WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE

By Dylan Van Den Berg
Directed by Declan Greene and Amy Sole

Sydney Theatre Company acknowledges the Gadigal of the Eora nation who are the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which the Company gathers. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and we extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with whom we work and with whom we share stories.

Welcome from Artistic Director,
Mitchell Butel

“The theatre for second chances” is what former Artistic Director Wayne Harrison said Sydney Theatre Company should sometimes be.

The place where new Australian works which have fired audiences’ imaginations and filled their hearts should have an opportunity to reach even larger pools of people; the place where those works can open to a wider space, both literally and metaphorically; the place where new voices get to polish and perfect their piece.

You’ve probably heard me say already that the first play I saw at Sydney Theatre Company was Richard Wherrett’s production of Michael Gow’s phenomenal and transformative play Away in 1987. It changed my life. Richard had seen Peter Kingston’s production by Griffin Theatre Company at the Stables Theatre and knew it deserved more life and more audiences. Richard directed his own version and on the back of both Peter and Richard’s unique tellings, that play became legendary and is now one of the most beloved and famous Australian theatre works.

"The production is a work of immense heart, innovation, joy, sadness and surprise."

How thrilling to yet again see Sydney Theatre Company provide a platform for another Griffin Theatre Company hit to fill our stages in Dylan Van Den Berg’s acclaimed Whitefella Yella Tree directed by the iconoclastic and cutting-edge couple that is Declan Greene and Amy Sole. The production is a work of immense heart, innovation, joy, sadness and surprise. And a powerful and of-the-moment exploration of our colonial history. And of two people finding a part of themselves in each other.

This is an existing production but opening it up from the tiny Stables stage to the width of the Wharf and with a new cast of brilliant performers in Joseph Althouse and Danny Howard (standing on the shoulders of the show’s original actors, Guy Simon and Callan Purcell) means that it will be a fresh and fabulous new version of its own.

Long live collaboration between these two companies. And a note to Grif-friends, we’d love you back even when the Stables’ renovation is complete!

Mitchell Butel 
Artistic Director and Co-CEO
Sydney Theatre Company 

Cast & Creative Team

Cast

Ty
Joseph Althouse

Neddy
Danny Howard

Creative Team

Directors
Declan Greene
Amy Sole

Designer
Mason Browne

Co-Lighting Designers
Kelsey Lee
Katie Sfetkidis

Composer & Sound Designer
Steve Toulmin

Associate Composer & Sound Designer, Touring Sound Realiser
Daniel Herten

Bayley Turner
Intimacy Coordinator

Dramaturg
Andrea James

Production Team

Stage Manager
Isabella Kerdijk

Assistant Stage Manager
Tyler Fitzpatrick

Lighting Supervisor and Operator
Tim McNaught

Sound Supervisor and Operator
Ben Andrews

Mechanist
Sam Williams

For Griffin:

Production Manager
Damion Holling

Head Electrician
Sammy Read

For STC:

Production Manager
Joe Fletcher

Staging Supervisor
Chris Fleming

Lighting Programmer
Sam Scott

90 mins, no interval

This production was first produced by Griffin Theatre Company on 19 August 2022 at the SBW Stables.

This season opened at Wharf 1 Theatre on 23 Sep 2025.

Whitefella Yella Tree was developed as part of Griffin Studio, an initiative of Griffin Theatre Company, with support from the Malcolm Robertson Foundation and Griffin Studio donors, and through Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric Play Reading Series. The premiere production was supported by Griffin Theatre Company’s Production Partner program.

This production is supported by STC Angels.


Synopsis

Sometime during the early period of colonisation, at a place between a mountain and a river, two young Aboriginal men are about to lock eyes for the first time.  

Ty, sits under the knotted branches of a newly rooted lemon tree. He is learning to be his mob’s storyteller, but for now he is a messenger sent to exchange information with a neighbouring clan group. It’s Neddy who shows up, a warrior in training, he darts between bushes, rolling leaping, tiptoeing, trying not to be seen. 

