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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'We join seven Aboriginal Elders in 1788 as they meet ‘The Visitors’.
;Imbued with Aboriginal customs, melody and humour from composer Christopher Sainsbury and libretto by original playwright and Muruwari woman, Jane Harrison, it tells the story of the early days of colonialism and its impacts on the First Peoples. Through metaphors of birds falling from the sky and changes to the weather, we watch as the Elders question how to respond to ‘the visitors’.'
Source: Production blurb.
Adaptations
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y
The Visitors
London
:
Fourth Estate
,
2023
26929455
2023
single work
novel
'On a steamy, hot day in January 1788, seven Aboriginal men, representing the nearby clans, gather at Warrane. Several newly arrived ships have been sighted in the great bay to the south, Kamay. The men meet to discuss their response to these visitors. All day, they talk, argue, debate. Where are the visitors from? What do they want? Might they just warra warra wai back to where they came from? Should they be welcomed? Or should they be made to leave? The decision of the men must be unanimous -- and will have far-reaching implications for all. Throughout the day, the weather is strange, with mammatus clouds, unbearable heat and a pending thunderstorm ... Somewhere, trouble is brewing.
'From award-winning author and playwright Jane Harrison, The Visitors is an audacious, earthy, funny, gritty and powerful re-imagining of a crucial moment in Australia's history - and an unputdownable work of fiction.' (Publication summary)
Production Details
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Presented by Victorian Opera at Arts Centre Melbourne (Playhouse), 18-21 October 2023.
Conductor: Phoebe Briggs.
Director: Isaac Drandic.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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'Black of All Trades' Has Bright Ideas on Writing
2024
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 28 February no. 820 2024; (p. 21) 'When Muruwari woman Jane Harrison wrote The Visitors she didn't know that her play about the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Harbour would also be turned into an opera' (Introduction) -
The Visitors : From the Stage to the Page
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 4 October no. 811 2023; (p. 32)
— Review of The Visitors 2023 single work musical theatre
-
The Visitors : From the Stage to the Page
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 4 October no. 811 2023; (p. 32)
— Review of The Visitors 2023 single work musical theatre -
'Black of All Trades' Has Bright Ideas on Writing
2024
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 28 February no. 820 2024; (p. 21) 'When Muruwari woman Jane Harrison wrote The Visitors she didn't know that her play about the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Harbour would also be turned into an opera' (Introduction)
