Under the Radar Review: The Visitors, a Cautionary Tale for Nativists

No thought keeps the Western nationalist up at night more than the fear that waves of immigrants will do to them what their ancestors did to the original inhabitants of the land. It’s a nightmare shared by Lombards in Italy, Scots-Irish in the United States, and all manner of white Australians—for whom, I suspect, Jane Harrison penned her brisk and blunt drama The Visitors, now at PAC NYC as part of Under the Radar, in a production from Moogahlin Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company.

It depicts a council of aboriginal elders contemplating a convoy of European ships in what we now know as Sydney Harbor. Gary (an appropriately rigid Sean Dow) chairs the meeting, explaining that only the holder of the message stick may speak (happily, this dialogue-killing convention is swiftly abandoned) and that a course of action will not be taken until the entire group reaches consensus. Like the Council of the European Union facing a grave external threat, they settle in for a circuitous debate.

Gordon (Guy Simon, masking rage with a thin veneer of politesse), the fiercest proponent of repelling the foreigners, quickly convinces his fellow elders to stage a show of force—all of them except Wallace (Najwa Adams-Ebel, silently projecting gravitas as she weaves a fishing net downstage). Bleeding heart, she suggests that the travelers might be weary, in distress, and in need of medical attention.

She also produces a steel hatchet abandoned by an earlier group of visitors and speculates that such exotic technology could be used to benefit the local economy. The intoxicating promise of wealth laundered in humanitarianism dangling before them, the representatives of the aboriginal ruling class one by one come over to Wallace’s side—all, that is, but Gordon.

“I don’t want them landing on my country,” he snarls, “Look, I know their kind. You can’t trust ’em.” Harrison transparently cribs the rhetoric of the nativist right for Gordon’s tirades about the wretched alien invaders, whose poor hygiene and violent culture are simply incompatible with their way of life, and who may never leave if invited in. The point is well-taken, but Harrison still gives the nail an extra whack.

The young warrior Lawrence (James Slee-Stanley, brimming with impetuous confidence) confesses to encountering the strangers up close … right before he begins sneezing uncontrollably. This is a drama of deliberation, but with none of the surprises or reversals one could expect from a good production of Twelve Angry Men. We can always sense Harrison turning the crank.

That feeling extends to director Wesley Enoch’s serviceable but unsubtle production. Designer Elizabeth Gadsby outfits the actors in business casual with indigenous accessories (a bone necklace here, an animal skin there), giving the impression of a problematically themed cocktail party at Davos. Even the small bouquet of flowers improbably perched atop the giant rock that serves as Gadsby’s set has the feeling of a haphazardly selected centerpiece at an interminable multilateral negotiation. Brendan Boney delivers a soundscape of European noises just off the coast, and he underscores key moments of the debate with gameshow-ready original compositions, juicing tension from a script that offers very little on its own.

But that’s because we in 2026 know how this story ends: displacement, conquest, and genocide—and all the native people of Australia (and North America) get in return is the occasional land acknowledgement at our more scrupulously liberal arts palaces. This is the consolation prize for the exceptionally violent brand of progress.

But The Visitors does at least disabuse its overwhelmingly Western, undeniably progressive audience of the illusion of choice. Invite them in or send them away, when people have access to technology that will safely and cheaply transport them across the world, they will take advantage of it. There’s very little a free society can do to stop them, short of becoming a prison state. By the time the elders’ debate has concluded in indecision, the visitors are already rowing ashore.