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Wonderlands - extraordinary new Native Title play

This is a play about white belonging, black belonging. It’s about the dust storm of forgetfulness and about finding new ways to move forward. It’s about the struggle to find the balance of a shared history – personal and political – and that binding, that connection, that sets our hearts free.

In Katherine Thomson’s extraordinary new play Wonderlands, commissioned by HotHouse as part of a three year commissions program, native title forms the backdrop, allowing for a contemporary political setting that comments on Australia's defensive possessiveness and the ramifications of adopting a fortress-like mentality.

The Yirralong people have lodged a native title claim for the right to "possess, occupy and enjoy their ancestral lands". Lon, a third generation pastoralist is terrified that his dream of passing the family property on to his son-in-law will be shattered. As the pressure mounts, long buried secrets begin to unravel.

The issue of land rights is one of the significant unresolved issues this country has carried from the twentieth century into the twenty first. There seems to be little understanding amongst city dwellers of the complexity of the issue for rural Australians both black and white. By touring this play to Sydney HotHouse Theatre hopes that a city audience will see that the tangled fabric of the native title issue is woven from emotional, legal and historical threads and that there are not simply two sides in the debate. 

Kath Thomson has been working with Director Marion Potts and HotHouse Artistic Directorate representative Wesley Enoch for two years to bring Wonderlands the stage.

Building on the success of the first season and this tour, HotHouse Theatre intends to mount an extensive tour in 2004 with a view to touring overseas in 2005.

VENUE: Butter Factory Theatre, Gateway Village, Wodonga

SEASON: June 13 - 21

COST: Adult $29, Conc. $18

BOOKINGS: HotHouse Theatre (02) 6021 7433

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