Ilbijerri Theatre's New Drama

Viral: Are You the Cure?

In early 2018, Hepatitis SA and the Aboriginal Health Council of SA were successful in securing a grant from the Department for Correctional Services to bring Melbourne-based theatre company Ilbijerri to Adelaide to perform their latest play, Viral: Are You the Cure?

This is the third play that has been produced looking at increasing awareness of hepatitis C among Indigenous communities in Australia.

Viral: Are You the Cure? tells the story of Ally, and as the play description states, “things aren’t the best right now for Ally, but she has big plans—she just wants a better life for her baby.”

The play follows Ally, who is ready to make a life changing decision, all while being filmed for an explosive new documentary. The play is fast-paced, with many very funny moments as well as heartfelt real-life situations.

The play was performed six times over four days at various sites in South Australia. Day one was at The Adelaide Youth Training Centre. The second day took the performance to Taoundi College. This was a community performance open to anyone. Day three was off to Yatala Labour Prison, where two shows were performed in the one day, and finally on the fourth day the show went to Mobilong Prison at Murray Bridge, with two more shows performed.

At each of the six shows, the audience were captivated throughout. At the end of the play, the set was transformed in to a yarning circle, and audience members were invited to join the circle to talk about the play.

During the yarning circle, some of the comments from the audience included, “I will pass the information on to my community,” and “I only came for the popcorn and Coke, but thought it was amazing and found a connection with the characters”. Another commented, “it was the first play I have seen, and I felt goosebumps.”