Actor and writer and Meyne Wyatt’s devastatingly powerful monologue on the reality of life as a BIPOC in Australia stunned Monday night’s Q&A audience into reverent silence. In a display of astonishing passion and fury, the speech from Wyatt's debut play City of Gold outlines the hypocrisy of labelling him as black when it works for ‘token’ reasons as society simultaneously expects him to constantly justify his identity.
City of Gold enjoyed its world premiere at Queensland Theatre in a co-production with the Griffin, where it later played to similarly rave reviews last year. One of our favourite productions of 2019, it’s a staggeringly assured work of theatre.
“That’s all anybody ever sees,” Wyatt says. “I’m never just an actor. I’m always an Indigenous actor. I don’t hear old joe blogs over here being called white Anglo Saxon actor… Sometimes I just want to be seen for my talent, not my skin colour, not my race.”
He goes on to say, “You’re not a real one anyway, you’re only part.' What part then? My foot, my arm, my leg? You’re either black or you’re not. You want to do a DNA test? Come suck my blood.”
Reviewer Cassie Tongue praised the monologue in question, saying. “Wyatt’s script is a coiled snake: beautiful and ready to strike. It reserves its venom for rightful targets – there’s a monologue in the top of the second act that’s heart-stopping in its rage and grief – but City of Gold is also extraordinarily loving.”
The appearance on Q&A followed the #BlackLivesMatter and #IndigenousLivesMatter protest marches that swept the nation last weekend, proving to be a vital reminder of the humanity behind these important causes.
Want more? Check out this Sydney Film Festival doco about an all-Indigenous police station currently streaming online.
This article is supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
