by Jack Davis
Playwright’s Biography
JACK DAVIS was born in Perth in 1917 and brought up at Yarloop and the Moore River native settlements. He first began to learn the language and culture of his people, the Nyoongarah of South-West of Western Australia, while living on the Brookton Aboriginal Reserve. He later worked as a stockman in the North-West which brought him into contact with tribal society.
He became an activist on behalf of his people and from 1967–71 was director of the Aboriginal Centre in Perth. In 1971 he became the first chairman of the Aboriginal Trust in West Australia and from 1972–77 was managing editor of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation. He was a member of the Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra and established a course for Aboriginal writers at Murdoch University. He was also a member of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council.
His first full-length play, Kullark, a documentary on the history of Aboriginals in West Australia, was first presented in 1979. It was followed by The Dreamers (1983), which toured Australia under the auspices of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Following the success of this tour, the Trust commissioned No Sugar for the 1985 Festival of Perth and Honey Spot, a children’s play, for the 1985 Come Out Festival in Adelaide. In 1986 No Sugar was re-mounted by the Trust for a season at the World Theatre Festival in Vancouver.
For services to his people Jack Davis received the British Empire Medal in 1977; in 1985 he became a member of the Order of Australia, received the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Award, an Hon. D.Litt from Murdoch University and was elected Citizen of the Year in West Australia. In 1986 No Sugar was co-winner of the Australian Writers Guild award for the best stage play of the year.
Foreword
The unique collaboration and friendship between Jack Davis and Andrew Ross dates back to 1979 when Andrew directed Jack’s first play, Kuflask, which toured extensively in Western Australia for the Perth Playhouse Company. By 1982 the Swan River Stage Company had been formed and Jack Davis’s second play The Dreamers was seen at that year’s Festival of Perth.
The production was such an important step in the history of Aboriginal drama that the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust toured the Playhouse Company’s re-production for seventeen weeks around Australia. For many of the cast of ten it was the first time out of their home State, but they adapted to venues as different as the Sydney Opera House and the historic Theatre Royal in Hobart.
It was important that more Australians, and indeed the world, had an opportunity to learn about Aboriginality through the words of this amazing storyteller; so in 1984 the AETT commissioned two more plays with the support of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Literature Board of the Australia Council. The result was Honey Spot, a play for children that deals with the issues of race relations and the conservation of our environment; and No Sugar. No Sugar tells the story of a family’s fight for survival during the Depression years and was staged in a semi-promenade setting in which the audience followed the players on their journey through the action of the play.
The first season of No Sugar, directed by Andrew Ross and presented as the inaugural production of the newly-formed Western Australian Theatre Company in association with the Trust, was an exciting success at the 1985 Festival of Perth. The production was seen by the producer of the World Theatre Festival and this resulted in an invitation to represent Australia at Vancouver’s Expo ’86. Performing alongside the Beijing People’s Art Theatre from China and the Kirov Ballet from the USSR, No Sugar proved a sell-out success and received a standing ovation from its audience. After a further season as guests of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa the Company returned to Melbourne to promenade with an equally responsive audience around the grand old Fitzroy Town Hall.
