"Powerful Play" Arts Hub 4.5 stars.
Wamba Wamba playwright, Brodie Murray, draws on stories handed down from his grandfather and father to weave together a historical thriller that explores the contrasting relationships settlers and Blak peoples have with Country, ecology, leadership, and spirituality.
The play presents dual perspectives of the events leading up to a British ship crew's first contact with the Wamba Wamba people of the area around the Murray River.
"Soul of Possum is a thought-provoking piece that refuses to romanticise our history as it juxtaposes Anglo and indigenous responses to invasion." Stage Whispers.
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Plot / Synopsis
Three warriors advance across country. One, Marnuu is of a different tribe from the other two, Barru and Gundi. Marnuu has been warned in dreams of Possum (Voice Over) of a coming evil, but the other two scorn him: this is not his country, and they doubt that he has even been initiated.
The ’evil’ is indeed present. It’s waiting upstream: a British expeditionary force on a gunboat or ‘big canoe’ – as per Marnuu’s dream - is moored by the riverbank. The irony is that these whitefella invaders and conquerors, so superior to the ‘natives’, are deeply flawed and blinkered human beings, riven by their own conflicts.
Captain Cooper Gibbins is out of his depth and falling apart. Lieutenant Lachlan Bankes is cruel, a liar, and horny; he anticipates kidnapping native women as sex slaves. In the meantime, he has his lustful eye on the powerless convict servant Willard Yates whom he persecutes.
Observer and early anthropologist Dr Anthony Wilkins maintains a calm objectivity and minimises difficulties by studying maps and taking notes, his blinkered vision suggested by his sunglasses. All are fretting and frustrated at the practical uncertainties of their mission, their incomprehension of the ‘natives’ and this unfamiliar, forbidding – to them - country.
Cast
Marnuu/ Wirramanda/ Bes Murray
Barru/ Dindi/ Ron Murray
There are 7 characters. Ideally the four colonialist characters would be played by white actors. The casting preference for the Aboriginal characters would be actors of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage, or otherwise First Nations actors with Maori, Pacifica heritage for example.
If there are no First Nations actors available, (this applies in a school setting), diverse actors could perform the First Nations roles, but the they would need to wear performance blacks and not be painted up or wear any cultural decoration.
In a school setting, the Possum voiceover could be performed by an ensemble of actors. There are other ensemble possibilities in the script. For example the song ‘The Wild Rover’ that is sung during one scene by a colonialist character, could be performed instead as an ensemble piece”