2.15 Eva Johnson, Murras (1988)

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

This book reminds me of Joanna Russ’ dictum that the literature of oppressed people can read like propaganda. People are not interested in allusion, indirection or obscurity when what they have to say is burning.

Unfortunately, the propaganda can be quite dated. Or at least of its time. This play is very definitely reminiscent of the late 1980s - the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the burgeoning land rights movement, and the upsurge in the Aboriginal rights movement in light of the bicentennial celebrations.

It was not a surprise to me to see *Murras* was first performed in 1988 and workshopped in 1987 at the National Black Playwrights Conference. It serves, for me, more as a snapshot of a particular time than as a lasting work of art.