After an award-winning world premiere in 2020, Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison’s ‘The Visitors’ will be returning to the stage this month, in a brand-new way.
For Harrison, the story of ‘The Visitors’ came from “a smash of a few different ideas”.
“I had been thinking about my response to the Northern Territory Intervention which happened in 2007, and I’d been thinking about how that portrayed Aboriginal men in particular and problematised them, and at the same time, I saw the play ‘Twelve Angry Men’, and I thought that was a really interesting plot progression,” she said.
“It was also the fact that there hadn’t been a story about the arrival of the first fleet, but from a First Nations perspective.”
‘The Visitors’ tells the story of seven clan leaders, who have gathered on the shore of Sydney Cove to decide on their response to the arrival of the first fleet – will they send them away, or welcome them to the country?
Ultimately, Harrison said her goal for the play was to get people thinking about January 26 from an Aboriginal point of view.
“I really wanted to write a play that showed Aboriginal people with agency, and control over their destiny,” she said.
“Colonisation is something that happened to Aboriginal people without consultation, so what would have happened, and how could we reimagine those circumstances if Aborignal people actually had agency, and a say over what happened next?”
According to Harrison, getting the play to its stage debut was a lengthy process – but it was worth the wait.
“I started writing it in 2011, and it took until 2020 to get to the stage, and I think that’s because at the time, there wasn’t a lot of interest in plays about men in particular – there seemed to be more awareness in the theatre world that women’s stories needed to be told, and women needed to be at the helm of those stories,” she said.
“It was really amazing. It was a sold-out season, and it won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work.”
After the pandemic meant that ‘The Visitors’ wasn’t able to go on tour, Harrison is excited to see a new, evolved version being brought to the stage, directed by one of Australia’s most celebrated directors, Quandamooka man Wesley Enoch, and starring Wiradjuri actor Luke Carroll, Wiradjuri and Gamilaraay actor Beau Dean Riley Smith, and Gumbaynggirr and Wiradjuri actor Dalara Williams.
“The director and the cast have worked together to bring in local Dharug language into the story, and so it starts in language, and it ends in an echo of language, just showing the continuity and resilience of language. I think it’s the first play to have that Dharug language in it, which is really important,” she said.
“This cast includes female performers as well, which the original didn’t!”
Though she expects audiences to be enthralled by the incredible staging, lighting and acting, Harrison said she can’t wait for people to step into First Nations perspectives when watching ‘The Visitors’.
“Right now is a time when we’re talking about how society views First Nations people, and whether we have a voice, and I think this is an opportunity to see something from a First Nations perspective that talks about agency and voice and resilience, and all of those other qualities that are really important,” she said.
“I’ve had people say to me that the last speech in the play has so much grace and is so generous, so people aren’t going to be beaten over the head with an angry story – it’s got a lot of humour in it as well, it’s very gentle storytelling, but powerful.”
‘The Visitors’ will be on at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta from Thursday, October 19 to Saturday, October 21. Tickets are $66. To book, visit riversideparramatta.com.au.
Troy Dodds is Parra News' Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia’s leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.