When they finally look at each other, it’s tense, exciting, and strange. Neddy of the Mountain Mob and Ty of the River Mob, try to share stories about the newly arrived whitefellas but they’re distracted.  

It’s a teenage crush: joyous, sweet and puffed up with youthful giddiness. But the boys are poised on the edge of a world about to change.  

The lemon tree that marks their meeting place grows quickly. Its branches twist into the sky. Its roots disturb the earth. Ty and Neddy grow into young men, their budding love taking root in Country that is about to be declared ‘Australia’.    

TY:
Oh Aunty — he looks like something carved out of rock —

NEDDY:
Oh Sis — he's like a splash of water, right on your face.

Dylan Van Den Berg, Whitefella Yella Tree

Writer's Note
Dylan Van Den Berg

At the heart of Whitefella Yella Tree is a simple question: what happens when first love –messy and awkward– collides with the violence of invasion? Under the branches of a lemon tree, two young Aboriginal boys discover each other with the giddy nervousness of teenagers anywhere. Their joy, their teasing, their tender declarations all unfold in a world that feels as if it might hold them safe. But the colony creeps closer, threatening not just their Country but their very right to love. 

Whitefella Yella Tree rehearsal room.

Whitefella Yella Tree rehearsal room.

It’s often hard to pinpoint when the idea for a play comes to you. Usually, for me (mainly because I can be incredibly lazy), it percolates for a bit before I have a sense that there might actually be something there. With Whitefella Yella Tree, this was not the case. The premise of this piece was forged in defiant anger after I read a Tweet almost a decade ago. Anthony Mundine said that artistic depictions of queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander folks are out of sync with culture – forbidden, in fact– and that the Ancestors would be none too happy. I was fairly young at the time, dealing with a decent dose of internalised homophobia, and was still figuring myself out in all sorts of ways. Since then, Mundine has gone on to say things that an older me can, on some level, dismiss as the unfortunate byproduct of a few conspiring social forces... but they still trigger memories of that rotten seed planted.  

I wanted to write a play that reclaimed a space for Blak queerness, a space often denied by both colonial history and voices that insist such stories don’t belong. What I found, through listening and asking, is that queerness always existed in our cultures. It was cherished. It was part of us. The true interruption - the true obscenity- was colonisation, with its imported homophobia and impulse towards erasure. 

"Queerness always existed in our cultures. It was cherished. It was part of us."

So I’ve written this play in the hope that you might reflect on the rich and real detail of lives that were disrupted when those ships hit the shore. The queer love stories that never got to be written.

Dylan Van Den Berg 
Ngunnawal Country, 2025 

Joseph Althouse and Danny Howard.

Joseph Althouse and Danny Howard.

Biographies

Dylan Van Den Berg
Writer

Dylan Van Den Berg is a Palawa writer and dramaturg from the northeast of lutruwita/Tasmania, with family connections to the Bass Strait Islands where his great-grandmother was born. As a playwright, recent credits include: Whitefella Yella Tree (Griffin Theatre Company); Milk; The Chosen Vessel (The Street Theatre);Struthers (National Institute of Dramatic Art); Ngadjung (Belco Arts); The Camel (FlickFlick City/Motley Bauhaus). As a dramaturg, recent credits include: Mum Club; SISTREN; Nucleus (Griffin Theatre Company); Nan’s Place (ILBIJERRI Theatre Company); Burning House (Queensland Theatre);  A Better Tomorrow (The Street Theatre). For screen, Dylan has written extensively for Play School (ABC) and Reef School (ABC) and has joined writers’ rooms for Blackfella Films, Wooden Horse, and Warner Bros. For his writing, he has received the Griffin Award, two AWGIES, the David Williamson Prize, two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for Playwriting, the Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, and was shortlisted for the Bruntwood International Playwriting Prize. He is currently under commission with Griffin Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre. Dylan studied drama at the ANU and the State University of New York and is undertaking a PhD at the University of Canberra. 

