Inspired by the true story of legendary First Nations cricketer Johnny Mullagh and Australia’s first ever international sporting team, this is not just about cricket. This is a story of strength, resistance, hope and possibility.

Following its success at Ensemble Theatre, BLACK COCKATOO is heading out on tour! Click below for a full list of venues.

Overview

Over 150 years ago, 13 brave Aboriginal men in Western Victoria picked up their cricket bats and embarked on a treacherous voyage to England and into the unknown – all in the name of sport. Risking illness and persecution, Australia’s first international cricket team – including Australia’s first Indigenous sporting hero, Johnny Mullagh – amazed the English crowds with astonishing talent, personality and grit. They should have returned to Australia as celebrated heroes. Instead they came back to find the world they once knew was no longer there.

This is not just a story about cricket – this is story of strength, resistance, hope and possibility. When a group of young present-day activists sneak into the Wimmera Discovery Centre to expose the truth of what happened to Johnny and his team mates, a hidden legend of triumph and tragedy unfolds. At once funny and incredibly moving, BLACK COCKATOO is a new artistic collaboration between iconic Australian writer Geoffrey Atherden (MOTHER AND SON, BABAKIUERIA) and Sydney Festival Artistic Director Wesley Enoch (BLACK DIGGERS).

Music Credits: TREATY (PAUL KELLY / CAL WILLIAMS / GEOFFREY YUNUPINGUB / MANDAWUY YUNUPINGU / MILKAYGGU MUNUNGGURR / STUART KELLAWAY / WITIYANA MARIKA) PUBLISHED BY MUSHROOM MUSIC (82.50%) and SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED (17.50%)

Reviews

★★★★"This amazing Australian story rings with authenticity, humour and quirky compassion" Stage Noise

★★★★ "A vibrant, fascinating and challenging production" ArtsHub

"A sincere and tender proclamation, paying tribute to Indigenous identities past and present" Suzy Goes See

"Commendably and sensitively asks difficult questions... entertaining and informative" Audrey Journal

★★★★ "Ripe with emotion, wit, and reflection" State of the Art

★★★★ "A captivating and inspiring story that reverberates today" ArtsHub

"A wonderful balance of educating and entertaining... hard hitting honesty and delightful comedy" Broadway World

Cast & Creatives
Geoffrey Atherden

Geoffrey Atherden

Playwright
Wesley Enoch

Wesley Enoch

Director
Yolande Brown

Yolande Brown

Associate Director
Richard Kennedy

Richard Kennedy

Cultural Consultant
Joseph Althouse

Joseph Althouse

Cast
Luke Carroll

Luke Carroll

Cast
Chenoa Deemal

Chenoa Deemal

Cast
Chenoa Deemal holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting).

She has been working professionally as an actor since 2009, with shows including RAINBOW’S END, MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (QTC), THE VOICE IN THE WALLS (Imaginary Theatre), MR TAKAHASHI & OTHER FALLING SECRETS (Corrugated Iron) and A MAN WITH FIVE CHILDREN (Darlinghurst Theatre). She is currently performing in the national tour of THE 7 STAGES OF GRIEVING (QTC/Grin & Tonic) to critical acclaim, recently appearing in London at ORIGINS: FESTIVAL OF FIRST NATIONS. Later this year she will be performing in AN OCTOROON for QTC.

Aaron McGrath

Aaron McGrath

Cast
Colin Smith

Colin Smith

Cast
Dubs Yunupingu

Dubs Yunupingu

Cast
Richard Roberts

Richard Roberts

Set & Costume Designer
Trent Suidgeest

Trent Suidgeest

Lighting Designer
Steve Francis

Steve Francis

Composer & Sound Designer
Jane Fitzgerald

Jane Fitzgerald

Dramaturg

Jane is a freelance Sydney dramaturg. Recent work includes THE BIG DRY by Mark Kilmurry (co-production Ensemble and ATYP) and M.ROCK (coproduction ATYP and Sydney Theatre Company). She is one of Ensemble Theatre’s Literary Co-ordinators (shared position). For ATYP she has been a Mentor/Dramaturg for the Fresh Ink writers’ program and at the National Studio, and she has worked on National Script Workshops for Playwriting Australia. For Sydney Theatre Company she has worked as Literary Manager, Artistic Associate and Administrator of the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award as well as Dramaturg on mainstage productions including THE HERBAL BED, VOLPONE and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. She was also a dramaturg on STC’s Blueprints new writers’ program and has worked as a script reader for the Royal Court London, ANPC, Playworks and STC Young Playwrights’ Award. She also works as a Mentor with Year 12 students on HSC creative writing projects.

