Black Light at Malthouse Theatre starring Rachael Maza, Lisa Maza, Trisha Morton-Thomas and Tahlee Fereday
It’s been 17 years since sisters Rachael and Lisa Maza last appeared on stage together. Since then, things have been pretty busy for two powerhouses of Australian art.
Both have worked on screen and in theatre. A singer and actress, Lisa has directed documentaries and performed both internationally and domestically. A director and actress, Rachael has worked on both sides of the stage and after almost two decades of directing, she has resigned as president of the award-winning Ilbijerri theater company. Now the sisters are working together once again in a stunning new play at the Malthouse Theatre.
By Jada Alberts Black Light It tells the story of four Larrakia women, spanning three generations. Both Maza sisters note the poetry of the writing and Alberts’ willingness to take risks with the script. “I also worked as a director in theater for many years,” says Rachael. “I’m essentially making a study of what the underlying thrust is, what the narrative is. So it’s just dramaturgy. And this study breaks all those rules.”
Lisa says Rachael and Lisa play Auntie and Mother, and the characters are instantly relatable. “Three generations of women; everyone, every culture can relate to the women in our family: our mothers, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters. So there are very universal, accessible themes here. And yet the poetry of it is incredibly complex and deep.”
It’s clear the two sisters are having a great time playing with each other and fleshing out the subtleties of the dynamic between their characters. They laugh quickly and finish each other’s sentences. While the sisters on stage are very different from the sisters who play them, they agree that their current relationship makes things easier. First, they already have confidence; They don’t need to know each other. “We were able to shorten all the toe walking.”
A major breakthrough for Rachael during rehearsals was the realization: “Oh, I’m not the oldest sister in this relationship!” He stopped. “I’ve always been the older sister and [the thing is] I am always right and win every argument; which of course is not true.”
Both sisters laugh. “That did a 180-degree turn in my mind on how I said the lines.”
Until that moment, things were not going well in the fights. But now Rachael says: “It’s like if I were the little sister I’d step back.”
Inside Black LightLisa’s character, Anne, is the one in charge; is the person who pays all the bills and is the CEO of an Aboriginal organization. Rachael’s character, Auntie, is a former party girl who now comes home to care for their mother, Nan, played by Trisha Morton-Thomas. The last of the four is Bub, played by Tahlee Fereday, the daughter of a conspicuously absent character.
“There is a third sister who has been missing for many years and is suspected of having been murdered or disappeared,” Rachael explains. “It is a very real and unfortunately representation of the other, the very real phenomenon of murdered and missing Aboriginal women in this country that is not talked about and unknown.”
As both sisters emphasize, Alberts’ script is beautiful in its writing, rich in the ideas it interrogates, and ambitious in its structure. “Trisha Morton-Thomas… she was saying, she’s matching the rhythm of the clapping sticks. And I was like, oh, that’s just it,” Rachael said. “It’s like it has a deeper rhythm of its own that goes against all the Western structures and forms of what a play or a story should be.”
Art has a vital role to play in discussing important issues and reflecting both beautiful and ugly truths. “I have a huge, deep resentment towards theater that exists just for fluffy entertainment,” Rachael emphasizes.
“When I think about the world that me and Lisa were born into, that was the beginning of black theater… Theater was a political voice. It was a megaphone. You can be funny and entertaining, but dammit, it’s all about politics and voicing who we are,” he says. “So for me, art has never been anything more than a megaphone.”
Black Light At the Malthouse Theater until 7 March
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