Maxine Beneba Clarke’s 2016 memoir The Hate Race was a powerful and harrowing account of a Black girl’s childhood in suburban Australia in the 80s and 90s. Lyrical and furious, it put the Sydney-born, Melbourne-based poet on the map as one of our finest storytellers. The Hate Race has since become part of high school curricula, cementing its importance as a story from the diaspora.
The stage adaptation, also written by Clarke and co-directed by Courtney Stewart and Tariro Mavondo, is a different yet equally moving experience. The stage, designed by Zoë Rouse, is simple: an abstract-patterned floor with several low platforms dotted around it, a large half-moon backdrop and a lone acoustic guitar at the back. Occasionally, travelling light splits the stage, vanishing as quickly as it comes.
