THE Brisbane of dirt roads, backyard chook pens, horse-drawn carts and conversations over the back fence will return to the stage this November in a deeply personal new Australian play.
York Street, premiering at Mercury Theatre Company in Wynnum, takes audiences back to the highly charged years of the Second World War through the eyes of a young girl coming of age in Brisbane.
But behind the history is a much more personal story.
The play is based on playwright and novelist Jim Loftus’s mother and the stories she shared about growing up in York Street, Coorparoo, during an extraordinary period in Brisbane’s history.
It was an era when the city was beginning its transformation from what was often regarded as a large country town into a modern city while simultaneously finding itself thrust onto the frontline of the Pacific war.
American servicemen poured into Brisbane; families lived with the uncertainty of loved ones serving overseas and everyday life continued against a backdrop of global conflict.
York Street explores that world from the perspective of an ordinary Brisbane family, balancing the darker realities of wartime with humour, warmth and the connections that held families together.
Today, York Street remains, but much of the neighbourhood remembered by an earlier generation has disappeared.
“To people today it seems like any other street, but I know better because my mother told me about York Street,” Loftus said.
The playwright has previously written four novels, including Celtic Blood, and shares a feature film co-writing credit for Underdog’s Tale, which was filmed in Brisbane in 2007.
The production will be directed by experienced Brisbane theatre director Sherryl-Lee Secomb, whose credits include a Matilda Award nomination for Fun Home.
For audiences who lived through the decades following the war, York Street offers an opportunity to revisit a Brisbane that has largely vanished.
For younger generations, particularly descendants of families shaped by the Pacific campaign, it provides a window into what everyday life looked and felt like while history unfolded around ordinary people.
York Street premieres at Mercury Theatre Company, Wynnum, in November, with performances on November 14, 15, 22, 23, 28 and 29 with Saturday performances at 7.30pm, with Sunday matinees from 2pm.
Tickets are on sale now through TryBooking.
