Walking into bigness

There is a lot to be said about the subject of this play- the story of a big Australian man who strides onto the stage near the end of the performance to authenticate it. His story is affecting though the mode of the actors' telling of it is strange.

Picture - Malthouse theatre

Richard's own website gives the bare bones of the character- an extraordinarily accomplished Aboriginal jack of many trades-  a child abattoir-worker, a young soldier, a fisherman and a field officer for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

 Picture- Malthouse
Reviews are mixed. We agree with both of these inconsistent statements:
 It's a visceral and deeply emotional experience ... a combustible combination of documentary, ritual, song and drama- SMH
It ripples into outright poetry, broadening into a world song that takes in checkpoints in Ramallah and the slums of Mexico, and grows dense with the question of how the suffering of Indigenous people can be given due recognition and still borne with dignity, by all Australians alike.  That’s all there in the script, but the performance style is so loose and sketchy that Walking into the Bigness is often reduced to fearful sentimentality (the death of real emotion) and a choric mode that verges on earnest recital- Cameron Woodhead, Canberra Times

We're glad that we were introduced to the story and saw the man.