Ellen van Neerven didn't grow up watching theatre. Now, after a prize-winning career as a poet and author, they premiere their debut play, Swim.
Ellen van Neerven never set out to be a playwright. The award-winning Mununjali Yugambeh writer didn't even go to the theatre at all until they were in their early 20s.
The action takes place across a set constructed to look like an empty pool, designed by Romanie Harper. It offers an evocative space not just for video projections from Samuel James, but for free-flowing movement, choreographed by Kirk Page: At times Sib climbs up the pool ladder, twists against the pool's tiled walls, or slides to its floor.
Van Neerven is enjoying the collaboration of writing for theatre: "Everyone's experiences and everyone becomes the story, and that's really beautiful."When they started writing Swim, van Neerven was especially inspired by a 1976 play by the late African American playwright Ntozake Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.
In 2019, they submitted the play to Yellamundie Festival, Moogahlin Performing Arts' biennial First Nations playwriting workshop. It offered an opportunity not just to develop their play but to see works from other First Nations writers, including The Weekend by Kuku Yalanji performer Henrietta Baird and Deer Woman by Nlakaʼpamux playwright Tara Beagan.
Griffin Theatre Company Griffin Theatre Dani Sib Swim Ellen Van Neerven Writer Ellen Van Neerven Play Australian Theatre Black Theatre Swim Play
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