it was
Speaker 3: only under like two oh not even like two hundred
Speaker 3: people that attended. And then you had the big one,
Speaker 3: which was in nineteen sixty eight at Sydney Town Hall
Speaker 3: and that was presented in front of the Prime Minister
Speaker 3: all the time. Wow.
Speaker 2: Historic really Yeah, and you're just recreated this story around
Speaker 2: this history moments. But like you know, it has Yeah,
Speaker 2: it has fictional characters.
Speaker 1: Brook They're so funny. Like, I can't explain how great
Speaker 1: the chemistry is between Delara, Steph and Meghan on stage.
Speaker 1: You three are friends. What has it been like. I
Speaker 1: know that there was you know, at the start of
Speaker 1: this process when you had all the actors in the room.
Speaker 1: You continue to develop the story, right, you did some cuts,
Speaker 1: you continue to work it. Did you take inspiration from,
Speaker 1: you know, Meghan and steph when doing that?
Speaker 3: Of course, I can't deny that. They're just such wonderful
Speaker 3: women with amazing personalities and just seeing because they're stune
Speaker 3: to think like the characters. And that was really wonderful
Speaker 3: as a writer because there was a point where I go,
Speaker 3: you know these characters more than me in really safe hands.
Speaker 3: I've known Meghan, I mean we've known each other for
Speaker 3: fourteen years. This is our first time on main stage
Speaker 3: a professional job, so we have acted since twenty twelve together. Wow.
Speaker 3: And for her to be in this piece as Queenie
Speaker 3: the ough that, I think it's everyone's favorite character. Everyone
Speaker 3: is a bit of a queenie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she called queen that was my nickname grown up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go. So I was a little bit bossy, So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was a Queenie and Stephie and Lulu. That
Speaker 3: just brings this light and love and joy to that character.
Speaker 1: She sort of floats through the world, doesn't she. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which sort of leaves above some of the trauma as well,
Speaker 1: which I love to see like she faces it, but
Speaker 1: she also has this sort of floatation esque where she's
Speaker 1: like it's fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's just a dreamer to see the best in
Speaker 3: everybody and in the world.
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine the black joy in that room,
Speaker 2: honest to god.
Speaker 3: Oh oh my goodness. We had mob night the night
Speaker 3: before opening.
Speaker 1: Did that go off?
Speaker 3: It was something else never So we had community nights
Speaker 3: and so it was this mob knight for all of community. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it sort of gives them. They're in the space of
Speaker 3: their own and they got to express. So they were
Speaker 3: so loud and wanted to talk and wanted to but
Speaker 3: they were honor. It was like bold and the beautiful
Speaker 3: for them. They were there all the way and there
Speaker 3: were comments and there was this beautiful moment of a
Speaker 3: scene between Queenie and Ernie, which is Guy Simon and
Speaker 3: Megan Wilding and Queenie sort of is talking about how
Speaker 3: I want to be wanted without having to ask, and
Speaker 3: you had an Auntie just call out go and tell
Speaker 3: her to Ernie's character. It was they were just there
Speaker 3: the whole way and it was something that was really
Speaker 3: special because I wrote it for community.
Speaker 1: Yes, when you were casting, I know that you have
Speaker 1: a room full of good friends.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Was that important to you?
Speaker 5: Yes? Oh well.
Speaker 3: The funny thing is that everyone auditions, and that was
Speaker 3: one thing that I really wanted to do, is going.
Speaker 3: You can go and pick your friends, but then you
Speaker 3: have to navigate work ethics totally, especially with new work,
Speaker 3: and you really want great minds in there to navigate
Speaker 3: the space for you, because as a writer and also
Speaker 3: acting in it, it can be a bit overwhelming. Megan
Speaker 3: did an audition that was her role from the get gum.
Speaker 3: I can't imagine anybody else being her. I think somebody said,
Speaker 3: going and Megan Maldin steals the scenes as Queen and
Speaker 3: I was like, no, No, Queenie steals the scenes. She's
Speaker 3: written that way to just take up space and what
Speaker 3: it means for black women to absolutely take up space
Speaker 3: and be unapologetic about it.
Speaker 1: But there is a beautiful tenderness to the character as well,
Speaker 1: and I think we see that with Queenie. I think
Speaker 1: that there's a brave front, but she's vulnerable, she's squishy,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: She's insecure, and I think, like all of us, you
Speaker 3: see such big personalities and you could sort of so
Speaker 3: what's underneath that and it's just them trying to survive,
Speaker 3: and it's I find that really beautiful amongst especially for
Speaker 3: Aboriginal people, that we don't get to see a lot
Speaker 3: is our vulnerability.
