Review: How To Start Healing Old Wounds And Honor Histories Are Explored In The Captivating And Heartbreaking New Australian Play, THE LONG FORGOTTEN DREAM

Saturday 28th July 2018, 8pm, The Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House

H. Lawrence Sumner's latest play THE LONG FORGOTTEN DREAM provokes thought and consideration of our county's past in it's Sydney Theatre Company premiere. Under Neil Armfield's direction the story of inherited trauma and the lasting effects of colonization is presented with heart and honesty to hopefully have audiences do more to right the wrongs of the past.

Sumner's play is a wonderfully woven story of past and present coming together to allow a family start to heal. Archeologist PhD student Simone Tucker (Jada Alberts) has returned home following two years searching the globe for her great grandfather's remains, sold in the 40's or 50's like a curio to be bartered for, following a racially motivated murder by a local cattle station farmer. She has tracked the bones of King Tulla (Ian Wilkes) from his homeland of the Coorong, South Australia to Mexico and eventually a university in England and has arranged for his remains to return home so he can be buried in his country and hopefully allow some of the wounds of her family's past to heal. Her father Jeremiah Tucker (Wayne Blair), the current eldest male decedent of King Tulla however isn't as thrilled with the idea of a public ceremony to welcome the bones back, believing it to be lip service to help the white community feel good about themselves before they go back to their lives and forget about the indigenous people and the past wrongs. Confronting the past injustices brings up other family secrets that Jeremiah would rather not revisit but have been haunting him for years, leaving his sister Lizzie (Ningali Lawford-Wolf) to be the strength of the family, coming and looking after her broken brother while he retreats from the town to stay in his beachside home building his model boats. Whilst Jeremiah is tormented by the things his mind can't resolve, another soul is in limbo, also unable to settle, but Gladys Dawson (Melissa Jaffer) is the spirit of an old woman, recently deceased but her soul has things to settle in the Coorong before she can return to her homeland of England.

Jacob Nash has created an incredibly captivating expression of the expansive ocean side region of the Coorong, utilizing the broad letterbox stage of the Drama Theatre. A mottled canvas 'sail' stretches the width of the stage, echoing the sailing ships that Jeremiah builds and the sailing ship that took King Tulla's remains to the other side of the world. Raised high it allows for Jeremiah's living room to be formed by the work benches and wicker lounge furniture positioned with a sweeping choreography. Partly lowered the movement as it 'rolls' between the two beams from which it is suspended gives the impression of the moving afternoon skies. Lowered and backlit it provides a medium for the spirits to talk to Gladys as she wanders confused on the shoreline represented by the sand that covers the stage, complete with small mounds of sand dunes in the distance. Mark Howett's lighting captures the shifting times of day and moods. He gives Jeremiah's home a soft light whilst commercial settings like the town grocery store and the English university lecture hall have stark fluorescent tubes that descend over the stage and Gladys' wait in transition is given a closeness.

William Barton's original music, which he performs from the side of the stage is cinematic and evocative in its ability to heighten emotion. Utilising traditional indigenous stylings and instruments plus guitar and keyboard, the sound sweeps over the stage and resonates with the soul in its depth and intensity.

Sumner's story is captivating and enlightening as it forces the viewer to consider reconciliation from the Jeremiah and his family's position and how each feel differently about the impending return of King Tulla's remains. Wayne Blair is wonderful as the grumpy troubled middle aged recluse. He ensures that Jeremiah is seen as a somewhat standard irritable and unsociable old man living alone before some passionate outbursts where he finally expresses his feelings and the sustained trauma of his past and his family's past. Blair also has a wonderful timing, delivering the pointed quips with precision and a nonchalant ease to land perfectly amongst the bickering with Lizzie and Simone.

Jada Alberts bridges the sophistication and worldliness of the city education and the past few years travelling with Simone's roots in the Coorong as one of its more inspiring youngsters. Alberts ensures that it is clear that Simone has had an ongoing battle with her father's grumpiness but loves him and has been searching for the ancestor for him as much as for her own research but she doesn't know all of her father's secrets. Ningali Lawford-Wolf is delightful as Jeremiah's sister Lizzie. A bright powerful force to contrast Jeremiah's miserable nature but with an undertone that there is more to her generosity than an family obligation.

Melissa Jaffer's portrayal of the mysterious Gladys is beautifully presented. Jaffer allows the audience to first see Gladys as a frail old lady just wanting to die peacefully and return to her country but with time its clear that Gladys was a stronger character, albeit hampered by the society of the time that dictated that she not associate with the indigenous cowboy that worked on the same farm, and that she has been weighed down with the guilt of giving up her child. The way she tries to influence the Tucker clan to discover who she is and help solve their mystery and allow her to rest is charming as she weaves around the living, unseen.

A moving work that tells an important story from the indigenous perspective, this is an important work for anyone to see. Hopefully it will have a lasting impact on the predominantly non-indigenous audience that were in attendance the night that it was reviewed, ideally prompting people to support the push for artefacts taken in the past to be returned to the rightful owners and descendants.

THE LONG FORGOTTEN DREAM

https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2018/the-long-forgotten-dream

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