POETIC. TEEN ROMANCE. QUEER.
Griffin’s season of Whitefella Yella Tree is sold out! If you would like to pop your name on our waitlist, email your details to [email protected].
Once in a blue moon, in the middle of nowhere, two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree. After a rough start, a fragile friendship fruits into a heady romance. Ty and Neddy fall madly in love, as teenagers are wont to do.
If history would just unfurl a little differently, the boys might have a beautiful future ahead of them. But without knowing it, Ty and Neddy are poised on the brink of a world that is about to change forever. It’s the early 19th century. Ty is River Mob. Neddy is Mountain Mob. And the earth they stand together on is about to be declared ‘Australia’.
In his young career, Dylan Van Den Berg has won the Griffin Award, the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, and the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. In Whitefella Yella Tree he has penned a heart-warming and heartbreaking story about love, Country, and Blak queerness throughout history. Starring Helpmann Award-winner Guy Simon (First Love is the Revolution, Wakefield), and nurtured through our Griffin Studio program, Whitefella Yella Tree is a force of nature and a tender first kiss.
Want to go deeper? View the online program
From Declan
‘While developing Whitefella Yella Tree, we asked playwright Dylan who his dream actor would be, and he said, without pausing: “Guy Simon”. We’re delighted that after reading, Guy felt the same way—he inhabits every tender corner of this luminous love story. Bring tissues. Lots and lots of tissues.’
Co-Directors Declan Greene and Amy Sole
Designer Mason Browne
Lighting Co-Designers Kelsey Lee and Katie Sfetkidis
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Dramaturg Andrea James
Stage Manager Isabella Kerdijk
Intimacy Coordinator Akala Newman courtesy of Key Intimate Scenes
Community Engagement Consultant Neville Williams Boney
Elder-in-Residence Uncle Graham Simms
With Callan Purcell, Guy Simon, Matthew Cooper (12 – 16 September)
Preview 19 – 22 August
Opening Nights 24 & 25 August
Season 26 August – 23 September
Performance Times
Monday – Friday 7pm
Saturday 1pm & 7pm
Run Time
90 minutes
Meet the Artists
Tuesday 30 August
Captioned Performance
Tuesday 6 September
Australian Theatre Live Performance
Tuesday 20 September
Please note: this performance will be filmed by Australian Theatre Live. All tickets are $20 for this performance.
Latecomers
Please note, there is a complete lock-out on all performances and latecomers won’t be admitted, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get to us, grab a drink, and get settled.
2022 Main Season Ticket Pricing
| Full | $62 |
| Senior, Preview, Groups 8+ | $52 |
| Concession | $46 |
| Under 35 | $38 |
| Monday Rush* | $20 |
*Monday Rush tickets are available online and over the phone on Mondays from noon, for that evening’s performance until sold out.
Please note: all tickets for the performance on Monday 12 September are $20 as the performance will be filmed by Australian Theatre Live.
2022 Season Subscription Pricing
| 6 Play | 5 Play | 4 Play | |||
| Full | $288 | Full | $255 | Full | $216 |
| Senior, Preview | $240 | Senior, Preview | $205 | Senior, Preview | $176 |
| Concession | $210 | Concession | $185 | Concession | $156 |
| Under 35 | $192 | Under 35 | $170 | Under 35 | $140 |
| 3 Play | 2 Play | Griffin Lookout | |||
| Full | $168 | Full | $116 | Single | $35 |
| Senior, Preview | $138 | Senior, Preview | $98 | 2-pack | $64 |
| Concession | $123 | Concession | $86 | Concession | |
| Under 35 | $108 | Under 35 | $74 | Under 35 | |
Portraits
Images by Dayvis Heyne
Production Images
Images by Brett Boardman
Meet the Team
Trailer
“Everything one could possibly ask of a playwright, Van Den Berg delivers, through the greatest of acuity and sophistication.” ★★★★★—Suzy Wrong, Suzy Goes See
“The actors create something impossibly tender that still bites with gloriously lived-in detail. As they fall in love with each other, we fall in love with them.” ★★★★—Cassie Tongue, The Sydney Morning Herald
“It is the best of theatre writing where you feel you ‘have learned’ but did not experience ‘being taught’. Subtle, clever and straight to the heart.” ★★★★1/2—Dennis Clements, ArtsHub
“Whitefella Yella Tree is exceptional work all-round; a uniquely Australian story told by a largely Indigenous cast and crew […] I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I left the theatre.” ★★★★—Chad Armstrong, The Queer Review
“The direction, design, script, and performances of Whitefella Yella Tree were masterfully orchestrated for a truly beautiful production with a powerful ability to deconstruct colonisation and its myths about First Nations people, culture, and love.”—Julia Clark, Night Writes
“Once again, Griffin Theatre Company has demonstrated that when it comes to telling diverse, meaningful, nuanced stories about who we are – they are leading the way.”—Vaanie Krishnan, The Theatre Enthusiast
“This story guides with a firm, yet gentle hand, and doesn’t try to be anything other than it is: brilliant.”—Charlotte Smee, Theatre Thoughts
Whitefella Yella Tree contains haze, loud noise, blinding lights, sex scenes and weapons. It contains descriptions and representations of colonial violence.
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