This Heaven – Belvoir

Overview

Young writers often get told, 'write what you know'. Which is partially sound advice, and also partially to blame for there being so many plays about what could boil down to #firstworldproblems.

Making theatre that presents something different than middle-class life to someone beyond middle-class audiences means both writers having to step outside their comfort zone and theatre companies having to cast a wide net for writers. A little bit of both is going on with Belvoir's stunning This Heaven, the first production in the smaller Downstairs Theatre for the year.

The debut full-length play from 2012 Belvoir associate playwright and arts/law student Nakkiah Lui, it deals with what happens when the legal system does not furnish justice. Sissy (Jada Alberts) has her beliefs uprooted when her father dies in police custody and the court does not hold anyone responsible, issuing only a speck of a fine. Her family has always abided by not just the law but social expectations of what a 'good' Aboriginal family does: she's studying law to change the world, and her mother, Joan (Tessa Rose), is the Aboriginal liaison officer at the very station where her husband, a respected community member, died. Their new circumstances are a slap in the face.

Sissy and her reactive younger brother, Ducky (Travis Cardona), are desperate, angry, and in total turmoil when they set in motion the events that will kindle violence in their neighbourhood. Watching This Heaven may be the first and only time a riot makes so much sense, which is exactly the sort of vast empathetic gulf we go to the theatre to cross. It's incredibly alive and unaffected, and it strikes a sonorous note of injustice. The power of it comes almost as a surprise given more cookie-cutter beginnings, in which Lui is invoking the inspiration that clearly possesses her as the play carries on.

There is another character on stage, who spends most of his time with us quietly chain-smoking in a tracksuit top and ugly trainers. This Heaven would not be the same without the big-hearted attention eventually given to him, and the revealing performance of Joshua Anderson in the role. Between them, he and Alberts take This Heaven to the next level. Director Lee Lewis has used blackout and real fire to heighten the sense of danger and instability, and the metal swingset frame of the set (by Sophie Fletcher) doesn't hurt either, ringing out a reverberating clang when struck in the dark.

You go, Nakkiah, this is an astonishing debut. Her next play has the working title Koorioke, so that can only go well.