Bastard Territory captures the Darwin of the 1970s

It’s Darwin, 2001. Russell and his partner Alistair have transformed Russell’s childhood home into the ‘Tectonic Plate’ – hip urban café and art gallery by day, queer cabaret dive by night. When three separate events over the course of two weeks start to churn things up, the ghosts from Russell’s past begin to intrude on his present, and he embarks on a quest to determine his identity.

Bastard Territory by multi-award-winning Brisbane-based (Darwin born) playwright Stephen Carleton launches the 2016 season for the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC). Short-listed for the Patrick White Playwright’s Award (2011) and a finalist for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award (2012), Bastard Territory has fittingly premiered in Darwin before heading to Cairns and then onto QTC HQ in Brisbane this week.

Promising a ‘confessional human drama with a killer soundtrack’, Carleton will transport audiences back to a ‘heady and bohemian’ Darwin of 1975 and Papua New Guinea of the swinging sixties.

“Russell’s quest is a personal one; to determine his own patrilineal identity, but his journey is a metaphor for the role North Australia has in determining the nation’s identity, and Australia’s place in this region of the world,” said Stephen Carleton.

Presented by Queensland Theatre Company and JUTE Theatre Company, Carleton talks about 1975 as “the pivotal year in which the region shook off the shackles of colonialism, and Australia was required to ‘mature’ and play an adult role in South-East Asia.”

Director Ian Lawson describes the show as “At once a sweeping family saga and an astute observation of Australia’s social-political history, Bastard Territory spans time periods, countries and realities. Yet it is grounded in the simple need of a man for answers that make sense of his past, affirm his present and enable a future,”

Bastard Territory opens this week and will play at QTC’s Greenhouse until April 16. For more information about the show or to purchase tickets head to the Queensland Theatre Company website.