A dear friend of ours, Effie Nkrumah is currently featuring in a theatre production for the Sydney Festival, titled Buried City.
The play takes place on a construction site, providing a microcosm for a telling depiction of Australian society. The characters comprise of an African-Australian female security guard who takes racism in her stride, a Palestinian construction worker looking for the next big break as he contemplates the shifting dynamics in Australia with increased international migration, a Caucasian construction worker who, when not trying to reach the end of another bottle of alcohol is quite pure of heart, as well as a young Indigenous boy working on the site and engaged in a paid sexual relationship with another security guard. The last character in the production is an Asian woman struggling to find herself between the spontaneity of men, clubs and spare dresses.
To me, the strength of the production lay in its honesty. It was a true depiction of the nuances that make up Australian people and the struggles faced by them. And for that reason it was a challenging play to watch, but a rewarding story to have witnessed.
It’s running til February 5th, so if you can make it, go see it!
IMAGE SOURCE: JAMES WAITES & SYDNEY FESTIVAL