Jacky
Writer: Declan Furber Gillick
Director: Mark Wilson
Belvoir Street Theatre
January 16 – February 2, 2025
Jacky is an uncomfortable play demanding our rigorous attention and offering little relief but wisely leavened by genuinely comedic moments. Gillick shines a harsh light on the white society in which his central character, a young Indigenous man, is struggling to find a place. His success can only come at the price of betraying his culture.
The play opens with the reunion of Jacky (Guy Simon), a sophisticated urban Indigenous man with his brother Keith (Danny Howard), a laid-back larrikin straight from the “Mish”. Jacky is pleased to see Keith and has plans to make over his younger brother in his own image. A go-ahead young man, Jacky aims at having a permanent job and owning his own flat. In the meantime, he works part-time for Linda, founder of Segue, an Indigenous community organisation, and pays for his rent by working in the sex industry.
Jacky’s relationship with the white society is pictured through his relationship with Linda (Mandy McElhinny) who is genuinely concerned to help Jacky obtain his dream, and through Glenn (Greg Stone), a sex-work client with a racial fetish with whom Jacky develops a deeper connection. While the initial relationship between a supportive Jacky and Glenn provides some funny dialogue, Glenn’s sexual naivete masks a more sinister drive which eventually surfaces in a brutal and disturbing scene.
While Linda is a kind-hearted woman, Segue is dependent on funding, and when public funding is withdrawn she is forced to look for sponsors. Donors require “buttering up” which takes the form of making them feel in touch with local Indigenous culture. Sorry business calls local women away from a planned dinner and a desperate Linda turns to Jacky to provide the necessary and authentic Indigenous connection with locality. What she asks him to do shows how oblivious she is to the culture she is promoting.
Simon is very moving as Jacky, bringing to his role an elegance and warmth but also a frightening vulnerability. He believes in the values that underlie his aspirations and is critical of Keith’s lack of enthusiasm for long hours at low pay. Keith’s resistance to Jacky’s arguments while providing laughter also highlights the fundamental inequity of capitalism, compounded by colonialism. Jacky’s pursuance of capitalist goals almost effaces him as an Indigenous man but for his unlikely and likable saviour.
The simple but psychologically effective set (Christina Smith) showcased the actors who could not be faulted, all giving strong and nuanced performances in a play that at times was almost too painful to bear.
