By Derek Schlennstedt
The Storey family, who last year followed in the footsteps of Burke and Wills to write a self-penned show have written yet another fascinating play.
In 2017, The family of four from The Patch, travelled around Australia performing their play ‘The Ghost of John King’. During the tour they stopped at the Birdsville Big Red Bash which prompted them to write their newest play ‘The Rainbow Serpent and the Story of Creation’.
Simon and Tina Storey said that after visiting the Birdsville Big Red Bash, they were inspired to create a performance mixing Indigenous and European language and create a story that highlighted the Indigenous aspect of the region.
After months of planning the family travelled back to the Birdsville this year and on 10 July, 2018 unveiled their play.
“Last year we were on tour with our show and that’s when we went to our first Big Red Bash,” Mr Story said.
“While there we saw the welcome to country ceremony which we though was really good, but we thought there should be more to highlight the indigenous connection to country and so after that started planning the show.”
Drawing on indigenous tales, Mr Storey said it was important to stress that the play was not a dreamtime story but inspired by several variations of dreamtime tales.
“It’s really about the Rainbow Serpent creating the world, and the creatures in the world and at the end the Rainbow Serpent creates man and woman and gives them rules for how they should look after the earth and the creatures in it.”
Arriving weeks before the big red bash, the Storey’s facilitated drama workshops with local children for their roles in the production, and constructed a giant Rainbow Serpent, which during the performance appeared on top of the Big Red sand dune and slithered down to the audience.
The Serpent was constructed from five king-size bed sheets sewn together and carried using plastic conduit which made it easier to manage on the steep sandy side of Big Red.
Wayne Kite and Paula Faulkner, from Ngalan Productions, provided the music with didgeridoo and clap sticks and Elder Don Rowlands read parts of the script in the native Wangkangurru Yarluyandi language.
On opening night of the Big Red Bash the play was performed to an audience of 9000 people and coincided with the welcome to country.
“The kids loved their costumes and couldn’t wait to run through the crowd and get up on the stage to show the audience their animals,” Mr Storey said.
“Everyone really responded well, and enjoyed the story.”
Mr Storey said the family were making plans to bring the performance to the Yarra Ranges.
For more information about the Storey Players, visit, http://www.thestoreyplayers.com/
