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A FIRST NATIONS LOVE STORY SET ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY PREMIERES IN QUEENSLAND AT LA BOITE
Image by David Kelly
A timeless love story, infused with culture, history and identity, plays out on the iconic Roundhouse Theatre stage when the award-winning Whitefella Yella Tree makes its Queensland premiere from 23 October to 8 November 2025.
It is a story of first love, of Ty and Neddy, two teenage boys who meet under a lemon tree and experience their fragile friendship transform into a heady romance.
It’s the early 19th Century and Ty is River Mob while Neddy is Mountain Mob, and their Country is about to change forever.
This heart-warming and heartbreaking story is brought to life by Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse (The Visitors) and Danny Howard (Jacky), who has ties to the Barrd, Yamatji, Noongar, Bunuba, and Ngadju peoples.
Whitefella Yella Tree won the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and marks the La Boite debut of Palawa playwright Dylan Van Den Berg.
“Although it’s set in the early years of colonisation, the play is really about today. It’s a reminder that love, especially queer Blak love, was always here, even if history tried to erase it,” Van Den Berg said.
“By centring two young men and their tenderness for each other, the story reclaims what was taken and imagines what might have been.
“For contemporary audiences, it speaks to the ongoing importance of visibility, of telling our own stories, and of finding joy and connection.
“At its heart, the play insists that survival is also about love and the radical act of imagining a future where these stories take centre stage.”
The Griffin Theatre Company production is presented as part of Melt Festival under the careful and considered co-direction of Griffin Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Declan Greene and Wiradjuri and Worimi theatre-maker Amy Sole.
Whitefella Yella Tree debuted at Griffin Theatre Company in 2022 and returns in September 2025 to kick off a national tour with seasons at La Boite, University of Melbourne Arts and Culture (UMAC) and Sydney Theatre Company.
“There’s no one else in Australian theatre writing quite like Dylan Van Den Berg,” Greene said.
“He seeks out the gaps in our cultural memory: the bits erased by wilful forgetting.
“His plays are feats of vivid imagination but always bound to an unflinching emotional truth. Whitefella Yella Tree packs a huge punch.”
La Boite Artistic Director and CEO, Courtney Stewart, said La Boite was thrilled to bring Dylan Van Den Berg’s poetic, award-winning masterpiece to Queensland audiences to close the company’s centenary season in 2025.
“This is a story about love and survival by one of the country’s most celebrated and awarded contemporary writers and we are so pleased he’s making his Queensland debut at La Boite.
“I know our audiences will respond to the idea of a teen romance playing out against the weight of history – the blend of joy, humour and heartbreak.”
Whitefella Yella Tree was developed as part of Griffin Studio, an initiative of Griffin Theatre Company, with support from the Malcolm Robertson Foundation and Griffin Studio donors, and through Melbourne Theatre Company's Cybec Electric Play Reading Series. The premiere production was supported by Griffin's Production Partner program.