The Visitors

Presented by QPAC, this Moogahlin Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company production of Jane Harrison’s award-winning The Visitors is a must-see piece of theatre. And it is the perfect choice to kick off QPAC’s annual Clancestry First Nations Festival as a piece that celebrates indigenous connection to country while raising deep questions about our past in a drama that overflows with humour and heart.

Most of us know what happened in Australia after white colonisation. But what could we learn if we could transport ourselves back to ground zero, January 1788? What if we could hear the voices of the First Nations tribes as they gathered to watch the British Fleet sail into Sydney Harbour on that day? What if the British remit had included cooperation and learning instead of plunder and colonisation?

Jane Harrison wrote The Visitors a few years ago, but it is a story that will always be relevant. And, at just over an hour, this play is a short opportunity to acknowledge and think deeply about our past. Even if you have seen The Visitors on stage before, or enjoyed the opera adaptation, or read the novel, you will want to see this production. The script is superb – told in tribal indigenous languages (credit to Dharug/Dharawal Linguist, Corina Norman) and very modern Australian lingo – a mix of discussion and stories as seven Aboriginal leaders gather at the harbour’s shoreline to decide a consensus approach to the fleet of ships getting closer and closer to their home.

Directed by Brisbane’s own (Quandamooka peoples) acclaimed writer and director, Wesley Enoch, this cast is outstanding. I love every one of these performers and how they portray their characters with wit and wisdom. As the local Sydney Cove leader, Stephen Geronimos is Gordon. He welcomes the other mobs – representing River, Fire, South Shore, Eel Place, Manly Cove and Bay tribes – to his country for an urgent but friendly discussion on what to do about these ‘visitors’. John Blair is Joseph, the senior tribal elder and healer who has seen it all before. He’s calm about it: in the past, the Europeans came and then left. The feisty Jaky (Zoe Walters), and practical Gary (Sean Dow), ponder that these visitors will want to get back to their country. Surely they won’t stay for long!? Beau Dean Riley Smith is Albert, a technical brain who wonders what he can learn from the newcomers. Najwa Adams-Ebel, as the thoughtful Wallace, agrees. Her instincts are to heal and help. The youngest member of the clan meeting group, Lawrence (James Slee) has already had his own secret contact with the visitors. What light can he shed? Or has he already gotten too close?

The impending drama of the approaching fleet is brilliantly brought to life by these wonderful performers. An approaching storm also signals the danger, with sound design by Brendon Boney and lighting design by Karen Norris. Set and costume design by Elizabeth Gadsby creates a beautiful shoreline stage setting that is perfect, and the costumes are used in a unique way to represent the different clans and challenge our thinking about First Nations societies at the time of the invasion

The Visitors is presented as part of QPAC’s Clancestry First Nations Festival, which runs until 10 August 2025. Its very limited season has only five more performances, so quickly book your tickets for this moving theatre experience.

Find out more: www.qpac.com.au/whats-on/2025/clancestry-the-visitors

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Stephen Wilson Barker