Sarah Courtis

As the end of the first quarter of the 21st century approaches, scholars of migration, diaspora, and empire studies are witness to global, interlinked crises that behove us to urgently rethink the ways in which “diaspora” has been conceived. Historically defined as populations that have been dispersed or displaced, diasporic communities today are adrift in the tumult of the global coronavirus pandemic that has exacerbated the contraction of economies and the closure of borders that might have once provided a safe port, or at least safe passage, to those forced to flee. Dehumanization of historically marginalized citizen-subjects (for instance, people of colour; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual [LGBTQIA+] people; migratory labourers) stages the broader sense in which, as a species, we are as much rethinking individual relations with one another as with our species’ relation to animals and the Earth. Indeed, the Anthropocene’s “collapse of the age-old humanist distinction between natural history and human history” (Chakrabarty 2009, 201) is itself silhouetted by what Thomas Nail (2019) has called “the Kinocene”, an epoch of movement characterized by the ontological sense of an era in which movement as much convulses human beings as it does life itself. To be is to be agitated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, theatres around the world closed and performances moved online. Consequently, when the musical Hamilton opened in March 2021 in Australia, it was the only version of the show being performed live on stage anywhere in the world and was marketed as a 'beacon of hope' for the performing arts industry [Crompton, S. 2017, Francis, L., and Ky, J. 2021, Millar, L. 2021]. Hamilton's story is based on White American grand narratives such as the War of Independence, nation building and a 'bootstraps' mentality, which have traditionally excluded persons of colour; however, the musical primarily features Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) performers. After its debut in the US, Hamilton was praised for its diverse storytelling [Clark, J. 2015. Gardner, E. 2015, Quinn, D. 2015.] and this narrative has been repeated for the Australian re-production. Through the lens of racial neoliberal inclusion, this paper explores the COVID-era Australian re-production of Hamilton, interrogating how diversity is performed and the impact the global pandemic has had on these performances. However, while the internal message of the show remains problematic, the depth brought by Indigenous performers in particular, marks a shift in Australian theatre culture.