About the work
Coranderrk was an Aboriginal mission in Healesville, Victoria, established in the 1860s and operating into the early twentieth century. In 1881 the residents of Coranderrk petitioned the Victorian Parliament for control of the mission lands they had developed and farmed. The resulting parliamentary inquiry took testimony from Coranderrk residents and from the mission's white administrators across several months. The inquiry transcripts are a substantial historical record and one of the few significant nineteenth-century legal records in which the Coranderrk residents speak in their own voices.
The verbatim theatre production takes the script almost entirely from those transcripts. The company performs the work with a small ensemble who rotate through the speaking parts, a staging convention that has become standard for verbatim theatre work of this kind. The production has toured nationally and internationally and the Playhouse run is part of the current Victorian touring leg.
Post-show discussion
Each performance is followed by a moderated post-show discussion. The discussions vary in length and content depending on who in the audience is willing to speak; the production company is comfortable with discussions that run long and some of the strongest post-show conversations on the tour have happened in the regional venues.
Content note
The production includes references to violence, racial discrimination and the legal frameworks of the colonial period. A content note is in the programme and a brief verbal content note is given by the front-of-house team before each performance.
Booking
Four performances in the Studio. Tickets through the box office. General admission seating; doors open thirty minutes before curtain.