Jason De Santis. The Canberra Theatre Centre. 12 Apr 2013
You’d be hard pressed to find a culture that didn’t have a storytelling tradition as a conduit for transmitting history, values and important lessons in life. In Europe and its colonies, faery tales have stood the test of time and are still being retold even through today’s media such as Disney movies.
In Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, they have their creation, or ‘Dreamtime’ stories, which are still as vital to their cultures in the present day, but are also gaining interest from non-Indigenous people as the reconciliation movement in this country gains momentum.
Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui seamlessly merges these two traditions, creating with enormous pride a learning experience for mainstream audiences in the Tiwi Islands ways, while cushioning this with a narrative that is familiar to them.
Taking the basic plot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as the foundation for this production, writer Jason De Santis has stripped it back to a skeleton structure and refashioned it in a Tiwi Island context and style. De Santis has replaced the Seven Dwarves with the mythical Pamanui creatures, Snow White with the beautiful and headstrong Wulamanayuwi, and the forest with the bush.
The result is a universally accessible and utterly charming pantomime, but with the quite distinctive flavour that is contemporary Indigenous theatre. Absolutely loaded with humour, the centrepiece of Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui is the amount of fun they thread through this originally quite gothic story, transforming it into something entirely playful.
Interestingly, there were constant references to pop culture throughout the show, however, these references had well and truly been appropriated by the Tiwi Islanders. This demonstrated that these are not a people isolated and frozen in time, but rather who are living in two worlds and finding their unique way of absorbing and balancing them both.
Told in a laid back ‘around the campfire’ storytelling manner within a quaint and rudimentary setting filled with the traditional colour schemes of the Tiwi Islands, the vibrancy and enthusiasm of the cast effortlessly filled any gaps in the simplistic design that instead relied heavily on imagination.
Utilising basic puppetry and shadow play, a delightful audio-visual narrative, acoustic music and some innovative props, the audience is treated to a rich and evenly-paced adventure, led by the endearing and hysterical characters embodied by the remarkable cast in their multiple roles.
Kylie Farmer as the lead character of Wulamanayuwi is a perfect fit, displaying all the attributes worthy of a faery tale heroine, while tempering this with a down to earth colloquialism. Her tender and heart-warming father-daughter rapport with Kamahi Djordan King (as Jipmarpuwajuwa) was also a joy to behold.
Natasha Wanganeen as the Wicked Stepmother and Jason De Santis as her campy Evil Spirit of the Water sidekick were unadulterated comic gold, incrementally raising the bar of their outrageously funny hijinks until the bitter end.
And who could forget Prince Charming or the dreadlocked Awarrajimi, played by Jaxon De Santis, who took the job of rescuing his promised wife and saving the day in his muscle-flexing stride, offering some pretty amusing sight gags along the way.
But it was the vast array of puppet extras that threatened to steal the show from the protagonists, outshining themselves with some very sassy and loveable, Muppet-like creations that were just busting to deliver their killer one-liners.
Overall, Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui is a feast of colour, movement and culture that completely satisfies the appetite for a spirited night out at the theatre. In fact, the only downside of the night was having to leave the pleasure of this wonderful mob’s company.
Deborah Hawke
When: Closed
Where: The Canberra Theatre Centre
Bookings: Closed