Wendy Blacklock
Director, Australian Content Department
Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, Sydney
FIRST PRODUCTION
No Sugar was first performed by the Playhouse Company in association with the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust at the Maltings, North Perth, for the Festival of Perth on 18 February 1985 with the following cast:
JIMMY
Jim Holland
GRAN
Dorothy Collard
MILLY
Lynette Narkle
SAM
Morton Hansen
JOE
John Pell
CISSIE
Lynley Narkle
DAVID
Kelton Pell
FRANK BROWN
Shane McNamara
SERGEANT CARROL
Bill McCluskey
CONSTABLE KERR
Shane McNamara
JUSTICE OF PEACE
Dibbs Mather
MR A.O. NEVILLE
Dibbs Mather
MISS DUNN
Annie O’Shannessey
MR N.S. NEAL
Bill McCluskey
MATRON NEAL
Sally Sander
TOPSY
Charmaine Cole
TURVY
Brooke Michael
SISTER EILEEN
Annie O’Shannessy
MARY
Jedda Cole
BILLY
Ernie Dingo
BLUEY
Richard Walley
PETER
Colin Kickett
DANCER
Colin Kickett
MUSICIAN
Richard Walley
Directed by Andrew Ross
Designed by Steve Nolan
Choreography and music by Richard Walley
The play was then revised and remounted for participation in the Expo ’86 World Theatre Festival in Vancouver. This version was first performed on 15 May 1986 at the West End Community Centre, Vancouver, with the following cast:
JIMMY
Ernie Dingo
GRAN
Dorothy Mallard
MILLY
Lynette Narkle
SAM
Morton Hansen
JOE
John Pell
CISSIE
Lynley Narkle
DAVID
Kelton Pell
FRANK BROWN
Shane McNamara
SERGEANT CARROL
Ben Gabriel
CONSTABLE KERR
Shane McNamara
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
James Beattie
MR A.O. NEVILLE
James Beattie
MISS DUNN
Annie O’Shannessy
MR N.S. NEAL
Ben Gabriel
MATRON NEAL
Doreen Warburton
TOPSY
Charmaine Cole
SISTER EILEEN
Annie O’Shannessy
MARY
Jedda Cole
BILLY
Jack Davis
BLUEY
Richard Walley
Directed by Andrew Ross
Designed by Steve Nolan
Choreography and music by Richard Walley
CHARACTERS
JIMMY MUNDAY
GRAN MUNDAY, Jimmy’s mother
MILLY MILLIMURRA, Jimmy’s sister
SAM MILLIMURRA, Milly’s husband
JOE MILLIMURRA, their eldest son
CASSIE MILLIMURRA, their daughter
DAVID MILLIMURRA, their younger son
FRANK BROWN, an unemployed father
SERGEANT CARROL, sergeant of police at Northam
CONSTABLE KERR, of the Northam Police
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, a Northam cocky father
AUBER OCTAVIUS NEVILLE, Chief Protector of Aboriginies
MISS DUNN, his secretary
MR N.S. NEAL, Superintendent of the Moore River Settlement
MATRON NEAL, (Koodjie) his wife, matron in c
harge of the Settlement hospital
TOPSY, a Settlement girl, assisting matron
SISTER EILEEN, a missionary
MARY DARGURRU, a young girl from the Kimberly region
BILLY KIMBERLY, a black tracker
BLUEY, a black tracker
SETTING
The play is designed for a dispersed setting on an open stage. On one side is the Avon Valley town of Northam, including the Police Station with two cells, a main street and the Government Well Aboriginal Reserve. Also on this side should be the office, in Murray Street, Perth, of the Chief Protector of Aborigines, with an entrance front and rear for whites and blacks respectively. The scene on the other side is the Moore River Native Settlement, near Mogumber in the Victoria Plains district. The areas include the Superintendent’s office, the Millimurra tent and camp at Long Pool, a clearing in the pine plantation and a dais and flagpole. Other parts of the stage serve as an area by the railway line at Moolumbeenee and a meeting room of the Western Australian Historical Society.
ACT ONE, NORTHAM
SCENE ONE
Government Well Aboriginal Reserve, Northam, morning, 1929. SAM MILLIMURRA prepares mugs of tea, lacing them generously with sugar. He passes one to JOE who is absorbed in the special centenary edition of the Western Mail. GRAN and MILLY sort clothes for washing. DAVID and CISSIE play cricket with a home-made bat and ball. JIMMY sharpens an axe, bush fashion.
DAVID: Bowl overarm!
CISSIE: I can’t.
DAVID: Well, try.
She does, clumsily. JOE bashes the paper into shape and reads aloud falteringly. His father, SAM , listens with great interest.
