“HOW do you deal with angry young men?” Tiffany Barton asks.

If you’re a multi-award winning playwright the answer is to write about it.

The Hilton local was commissioned by Barking Gecko to work with young people in the Pilbara in 2010 and the result is Metalhead, a play set in the mythical town of Violence in the red dust of the north-west.

“Where the streets are paved with red dirt, the people have hearts of iron and four teenagers are up to their necks in trouble,” Barton says.

“Life has shafted them just as surely as the iron ore mine has shafted the ground they walk on.”

Rubeun Yorkshire.

Thirteen indigenous and non-indigenous youths from Roebourne and Karratha contributed to the writing of Metalhead, including a Samoan lad who came up with a character mad about boxing, “because he had a violent father,” Barton says.

Metalhead is part ghost story, part magic realism, and with cash needed to pay for the high-tech gadgetry, including Curtis Taylor’s multimedia wizardry, Barton put the call out on crowdfunder Pozible.

Oh, and she emailed Hugh Jackman, whom she’d trained with at the Actors Centre in Sydney: “He got back in five minutes and donated $500.”

Della Rae Morrison and Caitlin Jane Hampson.

Non-indigenous Barton struggled with writing a play about Aboriginal people and connection to country, so she enlisted the help of Willagee playwright David Milroy (King Hit) as indigenous adviser, and he suggested taking race out of the equation because violence has no racial boundaries.

Colour-blind casting was also his suggestion: “You cast based on appropriateness for the role, not skin colour.”

The result is the inclusion of African Amri Mrisho, and an Aboriginal actor who speaks with a Jamaican accent.

Amri Mrisho carries Hampson. Photos by Tony Gajewski.

Newcomer Rubeun Yorkshire plays young Jake: “He knocked me dead in the audition,” Barton recalls. “He is the most disciplined, talented actor I have come across.”

Barton’s Polly’s Waffle was a hit during its US and UK tour, earning her rave reviews, her one-woman show Diva is heading to London in November, and she’s been nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award. Part of the Fremantle Festival, Metalhead is on at Victoria Hall, High Street, October 23–30, tix $30.

Monday night is free for indigenous healthcare card holders, or drop in for “tightarse” Tuesday, tix $15.

But beware there’s strong language, violence and adult content.

by JENNY D’ANGER