Speaker 1: And our joy and our joy, our joy, our black joy,
Speaker 1: which is what was on display on that stage for sure,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of black joy. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about your writing process. I know that it's
Speaker 1: very different for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: It varies. It's one thing I make a playlist, especially
Speaker 3: something writing something in the sixties. I made a playlist
Speaker 3: of sixties music because I wanted to hear what the
Speaker 3: characters would be listening to on radio, what has been
Speaker 3: spoken to in that time. But there is doubts, especially
Speaker 3: when you're writing about romance. You can go, oh, that's
Speaker 3: a bit cheesy, Oh these words don't is it going
Speaker 3: too far? But people love cheese? They do, they do.
Speaker 3: They love.
Speaker 2: People really lap romance and cheese. And I think I
Speaker 2: haven't really personally seen a lot of love stories around
Speaker 2: First Nations culture, but it's nice to see like its
Speaker 2: showcase in like physical form. I want to see more
Speaker 2: First Nations love stories on our tell you tell us
Speaker 2: a bit about your career, Delara, Like, I know you've
Speaker 2: been acting for quite a long time now. You know
Speaker 2: what was your first job? Was it a stage show
Speaker 2: or was it a was it screen?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, my first was a stage show. I did sort
Speaker 3: of kids pantomime kind of thing called Willem and A
Speaker 3: and the Seventh Bama Nui, which is a TWI play
Speaker 3: that was written by the lovely adjacent Desantish and it
Speaker 3: was about to know when the seven dwards but in
Speaker 3: twe So I got to learn about Twee culture through that.
Speaker 3: Amon Flak, who is the artistic director of Belvoir, directed it.
Speaker 3: So that was my first contact with him.
Speaker 1: Full circle moment, I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then I went to study. I think I
Speaker 3: really wanted to understand more about the craft. And I
Speaker 3: always say you learn the language of the arts through study.
Speaker 4: You really do.
Speaker 2: I had no idea like the lingo that was used
Speaker 2: and thrown around in I guess the craft of acting.
Speaker 2: But then going and studying, you just it just makes
Speaker 2: so much sense, don't you reckon? Like, so you went
Speaker 2: to NIDER how was that three years? The course a slog.
Speaker 3: Everyone has their their stories of going to drama school,
Speaker 3: but it was a real lesson for me. I found
Speaker 3: my voice in especially politically through Nider and just speaking
Speaker 3: up and just questioning the system, going why this? Why
Speaker 3: do I have to sound like this?
Speaker 5: Why?
Speaker 3: It was a lot of that, and I don't know
Speaker 3: if they got annoyed about it, But from that I
Speaker 3: came out and I did Black Comedy and Top End
Speaker 3: Wedding and another film, The Flood, and then I'd sort
Speaker 3: of just bounce between TV and stage and I think
Speaker 3: writing then started creeping in because I love Tony Morrison
Speaker 3: and she says, if there's a book that you really
Speaker 3: want to read and it hasn't been written, then it's
Speaker 3: up to you to write it. And I think that's
Speaker 3: how it came in. I've gone I have all these stories,
Speaker 3: especially through the black lens, and because I'm so close
Speaker 3: to community and I just see such amazing characters that
Speaker 3: I just want to see everybody and everything. Yes, and
Speaker 3: I go, I might as well If I have that skill,
Speaker 3: I might as well put it to practice and absolutely
Speaker 3: taking up the space.
Speaker 1: Have you got the writing bug down? Like? Are you
Speaker 1: already thinking what is the next story?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, yes, I do. I have my next story.
Speaker 3: I'm still part of balnaves Is. It's Redfernd again. They're
Speaker 3: talking about like the Red Fand trilogy, and I want
Speaker 3: to do Redfern on the Block in nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 3: in the lead up to the bise Entennial. And so
Speaker 3: I love this mixing with historic events and then just
Speaker 3: sprinkling all this sort of creative stories that are just
Speaker 3: made up around that. I find that marrying them together
Speaker 3: is so fascinating to me.
Speaker 4: Will you stay on the realm of romance?
Speaker 3: There is romance in anything, but you can sprinkle horror
Speaker 3: in that.
Speaker 4: You can.
Speaker 3: That's they're the.
Speaker 4: Tricks I know. Romance horror stories tell you.
Speaker 3: That stories can fit into anything.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love the idea of writing about love, writing about
Speaker 3: people loving black women, wanting black women, desiring them. Ah.
