Award winning play looks at first fleet arrival

Published on 05 August 2024

An award-winning new play which looks at the arrival of the first fleet in 1788, from an indigenous perspective, is coming to Rockhampton as part of a national tour.

The Visitors, a co-production between Moogahlin Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company won awards for Best Mainstage Production and Best Ensemble at the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards.

The Visitors, by Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison, directed by Quandamooka man Wesley Enoch, provides an insight into the way communities respond to change and the unknown.

The play is set on a sweltering day in 1788, with seven clan leaders gathering on a sandstone escarpment overlooking the harbour. The attendees, six of them Elders and one new initiate, catch-up, laugh together, share a meal and compare notes. But beyond the friendly banter, protocols, and hospitality, a momentous decision is waiting to be made. A mysterious fleet of giant nawi is amassing in the harbour and as they creep closer, these seven representatives must choose unanimously: whether to send these strangers on their way or welcome them?

Director Wesley Enoch said that The Visitors simultaneously leads audiences to a past and a preferred future.

“It takes us back to the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove and asks: ‘what if’ that moment was different? What if there was a way for the visitors to hear the generous message of welcome? What if they understood the power of connection to Land for the First Peoples?” he said.

“We are surrounded by the need for discussion and debate. We have friendly disagreements all the time, we argue and oppose sometimes for very personal reasons as we clash over values and ideology but as a society the key is finding some way forward rather than being paralysed by division,” Enoch said.

This is the first time a Moogahlin Performing Arts production has come to Rockhampton. The company was formed on Gadigal country in Redfern NSW in November 2007 by a group of First Peoples performance artists, educators, and community workers. Its aim is to Develop and produce cross-cultural and interdisciplinary new performance work by First Peoples.

The Visitors is presented by Rockhampton Regional Council. It will be performed at the Pilbeam Theatre on Thursday 5 September 2024 at 7.30pm.

More information, including interviews with playwright and director, is available from www.seeitlive.com.au/thevisitors

Patron advice: Infrequent coarse language, themes of racial violence, descriptions of violence, intergenerational trauma, and theatrical haze.