Declan Greene
Co-Director

Sydney Theatre Company: Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark. Griffin Theatre Company: Dogged, Green Park, Sex Magick (co-directed with Nicholas Brown), The Lewis Trilogy, Whitefella Yella Tree (co-directed with Amy Sole), Flat Earthers: The Musical (with Hayes Theatre Co). Malthouse Theatre: Wake in Fright; for Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company: Blackie Blackie Brown. ZLMD Shakespeare Company: Conviction. As a playwright: Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography, The Homosexuals, or 'Faggots', Melancholia, Pompeii L.A. and Moth. 

Declan co-founded queer experimental theatre company Sisters Grimm with Ash Flanders in 2006, and has directed and co-created all their productions to date, including: for Griffin Independent and Theatre Works: Summertime in the Garden of Eden; for Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company: Calpurnia Descending; for Melbourne Theatre Company: Lilith: The Jungle Girl; and for Sydney Theatre Company: Little Mercy. He was previously Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre. 

Amy Sole
Co-Director

Amy Sole is a proud Wiradjuri/Worimi director, playwright, dramaturg and advocate. They are Creative Associate at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and a graduate of NIDA’s MFA (Directing) and VCA’s Master of Theatre (Playwriting).

Recent directing credits include Whitefella Yella Tree (STC/Griffin), Robot Dog (MTC), Emu in the Sun (MTC/ILBIJERRI), Blak in the Room (MTC/ILBIJERRI), Scar Trees (ILBIJERRI), Forgetting Tim Minchin (Belvoir 25a) and Benched (Darlinghurst). Amy’s work as a writer includes Burning (NIDA) and co-writer of Tracker (ILBIJERRI/ADT), which toured nationally to Sydney Festival, Rising Festival, Adelaide Festival and Brisbane Festival.

They have collaborated on major works such as Gurr Era Op (ILBIJERRI/Force Majeure, national tour), Big Name No Blankets (ILBIJERRI, national tour) and The Black Woman of Gippsland (MTC). A highly sought-after dramaturg and development director, Amy regularly works with theatre companies across the country to nurture and champion new Australian writing.

In 2024, Amy was awarded the Max Afford Playwright’s Award for their play Nan’s Place. Their practice is grounded in truth-telling and the transformative potential of theatre to connect, heal, and create space for First Peoples’ stories.

JOSEPH ALTHOUSE
Ty

Joseph ‘Wunujaka’ Althouse is a proud Pertame and Tiwi man who lives and works on Gadigal Country. As a young, queer Indigenous artist, Joseph wishes to use his voice to work towards curating a national identity that is inclusive and representative of who we are. Sydney Theatre Company: The Visitors, Lord of the Flies. Other Theatre As Actor: Bell Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors; Ensemble Theatre: Black Cockatoo; Griffin Theatre: Green Park; Hayes Theatre: Lucky Country; Redline Productions: Amadeus, Angels in America. TV: includes Black Comedy, Preppers, Bad Ancestors, Mother and Son. Awards: 2019 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in an Independent Production (Angels in America) Training: NIDA. Pronouns: He/Him. 

 

DANNY HOWARD 
Neddy

Born in Broome, WA, Danny grew up mostly in his father’s country, Barrd Country, in the far north of the Kimberley. Danny has First Nation ties all up and down the west of our great southern island, including the Barrd, Noongar, Yamatji, Bunuba and Ngadju Nations. Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: Belvoir: Jacky. NIDA: First Love is the Revolution, Our Lady of 121st Street, The Good Hope, A Month in the Country, Romeo and Juliet, Twelve Angry Men. Training: University of Western Australia: Dandjoo Barbalong program, WAAPA: Aboriginal Theatre course, NIDA: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting).

MASON BROWNE 
Designer

Mason is a descendant of the Dharug people, living and working on Dharug & Gundungurra country, in the Blue Mountains. Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: As Designer: Griffin Theatre: Sex Magick, Whitefella Yella Tree. Throw Catch Collective: Escalate. Hayes Theatre: Darlinghurst Nights. New Theatre: Summer Rain. The Theatre Division: Ruthless! Reginald Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest. Tantrum Theatre: Riot!, Powerforce Live, Savage Naked Love. As Costume Designer: Hayes Theatre: Jekyll & Hyde, Young Frankenstein, American Psycho, Cry Baby. Dancing Giant Productions: Eternityland. Neil Gooding Productions: Leap. Australian Theatre for Young People: The Deb. As Set Designer: Joshua Robson Productions: In the Heights. Awards: Best Costume Design, 2019 Sydney Theatre Awards - American Psycho. Other: Dark Mofo 2023 Curator & Creative Producer - Night Mass. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: They/Them.

