Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company presents premiere of Bruce Denny’s Operation Boomerang at Subiaco Arts Centre

Some may take offence to their neighbour asking if they would be available for the role of a “sleazy Mexican card player” in their community theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Bruce Denny just took it as a sign in the late 1980s to reignite a love for theatre he had discovered when auditioning for his primary school musical of Oliver! “It wasn’t long after that (Oliver!), my dad took me out and enrolled me in football, which he thought would be much healthier for me,” Mt Lawley-raised Denny says. “I’d always enjoyed theatre but had to prioritise a ‘real job’ for the mortgage and children. Even when I got an agent, and got some professional roles, I was still working between the two. Now that my children are all grown up and gone their own way, I’ve managed to go back to what I really love.” While Denny’s acting credits range from theatre production The Sum Of Us and performances with WA Opera, to films including Bran Nue Dae, he has also turned to behind-the-scenes roles, making his directorial debut with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s Dating Black in 2021. His passion for writing is evident, even after Denny — whose heritage is Yamatji down his mother’s side and Native American down his father’s — admits he can be a lazy writer at times. “Getting me to the keyboard’s the hard part, but once I’m there, I’m really happy,” he shares from his home in Bally Bally, near Beverley. “I’ve always been a bit of a daydreamer … That’s why the Yirra Yaakin Yirra Yaarnz Writers’ Group (in 2020) has been fantastic because they give you very good mentors and dramaturgs, and it’s discipline where they give you deadlines and critique your work.” It is where Denny started writing Operation Boomerang, initially as a short 10-15 minute play, chosen for a Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company Vignette Series performance in 2022, before it was commissioned for him to expand into a full-length play. Described as a play not just about living on your own terms, but dying on your own terms, Operation Boomerang was developed from the playwright’s personal experience of placing his mother and other elderly relatives into aged care. “Mum hated it and didn’t like the idea she was unable to live independently,” Denny explains. “I’d also done a role play with some medical students at Notre Dame University. The character I was playing was a gentleman who’d been given a week or two to live because his dialysis was failing, and he, as a blackfella said, ‘Well, I need to get home to my country’. The medicos really couldn’t understand why it was so important, culturally for him, to get back to his country. “I’ve seen the way older relatives have had enough and just want to go home, where whatever happens, happens. So it’s not only for blackfellas, but it’s very strong in a lot of blackfella culture, that that’s where your country is, and that’s where your spirit should rest.” Operation Boomerang follows the story of an Indigenous family trying to support their sassy matriarch’s sunset wish to spring her from the old folks’ home, with one of Yirra Yaakin’s founders, Dr Lynette Narkle returning to the stage as Nanna. With family dynamics at play, thanks to everyone’s different way of approaching the situation, the production is a dark comedy, lacking in villains and featuring a fair few laughs. “There are lighter moments where it’s not just all doom and gloom,” Denny says. “Aunty Lynette is an elder and she has vast experience in theatre. She hasn’t been on the boards for awhile, so it’s good to have her back … Bobbi Henry (playing daughter Jean) is actually related to Aunty Lynette, and so is Ebony McGuire (playing granddaughter Sarah), so there’s relationships in the play and in the cast.” Directed by Ian Moopa Wilkes, Operation Boomerang rehearsals are in full swing, with Denny only venturing in a few times for some final tweaks of his script. “It’s a safer way of doing a play, to distance the writer from the work, because if a work is of any decency or good, it means someone else should be able to pick it up and run with it. “When we look at the history of theatre, and the iconic plays, anybody can pick them up and direct them. If you’ve got to write it and direct it yourself, and then do everything else, I’m not sure how you’re getting a true sense of how good a piece of writing or theatre it is.” Operation Boomerang is at Subiaco Arts Centre, October 4 to 19. Tickets at yirrayaakin.com.au.