Australia's next big, Black musical - Panawathi Girl by David Milroy
Updated: 19 Jan 2022
Elise Anthony
Presented by Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company and Perth Festival
Saddle up for the next big Black musical brought to the Perth Festival by Yirra Yaakin, a leading WA theatre company that creates, presents and celebrates Frist Nations’ theatre, performance and stories.
Yirra Yaakin’s latest work, Panawathi Girl, will be performed at His Majesty’s Theatre from February 8 – 13. Audiences can expect an all-singing, all-dancing musical brimming with humour, heart and irresistible tunes.
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The production is written by David Milroy, the acclaimed playwright behind 2011 Perth Festival hit musical Waltzing the Wilarra.
Set in 1969 in a small town in WA’s North-West, Panawathi Girl (‘Dream Girl’ in Palyku language of the Pilbara) is a wild joyous rodeo ride as hippies and cowboys, big-noting politicians and protesters kick up the red Pilbara dust. The musical follows our heroine Molly Chubb from the big smoke back to the small country town of her birth as she searches for her place in the world.
Two years have passed since Indigenous Australians have been granted citizenship and voting rights. The rodeo has come to town, along with a kombi van of hippies and a pair of noisy politicians sweating in their suits on the 1969 Federal election trail, exposing old and new attitudes to the changing face of Australia.
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Panawathi Girl is directed by Eva Grace Mullaley and features an all-star cast of WA performers. Newcomer Lila McGuire joins stage favourites Maitland Schnaars, Peter Docker, Geoff Kelso and Luke Hewitt. Playwright David Milroy plays in the band which is led by Musical Director Wayne Freer and includes Grammy Award-winner Lucky Oceans. The musical marks the His Majesty’s Theatre debut for Yirra Yaakin, whose recent Perth Festival appearances have included the acclaimed productions The Sum of Us and the all-Noongar-language Hecate.
Tickets can be purchased here.