THE GOLDEN AGE **** Wharf Theatre until   February 20
LOUIS Nowra's epic play The Golden Age hasn't been staged professionally in Sydney since 1987, following its Melbourne premiere two years earlier. This stunning Sydney Theatre Company production, directed by Kip Williams, confirms that it is an Australian classic and as relevant as ever. 
Thrillingly ambitious in its scope and imagination, the play roams from Hobart to the Tasmanian wilderness to Berlin at the end of World War II.
It begins in 1939. Two young men, Francis (Brandon McClelland), an engineer from a working-class background, and his friend Peter (Remy Hii) from a well-to-do Hobart family, hike into the Tasmanian wilderness and discover a lost tribe descended from a motley group of European convicts and settlers.
Isolated for 80 years, they have developed their own language and culture but have serious physical and mental disorders because of inbreeding. Realising that "the circle is burst" and they have no future, their leader Queenie Ayre (Sarah Peirse) decides they will return to civilisation.
However, the government is concerned that their genetic problems will be used as proof of Nazi propaganda and puts them in an asylum.
Nowra vividly evokes the world of the tribe, inventing a language drawn from Cockney, Irish, 1840s convict slang and bawdy verses.
The Golden Age takes an unflinching look at Australia's colonial past and culture of 'she'll be right' indifference.
Its themes include the destruction of one culture by another, war, class and the search for love, identity and belonging. At its heart is the touching love story between Francis and Betsheb (Rarriwuy Hick), a young woman from the tribe.
Williams' production unfolds with cinematic fluidity on David Fleischer's set, dominated by a huge mound of earth. Fleischer's costumes are excellent while Max Lyandvert's sound is evocative.
Among a strong cast, Hick shines as Betsheb, capturing her passionate, inquisitive, wild nature.
Peirse is compelling as Ayre, Liam Nunan's physicality as the crippled Stef is superb, and McClelland is a passionate Francis.
Robert Menzies also excels as a combative tribesman and as Peter's father, Doctor Archer, who becomes obsessed with the tribe.Complex, challenging and wildly theatrical, The Golden Age has a haunting, dreamlike quality yet at the same time it feels painfully, movingly real.