Nakkiah Lui

The smash-hit play, in print for the first time with a foreword and notes from multitalented playwright, writer, commentator and actor Nakkiah Lui. Love, politics and other things you shouldn't talk about at dinner Charlotte Gibson is a lawyer with a brilliant career ahead of her. As her father Ray says, she could be the next female Indigenous Waleed Aly. But she has other ideas. First of all, it's Christmas. Second of all, she's in love. The thing is, her fiance, Francis Smith, is not what her family expected - he's unemployed, he's an experimental composer ... and he's white! Bringing him and his conservative parents to meet her family on their ancestral land is a bold move. Will he stand up to the scrutiny? Or will this romance descend into farce? Love is never just black and white. It's complicated by class, politics, ambition, and too much wine over dinner. But for Charlotte and Francis, it's mostly complicated by family. Secrets are revealed, prejudices outed and old rivalries get sorted through. What can't be solved through diplomacy can surely be solved by a good old-fashioned dance-off. They're just that kind of family.

They’re wearing ball gowns, they’re debutantes... and they’re black. The debs’ ball is a controversial colonial export but can it be empowering too? Australia’s most celebrated young playwright Nakkiah Lui and actress Miranda Tapsell put on their hats and gloves to find out. Nakkiah and Miranda are angry, young, vocal, Aboriginal and very, very funny. Join them on their journey, starting with a lesson on teatime etiquette in London where it all began, as they follow the debutante trail and discover that First Nations women across the globe have made this tradition their own. Nakkiah and Miranda ask: can beauty, poise and politeness actually empower them? Or is it better to get angry and start shouting?

Kill the Messenger is based on a true story about a man in the author's home suburb of Mount Druitt. One day, in unbearable pain due to undiagnosed stomach cancer, he went to the local hospital, where he was refused care. Then he went to a nearby park and hung himself. Then in 2012 Nakkiah's grandmother fell through the unmended floor of her public housing home and died. Nakkiah found herself at the centre of a story about institutionalised racism. The resulting play lays it all out--her dodgy sex life, a dead man's second chance, and a granddaughter's sense of duty.