24/08/24

Summerhall (Demonstration Room), Edinburgh

In 1975, as the Vietnam War came to its chaotic conclusion, thousands of orphaned Vietnamese babies were airlifted to safety and relocated in Australia, the USA and Europe. Barton Williams was one such orphan, taken in by a family in Adelaide. As he grew up, he made friends and enemies, learned the skills of being a surfer and, later on, found his niche in acting. His onscreen appearances were mostly in Vietnam war movies, even though – ironically – he couldn’t speak a word of his native language.

Then, working on an indie film on the Isle of Lewis, he met Andy Yearly, a musician and composer, who had also been a part of Operation Babylift and who had grown up in pretty much the same situation as Williams, albeit in a more remote environment. It was here that the two men came up with the premise for Precious Cargo.

The stage is a litter of cardboard boxes, the kind of container in which Williams first arrived in Australia. As the story unfolds, he moves the boxes back and forth around the stage, stacking them in piles. Vintage film footage is projected onto them: a mixture of family photographs and found images, designed by Robbie Thomson. Yearly’s original music plays in the background and there are recorded interviews with others who found new homes in unfamiliar countries.

Williams talks about the rootlessness that was an inevitable result of his upheaval, the many ways in which he sought to locate his birth parents, his desperate attempts to reconnect with a culture he barely even remembers. Taking a DNA test, he is bewildered to discover that he is 94% Chinese. The hopelessness of the situation is affecting and so too is his evident love for the family that took him in – without whom, he reminds us, he wouldn’t have survived to tell his story.

This is an ambitious project and there are a lot of different elements to control. With so many of them at play on stage, I occasionally find myself struggling to follow some of the recorded dialogue. But Barton is a compelling storyteller and there’s little doubting the sincerity of what he has to say about his life – or the importance of having the platform on which to speak about it. Developed with the assistance of Creative Scotland, Precious Cargo offers an opportunity to look at a largely forgotten moment of recent history.

There are just a couple of chances left to catch up with it at Summerhall.

3.6 stars

Philip Caveney