History is rarely a single story, yet Australian theatre has long privileged one version of it. In Bennelong in London, Jane Harrison reclaims one of Australia’s mythologised historical figures through a work that is as much about the language of history as it is about history itself.

Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong in London. Photo © Daniel Boud

Harrison’s 90-minute play follows a young First Nations actor (Guy Simon, The Visitors, The Tempest) preparing to audition for the role of Bennelong. As Bennelong (Googoorewon Knox, Hamilton) steps from his imagination, both men are drawn back to the late 18th century, revisiting first contact, Bennelong’s relationship with Barangaroo and his journey to England while exploring how these stories continue to shape Aboriginal identity today.

That conversation is anchored by two compelling performances. Simon embodies the burden of inheriting a history too often told by others, while in his theatre company debut, Googoorewon Knox refuses to reduce Bennelong to either hero or collaborator. His performance finds a man negotiating impossible circumstances with charisma, curiosity and contradiction.

Together, they ensure the play’s dialogue between past and present feels emotionally lived rather than intellectually argued. Their chemistry is effortless yet purposeful, with a connection that will only deepen as the season progresses.

Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong in London. Photo © Daniel Boud

There is something profoundly resonant about seeing Bennelong in London staged by Sydney Theatre Company, only a short walk from the harbour foreshore where Bennelong and Barangaroo lived, loved and negotiated the first years of colonisation. The significance of this story being told within sight of Country where these events unfolded is as important as the story itself. It is not simply history being performed; it is history returning to place.

That responsibility is reflected throughout Harrison’s writing. First Nations playwrights are often expected to educate, challenge accepted histories and represent communities alongside crafting compelling theatre. At times, Bennelong in London visibly carries that weight, with meticulous historical exposition occasionally overtaking dramatic momentum.

Yet to criticise the play for this alone would ignore the realities of a theatrical landscape that has too rarely made room for these stories. As the only First Nations work in Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 season, the play is asked to reclaim space in the very institutions where that space was once denied, while explaining why that reclamation matters.

Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong in London. Photo © Daniel Boud

Ian Michael’s (Constellations, Stolen, SISTREN) direction is at its strongest when it reconnects the production to older traditions of storytelling. Emma White’s contemporary apartment sits in stark contrast to the song, movement, lighting and shadow that transform the stage into moments of remarkable theatrical poetry. Michael gives Simon and Knox room to move fluidly between naturalistic exchanges and ceremonial storytelling, trusting ritual and song as much as dialogue.

Large sheets framing the stage become shifting canvases as Trent Suidgeest’s lighting flickers across them like firelight, evoking the intimacy of stories shared around a campfire. The spontaneity of firelight dances against the rigidity of constructed walls, creating a powerful visual reminder of the tension between stories rooted in Country and the structures that have sought to contain them.

Where the production ultimately finds its greatest strength is in refusing to simplify its central figure. Rather than presenting Bennelong as either hero or collaborator, Harrison embraces contradiction, asking how we reclaim histories that have been distorted without flattening their subjects into flawless icons. How do we honour Aboriginal heroes while remaining honest about the compromises, contradictions and impossible choices that colonisation demanded of them?

Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong in London. Photo © Daniel Boud

Ultimately, Bennelong in London is less interested in correcting history than reclaiming the right to tell it. Harrison offers no easy answers, instead arguing that truth-telling requires complexity; that our First Nations heroes can simultaneously be victims, perpetrators and visionaries.

There is a quiet irony in hearing Bennelong’s story inside a theatre built only moments from the shores where it first unfolded. History has returned to place, but the fact that it still arrives as a reclamation reveals how much further Australia’s stages have to go.

Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong in London plays in the Wharf 1 Theatre, Pier 3/4 Walsh Bay, Sydney until 16 August.