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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In 1939, a lost tribe of Europeans was discovered in the Tasmanian wilderness. They were a band of outcasts who had escaped the torture of convict life, scratching out an existence at the forgotten edge of the island, alone for almost a century.
'Inspired by this true story, writer Louis Nowra (Cosi, Radiance) penned The Golden Age – an extraordinary play that blends historical fact, Australian folklore and poetic language to create a post-colonial myth for our times. Nowra’s outcasts have developed a culture and dialect all of their own, but their bodies are failing them and their very existence is in danger. Brought back into the fold of Australian society, what fate awaits this band of exiles?'
Source: Sydney Theatre Company (2016 revival).
Notes
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Dedication: In memory of Marvin Gaye
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Epigraph: There are moments when speech is but a mouth pressed lightly and humbly against the angel's hand. James Merrill
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Play with music.
Production Details
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First produced by the Playbox Theatre Co., Studio Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, 8 February 1985.
Director: Neil Armfield.
Composer: Sarah de Jong.
Has also been produced abroad.
Performed at Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Walsh Bay 19 : 14 January - 20 February 2016.
Director: Kip Williams.
Designer: David Fleischer.
Composer & Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert.
Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper.
Dramaturg: Paige Rattray.
With Rarriwuy Hick, Remy Hii, Brandon McClelland, Robert Menzies, Liam Nunan, Zindzi Okenyo, Sarah Peirse, Anthony Taufa, and Ursula Yovich.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Fool's Gold and Louis Nowra's Golden Age
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 60 no. 4 2016; (p. 98-100)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
The Golden Age Review – Tasmania's Lost Tribe Challenges Notions of Primitivism
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 21 January 2016;
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
Complex Questioning of Australian Culture
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21 January 2016; (p. 31)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
Worlds Collide and Wilderness Rules in Revival of a Genuine Classic
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 21 January 2016; (p. 13)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
Lost Tribe's Timely Return
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 January 2016; (p. 12)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama
-
[Review] The Golden Age
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 7 1985; (p. 139-144)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
The Golden Age of Louis Nowra Dawns
1987
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 25 August vol. 109 no. 5584 1987; (p. 119)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
[Review] The Golden Age
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 11 February 1985; (p. 8)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
[Review] The Golden Age
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: National Times , 22-28 February 1985; (p. 32)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
[Review] The Golden Age
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 February 1985; (p. 14)
— Review of The Golden Age 1980 single work drama -
Counter-Imperialism in Louis Nowra's The Golden Age
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies in the 21st Century 2001; (p. [204]-209) -
'Perfecting the Monologue of Silence' : An Interview with Louis Nowra
Gerry Turcotte
(interviewer),
1987
single work
interview
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 9 no. 3 1987; (p. 51-67) The AustLit Anthology of Criticism 2010; (p. 48) -
Staging Otherness in Mainstream Australasian and Canadian Dramaturgies
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Transgressive Itineraries : Postcolonial Hybridizations of Dramatic Realism 2003; (p. 27-79) Section III of this chapter is entitled 'Alienating Naturalism : Louis Nowra's Dramatury'. -
A Re-Vision of Australian Culture in Louis Nowra's The Golden Age
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Interfaces 2004; (p. 70-76) 'This paper examines Nowra's The Golden Age, which presents a complex and searching dramatisation of Australian culture. As it makes bold cultural statements about Australia's convict and Aboriginal heritage, it addresses the larger issues of what is culture and how one could aspire for it. ' -
Jack Davis and the Drama of Aboriginal History
Brian Crow
,
Chris Banfield
,
1996
single work
criticism
— Appears in: An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theatre 1996; (p. 61-77)
- Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
- Bush,
- 1930s