We were met with a visitor when we were waiting to start our Her Story performance yesterday – a Bennets Wallaby was curled up in the corner of Yard One at the Female Factory. We know that the green grass of the Yard attracts lots of nocturnal animals (the droppings are a cause for alarm from our audience members until we explain they’re non-toxic) and Chris sometimes does “a rake through” to clear us a path before a performance. I have often thought that I would like to visit Degraves street at night just to see the wallabies and possums that must be bounding along there heading for Yard One!
However, the night visitors are usually all gone by morning, leaving only their deposits. This little fella though, had missed the boat and there he was in broad daylight obviously waiting for our show to begin! I didn’t have time to chase him out before the audience for Her Story arrived so I just hoped he would stay quietly in his corner whilst we performed around him.
The performance went ahead and the scene in the nursery yard, where the wallaby was crouched against the wall was simply moved a little further away so as not to disturb him. You have to be prepared for all sorts of things when you’re doing theatre al fresco.
Staff from the Female Factory rang Parks and Wildlife and he had gone by the time we came back with our Louisa’s Walk audience.
Dianne (one of our audience members) was kind enough to send me this photo she took, as I don’t normally carry a camera with me when I’m playing my convict women characters!
A Wallaby in Yard One .