Speaker 3: I love it because I feel like black women are
Speaker 3: just absolutely sexy and beautiful and just like charismatic and
Speaker 3: just own themselves in there, and I think we don't
Speaker 3: give them enough love, especially in media.
Speaker 1: Absolutely no almost combating what we know about black women
Speaker 1: is it. It's like the misinterpretation, the stereotypes. It's writing
Speaker 1: what black women actually are, you know, how the media
Speaker 1: see them.
Speaker 2: I love that growing up like did you see a
Speaker 2: black woman that really inspired you, or like, did you
Speaker 2: see someone that you were like, yeah, that's a bit.
Speaker 3: Of me in my real life. I can't help but
Speaker 3: say my mother, she just she dresses up, she loves makeup,
Speaker 3: and she always looked good and just watching. When you're
Speaker 3: a kid, you're like, you get a bit of embarrassments
Speaker 3: because you just they just take up space. But then
Speaker 3: you when you're older, you going, ah, I always channel
Speaker 3: her when I want a bit of confidence.
Speaker 1: Love. It is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: I want to be that bougie mom rocking up at
Speaker 2: school pick up being like, yeah, I'm the mother.
Speaker 4: Of this daughter, big hoop earrings, you know, and I
Speaker 4: will just watch, I will. I think that's really beautiful.
Speaker 2: I feel like I am always really inspired by women
Speaker 2: who take so much pride in like what they wear
Speaker 2: and how they carry themselves.
Speaker 4: There's someone who just like walks into a room.
Speaker 2: There's a few people in my life that are like
Speaker 2: black women that I'm like, that's just you. Just you
Speaker 2: demand the room's And I think that there's not many
Speaker 2: stories about women demanding a room right, Like, I feel
Speaker 2: like if we look out what's trending and what's like
Speaker 2: streaming at the moment, like all the majority of the
Speaker 2: love stories and romance like stories are these like not
Speaker 2: to be mean, but like these basic white women who
Speaker 2: like don't have spice, spice or flavor, like give us
Speaker 2: better something like yeah literally like boiled chicken, trust God, yeah,
Speaker 2: like the love, like you said at the start of
Speaker 2: this episode, the love.
Speaker 4: Like where do we like?
Speaker 2: Everything that I see sometimes is just sometimes playing into
Speaker 2: that discourse, and I'm like, no, there's so much love
Speaker 2: in our communities.
Speaker 4: Like go and watch a Black fellow pipe play. You
Speaker 4: will see and feel the love that we have not
Speaker 4: just for.
Speaker 2: One another, but like for our life and for living
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And I am yeah.
Speaker 3: I always say that, especially with survival, I think we
Speaker 3: forget that love has gotten us this far. If it
Speaker 3: wasn't for the love of our people, the love of
Speaker 3: our family, the love of our land, also black people
Speaker 3: falling in love for us to exist, it is I
Speaker 3: think we sort of forget that that it isn't like
Speaker 3: you when you have auntie love and they have your back,
Speaker 3: you just truly it's big warm hugs and or even
Speaker 3: when you want to be held accountable, that is also
Speaker 3: through love Jarring. Yeah, and I know you can be
Speaker 3: better than this, and that is through just the love
Speaker 3: of somebody seeing you. And I think I really wanted
Speaker 3: to write something where a lot of people felt seen
Speaker 3: and it wasn't about the sort of stereotypes of what
Speaker 3: being black is but underneath it all because it's living
Speaker 3: day after day in this space as a black person,
Speaker 3: and that is the rollercoaster.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that you've given that breath of fresh air
Speaker 1: to the industry in terms of this writing and the
Speaker 1: themes that it covers. I think for so long, theater
Speaker 1: companies in particular have invested in trauma of our community.
Speaker 1: Then the highlighting you know, important historical things like through
Speaker 1: Stolen you know that play, but also there's a lot
Speaker 1: of spotlight on the deficit or the trauma that has
Speaker 1: caused to our community. And I think what you've done
Speaker 1: beautifully is that you're highlighting our joy and it's just
Speaker 1: as important, if not more, you know, to be able
Speaker 1: to show that part of our community. I want to
Speaker 1: know what's on the horizon for you. So you've just
Speaker 1: you know, open black. I was gonna say, black girls
Speaker 1: don't cry, black girls don't big girls don't cry. Would
Speaker 1: you love it to tour?
