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POSTED: 01 AUGUST 2011 Windmill Baby, by David Milroy | Directed by Kylie Farmer Belvoir | Belvoir Street Downstairs, Surry Hills, Sydney | Until 21 August Since its premiere in 2005, Windmill Baby has travelled extensively in Australia and has enjoyed five international tours. It also won the 2003-04 Patrick White Award. It is based on the people, local stories, legends and oral histories of the Pilbara and Kimberley regions. Written by David Milroy — musician, director and one of Australia’s most precious and acclaimed Indigenous theatre practioner — Windmill Baby tells the story of MayMay Starr, an old Aboriginal woman who returns to an abandoned cattle station where she lived 50 years ago.
During her one-woman monologue, MayMay exposes painful recollections of the harsh conditions endured under colonial control in a narrative that is a rich stew of outback yarns, dirty jokes and song. MayMay works as a servant, marries Mal Verne, a stockman, becomes pregnant but loses the baby, a baby they had already named as Ruby. There are other characters — Wun-Man a disabled gardener, Sally another servant, the Boss and his Missus, all of whom are brought vividly to life in a moving monologue by Roxanne McDonald. McDonald renders a larrikin quality to the character of MayMay, who triumphs over circumstance and despair. Her polished performance keeps a brisk pace as she skilfully enacts key events and characters, which give a rich variety to the narrative. Other elements that make this an affecting work include the seamless, unobtrusive lighting design by Christopher Page, which potently creates a strong sense of place. The staging in the intimate space Downstairs at Belvoir is ideal. It seems to expand as the narrative widens, grounded by the orange sand floor, part of which is still on my boots. Ruby Langton-Batty’s design is deeply evocative of both the rugged majesty of the Outback and the decay that 50 years has brought to the homestead. The precariousness of the lives of these people is evoked by a set littered with the detritus of the everyday — rusting beds, clotheslines and billycans. The unseen, ominous presence of the windmill contributes to the idea of sacred power and the imminence of death. There is a coexistence of a material and spiritual reality represented symbolically into this realist drama. It remains a powerful piece of theatre, peppered with rich humour, the refuge of poor people trying to cope with life. Much of the pleasure of Windmill Baby resides in the re-enactment of conversations, a string of jokes, joshing and bursts of song amidst the stress and irony. The irony is both accusatory and conciliatory and is used here to unite and promote common understanding. We share the pain, the joy and the outlook of resilient and redeeming humour.
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Roxanne McDonald as MayMay in Windmill Baby. All images: Heidren Lohr.
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