WHAT started out as a production needing a three-week rehearsal period at Parramatta Riverside Theatre, in NSW in 2009, has gone national.
Riverside Productions is touring Rainbow’s End around Australia and the play is stopping at the Darwin Entertainment Centre tomorrow night.
Starring five-time ARIA winner Christine Anu, the play is a snapshot of Australian life in the 1950s experienced by three generations of indigenous women.
Anu, 41, said it was not meant to be exclusively a historical piece, but rather a beautiful story with a really big heart.
“It’s not about trying to fit 40 years of history into 90 minutes, but the existence of these three women and the bond and love they have for each other,” she said.
The central characters – Nan Dear (Lillian Crombie), her daughter Gladys (Anu) and granddaughter (Chenoa Deemal) – live together in a shack on the flood plain of Victoria’s Goulburn River.
A humorous, witty but powerful production, it portrays the optimistic spirit of the women as they strive to achieve a sense of belonging in conservative Australia.
Anu maintained it was “important” to talk about Aboriginal history and the life they endured before the 1967 referendum.
For more of this interview, visit http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/07/22/248881_entertainment.html
Rainbow’s End starring Christine Anu. Darwin Entertainment Centre, Sat July 23, 8pm.
Tickets $45/$42 concession/$40 DEC members
