It’s been 17 years since sisters Rachael and Lisa Maza last stepped out on a stage together. Since then, things have been busy for the two stalwarts of Australian arts.
Both have worked on screen and in theatre. Lisa, a singer and actor, has directed documentaries and performed both internationally and closer to home. Rachael, a director and actor, has worked on both sides of the stage, and, after almost two decades at the helm, has stepped down as the head of the award-winning Ilbijerri theatre company. Now, the sisters are working together once again, in a striking new play at Malthouse Theatre
Written by Jada Alberts, Black Light tells the story of four Larrakia women spread across three generations. Both Maza sisters point to the poetry of the writing and Alberts’ willingness to take risks with the script. “I have worked in theatre for many, many years myself as a director,” says Rachael. “I very much anchor a work on what is the central thrust, what is the narrative? I mean, this is just 101 dramaturgy. And this work breaks all those rules.”
Rachael and Lisa play Aunty and Mum, and the characters are instantly relatable, says Lisa. “Three generations of women – everybody, every culture can relate to the women in our family: the matriarchs, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters. So there’s very universal, accessible themes in there. And yet, it’s incredibly complex and deep in its poetry.”
It’s clear the two sisters are having a great time playing off one another and teasing out the intricacies of the dynamic between their characters. They’re quick to laugh and finish one another’s sentences. Even though the sisters on stage are very different to the sisters playing them, they agree that their existing relationship makes things easier. For one, they already have trust – they don’t have to get to know one another. “We’ve been able to shortcut all the tiptoeing.”
For Rachael, a significant breakthrough during rehearsals came when she realised, “Oh, I’m not the oldest sister in this relationship!” She pauses. “I’ve always been the older sister and [the thing is] I’m always right, and I win every argument – which of course is not true.”
Both sisters laugh. “It did this 180-degree flip in my head of literally how I’m even saying lines.”
In fights, up to that point, it wasn’t quite working out. Now, however, Rachael says, “it’s like, ah, if I was the younger sister, I’m backing down”.
In Black Light, Lisa’s character, Mum, is the responsible one – the one who pays all the bills and is the CEO of an Aboriginal organisation. Rachael’s character, Aunty, is a former party girl who now has come home to look after their mother, Nan, played by Trisha Morton-Thomas. Rounding out the quartet is Bub, played by Tahlee Fereday – the daughter of a character who is conspicuously absent.
“There is a third sister who’s been missing for many years and suspected murdered or disappeared,” explains Rachael. “Representation of the other very real and sadly, not talked about and not known about in this country is the very real phenomena of murdered and missing Aboriginal women.”
Alberts’ script, both sisters highlight, is beautiful in how it is written, rich in the ideas it interrogates and ambitious in structure. “Trisha Morton-Thomas … was saying, it goes to the rhythm of clap sticks. And I was like, oh, that’s exactly what it is,” says Rachael. “It’s like it’s got its own deeper rhythm that just goes against all Western constructs and forms of what a play should be, or what a story should be.”
The arts has a vital role to play in discussing significant issues, in reflecting realities both beautiful and ugly. “I have a great, deep resentment of theatre that is just there for fluffy entertainment,” Rachael emphasises.
“When I think about the world that me and Lisa were born into, which was the kind of beginnings of black theatre … theatre was a political voice. It was the megaphone. You can be funny and entertaining, but goddamn, it’s all about the politics and about giving voice to who we are,” she says. “So for me, the arts has never been anything but a megaphone.”
Black Light is on at Malthouse Theatre until March 7
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