WEBVTT - Black actors in whiteface?

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<v Speaker 1>Two bearings into very high levels of audience participation.

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<v Speaker 2>And that makes a chill run down.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, I know, I always sit well back at those shows.

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<v Speaker 1>It's roesque for me.

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<v Speaker 2>From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Claire Harvey. For some of us, summer in Australia

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<v Speaker 2>means the beach, the cricket and a cold beer. For

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<v Speaker 2>the sophisticated readers of our review section, summer also means

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<v Speaker 2>the start of something even more scintillating festival season. First

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<v Speaker 2>on the calendar is the Sydney Festival, and today I

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<v Speaker 2>chat with my colleague Rosemary Neil. She's a Walkley Award

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<v Speaker 2>winning writer and a shortlisted author, about one of the

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<v Speaker 2>most anticipated shows at the festival, Dark Noon, complete with

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<v Speaker 2>a cast of black actors in whiteface.

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<v Speaker 3>It could have been a bad Lion King.

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<v Speaker 2>This is Lumba Malango, but through.

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<v Speaker 3>The process we chose the West End as our frame.

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<v Speaker 2>He's the co director and choreographer of Dark Moon, which

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<v Speaker 2>was created by Danish director To Beering. Dark Noon tells

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<v Speaker 2>a story of race dislocation and violence. When Malungu says

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<v Speaker 2>it could have been a bad Lion King, well that's

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<v Speaker 2>the risk you take with an all African caste and

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of singing. But this story is set in

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<v Speaker 2>of all places, America's Wild West.

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<v Speaker 3>We are the peopleations what we are.

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<v Speaker 1>Dark Moon is a retelling of the story of America's

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<v Speaker 1>Wild West from an outsider's perspective. In Dark Noon, the

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<v Speaker 1>audience sitting up the front almost become cast members. They're

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<v Speaker 1>called upon to take part in a square dance. They're

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<v Speaker 1>called upon, more controversially, to take part in a mock

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<v Speaker 1>slave auction. And this is all part of the broader

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<v Speaker 1>retelling of the settling of America's Wild West from the

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<v Speaker 1>perspective of outsiders. The key roles are performed by mostly

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<v Speaker 1>black South African actors in whiteface and bad blonde wigs.

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<v Speaker 1>And so I asked you about that. I asked, are

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<v Speaker 1>you being intentionally provocative there? Because obviously white actors in

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<v Speaker 1>blackface is absolutely forbidden, and for good reason. And he

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<v Speaker 1>sees it the whiteface as a logical extension of reversing

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<v Speaker 1>the conventions of the history and the storytelling and of

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<v Speaker 1>the cowboy genre, and in particular its romanticized view of

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<v Speaker 1>frontier history.

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<v Speaker 2>Tue Bearing describes it like this, in Europe right now,

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<v Speaker 2>debate is raging about immigration, largely from Africa and the

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<v Speaker 2>Middle East, and it's reshaping the politics of the continent.

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<v Speaker 2>But it's not so long ago, just in the past

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<v Speaker 2>two centuries that vast waves of migrants were leaving Europe

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<v Speaker 2>to try and improve their circumstances in America. They encountered

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<v Speaker 2>indigenous people and all sorts of other outsiders, Chinese gold miners, women,

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<v Speaker 2>and of course enslaved Africans. By using a South African cast,

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<v Speaker 2>obviously he brings a whole lot of other history into

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<v Speaker 2>this story. What do you think that adds to this

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<v Speaker 2>very multilhit story.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, the South African cast do tell their own stories

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<v Speaker 1>at the end. They take some of the sort of

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<v Speaker 1>motifs that you see throughout the performance, So toy guns

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<v Speaker 1>are going off all the time, for instance, and they

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<v Speaker 1>talk about the role of gun violence during and after

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<v Speaker 1>apartheid and their personal experiences of it.

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<v Speaker 3>I saw many many guns when I was young, and

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<v Speaker 3>this is not a Western movie. For me, is different.

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<v Speaker 3>It was life people who were slottering each other in

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<v Speaker 3>front of me. The most perverse thing about a part

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<v Speaker 3>date that it was law that no black person should

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<v Speaker 3>hold hands or kiss or engage in that relationship with

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<v Speaker 3>a white person.

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<v Speaker 2>Another lad that we're going to be adding to it

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<v Speaker 2>at the Sydney Festival is Australian audiences watching this in

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<v Speaker 2>a place where we have our own very complex history

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<v Speaker 2>of violence settlement. Is there particular relevance do you think

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<v Speaker 2>for an Australian audience.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, in the sense that it is challenging that sort

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<v Speaker 1>of Churchillian idea that it's the victors who get to

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<v Speaker 1>tell and control the history. So I suppose an equivalent

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<v Speaker 1>would be an aboriginal cast telling a theatricalized story of

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<v Speaker 1>the first Fleet and also the dispossession, the frontier massacres,

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<v Speaker 1>the good and the bad really come.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what the most famous American musical of the past

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<v Speaker 2>decade did. Hamilton used a black and brown cast to

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<v Speaker 2>tell the storyory of the American Revolutionary War and the

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<v Speaker 2>Founding Fathers. Does this bring Hamilton to mind for you?