Natalie Moir

Natalie Moir

Stage Manager
Vanessa Martin

Vanessa Martin

Assistant Stage Manager
Amy Hume

Amy Hume

Dialect Coach

Amy Hume is a voice teacher at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), and is Founder of one of Sydney’s leading voice businesses, Viva Voice. She was a Voice/Dialect Coach at MATILDA THE MUSICAL in Sydney; most recently she was Dialect Coach for Critical Stages’ national tour of STONES IN HIS POCKETS. Other credits include productions for Belvoir, Sport for Jove, Old Fitz, NIDA, Shakespeare & Co (Massachusetts), The Shakespeare Forum (New York) and Columbia Stages (New York). Amy is also Voice and Accents Tutor at ATYP. She is a Designated Linklater Teacher and holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Voice from Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) with First Class Honours. Through Viva Voice, she regularly facilitates corporate voice and communication training for organisations across different industries.

Sara Kolijn

Sara Kolijn

Costume Supervisor
Shiloh Jarrett

Shiloh Jarrett

Associate Lighting Designer
RYAN MCDONALD

RYAN MCDONALD

Deputy Lighting Designer
Tim Gray

Tim Gray

Sound Design Intern
Writer's Note

In 1868, a team of Aboriginal cricketers travelled to England, the first team from anywhere in the world to play against the English in the home of cricket. BLACK COCKATOO is based on this little known piece of our history. It’s a story of triumph and tragedy, promises and betrayal, people smuggling (in the other direction) and it celebrates Australia’s first Indigenous sporting hero, Unaarramin, known as Johnny Mullagh. It’s a great story and, I think, an important story, a part of the shared history between black and white Australia. It’s also about the truth; about which truth we choose to tell and why we make that choice.

Director's Note

Australian Cricket is full of characters and stories, some we know about but many we don’t. From unsavoury stories of ball tampering and sledging through to the amazing untold story of our women cricketers and their extraordinary international successes. But, few would know about the first ever Australian team to tour to England; the fact that is was in 1868 and that the team was made up of 13 Aboriginal cricketers from Western Victoria, that one player died and was buried in London or that Johnny Mullagh was our first Australian sporting hero.

The pages of history have not be kind to our First Peoples, often neglecting or ignoring the achievements whilst dwelling on falsehoods, generalisations or the demeaning. Dark Emu written by Uncle Bruce Pascoe and the Bill Gammage book The Biggest Estate on Earth talk about a different view of history and the recorded stories of sophisticated farming techniques, established villages, complex social structures that have been lost in our public storytelling about the First Australians. The story of the First XI is one of these stories that somehow doesn’t fit in to our view of the country’s history and that even now the artefacts and records of the tour sit in personal collections or in multiple locations so that the public find it difficult to access these fragments of history.

Telling neglected stories is what theatre can do so well. Through the insightful and emotional renderings of characters we can get closer to the human endeavour. As writer Geoffrey Atherden writes in the script “…although there are some facts about the tour, they’re only fragments, isolated separate fragments. So in order to tell the whole story, the bits between those fragments have been made up.” This is a play that gets inside the story and fills out the facts with fictions about the players, what they may have been feeling and thinking during their time overseas and ultimately, on their return, how their lives had changed or not.

The decision to have an all Indigenous cast, where the actors are playing all the roles including white English characters, is a way of owning the whole story and providing a commentary on the race politics. Actors switch seamlessly from being actors today, Aboriginal characters in 2018 and a range of characters in 1868. Time and place are fluid as we connect the past, present and future to tell this story.

We are excited about telling this story and thank Uncle Richard Kennedy (a descendent of the First XI players) for his cultural guidance, Cricket Australia for their amazing support of this project and a huge thank you for Josie Sangster who is an absolute legend in supporting and running the Harrow Discovery Centre which celebrates Johnny Mullagh and the First XI.

Enjoy the show and the making of history.

Love Wesley.

Photo Gallery

 

Photography by Prudence Upton

Watch the Trailer
Download the program

Want to know more about BLACK COCKATOO? Our downloadable program is full of exciting extra tidbits about the show. You’ll find a message from playwright Geoffrey Atherden, a director’s note from Wesley Enoch, synopsis, photos of the rehearsals and more!

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM (PDF)

Download the education pack

Our education packs include cultural and historical details for the play, interviews with members of the cast, crew and creative team, as well as English and Drama activities for year 7-12 students.

DOWNLOAD THE EDUCATION PACK (PDF)