Cirrus@Austlit

'The performance work "Yandy" is adapted from the 1999 book Kangkushot: The Life of Nyamal Lawman Peter Coppin, a biography of an elder of the Yandeyarra community. The biography and play were written by journalist and speech-writer, Jolly Read, in collaboration with Coppin. Whereas Kangkushot begins with Coppin's birth at Yarrie Station by the De Grey River in 1920 and follows events of his life until around 1997, "Yandy" focuses on the story of a key group of people involved in organising the first Indigenous workers' strike in Australia. The industrial action began in the Pilbara on May Day, 1946, "when 800 workers walked off 27 stations"' (p.53).

'The Lost Echo, Barrie Dosky and Tom Wright's 2006 adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses for the Sydney Theatre Company, gave audiences and epic theatrical experience. It was epic in length, with its eight hours comprising four Acts of two hours; it was epic in scale using the twelve members of the Sydney Theatre Company's recently formed Actors Company, guest artist Paul Capsis, and a chorus of twenty-four second-year NIDA students.' (p. 102)

Elizabeth Hale provides a brief summary of each Act as an introduction to the suite of criticisms that follow.