Jack Charles v The Crown
30 Mar - 17 Apr 2011
Upstairs Theatre
By Jack Charles & John Romeril Director Rachael Maza
An Ilbijerri Theatre Company Production.
Indigenous Theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves Foundation.
About
Uncle Jack Charles is an Australian legend: veteran actor, Koori elder, activist and, until recently, heroin addict and cat-burglar. This is a show about his life – told by him.
Rachael Maza Long – Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company – has reunited Charles with his longtime collaborator playwright John Romeril. Together they are crafting a telling of Charles’s extraordinary story.
From Stolen Generation to Koori theatre in the 70s, from film sets to Her Majesty’s prisons, Jack Charles v the Crown runs the gamut of a life lived to its utmost. Charles’s unswerving optimism transforms this tale of addiction, crime and doing time into a kind of vagabond’s progress – a map of the traps of dispossession and a guide to reaching the age of grey-haired wisdom.
This fleet-footed, light-fingered one-man show is a theatrical delight and a celebration of Australia’s dogged refusal to give up on getting on.
Cast
Team
Image Gallery
Production photos by Heidrun Lohr.
Reviews
There is something special about Uncle Jack. Something about his voice, his stature, his laugh, his story – something powerful but humbling. It was that something that richoted people to their feet to give the man a standing ovation. It is most certainly, something that you won’t want to miss.
Dione Joseph | Australian Stage
Jack Charles v the Crown is a tribute to an indigenous star, and an inspiring journey of resilience and reconnection.
Cameron Woodhead | The Age
It’s a story about hope and understanding told with heart and cheekiness. It’s Jack’s story, and now it’s ours.
Sometimes Melbourne
