Black Diggers

This is an Australian indigenous variation on Oh, What a Lovely War! — the groundbreaking 1960s theatrical critique of British upper class corruption and incompetence in World War I. Creator Joan Littlewood had plundered a rich back catalogue of bouncy popular songs and famously chose to dress her doomed combatants as end-of-the-pier pierrots.

Wesley Enoch, brilliant Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company, has far grimmer songs at his disposal and has dressed his versatile cast in the greys and khakis and mud of the trenches. The horror and outrage of this senseless war hits hard, as does the mindless prejudice experienced by aboriginal soldiers before, during and after tough service to their country.

As with Lovely War!, there is no plot. Black Diggers is a kaleidoscope of images and sketches assembled by Tom Wright, the result of much research among public archives, personal letters, military records, ‘family lore’. The ‘60 scenes’ are shared among nine performers, who sometimes play black, sometimes white, sometimes German, sometimes Indian. Sometimes this can be confusing.

Against a stark setting (by Stephen Curtis) of wood and graffiti-filled walls, there are scenes of enlisting, where these young men of Queensland and Inner Sydney display zero knowledge of the world situation (Why fight? “Buggered if we know!”). Blithely giving false names and affirming that they are, as required, “substantially European”, they sail off to the hideous consequences of the five-year conflict.

After challenging scenes at the various fronts (GALLIPOLI, PASSCHENDAELE, MESSINA, POZIERES, etc. are added to the walls), their return home is again blighted by colour hatred. “You’re the worst kind of black,” says an employer to an outraged returned serviceman, “an uppity one!” It would be many years before these men could claim Australian citizenship, and we feel this deeply on the cast’s behalf.

The staging is always fluid and the acting is wholehearted and unpretentious. Lighting (Ben Hughes) and non-stop Sound Design (Tony Brumpton) are excellent.

This world premiere night at the Opera House was attended by the Governor-General of Australia, plus the Premier and the Governor of NSW. All joined in a standing ovation.

Frank Hatherley

The production joins the QTC season at the Playhouse, 24 September to 12 October.

Photographer: Jamie Williams