Drama Award Shortlist
Title: Whitefella Yella Tree
Author: Dylan Van Den Berg
Publisher: Currency Press in association with Griffin Theatre Company
Once in a blue moon, in the middle of nowhere, two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree. After a rough start, a fragile friendship fruits into a heady romance. Ty and Neddy fall madly in love, as teenagers are wont to do.
If history would just unfurl a little differently, the boys might have a beautiful future ahead of them. But without knowing it, Ty and Neddy are poised on the brink of a world that is about to change forever. It’s the early 19th century. Ty is River Mob. Neddy is Mountain Mob. And the earth they stand together on is about to be declared ‘Australia’.
Judges' report
In Whitefella Yella Tree, two Indigenous teenage boys from different communities meet to share notes on the encroaching Europeans during a period of early settlement. As they come together each month to swap intelligence, the two boys begin to fall in love.
The writing is funny, warm, and moving, with the use of contemporary language and ideas in its historical setting bringing an almost-fairytalelike quality to this gently blossoming love story. The play is unflinching in its portrayal of the increasing impacts of colonial systems, morality, and ways of being, on the two boys.
Although we know what happens in the broader story of colonisation, the deeply personal and tenderly observed story of these two Indigenous boys captures the heady freedom of first love. This love story is a pitch perfect counterpoint of hope and resilience in the face of irreversible societal change.
Extract
An extract from Whitefella Yella Tree is available here.