KELSEY LEE
Co-Lighting Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: 4000 Miles. Other Theatre: As Lighting Designer: Griffin Theatre Company: Whitefella Yella Tree; Sex Magick; The Lewis Trilogy. Belvoir St Theatre: Big Girls Don’t Cry, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; Well-Behaved Women; A Room of One’s Own. Melbourne Theatre Company: Destiny. re:group collective: Autotune. Marrugeku: Mutiara. Force Majeure: Gurr Era Op. Ensemble Theatre: Masterclass; The Memory of Water; A Letter For Molly; Killing Katie. Bell Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors. NTofP: Queen Fatima. Fervour: Life Is A Dream. ATYP: April Aardvark. Green Door Theatre Company: SISTREN; Good Dog; If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You. Michelle Guthrie Presents/ Hayes Theatre Co: Tell Me On A Sunday. As Set and Costume Designer: Sydney Dance Company: Somos; Silence & Rapture. NTofP: A Practical Guide To Self Defence. As Set Designer: NTofP: Nothing. Hayes Theatre Co: Catch Me If You Can. As Costume Designer: Ensemble Theatre: Switzerland. As Set and Lighting Designer: Belvoir 25A: An Ox Stand On My Tongue. Griffin Lookout: Jali. As Lighting, Set & Costume Designer: Australian Chamber Orchestra: Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge; There’s a Sea In My Bedroom. NIDA: Lulu: A Modern sex Tragedy. As Co-production Designer & Lighting Designer: Belvoir 25A: Destroy, She Said. As Associate Lighting Designer: Marrugeku: Cut The Sky. Belvoir St Theatre: At What Cost?; Blue . Film: As Art Department: Long Story Short; Shang Chi: The Legend Of The 10 Rings. Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards: Best Set Design for Destroy, She Said. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: She/Her.

KATIE SFETKIDIS
Co-Lighting Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: Calpurnia Descending. Other Theatre: Malthouse: Homo Pentecostus, Loaded, Chase, Looking for Alibrandi, SS Metaphor, Meme Girls. Melbourne Theatre Company: Touching the Void, Abigails Party Ilbidjerri Theatre: Blak in the Room. Joel Bray Dance: Monolith,  Garabari, Considerable Sexual License, Daddy. Awards: 2025 Green Room Award for Outstanding Lighting Design in Theatre Companies (Body of Work - Blak in the Room / Homo Pentecostus), 2005 Green Room Award Outstanding Lighting Design in Theatre Companies (Meme Girls). 

STEVE TOULMIN
Composer/Sound Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: Blackie Black Brown, A Flea In Her Ear, Black Is The New White, Power Plays, Little Mercy, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness. Other Theatre: Griffin Theatre: Whitefella Yella Tree, Dogged, The Bleeding Tree, The Homosexuals, Feather in the Web, Gloria, Kill Climate Deniers, A Hoax, Beached. Sport For Jove: Betrayal. Belvoir: Barbara and the Camp Dogs, HIR, The Rover, The Blind Giant Is Dancing, Jasper Jones, Ivanov, La Traviata, Blue Wizard, Is This Thing On?, 20 Questions, The Seed, Scorched. Bell Shakespeare: Othello, Richard III. Ensemble Theatre: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Circle Mirror Transformation, Great Falls, Liberty Equality Fraternity. Queensland Theatre: Switzerland, That Face. La Boite: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Tender Napalm, Attack Of The Attacking Attackers. Malthouse Theatre: Testament of Mary. Sydney Festival: 44 Sex Acts in One Week, All the Sex I’ve Ever Had, Maureen. Independent: Chatter, Arlington, Queen of Wolves, Me Pregnant, Rommy. Film: My God Shaped Hole. Advertising: Australia Post, Uncle Tobys, Common Ground, Oaks, Stella, Brisbane Racing Club.

