Events

Extra Encore Performances of "Windmill Baby" by Rakutendan

4 July 2012 - 12 July 2012

The Rakutendan theatre troupe, well known for introducing many Australian plays to Japan, will hold encore performances of David Milroy’s contemporary classic play Windmill Baby in Tokyo (4,5,6 July) and Fukushima City (12 July). First performed in Japan in 2008,  Windmill Baby inspired such a positive reaction that encore performances were subsequently held in Tokyo, Iwaki (Fukushima Prefecture) and Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture) in 2010.  The popularity of the play resulted in many requests for extra performances in Fukushima City after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.   Eager to assist those affected by the earthquake and tsunami, Rakutendan members decided to stage the play once again.  Performances will be held at Hokutopia in Kita-ku, Tokyo (where many evacuees currently reside) and Fukushima Terrsa in Fukushima City.

Following her performances in 2008 and 2010, veteran stage actress Hisako Ohkata will once again portray all twelve characters in this humorous yet sad fairy tale.  Ms Ohkata is well known for her roles in I Love Botchan and Yuki no Jo’o and her powerful performance makes Windmill Baby a must-see theatre production.

Synopsis

MayMay Starr, an old Aboriginal woman, returns to an abandoned cattle station in the surreal Kimberley landscape of azure skies and red dirt, to fulfill a promise under the shadow of the Windmill. In the poetic ‘campfire storyteller' tradition with musical backing, the play exposes the harsh relationships of the white Boss and Missus and Aboriginal workers. As MayMay experiences painful recollections of motherhood, loss and death in the context of colonial violence, her relationship to the earth spirits helps her come to terms with the past. 

Working as a servant on an outback homestead, MayMay struggles with Sally the cook for the hand of the drover Mal Bourne. When MayMay gets pregnant, her husband gives her a ruby ring and says if her baby is a girl then she would be called Ruby. But when she is forced to work too hard by her white boss, MayMay loses her baby. Sally shows her attraction for Wun-Man the disabled gardener, but Wun-Man likes the white man's wife. The white boss beats his wife and the servants when he gets drunk. When his wife accidentally falls pregnant, is just the beginning of MayMay's entanglements...

David Milroy

David Milroy (b. Perth, 1957; from the Palku, people of the Pilbara) is an Aboriginal playwright, director and dramaturg. He has won several awards, and has toured extensively. He worked at Dumbartung Aboriginal Artist Advisory where he established the prisoners art fund with Geoff Narkle. He tutored at ABmusic and composed the film music for Blackfellas, Exile and The Kingdom and for ABC National (Speaking-out). David was the Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre (until 2003).

His writing and directing credits include King Hit, Runumuk, No Excuse, Muttacar, Sorry Business, Djildjit, In the Nyitting Time, Whaloo is that you? and Karl Karninyi (Welcome to My Fire). He directed No Shame (Mainstreet Theatre) and Polyglot Theatre in Melbourne. 

His musical direction includes Sistergirl and Dead Heart, Wild Cat Falling, Amys Monster, and Land of the little kings. His work with Yirra Yarkin includes Aliwa, Solid, Alice, Sally Morgan’s Cruel Wild Woman and Barking Gecko’s Our Own Worst Enemy. 

Windmill Baby won the Patrick White Award (2003), WA Equity Award (2006), Deadly Award (2006), and the Kate Challis RAKA Award (2007). 

While working beyond Indigenous categories he received an Australia Council Fellowship to make Kaltja as based on research of Campfire theatre and Indigenous puppetry from the Pilbara of Western Australia.

      Share

We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding this event.

2012 Events Archive Page