What pops into your head when you hear the words ‘From Darkness?’
Generally speaking, we associate negative things with the dark; monsters under our bed, depression, grief – however, what if Indigenous Australian writer Steven Oliver (also actor, singer, dancer, performance poet, and one of the creative minds behind ABC’s 'Black Comedy') were to show you a completely different view?
Brisbane Festival and La Boite Theatre Company present Steven Oliver’s newest written work 'From Darkness', a contemporary view of an Aboriginal Australian family; it’s an explorative and deeply moving story about the loss of a loved one and the ripple effect this tragedy has on the family’s dynamic.
Steven explains what is at the core of this play.
“It is making the point about when we lose our connection to each other. When we become disconnected, and I’m not just talking about Aboriginal people, I’m talking about the world. When we become so disconnected, how can we stay ‘held together’ when we fall apart?”
With an all-Indigenous cast, Steven blends the subject of loss with sharp-as-a-tack humour, exploring humanity in the present time. “If you look at this world, we’re living in cities of millions but people have never felt lonelier. I think Facebook is something that is a false-connectedness. We have these emojis and people will put up a love heart, but does that make you feel loved? If someone puts 'lol', that they’re cracking up, are you hearing their laughter? If someone puts that they’re crying, are you seeing their tears? Are they there with you? Are they grieving with you?”
Image © Dylan Evans
Alongside highly-skilled director Isaac Drandic, who makes his debut at La Boite, Steven explains why he’s woven light humour into an otherwise dark storyline. “Generally, with Aboriginal people I think we’ve been through so much tragedy and so much pain that we’ve had to learn to laugh otherwise we just get swallowed up by the sadness. To cope with those things, we’ve had to find the humour in it.”
When asked about his hopes for the play and how it may be received by Brisbane audiences, Steven explains, “We don’t see Aboriginal stories enough. I’m trying to work from a place now when I write, I want to show people how we think. That there isn’t just one way to the world, because there’s so many different ways. I talk about spirits and stuff in the play, and because other people have been in charge of writing Aboriginal stories in this country for so long, they’ve presented Aboriginal spirituality in an 'oggadaboogada' kind of way. But when we sit around it’s a very matter of fact thing, that’s who we are, I wanted to show that in a sense, in that truth. I don’t want to tell people what to think – I just want them to think. I hope they walk away feeling and thinking, if that makes sense – that’s all I could ever hope for.”
This play broadens the fairly narrow scope we have on modern Aboriginal Australian life and every single detail is significant, even down to the title Steven chose; 'From Darkness'. “We all came from darkness. When you kiss someone, you close your eyes, when you really listen to a song to take it all in, you close your eyes. We close our eyes when we want to remember something and the way it made us feel.”
