There could hardly be a more appropriate home for Bennelong in London than Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Theatre. Sitting on Sydney Harbour between Barangaroo and Bennelong Point, the production is surrounded by the very history it seeks to reclaim. The play itself acknowledges the irony, with Bennelong indignantly observing that his wife has an entire precinct named after her while he has only a point. Sebastian cheekily replies, “And an electorate.” It is one of many laughs in a work that proves history doesn’t have to be solemn to be profound.
Commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company and created by an Aboriginal playwright, director and cast, Bennelong in London gives one of Australia’s most misunderstood historical figures something history has rarely afforded him: the chance to tell his own story.
The premise is established almost immediately. Sebastian, an Aboriginal actor preparing for an audition, suddenly finds himself confronted by Bennelong himself, determined that his story be told properly. Although the concept grabs your attention from the outset, the play takes a little while to settle into its rhythm. Once it does, however, it draws you in completely. Under the assured direction of Ian Michael, the production never loses sight of its humanity. Even while exploring complex historical and cultural questions, Michael keeps the focus firmly on the relationship between the two men, allowing humour and heartbreak to exist comfortably side by side. The running jokes about NIDA provide welcome moments of levity throughout.
Emma White’s set remains unchanged throughout, yet never feels static. The clean, hard lines of a contemporary apartment contrast beautifully with soft drapes and pockets of spinifex grass, quietly reminding us that Country is always present. A Tony Albert’s Waratahs hangs alongside an Aboriginal shield that Bennelong is distressed to see displayed as decoration rather than respected as something containing the spirit of a warrior. Towards the end of the play, waratahs begin to emerge through the spinifex. Perhaps I was reading too much into it, but I couldn’t help wondering if they symbolised New South Wales itself—Country enduring despite everything. It is a simple but evocative visual that lingered long after the curtain call.
James Peter Brown’s composition and sound design gently carry the emotional weight of the story without ever overwhelming it. The soundscape subtly builds beneath the dialogue before Bennelong’s songs, accompanied by clapsticks, fill the theatre with love, homesickness, grief and remembrance. They are among the evening’s most moving moments. The lighting also deserves praise, shifting mood and emotional tone with remarkable subtlety. In a play set entirely within one apartment, these technical elements become vital storytellers in their own right.
Googoorewon Knox gives a magnificent performance as Bennelong. He refuses to let the man become a historical monument. Instead, we meet someone curious, witty, stubborn, grieving, hopeful and wonderfully human. Bennelong is determined to remind us that he had agency. He chose to travel to England with Governor Phillip in the hope of meeting King George III and negotiating a treaty, as other First Nations peoples had done. Neither dream was realised. Instead, he found himself treated as something of a curiosity in a society marked by inequality, poverty and rigid class divisions. His observations of eighteenth-century England are perceptive, often humorous and occasionally heartbreaking. His anguish over Aboriginal people who died so far from home without the ceremony needed to release their spirits is one of the production’s most powerful passages.
Opposite him, Guy Simon is equally compelling as Sebastian. His understandable anger at Australia’s colonial history is challenged by Bennelong himself, who is equally bewildered by Sebastian’s distance from Country and traditional lore. Their conversations become a fascinating dialogue between two Aboriginal men separated by more than two centuries but connected by questions of identity, belonging and culture. Bennelong gently reminds both Sebastian and the audience that neither he nor the colonisers can be judged solely through the lens of modern values. They belonged to another time with different understandings of the world.
One of the play’s greatest achievements is that it dismantles the familiar “noble savage” stereotype. Bennelong is neither victim nor saint. He is simply a man—intelligent, flawed, compassionate and deeply curious about the strangers who arrived on his Country. By allowing him to be fully human, the play succeeds in making him far more remarkable than any history lesson ever could.
The final declaration, “I am Bennelong, and this is my story,” lands with enormous emotional force.
As a little aside for musical theatre lovers, Googoorewon Knox played King George III in the 2024 Australian production of Hamilton. I couldn’t help thinking throughout this production of one of that show’s enduring questions: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
Should this story be told? Absolutely.
Bennelong in London is more than an engaging evening at the theatre. It is an invitation to look again at someone we thought we knew and to discover a man whose life was far richer, more complex and more courageous than the history books often allow. It is compassionate, intelligent storytelling that restores Bennelong’s voice with dignity, humour and heart, and another triumph for Sydney Theatre Company in bringing important Australian stories to the stage.
– Ruth Jordon
Ruth Jordon has been immersed in community theatre for decades and now manages Red Tree Theatre, an independent charitable theatre on the Central Coast NSW. A lifelong lover of live performance, Ruth enjoys discovering stories that entertain, challenge and inspire, and writes from the perspective of a passionate theatre lover. When she’s not at the theatre, you’ll usually find her planning her next travel adventure or enjoying a good glass of wine.
Bennelong in London runs for 95 minutes (no interval) and plays at the Wharf Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company through 16 August 2026. Tickets are available through Sydney Theatre Company.
Disclosure: The Plus Ones were guests of Sydney Theatre Company
Image credit: Daniel Boud
