Staging Modernity in the ‘New Oceania’

In histories of the theatre of Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific, the term ‘modernism’ is most often used to describe drama that exhibits qualities of the anti-realist twentieth century European avant-garde. Movements frequently cited as models for the leaders of Australian theatrical modernism include expressionism, epic theatre, surrealism, and absurdism. ¹ However, in discussing modernism in Pacific theatre it is also important to include the influence of the ‘modern’ realist drama of the late nineteenth century. Not only was realism the first ‘modern’ movement in Pacific theatre, it also became a crucial strategy in staging post-colonial identity from the mid twentieth century onwards. For white playwrights in Australia and New Zealand, realism was the basis of nationalist drama that distanced settler cultures from those of the British Isles, on which the theatre culture had originally been based. Furthermore, some Indigenous playwrights, such as the Aboriginal (Noongar) writer Jack Davis, began writing realist scripts in order to communicate clear political messages to white and Indigenous audiences.