JOE: ‘The— blood— was stirred as if by a trumpet… by the historical…
CISSIE bowls again. DAVID bashes the ball out of sight.
DAVID: Woolah! Don Bradman.
DAVID and CISSIE scamper after the ball.
JOE:… Headed by a tableau…
MILLY: David, where you goin’? Gimme that shirt, it’s filthy.
DAVID removes it and inspects it but continues after the ball. He and CISSIE exit.
JOE:… Commemorating the pioneers whose lives…
GRAN: [to JIMMY] James, you put that bucket a’ water on?
JIMMY: Yeah, Mum, boilin’ and waitin’ for you by now.
JOE:… Were a steadfast performance of duty in the face of difficulty and danger. With them was a reminder of the dangers they faced, in the shape of three lorries… carrying Aborigines.
They all stop what they are doing and listen.
Aborigines, incong… incongruously…
SAM: Come on.
JOE: All right! ‘… Dancing… to a brass band.’
SAM laughs.
SAM: Koorawoorung! Nyoongahs corroboreein’ to a wetjala’s brass band!
JIMMY: Ah! That beats everythin’: stupid bloody blackfellas.
GRAN: Ay! You… dawarra you mirri up and get them clothes down the soak, go on!
JIMMY gets up, but can’t resist the final word.
JIMMY: You fellas, you know why them wetjalas marchin’ down the street, eh? I’ll tell youse why. ’Cause them bastards took our country and them blackfellas dancin’ for ’em. Bastards!
He nicks his finger with the axe and watches the blood drip to the ground. GRAN gives him a piece of cloth for it.
MILLY: Don’t worry, if you woulda been there you woulda been right with ’em.
JIMMY: No bloody fear I wouldn’t have.
He drives the axe savagely into a log.
GRAN: Eh! Now you take them clothes down the soak, you ’ear me?
JIMMY reluctantly obeys, DAVID and CISSIE return with the bat but no ball. DAVID wears his shirt inside out.
DAVID: You’re the fielder; you’re supposed to chase it.
CISSIE: Well, you shouldn’t hit it so hard.
DAVID: Yeah, well it’s lost now.
MILLY: Come on, you two, get to school.
Reaching into a pocket.
Here’s twopence, you can buy an apple each for lunch.
She gives it to them.
DAVID: Aw, can’t I have enough for a pie?
MILLY: It’s all the money I got.
CISSIE: Aw mum, Old Tony the ding always sells us little shriveled ones and them wetjala kids big fat ones.
JOE: Here’s thrippence each.
JOE flips them sixpence.
DAVID: Aw, thanks, Brudge.
MILLY: Where’s that shirt?
DAVID: [tapping his chest] ’Ere.
MILLY: Take it off.
DAVID: But it’s clean on this side.
MILLY: Come ’ere.
She tugs it off him and swaps it for a clean one.
And you go straight down the soak after school. [To SAM and JOE] And you fellas, we got no meat for dinner or supper; you’ll have to go out and get a couple of rabbits.
GRAN and MILLY exit. JOE continues to read to himself.
SAM: Ba, ba, what else?
JOE: ‘The pag… page… page – ant pre – sented a picture of Western Australia’s pre-sent condition of hopeful optimum – optimistic prosperity, and gave some idea of what men mean when they talk about the soul of the nation.’
SAM: Sounds like bullshit to me. Come on, let’s get these rabbits.
JOE springs to his feet and walks off. Dogs bark.
Bring Ruffy and Moonie; don’t bring Spring, he’s too slow.
JOE returns with a dowak. He picks up the camp oven.
JOE: Allewah wilbra, gnuny barminy barkiny.
He mimes throwing the doak at a rabbit and runs off after his father.
SCENE TWO
A street in Northam, day. FRANK BROWN rolls a cigarette from stoopers. SERGEANT CARROL enters from the police station and approaches him.
