Nakkiah Lui's new comedy could be a riff on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Charlotte Gibson is a lawyer and going places, fast. Her parents are stoked, but they don't know that Charlotte's also procured herself a fiancée. He's white and unemployed, a composer. His upper-middle-class parents are at the stuffier end of conservative and they're headed over for Christmas dinner.
But Lui says the idea came from somewhere else entirely. "I just wanted to write something for Aboriginal actors that didn't have death in it. I wanted to write something that didn't come from a place of sorrow… This was actually something that had hope, that had happiness in it."
Director Paige Rattray has the helm for this one with a cast that includes Shari Sebbens, Luke Carroll and Geoff Morrell. After proving a hit in Sydney last year, Black is the New White comes to Queensland Theatre from February 1 to 17.