Brothers Wreck

Jada Alberts’ Brothers Wreck is a relatively new indigenous Australian play that has had highly successful seasons in Sydney and Melbourne. This production come from the Malthouse, Melbourne, and is part of the South Australian Theatre Company’s 2018 season. It is wonderful that Geordie Brookman managed to secure this production for South Australia, otherwise we may not have seen such an important new indigenous play.

This production has been staged in the Odeon Theatre, Norwood, the new home for the Australian Dance Theatre. This is completely understandable as the dimensions of the Odeon stage and auditorium complement, to a certain extent, the dimensions of the Malthouse. Subsequently, Dale Ferguson’s impressive metallic prison-like box-set works perfectly in the Odeon Theatre.

Right from the very beginning you sense you are in a harsh, enclosed world. The characters in this play are trapped inside a non-conforming world and the incessant rain that pours relentlessly down outside this box does not encourage engagement beyond the walls – and yes, it really does rain.

This is a play about coming to terms and accepting a brother’s suicide. As Jada Alberts states in the program notes, this play is ‘in part, a love letter to my family’. Whilst Jada Alberts is most certainly talking about her own family, nonetheless, the issues raised in this play, particularly the fear of losing one’s sense of identity, reach out to embrace her indigenous brothers and sisters across Australia. It is, however, Jada Alberts’ extraordinary insight into grief and depression that lifts the play into the universal so that it embraces the entire human condition.

Unless we have experienced it, none of us really knows how we would deal with the suicide of a loved one and the subsequent grief that follows; such a thing is too unpredictable.

The central character in this play is Ruben, a twenty-something indigenous man who was there in the family home when his brother decided to kill himself. Ruben seems detached from the whole experience. He is in trouble with the law, and is going through counseling with an aboriginal senior. However, Ruben cannot open himself up to attend to his family’s needs that include having a sick mother in the local hospital. The rage, anger and frustration Ruben feels cut him off from any help. He defies family, friends and the law. What is cleverly captured in this play is that there is no real logic to this form of grief. It is only towards the end of the taut 90-minute drama that Ruben unlocks and his grief and sense of guilt is released. Now the true healing process can begin.

Dion Williams is simply superb as Ruben. Incredibly, Brothers Wreck is his theatre debut. This is an extremely difficult role to play as Ruben is, essentially, what can be called ‘a passive hero’. These are often the most difficult characters to feel any true empathy for, as they do not drive the dramatic narrative but rather are generally reacting to thing that others do to them. Dion Williams brings a variation to Ruben’s rage and anger that is mesmeric to watch from the start. To draw a domestic analogy – he was like a red rag in washing machine.

He is ably supported by the other members of the cast, some of whom are also making their theatrical debuts. It would be remiss of me, however, not to draw attention to two experienced indigenous Australian actors – Lisa Flanagan and Trevor Jamieson – who are both terrific in this play, playing respectively the senior characters of ‘Auntie’ Petra and David, the counselor. These characters, as well, I suspect, these actors, provide a wonderful balance to the chaos of the younger characters in performances of such beautiful depth, grace and understanding. Lisa Flanagan’s Petra in particular provides a vivid and often hilarious performance of the aboriginal ‘auntie’, who the general Australian audience now recognizes, knows, and acknowledges as a character archetype within indigenous social customs and ethics and who holds considerable influence – and humour. It was also, I must admit, a bit of a relief to finally have two mature adult characters in the narrative who were not ‘the enemy’ of the young.

This excellent production has been directed by Jada Alberts, with a terrific creative team that includes Dale Ferguson (Set and Costume), Chris Petridis (Lighting Design) and Kelly Ryall (Composer and Sound Design).

I thoroughly recommend you take the wonderful opportunity to see and support this excellent new indigenous Australian drama, writer/director and cast.

Tony Knight

Photographer: Tim Grey