It is almost 50 years since Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin. A group of survivors are putting on a unique show at the Darwin Fringe festival this week to commemorate how the cyclone changed the city. It is premiering at Browns Mart Theatre, which has also survived against the odds.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The calm before the storm. The cast of Cyclone Tracey Golden Jubilee are in final rehearsals
00:08for a unique stage show as part of the Darwin Fringe Festival.
00:17Set in a Darwin backyard Christmas party, the show blends music, multimedia and real
00:23stories from Tracey survivors, including the show's producer.
00:27I lost me house that I only had for one month, mind you. So it was an upstairs house on stilts
00:33and next morning I just had the stilts and the floor, nothing else. But I felt good because
00:38none of us were hurt.
00:39He says after five decades it could be the last chance for many older survivors to share
00:44their stories.
00:45There were dozens killed, hundreds injured, thousands traumatised. So it's tended to be
00:51a topic you don't talk much about.
00:54Director of the Jubilee show, local musician Rusty Smith, was home in Ludmilla when disaster
00:59struck.
01:00There's trauma there that we all carry from Cyclone Tracey.
01:04He says the response to the show has been overwhelming.
01:07Everybody wants to hear their stories and people want to tell their stories. Like me
01:10personally I've never told my story.
01:12Cyclone Tracey devastated Darwin on Christmas Day of 1974. The historic Brownsmart Theatre
01:18survived major damage but needed extensive repairs. Ken Conway was a founding member
01:24in 1972 as the city's theatre scene was beginning to find its feet.
01:29So that continued but continued in roofless buildings or in no buildings at all.
01:38Determined the show must go on, he put on a performance with other local actors. That
01:42irreverent Darwin style lives on at Brownsmart tonight with two sold out shows.
01:48For more information visit www.brownsmart.org