Speaker 3: And if so, yeah, I think I'll ownly tour it
Speaker 3: if I have the same company, because we've just created
Speaker 3: such a family during this process, and I think none
Speaker 3: of us would know what to do if it wasn't
Speaker 3: all of us. Yes, but I will, like I really hope.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 3: I just the feedback that I've gotten from I had
Speaker 3: a mum tell me that her three girls went to
Speaker 3: the school show, and three Aboriginal girls, and they walked
Speaker 3: out of it so like with pride and just loving themselves.
Speaker 3: And I think that is so important, and the importance
Speaker 3: of arts and telling stories like this is to empower
Speaker 3: your people. I just wanted to empower going you belong here,
Speaker 3: we love you, we need you.
Speaker 4: That's just beautiful.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to, like a lot of your future writings, Stellara,
Speaker 2: this is going to be exciting. Would you publish anything
Speaker 2: like the book?
Speaker 3: You know what I think right now, I sky's the limits.
Speaker 3: I would never do it myself, and if it happens,
Speaker 3: it happens like Big Girls is now a published play,
Speaker 3: which is unbelievable. I would love to then go into film,
Speaker 3: like film has always been my first passion It's like
Speaker 3: my first access to storytelling is through films. I'm my
Speaker 3: family and I are big fans of Eddie Murphy, and
Speaker 3: so you can sort to tell my writing like Coming
Speaker 3: to America is a romantic comedy. It is this crazy
Speaker 3: comedy with this romance that is filtered through.
Speaker 4: I haven't been that film in so long.
Speaker 1: Please watch What's the Golden Thing? The Golden penis.
Speaker 2: Trust just thinking about something else.
Speaker 3: But I completely like being on stage and doing these
Speaker 3: really important stories that you understand these stories need to
Speaker 3: go out. But then you're as a performer, as a
Speaker 3: black faller, you're sort of left empty because you're pouring
Speaker 3: so much out to an audience that you feel like
Speaker 3: it's falling on deaf is sometimes especially towards a predominantly
Speaker 3: white audience, and I think there's a distance between them
Speaker 3: and they're watching. It feels like they're watching through a
Speaker 3: glass window where big girls because I we talk about
Speaker 3: the trojan horse, like you use the romance as the
Speaker 3: trojan horse, so they're sort of invested in that romance.
Speaker 3: And then all these politics then comes through, unsurprisingly because
Speaker 3: I go, yeah, my politics is always there, but you're
Speaker 3: also want to go on dates, and you also want
Speaker 3: to read romance and you want to escape and you
Speaker 3: want to and we should have the right to do
Speaker 3: that just as much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what would you say, I guess to the people
Speaker 2: that you know who are behind those sort of glass windows, like,
Speaker 2: what would you say to them to entice them to
Speaker 2: like watch Big Girls Don't Cry?
Speaker 3: What do you lose in wanting to invest in Aboriginal people?
Speaker 3: You don't lose anything. You actually gain so much if
Speaker 3: you step two, feed in and just want to go
Speaker 3: on this roller coaster that is Big Girls Don't Cry,
Speaker 3: Cry Cry Cry. That was really Australian. That sounds like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's I always ask that going You don't lose anything,
Speaker 3: but you gained so much. But it has to be
Speaker 3: up to the individual and how much you want to.
Speaker 3: You only can go as deep as you are as
Speaker 3: deep to yourself. Yeah that's and when whatever comes up,
Speaker 3: it's like go away, then unpack it. But to see
Speaker 3: Aboriginal women do things that are very similar to you
Speaker 3: when it comes to love, when it comes to friendship, going,
Speaker 3: we're not that far apart, especially in social life, but
Speaker 3: we then have this really deep rooted history that we
Speaker 3: carry with us forever, and I think that's something very
Speaker 3: beautiful in our survival, that we can still stand here
Speaker 3: and be so kind and still be so loving and
Speaker 3: still want to be generous.
Speaker 1: I think that's actually paramount to your character as well.
Speaker 1: You know, these values that you're talking about your character
Speaker 1: in the play very much is that, you know. I
Speaker 1: think the way you've done brilliantly is in society, I
Speaker 1: find that when you're talking about First Nations affairs, it
Speaker 1: can be very polarizing. So you've created this love story,
Speaker 1: as you said, and you've given so much context to
Speaker 1: why these characters are the way they are that there's
Speaker 1: a huge learning for people who aren't a part of
Speaker 1: our community, you know, historically in terms of the things
Speaker 1: that you're bringing up, like you know, even the time period,
Speaker 1: the time of Redfern, the war that's currently that's happening
Speaker 1: in Vietnam, you know, all these little moments that really
Speaker 1: pop you back in that time and place. And I
Speaker 1: feel like you've done it so intricately where it's like
Speaker 1: some people will zone out if it's shoved down their throats,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think that's something to consider as
Speaker 1: the First Nation's you know, playwright you know, and I
Speaker 1: think you've considered it so well. It's like it's so
Speaker 1: welcoming the sense of like I'm in the story. I'm
Speaker 1: getting the things that I need to be aware of
Speaker 1: when it comes to like first nations people and.
