The Other Side of Me at the Sydney Opera House is a heartbreaking story of loss and identity. Based on actual events, the dance duet tells the story of a young Aboriginal man in the Northern Territory who is adopted, along with his brother, by a white English couple in the 1960s. The adoption process took less than one week. They were instructed to change the children’s names and erase any part of where they came from. They raised the brothers in the English countryside.
Based on a collection of personal letters and poems, The Other Side of Me peels back the curtain on the deep psychological struggles of the Stolen Generation. We see a man – broken, lost – finding himself in the criminal justice system, unable to return to his home in Australia.
Co-Created, Choreographed and Directed by Larrakia man Gary Lang, the production combines dance, visual projections (Samuel James), lighting (Joseph Mercurio) and sound design (Samuel Pankhurst and Arian Pearson, Yolŋu) to create an immersive and wholly sensory experience.
Dancers Alexander Abbot, Dhunghutti and Worimi man Blake Escott are exceptional. Their strength and ability to move as one demonstrates a deep connection and sense of trust. There is a rawness to the movement and an intensity that is heightened by the deliberate shifts of darkness and light. During one particular scene, even the performers’ shadows became merged in the movement, a reflection of one man’s fractured relationship with himself.
While the struggles of incarceration are presented, so are the internal struggles of a man cut in two. There is possibly no gaol more terrifying than the one in your mind. What The Other Side of Me successfully does is portray the psychological and devastating damage that being stolen can have on a person’s mind.
The performance ends with singing the man’s spirit back home. In what is a deeply moving conclusion, we see images of Country and hear language being spoken as the man’s spirit is finally returned. There is a sense of peace restored.
In discussion with Michael Hutchings (Head of First Nations Programming at the Sydney Opera House) after the performance, Gary Lang said, about the production, “It’s a blakfella story. It’s an Australian story. It’s Our story.” Having premiered in 2023 at the Darwin Festival, The Other Side of Me will soon travel to the UK, where it will no doubt succeed in shining light on a story steeped in history and healing.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Other Side of Me is by Gary Lang NT Dance Company, produced and toured by BlakDance and will perform at the Sydney Opera House until 9 May 2026.
For more information and to purchase tickets, head to the Sydney Opera House website.
Reviewer attended on Wednesday 6 May 2026.
Photo credit: Daniel Boud
