After a runaway premiere season at Griffin Theatre Company in 2022, Whitefella Yella Tree is back to wow audiences in 2025, presented by Sydney Theatre Company, La Boite Theatre and University of Melbourne Arts and Culture (UMAC).
Once in a blue moon, in the middle of nowhere, two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree. When they look at each other, it’s tense, exciting, and strange. Ty and Neddy fall madly in love, as teenagers are wont to do. After a rough start, a fragile friendship fruits into a heady romance.
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’.
Co-directed with subtlety and sophistication by Griffin Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Declan Greene and Wiradjuri and Worimi theatremaker Amy Sole, Whitefella Yella Tree is a heart-warming and heartbreaking story about love, Country, and Blak queerness.
Featuring Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse (The Visitors) and Danny Howard (Jacky), who has Barrd, Yamatji, Noongar, Bunuba and Ngadju ties, Whitefella Yella Tree is by award-winning Palawa playwright Dylan Van Den Berg, winner of the Griffin Award, the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the David Williamson Prize and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
“Although it’s set in the early years of colonisation, the play is really about today. It’s a reminder that love, especially queer Blak love, was always here, even if history tried to erase it,” said Van Den Berg. “By centring two young men and their tenderness for each other, the story reclaims what was taken and imagines what might have been.”
“For contemporary audiences, it speaks to the ongoing importance of visibility, of telling our own stories, and of finding joy and connection. At its heart, the play insists that survival is also about love and the radical act of imagining a future where these stories take centre stage.”
Co-Directors: Declan Greene, Amy Sole | Featuring: Joseph Althouse, Danny Howard | Designer: Mason Browne | Lighting Co-Designers: Kelsey Lee and Katie Sfetkidis | Composer & Sound Designer: Steve Toulmin | Dramaturg: Andrea James
Whitefella Yella Tree
Wharf 1 Theatre – Sydney Theatre Company, 15 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Season: 24 September – 18 October 2025 (previews: 19 – 23 September)
Bookings: www.sydneytheatre.com.au
Roundhouse Theatre, 6 – 8 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove (Brisbane)
Season: 24 October – 8 November 2025 (preview: 23 October)
Bookings: www.laboite.com.au
For more information, visit: www.griffintheatre.com.au for details.
Image: Joseph Althouse stars in Whitefella Yella Tree – photo by Derek Henderson and designed by Susu Studio with 3D art by Luca Dante.