When poverty forces William Thornhill (Nathaniel Dean) into crime in order to save his wife Sal (Georgia Adamson) and their two young boys from starvation, he avoids death by hanging by choosing the lesser of two evils as dictated by the law of the land of hope and glory: a pardon and immediate transportation to Australia where he must spend the remainder of his threescore years and ten.
So when he casts his eye on what he believes to be an unclaimed plot of land ripe for farming (albeit a trade to which he is unaccustomed), he draws a line in the sand and calls it home. A blank page on which to write a bright and better tomorrow. A far cry from the squalor of ignorance and want, which blighted his life in London.
However, a few puffs of smoke in the distance suggest he is not the first to work the soil. As does the presence of the all-seeing but unseen shadows which shift in the dark like a slow-moving river. Step forward Yalamundi (Major “Moogy” Sumner), an elder from a native tribe with whom Thornhill and his fellow settlers must choose to co-exist or overpower.
Unfortunately, for the Dharug people and by extension the future of the nation, he refuses to follow in the footsteps of his youngest son Dick (Toby Challenor) who offers a hand of friendship through peaceful play, but instead beats a different and more destructive path driven by fear. Fear that if he doesn’t tame the “savages” and reap the benefits of their land, he will return to a life of brutal poverty.
Andrew Bovell’s stage adaptation of Kate Grenville’s Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name for Sydney Theatre Company is one of the most accomplished pieces of storytelling to have graced an Edinburgh International Festival stage in recent years.
Each line of dialogue is poetically-crafted and perfectly weighted. The 20-strong cast led by Dhirrumbin (Ningali Lawford-Wolf) as the soulful witness to the unfolding tragedy deliver measured and compelling performances (albeit with a few rogue accents which detract somewhat from the drama). And director Neil Armfield together with composer Iain Grandage and live musician Isaac Hayward provide just enough breathing space to allow the audience to absorb the tragic conflict and its contemporary resonance.
The most powerful and memorable image being the sight of five settlers, with imaginary guns in hand, walking towards the audience as their grotesque shadows swell against the giant backcloth of Stephen Curtis’s minimalist set (beautifully lit by Mark Howlett) and their angry voices rise to the discordant tune of London Bridge Is Falling Down.
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