#AWW2019 Nakkiah Lui (playwright)

• Author: Nakkiah Lui (1991)  Gamillaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman
  
• Title: Black is the New White
  
• Published: 2019 (book)
  
• Opening night: 10 May 2017 Sydney Theatre Company
• Genre: play (romantic comedy)
  
• Trivia: Indigenous issues
• Trivia: 2018 winner NSW Lit Award for Playwriting
• Trivia: 2018 shortlist Victorian Premier’s Award Drama
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #AWW2019
• @AusWomenWriters
• @AllenandUnwin

 

Quickscan:

1. Young couple Charlotte Gibson and
2. Francis Smith are newly engaged.
3. But their fathers are political rivals.
4. The Gibson and Smith families gather for Christmas lunch.
5. Unexpected guests, sudden self-realizations
6. …and family secrets disrupt their meal.
7. Themes: land rights, politics, relationships, identity, class.
8. Question: What is it to be Aboriginal and middle class?

 

Structure:

1. 7 scenes
2. 8 characters:
3. Engaged couple (20s)  Charlotte and Francis
4. Their respective parents (50-60s) Joan, Ray, Maire and Dennison
5. Daughter (nr 2) and son-in-law (30s) Rose and Sonny

 

Dialogue:

1. To speed up the pace Nakkiah uses overlapping dialogue.
2. The idea was to write dialogue
3. …the way people really speak
4. …so that characters cut off the
5. beginnings and ends of each other’s sentences.
6. Full revelation of emotions is transformed into comedy.
7. At times it feels like community (scene 3-4-5-6)
8. ….and at times like chaos! (scene 7)

 

References: 

1. To give the play a very culturally modern feel we read about a
2. virtual reality mask, twitter, Michell Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton,
3. Kim and Kayne Kardishan, Beyoncé and JayZ, Martin Luther King,
4. Waleed Aly, Alicia Keyes,
5. Netflix series House of Cards and the movie Cluesless.

 

Narrator:

1. Lui uses a technique of the narrator to
2. give the audience/reader the backstory.
3. The narrator comments on action, adds insight
4. …on characters, stage elements
5. …developing a precise and complete character persona.

 

Conclusion:

1. I will not reveal any spoilers
2. …..the play should be read with a clean slate.
3. You will enjoy the unfinished battles
4. …in the character’s public and private lives!
5. We follow the maze from character to character….
6. …with the climatic scene 7
7. …which includes 15 ‘bombshells’ of information!
8. In Black is the New White (title revealed in scene 4)
9. …you meet 8 characters  who
10. challenge stereotypes of
11. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
12. With Nakkiah Lui’s  comic descriptions of
13. their personal interaction and commentary
14. …you have an unforgettable romantic comedy
15. …and many life lessons.
16. #MustRead   #MustLaugh