Uncle Glenn Shea is a proud Wathaurong/Ngarrindjeri man and an award-winning playwright. He spoke to Matt Hewson about how and why he wrote his acclaimed play Three Magpies Perched in a Tree, which he performs solo and is currently playing at La Mama Courthouse.
In 2023 Glenn Shea won the Green Room Award for Best New Writing for his play Three Magpies Perched in a Tree, the first act (although the last written) in his greater work An Indigenous Trilogy.
Described as “… an eye-opening portrait of the criminal justice system” (Vanessa Francesca, ArtsHub), the play tells the story of Peter, an Aboriginal man from the Stolen Generation who works as a juvenile justice worker in his Aboriginal community.
Though Peter is a fictional character, Glenn has drawn deeply on his own personal history to inform the work. Stolen from his mother when he was only weeks old, he was sent to Geelong.
He later spent years in the same role as Peter, working with Indigenous children in the criminal justice system and seeing first-hand how pain, trauma, dispossession and disconnection continue to affect our nation’s First Peoples.
“All those works (in An Indigenous Trilogy) are connected to who I am as a colonised, assimilated member of the Stolen Generation and the impact of that throughout my life, in regards to trauma and how that affects the everyday walk of life,” Glenn said.
“It’s really difficult. You’ve got to go on that journey to reconnect to who you are and your identity, your place of belonging and connection to country, to family and community.
“And these issues still impact us today. You read or hear of a child protection worker, whether it’s an Aboriginal organisation or a non-Aboriginal organisation, and they can walk in and just remove an Aboriginal child from their parents and there’s no repercussions
“You’re just going, has anything changed? Or has nothing changed? Is it worse, or is it better? How are they going to close the gap?
“That child and that parent, family, community are experiencing the same things that I experienced, that my family experienced, my community experienced. We’re in 2024 and I’m talking about the 60s and earlier. It’s a harsh environment that our country is a part of.”
Glenn’s entry point to theatre, his first real acting gig, came along unexpectedly when he was in his early 20s.
“It was with the Geelong Musical Comedy Company, we did a show called Hair back in 1984,” he said.
“I had a mate who was in it and he said to me, look, the director’s looking for somebody with dark skin, are you interested in having a go?
“As a young person I grew up in a very strong Christian Baptist family, so I went to youth group and we’d do lots of different things, and making plays was one of them. So I kind of understood plays.
“So when he said they were looking for a fella with dark skin I said yeah, no worries, why not.
“I didn’t know it was going to be so much fun, so much energy, songs and dancing… I had the time of my life, and have kind of just continued on from there when given the opportunity.”
Glenn went on to become the first Indigenous person to graduate from the National Institute of Dramatic Art with a degree in dramatic arts.
In between his work with community Glenn would “take my annual leave and go and do a play or a TV show or something”.
While rehearsing in preparation for Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, Glenn approached director Julian Meyrick about an idea he had for a story.
“I had these stories in my head, because I hadn’t really been debriefed or supported with counselling or things like that for the impact of the work I was doing with young people and how it affects you,” he said.
“Julian said ‘write something down and get it to me by the end of the play’. So while the show was on, during the day I’d go into the Arts Centre in Melbourne, into the dressing rooms and I’d write, just write stories.”
Now a one-man show, Three Magpies was originally a four-hander, with roles for Peter, his internal male and female sides and a character inspired by Glenn’s surroundings as he wrote.
“The Australian Ballet was on at the same time (as The Birthday Party) and they were doing Swan Lake,” he said.
“So this swan would wander down behind stage, and as I was waiting there with a bit of time they’d come up and talk to me. This character developed from that.
“So I created hope within the fourth character, which would be a classically trained dancer.”
However, years later as the work went into rehearsals for its first run at La Mama, the pandemic struck.
“The lead actor left because he was too stressed because of COVID, then one of the other actors became pregnant and had to leave,” Glenn said.
“Then I had another actor leave because they didn’t want to sit in a room with people who had the COVID needle. COVID sort of took away the cast.
“So I said to myself, I’m going to rewrite this as a one-person story and then the only person I can blame is myself.”
As it turned out, no blaming was necessary. Acted by Glenn and featuring narration by legendary actor and activist Uncle Jack Charles, it won the aforementioned Green Room Award, was Highly Commended for the Premier’s Literary Award in 2023 and has been added to the VCE Theatre Studies Unit 4 play list for 2024.
Glenn said while acting was a form of enjoyable escapism, writing was about sharing the story he needed to at that point in time.
“I’m a part of the Wathaurong Aboriginal community and we as a community are a part of story, song and dance,” he said.
“What we are doing in communities is planting seeds to create opportunities for every person to come and experience what we are looking to share with them about who we are as a society of people.
“We’re strong, we’ll keep moving forward. And we’ll keep working with members of society who are already our supporters and with members of society who have an interest in wanting to understand us more.
“All we can do is plant the seeds of truthfulness for every Australian to get a really clear understanding of the history of the country and where we’re at and how we can move forward in a really positive way.”
Three Magpies Perched in a Tree is now playing at La Mama Courthouse until August 25 and at David Li Sound Gallery on September 11 and 12.
