Weyes Blood is also on at Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre on Sunday, June 4.

Reviewed by Michael Ruffles

THEATRE
The Lucky Country ★★★★½
Hayes Theatre, until June 17

What is Australia’s identity as a country? Who are Australians, exactly, and what do we stand for? In The Lucky Country, a new chamber musical with music and lyrics by Vidya Makan in collaboration with director Sonya Suares, national myth-making gets a well overdue shake-up.

We meet Boy (Joseph Althouse), a Thitharr Warra 13-year-old who, inspired by Baker Boy’s proud black artistry, begins to rebel against the settler narratives of Australia taught in the classroom. From there, we branch out from those old stories to get a wider view of the Australian experience.

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Through swift musical vignettes we meet, among others: an aspiring Byron Bay nudist, a refugee in Mingoola growing a new garden; two older Australians from Far North Queensland who find unexpected love on a Contiki tour; a woman who confronts the dangers of walking home alone at night; and Australia herself, singing a sexy pop banger about all the ways she could murder you. The cast – Althouse, Makan, Dyagula, Milo Hartill, Jeffrey Liu, Kristal West and Karlis Zaid – are irresistible.

Slowly emerging through the numbers – which are playful, witty, and disarming choreographed by Amy Zhang – is a through line of subversion and open-hearted exploration. The jokes are clever and unexpected and the scenarios, all contained in beautiful, short songwriting, are complex. Projections (by Justin Harrison) help situate us in the world of each song, and for the most part, the transitions between songs and the tonal shifts move with grace and charm.

Makan is a gifted storyteller, and the songs she and Suares have created are extraordinary. They summon time, place and emotion in an instant by pastiching melodies drawn from pop, Oz rock, hip-hop and folk. In a breathtaking moment, musician Billy McPherson emerges with a yidaki and touches the sublime. Heidi Maguire as musical director keeps the heartbeat of the show strong.

As the show moves towards its conclusion, it breaks open to reckon with our history of war (challenging the glorification of diggers), cultural appropriation and global responsibility, before probing at the wounds baked into our national story by genocide, the stolen generations, and the systemic harm done to Indigenous Australians – while honouring the resistance, cultures, resilience and ingenuity of the first people who defined, and cared for, this land.

The final two numbers are instantly unforgettable – they remind us that nothing about Australia is simple, and a story is never complete unless it includes all of us. It’s remarkable.

Reviewed by Cassie Tongue

Sydney Morning Herald subscribers can enjoy 2-for-1 tickets* to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales during June 2023. Click here for more details.

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