ON THE WALLABY

NICK ENRIGHT's ebullient musical play, inspired by the stories of homeless men 'on the wallaby' who roamed Australian roads during the Great Depression, races the misfortunes of the O'Brien family, waterside workers in Port Adelaide. The effect upon the family and the nation of eight years of unemployment, birth, separation, strikes and subsistence, are seen in the light of the political strategies of the time. Intermingled with this story in song and dance is the death of the old music hall theatre and the rise of the age of mass communication.