ABSTRACT
The raising of the tent roof recalls Australia's ongoing history of circus theatre, a tradition indebted to the participation of Aboriginal performers. In the image, Mailman is both feminine and masculine, Aboriginal and white. Rather than focusing on the actors' dialects as primary markers of identity, reviewers would center instead on the casting of Aboriginal actors within the play and its impact on this "Australian interpretation of the classic love story". Josephine Flood states that Australian Aboriginal culture is the longest continuous cultural history in the world even as she acknowledges Aboriginal rejection of the scientific impetus behind such dates. Despite some politicians referring to official reconciliation as having been "accomplished" during the 1990s, the Stolen Generations' experiences suggest that the concept of reconciliation held rhetorical currency but resulted in little tangible change. The historical context that informs the identities of performers may be read asymmetrically, even within a polynationalistic production.
