BUILT FOR STORIES
There are few places in Darwin where the past and present sit quite so visibly alongside one another, as they do at Brown’s Mart.
WORDS BROOKE GIBBS
STANDING ON LARRAKIA Country in the heart of Darwin, the historic Brown’s Mart building has survived cyclones, war and decades of change to become a home for Territory artists, storytellers, performers and audiences.
Built in 1885 by Vaiben Louis Solomon from local stone, the building was originally known as Solomon’s Mart. In 1887, Victor Vowles Brown took over the premises, and the building became known as Brown’s Mart. Over the decades it served a succession of commercial and government purposes.
In the early 1970s, the Darwin Theatre Group began the process of transforming the building into a community theatre. A board of trustees was appointed in 1971, rehearsals and workshops began in 1972, and Brown’s Mart started to establish the role it continues to play today – providing a physical home for Darwin’s creative community.
Then came Cyclone Tracy. The theatre’s development was interrupted by the devastation of 1974, but Brown’s Mart was on the list of historic buildings targeted for protective restoration. Funding from the Darwin Reconstruction Commission and a National Estate grant helped bring the building back to life, with the first production in the restored theatre staged in July 1976.
Over more than five decades, the precinct has provided space for artists to rehearse, experiment, develop new work, and ultimately, perform these works in front of an audience.
Its influence extends well beyond the productions staged inside its theatre. Darwin Festival, MusicNT, NT Writers’ Centre, Tracks Dance, Darwin Community Arts and Corrugated Iron Youth Arts all began at Brown’s Mart, while the Darwin Fringe Festival continues to use the precinct as its Festival Hub.
The organisation defines itself as 'the Home of Territory performing arts', with a year-round program centred on collaboration, innovation, and inclusion. It champions new work and new voices from the NT through residencies, creative development opportunities, and performance.
It is this philosophy that makes the upcoming world premiere of Seven Deadly Gins such a fitting Brown’s Mart production. Written by Yvette Walker and co-directed by Shari Sebbens and Ursula Yovich, Seven Deadly Gins follows Magenta as she returns home to the Gulf and is forced to confront things buried in her past.
This work represents more than another addition to a theatre program. For Walker, the journey of Seven Deadly Gins has been years in the making. The title dates back to 1994, when she was just 14, while a reading and development of the work took place in 2014 with Playwriting Australia. When Walker later encountered Rosalie Pearson Grimes, who had been involved in that earlier reading, she was reminded of the unfinished work.
Walker describes the production as an opportunity to bring an extraordinary group of First Nations women together.
“It is the largest ensemble of Aboriginal women in a theatre production in Australia, and I’m learning more about my connections to the NT myself as well. I thank and give gratitude to the Larrakia Elder’s and community that have welcomed me and put so much support behind me” Walker says.
“To have the opportunity to bring so many incredible First Nations women together, in all sorts of different areas, to bring this story to the forefront, was something that was very hard to ignore.”
That local investment is exactly the kind of work Brown’s Mart exists to support. The story itself is deeply personal. Walker has drawn on her own experiences, using creative licence while allowing the work to remain essentially autobiographical. It explores difficult territory including childhood abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, and the experience of growing up as a young Aboriginal woman navigating spaces in which she often felt misunderstood.
But at its core, Walker says, the work is about love.
“It’s about self-love. It’s about the love of others. It’s about forgiveness.”
For the performers, that emotional terrain requires care. Actress, singer and co-director for the work Ursula Yovich describes the importance of having a workspace where performers can step away when they need to, recognise their own limits, and return when they are ready.
“It’s so important for work like this. I just found [Yvette's] story so inspiring. We might not be from the same community, but we understand each other’s communities because no matter where you go around Australia, there’s a lot of trauma with our mob, and it goes from one generation to the next until someone’s breaking free of that and trying to heal,” she says
“I think it’s interesting to have seven black women on stage. It’s a really wonderful bit of history to be involved in.”
That emphasis on creating safe, supportive artistic environments is another important part of what Brown’s Mart represents. The organisation’s role extends beyond simply presenting finished productions – its producing arm provides artistic support during creative development, rehearsal, production, and touring.
Seven Deadly Gins demonstrates what can happen when an organisation can back a story and give artists the space to dream ambitiously. The production team acknowledges that the work has been created on a shoestring, with difficult decisions required along the way. There is the recognition that funding can often determine the scale of a creative vision, reducing what might have been a seven-person ensemble to something smaller.
Brown’s Mart’s involvement has made the larger production possible, and the effects are being felt. According to Walker, Seven Deadly Gins has recorded Brown’s Mart’s strongest pre-sale of tickets in years, with audiences travelling from interstate to see the production.
That matters not only for one show, but for Darwin itself. A homegrown production attracting an audience from around Australia, that puts the city’s artists and stories in the national spotlight. It demonstrates that Territory stories do not need to be diluted or relocated elsewhere to have relevance. They can be created here, performed here, and draw audiences here.
Seven Deadly Gins is a deeply personal story with a predominantly Territory-based creative team, and a world premiere taking place in one of Darwin’s most historically significant buildings.
The walls of Brown's Mart are historic, and within them – more than a century since they first went up – history continues to be made.
Seven Deadly Gins
WHEN TUE 6 OCT – SAT 17 OCT (EXC. MON 12 OCT) | 7PM
AT BROWN’S MART THEATRE
COST $24-$48
INFO brownsmart.com.au
