Brothers Wreck

Jada Alberts’ first play was inspired by a suicide within her family in Darwin and her fear of so-called suicide contagion. Hence the title of her play: named after kindred shipwrecks nestling together at the bottom of Darwin harbour.

Young fisherman Ruben struggles to deal with the suicide of his cousin; his mother is dead, his father gone AWOL and the aunt who adopted him battles for life in hospital. Ruben’s turned to drink, courts police arrest and mournfully keeps returning to the scene of the suicide.

The strongest scenes in Alberts’ moving story are when Ruben resists the entreaties of his councillor (Cramer Cain) to open up, and mocks all the orthodoxies to help indigenous youth.  But the play overwhelmingly stays focused on this family, and Dale Ferguson’s domestic ground space under the house’s sleeping areas above.  Fantastic rain, frogs and other Darwin sounds from Brendan O’Brien further bring home a sense of place.

Luckily for Ruben, he has the straight-talking love of cousin Adele (Rarriwuy Hick), the mateship of her partner Jarrod (Bjorn Stewart) and the matriarchal harangue of another aunt, Petra (a wonderfully arch Lisa Flanagan), who drove up from Alice Springs for the job.

They all lecture and swear at Ruben; they tease and cajole him in amusing dialogue skillfully captured by Alberts.  Aboriginal Australians, we see again, have that great propensity to laugh into grief as do other often alienated communities (think Jewish and gay humour). Eventually, Ruben confides to his cousin’s ghost and, inexplicably, all is cured and the play leaps to an optimistic end.

Director Leah Purcell fosters strong performances from all although some of the shifts to locations beyond the house are misplaced.  Redeeming all is the mesmerising, central performance of young (Bangarra) dancer/actor Hunter Page-Lochard as Ruben – he’s lithe, proud, angry and vulnerable.  An actor to watch, in a simple but tender and effective tale.

Martin Portus

Images: Hunter Page-Lochard and Bjorn Stewart & Lisa Flanagan, Rarriwuy Hick abd Bjorn Stewart. Photographer: Brett Boardman.