The 7 Stages of Grieving
Description
By Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman. A Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company production.
The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman continues to ask vital and stirring questions of the way we tell stories and how we remember the past. Told by a single compelling narrator – ‘Everywoman’, the play weaves together cultural knowledge, memories, and personal experiences to share a powerful story of Aboriginal Australia. On its premiere in 1995, this play was a radical act of Aboriginal theatre-making. Thirty years later, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company presented a brand-new production of this classic of Australian theatre in its WA premiere – also the first time it had been presented by an Aboriginal Theatre Company.
A woman stands alone on stage. Over one gripping hour, she traces seven phases of Aboriginal history – Dreaming, Invasion, Genocide, Protection, Assimilation, Self-Determination, and Reconciliation. Mailman and Enoch’s script is a potent expression of resilience and survival, as well as humour, joy and strength. This production is an engaging, moving and ultimately empowering recognition of the loss of identity and Country and the will to fight back.
