Adelaide Festival review 2017: The Secret River
ANSTEY Hill Quarry provides more than a scenic backdrop, becoming an intrinsic character in itself for Adelaide Festival co-artistic director Neil Armfield’s stunning outdoor production of The Secret River.
The Secret River
State Theatre Company of SA and Sydney Theatre Company
THEATRE — Adelaide Festival
Anstey Hill Quarry, until March 19
ANSTEY Hill Quarry provides more than a scenic backdrop, becoming an intrinsic character in itself for Adelaide Festival co-artistic director Neil Armfield’s stunning outdoor production of The Secret River.
Cliff faces turn from yellow to orange to an ominous blood red, and the sky above gradually fades from blue, through purple to a constellation-studded black as the colonisation narrative follows suit with occasionally warmer but ultimately much darker hues.
Leaves gently rustle as the evening breeze makes its way through the gum trees which have reclaimed the site since it became a recreation park, smoke from real campfires drifts across the setting and dragonflies swoop and swirl around the performers, creating a sense of place which is integral to the story and impossible to fully recreate in a theatre.
This is Australia: The story of what was, what is and what might have been. Two families — that of white ex-convict William Thornhill and the indigenous Dharug people — each stake their claim to a fertile patch of land in a bend of the Hawkesbury River region.
Early encounters between the two groups are aggressive, and the tension is palpable when they square off with spears and rifles.
Eventual attempts at communication are more humorous and serve to highlight the different in cultures — each speaking their own language, believing the other understands what are essentially identical arguments from opposing viewpoints.
Using the Dharug language without surtitles actually strengthens the audience’s understanding and makes the performance more captivating. There is never any doubt about what the characters — particularly elder Yalamundi (Stephen Goldsmith) and the fiery Ngalamalum (Shaka Cook) are communicating, and their joys, frustrations and sense of family are as palpable as the Thornhills’ struggles.
Key to this is Ningali Lawford-Wolf’s dual role as the narrator — an embodiment of the river’s spirit — and as the indigenous wife of neighbouring white settler Thomas Blackwood (Colin Moody), who acts as a sort of bridge between cultures.
Lawford-Wolf’s warmth and soul binds the action together and it is through her eyes — which are filled with genuine tears by the show’s end — that the audience experiences both sides of the story.
Nathaniel Dean is raw and compelling as William Thornhill, an essentially good man trying to build a new life for his family in a strange new world. His love for them — especially wife Sal, vividly portrayed with a high-spirited performance from Georgia Adamson — is both his strength and, ultimately, his ethical undoing.
Children from both families are a delight to behold, and it is through them that understanding and the possibility of peaceful coexistence between the two groups emerges.
However, the actions of other, more venal colonists — including the sadistic Smasher Sullivan (played by Richard Piper as an evil carnival clown) and Loveday (Bruce Spence as an orator turned feral) — take events down a brutal path of no return.
For all its eventual darkness, playwright Andrew Bovell’s adaptation of Kate Grenville’s novel is peppered with many moments of laughter, levity and elation, songs and rhymes, and a driving sense of adventure.
Armfield keeps the action flowing like the river itself around the expansive stage, making clever use of the elements — fire, water, wind and dust — as well as integrating live music, song and dance to create a most memorable and moving spectacle.
Patrick McDonald