Speaker 4: Giving context and context.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it doesn't feel like you're being like you
Speaker 1: are wrong.
Speaker 2: You're you know, stating facts, probably stating facts not coming
Speaker 2: from like too much of an emotional thing of you know,
Speaker 2: like you're putting these moments in history. I've never in
Speaker 2: the play, but like I can imagine you're stating these
Speaker 2: facts and then being like yeah, but like look at
Speaker 2: this is beautiful, this all this other stuff, and it's like, yeah, again,
Speaker 2: you're not like polarizing it to like pointing the finger,
Speaker 2: I guess, And like there's I believe like all of
Speaker 2: these stories, like you know, other plays and other films
Speaker 2: and other books and stuff, they all kind of entwine
Speaker 2: and they all kind of come rooted from history.
Speaker 4: But it's how you tell it in first.
Speaker 2: But then also it's all a ripple in the ocean,
Speaker 2: Like you know, someone might not know anything watch your
Speaker 2: play and be like oh shit, yeah that happened, or
Speaker 2: might like go do some research and then actually go
Speaker 2: down a rabbit hole of actually like researching and understanding
Speaker 2: and educating themselves.
Speaker 4: It's all just part of the bigger picture. Staff.
Speaker 1: Touching on that, Brooklyn, one thing that you just brought
Speaker 1: to mind was the fact that you really humanize us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I think that one thing that people will walk away
Speaker 1: with is they see us through all the moments that
Speaker 1: you've written as more human and I think that is
Speaker 1: such a powerful thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just saying, going the relationship to the
Speaker 3: audience to the characters is that you're learning the same
Speaker 3: time as the characters are learning. Yes, Ernie's probably because
Speaker 3: he's going to university and so he's really well read
Speaker 3: and trying, but he's still trying to understand what's happening.
Speaker 3: And he has this sort of hope for the revolution
Speaker 3: and we can do this and we can do that,
Speaker 3: but he's still very learning, and then at the same
Speaker 3: time can't talk to women. He sort of bumbles about
Speaker 3: with his words. Cheryl is very flawed, and I think
Speaker 3: writing Aboriginal characters are also flawed. So we don't have
Speaker 3: the answer and we're just trying to figure this out.
Speaker 3: This is our first time living on this planet, living
Speaker 3: this life, and so of course you're going to I
Speaker 3: think I have the answer, but that is the wrong time,
Speaker 3: wrong place, and then you just try again. And I
Speaker 3: think having an audience spond in that kind of way
Speaker 3: of just going, oh, I feel for them in a
Speaker 3: human way because they're just doing very human stuff and
Speaker 3: the circumstances just change.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll Speaking of audiences, I know that you've probably
Speaker 1: got to play today. You've got a matine right, a
Speaker 1: matinee and a show tonight, so we're going to have
Speaker 1: to wrap this up. I've been getting the wrap up.
Speaker 1: I know that you're supposed to be over at the theater,
Speaker 1: But thank you so much for spending time with us stage, Alara.
Speaker 1: Such a wonderful piece of work to you that you've
Speaker 1: written and that you've created. I feel like it's one
Speaker 1: to go down in the history books in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, creating a path for black Joy on stage.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think that that.
Speaker 1: Is really inspiring.
Speaker 3: So I'm happy to take that on and write more
Speaker 3: Black Joy and Black Love. I am more than happy
Speaker 3: to stay that way.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love it. Thank you so much for your time,
Speaker 1: and anyone who wants to see the play. When does
Speaker 1: it wrap?
Speaker 3: We finish up on the twenty seventh of April, so
Speaker 3: it's only been a short season. So get in.
Speaker 1: Getting while you can, Okay. And I know that the
Speaker 1: wonderful Ian Michael is the director and he's missing closing
Speaker 1: because he's going to be a Beyoncely.
Speaker 4: Yes that I go.
Speaker 3: You know what, you better be on that plane.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you so much, sir, haven't you much