FIFO flies back home

After enjoying successful runs in Perth and a moving, special reading during a prestigious biennial Indigenous play festival in Sydney, a locally written play is finally making its way home to Broome. Goolarri Media and Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company will be showing FIFO — Fit In or F... Off! in a special three-night season at the Gimme Club opening tonight and closing on Saturday with many of its performances already sold out. Written by Broome’s own Melody Dia, who participated in Goolarri Media’s Indigenous Writers Program, the play pulls no punches as it explores the impact of mining on two Indigenous families. Dia said the journey towards writing FIFO — Fit In or F... Off! began when she joined Goolarri’s Indigenous Writers Program with the initial intention of writing a novel. She said the play became an exploration of characters being stuck in two different but isolated worlds, affected by FIFO work. “It has been unbelievable seeing everything come together after such a long process,” she said. “I had been working on the play for about six years and was fortunate to take part in various workshops with Yirra Yaakin and they saw the vision that I had in mind so it just went on this rollercoaster of development.” When the play was read during the prestigious Yellamundie National First Peoples Playwrighting Festival in Sydney last year, Dia felt it was the first time really seeing her words come to life on stage. “The response was incredible and I felt very grateful that so many people connected with the story,” she said. “I think it also gave the people over there, who don’t seem to have as much of an understanding of FIFO life, a good picture on what life can be like in WA.” The Broome performances also mark the first time a theatre production has been performed at Goolarri Media’s Gimme Club in almost 30 years, after Corrugation Road. Dramaturg and creative producer Mari Lourey said getting the play back to Broome was always the intention, particularly to showcase locally produced stories. “This is our first opportunity to produce our own theatre here in Broome,” she said. “It will be professional theatre in the tin shed and hopefully it will be the first of many in the future.” FIFO showcases an all-Indigenous cast including Perth-based actors Bobbi Henry and Trevor Ryan, as well as up-and-coming Derby-born actress Marlanie Haerewa. Lourey said Haerewa was so excited to perform in Broome that she had convinced her friends and family to make the trip from Derby to watch the play. “How often does that happen that the local mob come along to see their own artists strut their stuff on our local stages?” she said. “It just doesn’t happen often enough and we’re very excited to be able to bring FIFO, a locally produced play, back to Broome.”