SERGEANT: Hey, just a moment you!
FRANK: Yes?
SERGEANT: How long you been in Northam?
FRANK: About a fortnight.
SERGEANT: Where are you camped?
FRANK: Down near the saleyards.
SERGEANT: By yourself?
FRANK: No, there’s about ten other blokes.
SERGEANT: White blokes?
FRANK: What?
SERGEANT: Not abos or half-castes?
FRANK: No, why?
SERGEANT: Your name Francis Brown?
FRANK: Yes.
SERGEANT: You’ve been seen hangin’ about with natives.
FRANK: It’s not against the law.
SERGEANT: No, Mr Brown, it’s not, but it is an offence to supply liquor to an Aboriginal native under the Aboriginal Act.
FRANK: Thanks for the information.
SERGEANT: Oh I’ve got plenty of information, mate. Last Friday, James Munday, a native, took a bundle of fox scalps to the Shire Office and collected a bounty of three pounds.
FRANK: Very interesting. And?
SERGEANT: And, on Friday night he was apprehended drunk in Bernard Park after you were seen purchasing two bottles of port wine in the Shamrock Hotel.
FRANK: I’m a wine connoissuer.
SERGEANT: [intimately] Listen, mate, don’t try being smart. This time I sent Munday back to his camp with a warning; next time I’ll nail him and the bloke that buys wine for him. The last bloke I nabbed for supplying is doing three months hard labour in Fremantle.
FRANK: Thanks for the tip.
SERGEANT: Why don’t you think about movin’ on?
FRANK: Where to? I been on the road already for six months. Kondinin, Merredin, Kalgoorlie: no work. Headed up the Murchison, Mullewa, Northampton: nothing. I got a wife and two kids staying with her parents in Leederville. I can’t even raise a train fare to Perth to go and see them.
The SERGEANT takes out a packet of cigarettes and gives a couple to FRANK.
SERGEANT: Look, mate, I understand; I hear it every day a’ the week, but I got a job to do, so don’t forget what I said.
FRANK: Thanks.
SERGEANT: Natives best left to keep to themselves.
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FRANK: I was only tryin’ to do—
SERGEANT: [interrupting] You might think your doin’ ’em a good turn, but you’re not. Take it from me, I been dealin’ with ’em for years. I got nothin’ against ’em, but I know exactly what they’re like.
FRANK carefully puts the cigarettes away as the SERGEANT enters the police station. MISS DUNN enters an office with a sign displayed, reading ‘Government of Western Australia, Fisheries, Forestry, Wildlife and Aborigines’. There are two desks, each with a telephone. She goes immediately to one, takes a note from her handbag and dials. FRANK exits. The SERGEANT settles behind his desk and busies himself.
MISS DUNN: [into the receiver] Hell… Hello, good morning. Is that the West? Yes, thankyou… I’d like to place an advertisement, ‘Wanted to Sell’.
NEVILLE enters. He takes some files from his briefcase and settles down at his desk with the West Australian.
NEVILLE: Good Morning, Miss Dunn.
MISS DUNN: [into the receiver] A motorcycle. [To NEVILLE] Good morning, Mr Neville. I’m sorry, it’s a personal… [into the receiver] sorry. Twelve pounds, in, Douglas, 1923 Model, one forty-eight Stirling Street, Highgate… Please. [To NEVILLE] Sorry, Mr Neville, it’s a personal call… [Into the receiver] Thankyou… Dunn… Miss E.
NEVILLE: I didn’t know you were a motorcyclist.
MISS DUNN: No, it’s my brother’s. He’s down the South West, looking for work, and his wife and children are with me.
NEVILLE: Couldn’t find anything in Perth.
MISS DUNN: No, and not for want of trying. He eventually got work selling wirelesses. Door to door.
NEVILLE: Doesn’t sound very suitable.
MISS DUNN: He only sold one in three weeks, didn’t even cover the cost of the petrol.
