CORANDERRK: What to Expect

is a new Australian play, a co-production from Belvoir and ILBIJERRI Theatre Company.

 The script has been written by Andrea James and Giordano Nanni, with dialogue taken verbatim from the historic transcripts of the 1881 Coranderrk Inquiry into management of Coranderrk and was developed further through a series of script workshops and throughout the rehearsal process.

 ILBIJERRI Theatre Company staged an earlier version of this play - Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, also directed by Isaac Drandic, at the Sydney Opera House in 2012 and locations in .

 The play is based on the history of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve; the experiences some Indigenous people in including that led to the Reserve being created, and on real-life testimonies provided in court at the Inquiry by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal witnesses. It is also based on oral histories and on imagining ‘between the lines’ (writer Andrea James says), giving greater value to aspects of Aboriginal history and culture which don’t make it into official court documents.

 Coranderrk runs for approximately 1 hour straight through (no interval).

 There is a cast of six actors who each play several characters, including real people who lived at Coranderrk, as well as members of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. These actors also appear as themselves at the start and end. The central character is William Barak, of the Kulin people, played by . Other crucial characters are Strickland, the manager the people sought to have dismissed & John Green, the first manager of Coranderrk, who worked with the people to make them self-determining.

 The style of the storytelling is in parts relaxed and irreverent and in other parts understated and very moving. Simple techniques including gesture, vocal differentiation, and synchronised ensemble movements are used to turn verbatim witness statements into highly charged theatre where performers transform into characters before the audience’s gaze.

 Costumes are contemporary in style but also evoke the kind of worn trousers and farm shirts that people on Coranderrk might have worn. Jack Charles as William Barak is wrapped in the central costume item of the possum skin cloak lined with a print of one of William Barak’s paintings.

 The set for this play, designed by Ruby Langton-Batty & Ralph Myers, is simple, a screen drops down on which images are projected, including photographs of real people from Coranderrk, and William Barak’s paintings and there is a bell to stage right, modelled on the original bell shown in photos of Coranderrk. The performers are seated on wooden chairs while they recreate witness testimonies from the Inquiry. Other small prop and set items are used, including blankets, a bark bowl, ferns attached to stands.

 There is no swearing or coarse language.

 There are no cigarettes smoked on stage. No haze or theatrical smoke is used in the production.

 There is one extremely brief strobe lighting flash but it has a very low impact.

 There is no nudity or sexual content and no depiction of any kind of sexual activity, not even kissing.

 Though a moment of violence is described verbally (a beating) it is not shown.

 Due to the nature of this play – drawing on original court transcripts from the Coranderrk Inquiry and statements from the Board for Protection of Aborigines, terms such as ‘half-caste’, ‘natives’ and ‘blacks’ are frequently used. Implicit and overt racism and blatant discrimination towards Indigenous people on the basis of their race alongside misunderstanding and ignorance of cultural practices and assumptions based on prejudice feature in these verbatim utterances. One purpose of the play is to call these prejudices and assumptions into question by showing the audience the story from Barak and his people’s points of view.

 Schools performance tickets are not sent out beforehand, we call schools into the theatre one by one for the performance – phone our box office on 9699 3444 if you need to check your booking.

 Students need to be briefed about theatre etiquette. This includes turning off mobiles and not eating in the theatre. We appreciate your reminding students the performance is live and that the actors see and hear them in the audience. Please ask students to show respect to the actors by not talking. We encourage laughter and natural reactions. Taking notes distracts actors and shouldn’t happen during performances.

 Schools shows are followed by a Question and Answer session with the cast. Let students know they can ask questions about aspects of the play that they don’t fully understand afterwards.