BLACK LIGHT [A RES]
Malthouse
113 Sturt St Southbank VIC
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JADA ALBERTS
The only light left is Black
In a family home on the outskirts of Darwin, four Larrakia mothers find themselves stuck together, on the precipice of a drastically changing world.
Black Light is a play about finding our way back to ourselves, to Country and to the people we love, when everything else tries to tear us apart.
Things are uneasy in town. No one’s sure what’s going on, or how long it’s going to last. Fuel is scarce, so is water, military jets fly overhead and all other flights are grounded. The only choice they have is to wait it out. Together.
The eldest in the family is Nan – she has dementia and finds it difficult to make sense of the world. The youngest is Bub. Recently separated from their wife, Bub is struggling to find stability and parent alone. Aunty and Mum are sisters and yet polar opposites. They nitpick at each other, barely able to conceal their disdain. There’s so much history between them all, so much water under the bridge, and none of it clean.
What emerges while they wait, are the deeply ingrained fears they’re all carrying. The pain and the wisdom. In the stillness, it all seems ever-present. But Country is speaking louder now and it cannot be ignored.
Black Light is written by renowned playwright Jada Alberts (writer and director of Aretha: A Love Letter, Brothers Wreck and director of Seven Stages of Grieving) and stars sisters Rachael and Lisa Maza, as well as Tahlee Fereday and Trisha Morton-Thomas. This work brings you on a deeply personal journey as it explores the complexities of intergenerational wisdom, trauma and survival in a colonial world.