The Secret River Second Time Around

This play does more to 'close the gap' than any Government report ever could

It’s not very often that you have the opportunity to attend a theatrical production that you know is going to be great – actors, directors and scripts can often promise much but significantly under-deliver. However, as I had seen the original season of STC’s The Secret River I knew that the repeat run would make for a brilliant night out. Having previously subjected my bestie to an absolutely traumatic previous theatre experience (Belvoir’s Wizard of Oz), I couldn’t wait to show her that theatre can be both art and entertainment.

The Secret River follows William Thornhill, a London thief transported to New South Wales in the early 1800s. Earning his freedom, Thornhill settles himself and his young family on what he believes to be unclaimed land on the edge of the Hawkesbury River. But the land is already inhabited by the Dharug people. What unfolds is a compelling and at times confronting story that has been played out hundreds of times in our nation’s history.

But it is the creative team who make this production truly memorable. In the same way that Julie Taymor transfigured the cartoon world of Simba in her production of The Lion King, Director, Neil Armfield, and his designers (Set Designer Stephen Curtis, Lighting Designer Mark Howett and Sound Designer Steve Francis) have given us a staging that is both practical and brilliant. The backdrop is at once a towering escarpment and an ancient gum, its branches stretching out of sight. Smouldering sticks dragged over the sandstone-coloured floor give us territories and boundaries, easily erased by childish play. Lighting transports us from river to bank, and the sounds of the bush are recreated by mouth, bucket and spade. This is theatrical play at its best.

Listing the production highlights to my friend – the brilliantly clever design elements, the interweaving musical soundtrack, and the profound performances – I saw her face slowly fall. She politely declined my invitation.

What I failed to understand in my enthusiasm for the production is that I am white. My ancestors were free settlers who built the foundations of what is now Hobart. Sure, there may be some political prisoners in my distant, Irish past, but on the whole, my family have had it pretty good. My friend, however, is descended from the Wiradjuri people, the largest Indigenous Nation within New South Wales. For her, the story of Australian colonisation is not entertainment. It triggers an anger and sorrow that I cannot adequately describe, something she was not keen on bringing to the surface.

Armfield recalls a similar encounter in his program notes, describing how Indigenous actress Ursula Yovich knocked him back twice when he asked her to join the original production. In a letter to Armfield, Yovich wrote:

“The play brings up a lot of hurt. We all know the history, what comes next. The hurt comes from the knowledge that the actions portrayed at the end of the play (although so very long ago) have had a huge domino effect, even to this day… The trauma is so deep that we believe our own worthlessness…”

Yovich did eventually relent and her performance in the first run of this play was superb. One of the reasons behind her change of heart appears to have been the sensitivity she knew Armfield and his team would bring to the production.

The strongest example of this empathetic hand is the voice that playwright Andrew Bovell has given to the Dharug people. In the original and critically acclaimed novel by Kate Grenville, from which the story is taken, the Indigenous people are kept at arm’s length from the reader. We see the events almost entirely through the eyes of Thornhill; a victim of circumstance and class who now has a chance to obtain the status and respect he covets.

In Bovell’s script, the Dharug characters are not only named, but given prominence. They open the play, letting us eavesdrop on a casual fireside conversation. They appear again at regular intervals, giving us some insight as to how they interact with the land and these strangers who have come to claim it. Through these vignettes we see that they are not so different from the whites.

We also see a vision of what could have been, of partnership and shared knowledge, depicted through the actions of the youngest Thornhill, Dick (Toby Challenor/Heath Jelovic), and the ‘first’ river settler, Blackwood (Colin Moody). Dick has yet to be indoctrinated into the world of savages and gentlemen; his innocent, child’s eyes see people who know the secrets of the land and how to work it to their advantage. Blackwood declares that his Indigenous partner is more of a wife to him than his first ever was, and suggests that Thornhill learn the principle of ‘give a little, take a little’.

But this is not a story of triumph over the wilds of the land – this is a war for territory between two tribes and we already know who will be victorious. It is easy to sit back in judgement of these early settlers and criticise their actions, but the beauty of this production is the mirror it holds up to its audience. In Thornhill (played with strength and subtlety by Nathanial Dean) we see how easily a man’s morality can shift when he has something to believe in and defend. Can any of us really say we would have acted differently? More importantly, how little of this story do we actually know?

I hope that this production triggers something in its audience – a guilt, and a profound sense of inadequacy. We should know more about these first people. We should understand their language without the need for surtitles (which I am delighted to report the production does not resort to). We should acknowledge the wrongs our forefathers committed, no matter how innocent their motives. We should be teaching this history in schools. We should be honouring Indigenous stories in our museums and galleries.

I thank Armfield and the STC for taking Thornhill’s story to another level, and my friend for helping me see it through different eyes, which at the conclusion of the play were this time filled with tears. 

Details
Viewed: 4 February 2016
Venue: Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay
Author: Kate Grenville
Adapted by: Andrew Bovell
Director: Neil Armfield
Production Company: Sydney Theatre Company