Black is the New White 

Black is the New White 
By Nakkiah Lui. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. May 5 – Jun 17, 2017

Nakkiah Lui’s new play delights with the same deliciously naughty racial lampooning as her work on ABC TV’s Black Comedy.  Here race and cultural background clashes with class as we open in the upmarket holiday home of an affluent Aboriginal family, and what promises to be an awkward Christmas reunion.

Successful lawyer Charlotte has discovered that her father, a former politician and black leader, hides an unethical past. And he’s not going to welcome the arrival of her new fiancée, Francis, who’s an impoverished musician – and white!   Second daughter, Rosie, a designer, seems a better model for black baby-making, given her husband, Sony, is a former Aboriginal star footballer, turned financier.  Mum tries to hold it all together, especially when Francis’ conservative parents arrive.

So this is a reverse Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner meets Meet the Fockers meets The Cosby Show. It’s played out on Renee Mulder’s opulently detailed, domestic TV-studio styled set, extensive with staircases and landings.  Steve Toulmin’s interludes of hearty melodies and the soapy commentary from an onstage narrator further gives a TV frame to this jolly rom com.

Lui’s drive to equally resolve the backstory and destination of all eight characters serves up a banquet of themes around gender, sexuality, cultural and class identity, and by end some mad liberations into self-determination. The play sparkles with wit and, while sometimes bogged down in over-writing and sermons on optimism, you have to admire Lui’s dense and ambitious storytelling.

Director Paige Rattray expertly orchestrates her engaging cast across the big stage and even the crazy physical comedy fits true to the TV realism.  Shari Sebbens and Kylie Bracknell are a delight as the contrasting sisters; as is James Bell as Charlotte’s wimpy white beau and Anthony Tuafa as Sony.

As the parents, Tony Briggs and Melodie Reynolds-Diarra float easily through their affluence, and as Francis’ estranged parents, Geoff Morrell and Vanessa Downing give their comic best on what for them is a very long Christmas of discovery.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Prudence Upton.

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