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y separately published work icon Kill the Messenger single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 Kill the Messenger
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Kill the Messenger is a funny and shocking tell-all from a true maverick.

'In 2011 Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright/law student/performer Nakkiah Lui started writing a play for Belvoir. It was based on a true story about a man in her home suburb of Mount Druitt. One day, in unbearable pain due to undiagnosed stomach cancer, he went to the local hospital, where he was refused care. Then he went to a nearby park and hung himself. The theme of the play: institutionalised racism.

'Then in 2012 Nalddah's grandmother fell through the unmended floor of her public housing home and died. Nakkiah found herself at the centre of a story about ... institutionalised racism. The resulting play lays it all out - her dodgy sex life, a dead man's second chance, and a granddaughter's sense of duty.

'Cunningly composed rage is one of theatre's great modes. Kill the Messenger is an exemplary case in point. Anthea Williams (Forget Me Not) directs the incomparable Nakkiah Lui as herself in this game-changing rethink of what black theatre could be.'

Source: Belvoir.

Production Details

  • First produced Upstairs by Belvoir, Surry Hills, 14 February to 8 March 2015.

    Director: Anthea Williams.

    Set Designer: Ralph Myers.

    Cast: Nakkiah Lui.

    Supported by the Balnaves Foundation.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2015
    • Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 5419661263314564270.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 March 2015
      ISBN: 9781925210415
      Series: Current Theatre Series Currency Press (publisher), 1983- series - publisher 'Current Theatre Series consists of Australian plays published with the program inserted and sold during theatre seasons. The aim of the series is to promote and encourage new dramatic writing and make it accessible to theatregoers and the public. The text is presented at the first day of rehearsal and does not contain changes which the author may choose to make after the play has commenced its present season - these will be incorporated into any new edition published by Currency.' Currency Press.

Works about this Work

Funding Stories by, for, about Women (and One Man’s Sexuality) Emily Ritchie , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 13 July 2016; (p. 14)
'The film industry is a new world for Del Kathryn Barton. The dual Archibald Prize-winning artist has stepped away from the canvas to make her debut feature, an unconventional love story titled Flower. ...'
Family Ties Steve Dow , 2016 single work biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 October 2016;
'Playwright and Black Comedy star Nakkiah Lui has turned her politically aware upbringing into award-winning writing about Indigenous experience.'
Political Becomes Personal in Sharp, Compelling Tale of Invisibility Deborah Jones , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2015; (p. 14)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
A Scribe, Star and Interrogator Jason Blake , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20 February 2015; (p. 13)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
Lui's Latest Play Looks at Racism 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 February no. 594 2015; (p. 23)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
''Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright and performer Nakkiah Lui is starring in her new play Kill the Messenger at Belvoir in Surry Hills, Sydney. The play, about institutionalised racism, is based on two actual deaths...'
Lui's Latest Play Looks at Racism 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 February no. 594 2015; (p. 23)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
''Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander playwright and performer Nakkiah Lui is starring in her new play Kill the Messenger at Belvoir in Surry Hills, Sydney. The play, about institutionalised racism, is based on two actual deaths...'
A Scribe, Star and Interrogator Jason Blake , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20 February 2015; (p. 13)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
Political Becomes Personal in Sharp, Compelling Tale of Invisibility Deborah Jones , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2015; (p. 14)

— Review of Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui , 2015 single work drama
Naked Truth Elissa Blake , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 31 January 2015; (p. 6)
'A playwright takes the stage in a black comedy that bares her soul, writes Elissa Blake'
Funding Stories by, for, about Women (and One Man’s Sexuality) Emily Ritchie , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 13 July 2016; (p. 14)
'The film industry is a new world for Del Kathryn Barton. The dual Archibald Prize-winning artist has stepped away from the canvas to make her debut feature, an unconventional love story titled Flower. ...'
Family Ties Steve Dow , 2016 single work biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 October 2016;
'Playwright and Black Comedy star Nakkiah Lui has turned her politically aware upbringing into award-winning writing about Indigenous experience.'
Western Sydney Meets the City in Nakkiah Lui’s Kill the Messenger Victoria L. Grieves , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 February 2015;
'Last week I went to the theatre. Unusual? No. But I say this because this event was real theatre in a way that I have not experienced for a long time and that will stay with me. A friend invited me to the opening of a play, Kill the Messenger, at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre in which the playwright, Nakkiah Lui, also plays herself. Kill The Messenger includes one act in which the playwright/actor enters into dialogue with another character about how she should portray his fate. It proved to be theatre at its best.' (Introduction)
Last amended 6 Dec 2018 12:38:39
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