'All Breythe ever wanted was to be an actor, but this isn’t how he imagined his first big television gig – as a young Aboriginal man, being the face of a disastrous misfire of an advertisement that will get him roasted by his mob.
'When a messenger bird suddenly brings Breythe tragic tidings from his family, it spurs him on a journey of grief and duty. Returning home to Kalgoorlie, he is thrust headlong into family conflict and the reality of what it means to be an Indigenous youth in today’s Australia.'
Source: Queensland Theatre Company.
Supported by Playwriting Australia as part of its Muru Salon and National Script Workshop programs.
Produced by Queensland Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company (co-production), 29 June to 20 July 2019, Bille Brown Theatre (Queensland) and 26 July to 31 August, Griffin Theatre.
Director: Isaac Drandic.
Lighting Designer: Jason Gelnwright.
Cast includes Meyne Wyatt.
Produced by Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA and Sydney Theatre Company:
Perth Festival, Heath Ledger Theatre, 4-26 March 2022.
Wharf Theatre 1, Sydney, 7 May - 10 June 2022.
Director: Shari Sebbens.
Lighting Designer: Chloe Ogilvie.
Cast: Matthew Cooper, Ian Michael, and Meyne Wyatt.
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
'A semi-autobiographical play about family, grief and systemic racism.'
'Indigenous grief and identity at the forefront of this explosive show.'
'At its heart, Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold is about a family denied the right to grieve. By Ruby Hamad.'
'At its heart, Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold is about a family denied the right to grieve. By Ruby Hamad.'
'Indigenous grief and identity at the forefront of this explosive show.'
'A semi-autobiographical play about family, grief and systemic racism.'
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
