The Visitors

The Visitors
By Jane Harrison. Sydney Theatre Company and Moogahlin Performing Arts. Director: Wesley Enoch. Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House. 15 Sept – 14 Oct, 2023, then Riverside Theatres, October 19 - 21 and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, October 25 to 28.

The leaders of seven clans of the Eora nation meet on a rocky sandstone cliff in January 1788. It is hot, humid, and strange clouds wisp in the summer-blue sky. Their eyes keep returning to the east where big nawi with high masts have sailed into their pristine harbour.

Some of them have seen these giant nawi before. Their memories are not happy, especially the leader of the Gadigal clan, whose memories are sad – and bitter. Why have these nawi returned? What do these strange ‘pale’ people want? Will they have the loud weapons that frightened the white cockatoos last time they came?

I remember seeing Jane Harrison’s first play Stolen at Belvoir St in the late 1990s. The gut-wrenching impact of five lonely, confused kids, with their little suitcases, standing beside a line of metal beds is with me still. It is a seminal work. It set the stage for a different view, told by clear, new, confident voices. Voices that weren’t afraid of the truth, or confrontation.

In The Visitors, Harrison imagines those voices two hundred and thirty-five years ago – and she does so in true story-telling tradition, through words, movement, changes in style … and humour. The dialogue is clear, precise, the fusion of English and language drawn from the Bidjigal dialect an effective dramatic device. So too is the use of juxtaposition, which Harrison uses to cross time and cultures. Gentle ‘talking stick’ discussion is juxtaposed with formal meeting procedures (interrupted by contemporary, humorous asides!); modern dress is juxtaposed with bare feet.

Lily Shearer and Liza-Mare Syron of the Moogahlin company call The Visitors “a work of speculative historical fiction”. It has been workshopped, performed and reworked under the guidance of cultural elders and various dramaturgs, directors and actors since 2013.

This production, on Bennelong Point, is its newest iteration – and it is a powerful production.

Designer Elizabeth Gadsby ensures her set is part of that power, a rocky shore under a towering sandstone cliff. An arrangement of native flowers sits incongruously atop the centre rock. Middens of seashells lead towards the shoreline. Karen Norris lets light play and glint on nooks and crannies in the cliff face. Brendon Boney enhances the feel of summer with the trill of birdsong …  and the increasing number of vessels arriving with ominous rolls of thunder.

Wesley Enoch directs with a much experienced and sensitive hand. He uses the dance and movement that is central to indigenous storytelling to make the action and words blend and grow. His eye for balance and rhythm is evident again and again in dramatic moments, with seven actors poised, still, watching. Or standing apart, heads high, arguing their case.

Joseph Wunujaka Althouse plays Lawrence, the youngest of the tribal representatives, who brings messages from his elders in Botany Bay where the fleet of eleven nawi dropped anchor some days before. Althouse finds the awkwardness and self-consciousness of youth in his shy looks, but moves with lithe energy when standing up for his tribe – and telling of the person he saw when he rowed his own nawi under the side of the tall ship. His description of the convict sneezing over the side of the ship and the sounds of the animals in the hold are beautiful interpretations of Harrison’s writing and Enoch’s direction.

Luke Carroll is Gordon, the impatient Sydney Cove man, who remembers too well the last lot of ‘visitors’ that he watched arriving as a ten-year-old – and the result of interaction with them. Carroll moves restlessly, anxious for action, easily angered – and reluctantly brought back to rational discussion.  As more ships arrive, and small nawi pulls out, he takes a firm stand, fiercely defensive and proud.

Kyle Morrison is the reasonable elder, Joseph of the Northern Parramatta River mob. Morrison finds Joseph’s gentleness and the thoughtful perception of age and logic – all of which is tempered by his memories and the stories that he holds. Morrison shows those qualities in moments of stillness and thought as he watches the clouds and the dangers that seem to sound in the thunder.

Gary, played with calm equanimity by Guy Simon, represents the Headlands of the Bay Clan. Gary is an arbiter, a negotiator. Simon makes him quick and watchful, breaking heated discussion, curbing dissent, ensuring everyone is heard. It’s not an easy job, and Enoch has him moving from one place to another, sometimes high on a rock, sometimes almost out of sight, but always watching and trying to keep control.

Beau Dean Riley Smith is stylishly nimble as Albert, from the South Shore Clan. Albert is a thinker, but also a mover and shaker and Smith moves him in swift, low strides, or sits him low, carefully watching, his bright eyes darting from one speaker to another. He’s perceptive, fair, a peacekeeper.

The inimitable Elaine Crombie plays Jaky of the Manly-Cove North Shore Clan. Jaky does not really want to take part in this discussion. She’s one for action, not talk – and Crombie makes this clear with cheeky interjections, persistent interruptions and bored eye-rolling. Jaky is the ‘balance’ in the group, the one who ‘takes the mickey’ and Crombie revels in this sassy role.

Dalara Williams is Wallace, of the River mob. Before the others arrive, she sits on a low rock, weaving a basket and staring intently out to sea. She ignores the arrival of the others, her attention beyond them. What she is thinking about is the idea that throws the others into confusion. What if the strangers need help? Or bring new ideas? Williams explains her thoughts calmly, rationally. She wants to trust … but understands the fears and reservations of the others. Wallace is the voice of reason … and Williams finds that in a gentle, convincing performance.

The Visitors, in the words of Wesley Enoch, “takes us back to the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove and ask: ‘what if’ that moment was different?” What if …   

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Daniel Boud

The Visitors plays at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House until 14 October. More information here; The Visitors will tour to Riverside Theatres from October 19 to 21; and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from October 25 to 28.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.