50 Shades of Black

‘Fifty Shades of Black’ was co-created by Karla Hart, Della Rae Morrison and Monica Main; it was then developed and scripted by Karla Hart. Multi-talented Karla is the manager of the women’s  Noongar dance group and a TAFE lecturer. Della’s skills range from TV acting to being a musical director for an Aboriginal choir and musical co-ordinator for an Archie Roach tour.

This hour of semi-autobiographical family comedy is a World Premiere, presented by ‘The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights’ and Yorga Waabiny (Noongar for ‘Women playing’) Production for Fringe World in association with PICA and the Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company.

The show is performed in the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts main performance space. It runs nightly at 6.30 pm until Saturday 16^th February.

This evening of entertainment has been described as the illegitimate love child of last year’s  exceptionally successful ‘Black as Michael Jackson’, and comes from the same co-creators and performers.

       Onto a 24 sq. metre full wall-sized, white backcloth is projected an aboriginal painting, a scene of the wheat belt. As we listen to the stories, the well-constructed sound track brings us the sounds of the native animals and birds.  With each act, the picture changes season and we are shown a few photos of the ‘carers’ of the day. Noongar means ‘people of many beasts’ and there were certainly some beastly carers in their lives.

        The show starts with two young girls (Karla Hart and Della Rae Morrison) playing hide and seek. We then tag along with these girls through their raw and poignant childhood under the watchful eye of their Gran, advising them which tucker to chose from the bush. We see them pass into their wild teenage years and become responsible workers and eventually they become parents themselves.

        The live acts are interspersed with some hilarious video (produced by Monica Main and Brian Liau) comedy. One scene shows the women in a takeoff of the multitude of cookery programmes, preparing a highly complex Aboriginal dish, with a deliberate video failure at the point when the ‘secret’ ingredients were added.

The Company has chosen their director, Monica Main well, as she shares the same fun loving and impish attitudes or the cast. With her decades of theatre experience, Monica has given a fine sheen to the girls’ work. One or two of the acts were in last year’s show, but it was a joy to see them again. The new acts were fresh and original and loved equally by the black, white and ‘coconuts’ (great sketch) in the audience.

I must give a mention to Ray Bradbury, the talented lighting and sound operator, who has been thrown into the deep end with one show after another at this fringe festival. He is there for hours every night and must live on a mattress on the floor.

Here we have two of WA’s most accomplished Noongar performers. They gave us plenty of laughs, and stories straight from the heart. This couple certainly showed the meaning of Yirra Yaakin – and ‘stood tall’ and proud. Last night was overflowing and many other shows have sold out already.