AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Kill the Messenger is a funny and shocking tell-all from a true maverick.
'In 2011 Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright/law student/performer Nakkiah Lui started writing a play for Belvoir. It was based on a true story about a man in her home suburb of Mount Druitt. One day, in unbearable pain due to undiagnosed stomach cancer, he went to the local hospital, where he was refused care. Then he went to a nearby park and hung himself. The theme of the play: institutionalised racism.
'Then in 2012 Nalddah's grandmother fell through the unmended floor of her public housing home and died. Nakkiah found herself at the centre of a story about ... institutionalised racism. The resulting play lays it all out - her dodgy sex life, a dead man's second chance, and a granddaughter's sense of duty.
'Cunningly composed rage is one of theatre's great modes. Kill the Messenger is an exemplary case in point. Anthea Williams (Forget Me Not) directs the incomparable Nakkiah Lui as herself in this game-changing rethink of what black theatre could be.'
Source: Belvoir.
Production Details
-
First produced Upstairs by Belvoir, Surry Hills, 14 February to 8 March 2015.
Director: Anthea Williams.
Set Designer: Ralph Myers.
Cast: Nakkiah Lui.
Supported by the Balnaves Foundation.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Funding Stories by, for, about Women (and One Man’s Sexuality)
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 13 July 2016; (p. 14) 'The film industry is a new world for Del Kathryn Barton. The dual Archibald Prize-winning artist has stepped away from the canvas to make her debut feature, an unconventional love story titled Flower. ...' -
Family Ties
2016
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 October 2016; 'Playwright and Black Comedy star Nakkiah Lui has turned her politically aware upbringing into award-winning writing about Indigenous experience.' -
Political Becomes Personal in Sharp, Compelling Tale of Invisibility
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2015; (p. 14)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama -
A Scribe, Star and Interrogator
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20 February 2015; (p. 13)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama -
Lui's Latest Play Looks at Racism
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 February no. 594 2015; (p. 23)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama ''Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright and performer Nakkiah Lui is starring in her new play Kill the Messenger at Belvoir in Surry Hills, Sydney. The play, about institutionalised racism, is based on two actual deaths...'
-
Lui's Latest Play Looks at Racism
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 February no. 594 2015; (p. 23)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama ''Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright and performer Nakkiah Lui is starring in her new play Kill the Messenger at Belvoir in Surry Hills, Sydney. The play, about institutionalised racism, is based on two actual deaths...' -
A Scribe, Star and Interrogator
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20 February 2015; (p. 13)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama -
Political Becomes Personal in Sharp, Compelling Tale of Invisibility
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2015; (p. 14)
— Review of Kill the Messenger 2015 single work drama -
Naked Truth
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 31 January 2015; (p. 6) 'A playwright takes the stage in a black comedy that bares her soul, writes Elissa Blake' -
Funding Stories by, for, about Women (and One Man’s Sexuality)
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 13 July 2016; (p. 14) 'The film industry is a new world for Del Kathryn Barton. The dual Archibald Prize-winning artist has stepped away from the canvas to make her debut feature, an unconventional love story titled Flower. ...' -
Family Ties
2016
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 October 2016; 'Playwright and Black Comedy star Nakkiah Lui has turned her politically aware upbringing into award-winning writing about Indigenous experience.' -
Western Sydney Meets the City in Nakkiah Lui’s Kill the Messenger
2015
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 February 2015; 'Last week I went to the theatre. Unusual? No. But I say this because this event was real theatre in a way that I have not experienced for a long time and that will stay with me. A friend invited me to the opening of a play, Kill the Messenger, at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre in which the playwright, Nakkiah Lui, also plays herself. Kill The Messenger includes one act in which the playwright/actor enters into dialogue with another character about how she should portray his fate. It proved to be theatre at its best.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2016 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Scripts