00:00The calm before the storm. The cast of Cyclone Tracey Golden Jubilee are in final rehearsals
00:08for a unique stage show as part of the Darwin Fringe Festival.
00:17Set in a Darwin backyard Christmas party, the show blends music, multimedia and real
00:23stories from Tracey survivors, including the show's producer.
00:27I lost me house that I only had for one month, mind you. So it was an upstairs house on stilts
00:33and next morning I just had the stilts and the floor, nothing else. But I felt good because
00:38none of us were hurt.
00:39He says after five decades it could be the last chance for many older survivors to share
00:44their stories.
00:45There were dozens killed, hundreds injured, thousands traumatised. So it's tended to be
00:51a topic you don't talk much about.
00:54Director of the Jubilee show, local musician Rusty Smith, was home in Ludmilla when disaster
00:59struck.
01:00There's trauma there that we all carry from Cyclone Tracey.
01:04He says the response to the show has been overwhelming.
01:07Everybody wants to hear their stories and people want to tell their stories. Like me
01:10personally I've never told my story.
01:12Cyclone Tracey devastated Darwin on Christmas Day of 1974. The historic Brownsmart Theatre
01:18survived major damage but needed extensive repairs. Ken Conway was a founding member
01:24in 1972 as the city's theatre scene was beginning to find its feet.
01:29So that continued but continued in roofless buildings or in no buildings at all.
01:38Determined the show must go on, he put on a performance with other local actors. That
01:42irreverent Darwin style lives on at Brownsmart tonight with two sold out shows.
01:48For more information visit www.brownsmart.org
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