The Colony
On a small island in the Coral Sea,
a colony of outcasts face death and find love.
A handful of gloriously dishevelled outcasts melt through their final days, shifting between reality, dream and memory – both actual and imagined.
Their only contact with the outside world is the infrequent ferry, which brings them mail and also gin to anesthetize the passing of time.
The one to bear witness to this final voyage, as bodies and minds break down, is Hamlet, a lovelorn writer, chronicling the last days of the lepers.
Part ‘cry from the heart’, part meditation on the last things, THE COLONY is moving theatre, exploring the human kindness and dignity felt most acutely in our shared vulnerability.
With mangrove-dyed costumes by textile artist, Linda Jackson; and a ghost-net set by G&G Allain in collaboration with Aurukun artists Mavis Ngallametta and Craig Koomeetta, The Colony is ‘breathtakingly beautiful’.
Reviews
Patterns radiating on the slick wet stage suggest the comforting constancy of the tide. In the lighting design is all the sultriness of the tropics, shot through with overripe yellows and reds. The costumes seem to have been made by the earth and the sea, and something more intangible, placing us in a sort of anytime
– REALTIME.
The Colony puts Cairns on the map of multicultural theatre in Australia
– ARTS HUB
It reflected the eternal/infinite nature of life and consciousness.
– AUDIENCE
Moving, beautiful, haunting.
– AUDIENCE
I was deeply touched.
– AUDIENCE
Credits
RATING: M
WRITTEN BY Graham Henderson
DIRECTED BY Willem Brugman
COSTUMES Linda Jackson
SOUND Nigel Pegrum & Jeremiah Johnson
SCENOGRAPHY Guy & Gina Allain with Mavis Ngallametta & Craig Koomeeta
AUDIO VISUAL DESIGN Savannah Productions
CAST Warren Clements, Catherine Hassall, Sue Hayes, Piers Freeman, Kara Ross, Miyako Masaki, Jeremiah Johnson
