Review: BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN: THE TRADITIONAL OWNER OF DEATH Is New Superhero Ready To Right The Wrongs Of The Past

Monday 21st May 2018, 7:30pm Wharf 2 Theatre Walsh Bay

Nakkiah Lui latest offering BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN: THE TRADITIONAL OWNER OF DEATH is a hilarious superhero story all of Australia needs to see. Combining live action, animation, and video footage, Declan Greene delivers a captivating convergence of comedy and cultural history as revenge and retribution is remarkably justified.

Following on from her successful light-hearted family comedy BLACK IS THE NEW WHITE, Lui delivers a darker comedy centred on an unlikely superhero hell bent on revenge. Australian Aboriginal archaeologist Dr Jacqueline Black (Megan Wilding) has been engaged to ensure that the site for the new Invitro Inc laboratories is clear of any historic or cultural significance so construction can commence but the discovery of a mass grave is set to derail the determined Mr Dennison's (Ash Flanders) development. It transpires that the grave is of Black's ancestors including her great great grandmother (Elaine Crombie) who proceeds to visit Black through visions, projected onto the white surfaces of Elizabeth Gadsby's set. The orphan Black is acquainted with her family history, the sickeningly brutal bloody murder of her great great grandmother and her mob at the hands of a four white men and her great great grandmother tasks her with seeking revenge to right the wrongs done to them. The challenge lies with the fact that great great grandmother wants all of the quartet's decedents decimated within one moon cycle and Black is a mild mannered scientist that isn't really in a condition to wage war on 400 strangers but becomes motivated to take on the mantle of Blackie Blackie Brown and take justice into her own hands.

The story plays out as live performance interacting with Oh Yeah Wow's animation and video so Gadsby has created a white stage presented on a relatively steep incline with a regular pattern of square 'tiles' that allow for an array of entrances and exits along with hiding other secrets. The work crosses a number of genres and therefore the animation draws on traditional comic strip captioning, anime imagery, classic arcade and computer game references, corny B-grade cinematic strategies, science fiction film scene setting and traditional Aboriginal artwork whilst also incorporating a number of television news headline snippets presented by Amelia Adams, Luke Carroll and Hugh Riminton. Verity Hampson's lighting helps build suspense as spotlights flash at the audience, mysterious shadows are created and focus is drawn to the images of paths, blood splatter and various places. The mood is heightened further by Steve Toulmin's cinematic compositions and sound design that utilises attention grabbing chords, seat rumbling bass, arcade game themes and classic cartoon sound effects.

Megan Wilding delivers a brilliant performance of the modern day feminine version of Clark Kent/Superman as she creates a likable nerdy Dr Jacqueline Black and a formidable fighter Blackie Blackie Brown. She weaves through the high comedy and the weighty seriousness of the role with an ease that has the audience roaring with laughter and shocked and horrified at the atrocities inflicted on her forbearers which she presents with an honesty and frankness that will force some to realise the real truth of the past, not the whitewashed versions history books have taught previous generations. Whilst Wilding isn't the usual svelte superhero favoured by Marvel and DC Comics this just proves to be another barrier she breaks with wonderful physical humour as she dons a Aboriginal Flag corset, satin bomber jacket, blue hair and white painted mask after great great grandmother has gotten her fight ready.

Stepping into all the other roles, which for the most part span the multitude of offspring from the four murderous white men, Ash Flanders is fabulously funny. With the aid of Gadsby's costume variations, Flanders ensures that each character is distinctive if not absurd. From the clearly camp pretentious millennial that thinks that boasts about seeing indigenous theatre makes up for racist attitudes, to the obnoxious Dennison, in safari suit and pith helmet, who fails to show Dr Black any respect, the bigoted bent cop and the deceitful politician, Flanders draws roars of laughter along with cringes of contempt towards the vileness of the racism that still runs through their veins. His stand out moments come as he takes on the roles of a descendent with a conscience and the evil mastermind behind the plot to murder Blackie Blackie Brown.

Contemplating issues of hero worship in popular culture, media manipulation and the increasing lack of integrity in sourcing legitimate voices to comment on issues, and the dirty side of politics that prefers votes over honesty, BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN: THE TRADITIONAL OWNER OF DEATH raises the question of whether it really is wrong to want revenge. Whilst western stories of good and bad often sees comic book characters dolling out their own form of justice, all too often does western white culture try to tell the descendants of the land's first inhabitants worldwide to forgive and move on without fully understanding or acknowledging the real reason of the hurt and resentment. This is an interesting and amusing piece of theatre that holds important messages on how we as a society can learn from the past and how we can move forward to right the wrongs of our ancestors.

BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN: THE TRADITIONAL OWNER OF DEATH

Wharf 2 Theatre

12 May - 30 June 2018

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