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<v Speaker 1>There are definite parallels there, and I guess it's part

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<v Speaker 1>of a broader move to give a greater range of

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<v Speaker 1>people voices and a questioning of who gets to tell

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<v Speaker 1>what stories. Of course, that can sometimes cross into censoriousness

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<v Speaker 1>and political correctness. I feel in that you have people saying, well,

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<v Speaker 1>certain groups own these stories, and I don't agree with that,

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<v Speaker 1>but certainly hearing from voices that have been excluded or

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<v Speaker 1>forgotten or marginalized in riches a culture in Hamilton is

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<v Speaker 1>an example of that.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a movement that we're seeing play out in all

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<v Speaker 2>sorts of different ways in the arts at the moment.

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<v Speaker 2>So the new series of wolf Hall, The Mirror and

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<v Speaker 2>the Light is going to include a much more diverse

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<v Speaker 2>cast than the first season of wolf Hall. That this is,

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<v Speaker 2>of course, is the telling of the story of Thomas Cromwell,

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<v Speaker 2>the senior advisor to Henry the Ape in the Tutor

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<v Speaker 2>Court in the sixteenth century in England. Ah at last.

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<v Speaker 1>A man born in a more lowly state than myself, Cromwell,

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<v Speaker 1>I knew to know something about you that I didn't like.

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<v Speaker 2>Swear to be true and faithful. What's your view, Rosie,

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<v Speaker 2>about diversity in casting and how hung up we are

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<v Speaker 2>and how hung up we should be.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it's been a revolutionary move and on the

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<v Speaker 1>whole a good move. Every now and then there might

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<v Speaker 1>be a context I can think of an Australian TV drama.

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<v Speaker 1>I won't name it. You know, a rough outback town

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<v Speaker 1>that years ago you would have characterized as a bit

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<v Speaker 1>of a redneck town that sort of was presented as

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<v Speaker 1>this multicultural paradi not paradise, but you know, a melting pot.

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<v Speaker 1>And it just didn't ring true to me, much as

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<v Speaker 1>the performances were very good, Michelle, and may I have

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<v Speaker 1>this stance. On the other hand, when I watched Bridgeton

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<v Speaker 1>you mean my Lord, Initially, you know, I sat thinking, well,

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<v Speaker 1>you have black people playing aristocrats here, but the reality

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<v Speaker 1>is that black people were enslaved by these same aristocrats

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<v Speaker 1>in America, if not in Britain at the time. And

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<v Speaker 1>is that historical denihalism a good thing? But on the whole,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a fantasy. It's a romantic fantasy, and so I

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<v Speaker 1>think it was exciting to see the casting done in

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<v Speaker 1>that way. I interviewed a young Australian actress of color

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<v Speaker 1>who'd got a lead role in a musical and that

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<v Speaker 1>had normally gone to white performers. She'd said at drama

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<v Speaker 1>school she just assumed she'd only have a career as

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<v Speaker 1>a supporting actress, never as a lead. And when you

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<v Speaker 1>hear that directly from someone a young person who's full

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<v Speaker 1>of talent, working hard, that that's how they saw their

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<v Speaker 1>career going as a university student. You think, well, that's

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<v Speaker 1>just wrong. So on the whole, I think it's a

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<v Speaker 1>good thing. I can understand when people think that perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>the context is being a little distorted, suggesting that four

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<v Speaker 1>or five hundred years ago in England that yes, there

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<v Speaker 1>was this multicultural harmony and that racism wasn't the huge

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<v Speaker 1>disabling force that it was for a lot of people.

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<v Speaker 1>But then a lot of drama relies on the audience's

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<v Speaker 1>suspension of disbelief. In any case, no James Bond film

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<v Speaker 1>would work if we all sat there interpreting his talent

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<v Speaker 1>for stunts. Literally, if we didn't suspend our disbelief, we

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<v Speaker 1>wouldn't enjoy it.

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<v Speaker 2>No, he manages to emerge from the sea in a

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<v Speaker 2>wet sea, unzip it and have a perfectly pressed in

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<v Speaker 2>a suit or underneath.

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<v Speaker 4>Yes, here's perfect, exactly, Yeah yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Rosemaryneil is an absolute machine churning out the stories for

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<v Speaker 2>our review section, and every one of them is told

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<v Speaker 2>with her characteristic expert touch. You can read Rosie's work

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<v Speaker 2>and all the rest of the country's best coverage of

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<v Speaker 2>the arts by picking up the Weekend Australian at your

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<v Speaker 2>supermarket or servo, and anytime at the Australian dot com

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