An ensemble of actors who are about to start rehearsing a play about the Moree race riots visit Endeavour Lane in Moree to get a feel of the lie of the land. This is where the young Aboriginal 'Cheeky' McIntosh was shot and killed during the infamous 1982 rumble between local whites and blacks. The leader/director/writer of the ensemble has a more intimate knowledge of the site. Back in 1982 he remembers playing cricket with his school chums using, as a lark, a wicket made up of a piece of the makeshift ‘stockade’ Cheeky and his mates tried to hole up behind.
Now, while the actors mill around Endeavour Lane, an old man appears in their midst, sits down and declares he is waiting for a bus (Endeavour Lane is a dead end) to take him to the murder trial of the three Whites charged with Cheeky's death. The old man is Daddy, a local Moree elder.
Is he out of his time? Is he trying to interfere with the ensemble's thinking about putting on a play about that night back in 1982? Is he really waiting for a bus to take him to some trial about the riot? They might be the wiser if they could concentrate on what Daddy is saying rather than arguing amongst themselves. They do understand, though, that dabbling with the theatre is dabbling with an illusion that can be more real than reality, and just as killing.
Still, they cannot understand why that full-scale riot at Myall Creek Massacre – even further back in 1838 -- should keep cropping up in what should have otherwise been their lazy’n’hazy Sunday morning, especially since not a line of script has been written yet.
It begs the question about which Daddy down the millennia are they dealing with here?
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Bill Reed is a novelist, playwright and short-story writer. He has worked as editor and journalist both in Australia and overseas, and has won national competitions for drama and for long and short fiction.
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