DANIEL HERTEN
Associate Composer & Sound Designer, Touring Sound Realiser

Sydney Theatre Company: Circle Mirror Transformation, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Rules for Living. Other Theatre: Griffin Theatre Company: The Lewis Trilogy, Whitefella Yella Tree, SISTREN, Flat Earthers: The Musical, PONY, Sex Magick, Green Park, Wherever She Wanders. Belvoir Theatre Company: Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Furious Mattress, The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time, Miss Peony. Bell Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. Ensemble Theatre Company: The Half-Life of Marie Curie. Hayes Theatre Company: The Pirates of Penzance, Ride the Cyclone, Murder for Two. National Theatre of Parramatta: FADE. Sydney Festival: William Yang: Milestone. Rising Festival: Set Piece. Clockfire Theatre Company: Plenty of Fish in the Sea. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Let the Right One In. Tinderbox Productions: Black Box the Musical. Essential Workers: Collapsible. ERTH: ARC, Shark Dive. Arc Circus: In the Arms of Morpheus. Performance Space: Follies Of God. Sport For Jove: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Red Line Productions: The Chairs, Hand to God. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: He/They. 

BAYLEY TURNER
Intimacy Coordinator

Sydney Theatre Company:  Sweat. Other Theatre: As Intimacy Coordinator: Griffin Theatre Company: The Lewis Trilogy, Jailbaby, swim. Melbourne Theatre Company: The Almighty Sometimes. Malthouse Theatre: Truth. Bullet Heart Club: DJUNA, The Hall, The Inheritance, Things I Know to be True, In the Club. Apocalypse Theatre: Sarah Kane’s Cleansed. Darlinghurst Theatre: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Let the Right One In.  As Consent/Inclusion Consultant: Andrew Henry Presents: Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Michael Cassel Group: Hamilton. Darlinghurst Theatre: Overflow. As Actor: Bullet Heart Club: thirty-six. TV: As Intimacy Coordinator:  Neighbours, Ladies in Black. Training: Intimacy On Set, IDC Professionals. Pronouns: She/Her. 

ANDREA JAMES
Dramaturg

Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai. Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: As Director: Melbourne Theatre Company: The Black Woman of Gippsland. Griffin Theatre Company: Ghosting the Party, Jailbaby, swim, Nucleus. Performing Lines: Sunshine Super Girl. Moogahlin Performing Arts: Winyanboga Yurringa. Jute Theatre: Bukal. Melbourne Workers Theatre: Yanagai! Yanagai!, The Call, Non Parlo Di Salo, Magpie. As Writer: Melbourne Theatre Company: The Black Woman of Gippsland. Performing Lines: Sunshine Super Girl. Griffin Theatre Company: Dogged with Catherine Ryan. Ilbijerri: Big Name, No Blankets in consultation with Sammy and Anyupa Butcher and Coranderrk, We Will Show the Country with Giordano Nanni. Moogahlin Performing Arts & Belvoir: Winyanboga Yurringa. Jute Theatre: Bukal. Urban Theatre Projects: Home. Arthur Productions: Bright World with Elise Hearst. Positions: Griffin Theatre Company: Associate Artistic Director. Carriageworks: Aboriginal Producer. Blacktown City Council: Aboriginal Arts Development Officer. Melbourne Workers Theatre: Artistic Director. Awards: Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers, National Theatre Award 2024. Training: VCA. Pronouns: She/Her. 

TY:
Everything I look at reminds me of him.
I see a stone and I think of his eyes.
I see a fire and I think of his warm breath, up close.
I see a frog — and I think of his, like, bounce.
Is that normal, Aunty?

Dylan Van Den Berg, Whitefella Yella Tree

Media Planning by Anthem.

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SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ann Johnson (Chair)
David Craig (Deputy Chair)
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Brooke Boney
Mitchell Butel
Sarah Constable
Mark Coulter
Anne Dunn
Heather Mitchell AM
Kate Mulvany OAM
David Paradice AO
Annette Shun Wah
Rosie Williams

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