Type – First Nation Led, Queer Romance, Colonial Gaze
If you liked – Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare), Milk (Van Den Berg), Honeybee (Craig Silvey)
Whitefella Yella Tree: A must-see production that interwines black queerness and the colony to tell a gorgeously rendered modern love story
Palawa playwright, Dylan Van Den Berg, is fiercely consolidating himself as one of Australia’s next great writers. Having already won the Griffin Award, the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the David Williamson Prize, and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, he’s now making his Sydney Theatre Company debut with his award-winning play Whitefella Yella Tree. This is a story of first love focused on two young indigenous boys from neighbouring mobs and is deserving of a place in the canon of modern Australiana.
Set in pre-invasion Australia, Van Den Berg intertwines black queerness with the colonial gaze as we witness the budding romance between Ty (Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse) and Neddy (Barrd, Noongar, Yamatji, Bunuba and Ngadju actor Danny Howard) who meet underneath the knotted branches of a lemon tree to exchange messages between their mobs. Ty is learning to be the storyteller for his mob; a grounded, young man with a hefty weight he carries on his shoulders. Neddy is energetic and impulsive, eager to make himself useful to his mob in any way that he can.
Intertwining the modern with the historical
The lemon tree under which the two meet acts as a third figure in their story, as lemons drop and scatter across Mason Browne’s starkly cut set that carves out mountain ranges. Kelsy Lee and Katie Sfetkidis’ lighting design is utterly transportative; a reflection of true visual storytelling. Back lights create shades of green and blue, adding depths and layers so that you can imagine billabongs in this Dreamtime land. As colonisation and modern day ‘Australia’ becomes more prevalent, the lemons decay, the solo lights on the gnarled branches of the lemon tree creating ominous shadows on the ground beneath.
Declan Greene and Wiradjuri and Worimi theatremaker Amy Sole’s direction feels large and sophisticated. They tell a story that is both intimate and expansive all at once. Ty and Neddy’s displays of intimacy feel pure as we become witness to their young romance. You feel the ever present fingers of white invasion closing in around them. It’s not Shakespearean in its tragedy but instead feels grounded and hopeful despite the outcome we know will arrive.
Howard and Althouse develop a true connection with one another that feels deserved and believable. The instant spark with Ty and Neddy first setting eyes on each other slowly takes us on the journey of their relationship as we follow them through time. It perhaps doesn’t reach the great heights of intensity that ends in us shedding tears as Van Den Berg’s script plays a constant game of foreboding each moment we think their story could have a fairytale ending. There is no happily ever after from invasion.
Is Whitefella Yella Tree Worth Seeing in Sydney?
Whitefella Yella Tree is a true modern Australia love story set in a time of then and now. The combination of contemporary speech set within the decaying world of pre-invasion Australia makes Whitefella accessible for a variety of audiences to learn, to hope and to feel. It’s gorgeously rendered on the smaller wharf stage and is a must-see during its Sydney Theatre Company run.
Tickets and Practical Info for Whitefella Yell Tree in Sydney🎟️
Duration 90 mins (no interval). Subject to change.
Content Mature themes including colonial violence, theatrical haze, blinding lights, loud noises and prop weapons. Subject to change.
Tickets: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2025/whitefella-yella-tree
DATES
Season 24 Sep – 18 Oct 2025
Captioned Performances
Tue 7 Oct, 6.30pm
Sat 11 Oct, 1.30pm
Audio Described Performance
Tue 14 Oct, 6.30pm
Auslan-Interpreted Performance
Thu 16 Oct, 7.30pm
Schools Performances
Thu 16 Oct, 11.30am
CREATIVES & CAST
Directors Declan Greene & Amy Sole
Designer Mason Browne
Co-Lighting Designers Kelsey Lee & Katie Sfetkidis
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Associate Composer & Sound Designer, Touring Sound Realiser Daniel Herten
Intimacy Coordinator Bayley Turner
Dramaturg Andrea James
Marketing image Derek Henderson
With
Joseph Althouse
Danny Howard
